Welcome to Chemistry Connections, my name is Amelie Bass and I am your host for episode #18 called Cupcake Chemistry. Today I will be discussing how the ingredients of a cupcake form the magical dessert we all know and love.

Cupcakes: the delicious dessert baked for a celebration or eaten as a late-night snack. But like what goes into the cupcake to give it a moist and fluffy cake?

I love baking a variety of treats but cupcakes are always a classic.

Ok, let’s start with the key ingredients of any good cupcake:

• Flour
• Butter
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Vanilla
• Leaveners, like baking powder and baking soda
• Dairy, like sour cream and milk
• And of course a good frosting and decorations

In this episode we will be discussing the chemistry behind 2 of these ingredients, starting with….

Leaveners (like the thing that gives the cupcake a light fluffy texture) are probably the most important ingredient in a cupcake. It is used to help the cupcake rise, giving it a light and fluffy texture.

So what is a leavener, like what is the ingredient that is doing the rising. Baking soda and baking powder are what recipes will commonly call for.

Now some will call for both of these leaveners. But wait, why is that, why do I need 2? Hold onto that idea later and we will come back to it later. Let's first analyze what these two substances even are.

Baking soda

• Sodium bicarbonate is a base, used to neutralize any acidic components (chocolate or citrus) in the batter
• When the cupcakes are baked, the baking soda or NaHCO3 in the batter turns into sodium carbonate, water, and carbon dioxide
• The carbon dioxide which is released in bubbles, causing the batter to rise.

Baking powder

• A dry mixture that contains baking soda, acid salts, and cornstarch
• The baking soda reacts with the acid salts in the powder only when the mixture is moistened
• The...

Welcome to Chemistry Connections, my name is Adithya Shrikanth and I am your host for episode 1 called Today I/we will be discussing the chemistry of Gasoline.

Gasoline how it works are what are the differences between regular and premium and the difference between the gasoline in car and jets

The chemical composition of gasoline is C8H18 and it appears as a yellowish liquid. The problem is that gasoline is a liquid and for an engine of any vehicle to work it needs fuel. The wondrous thing about gasoline is that is vaporizes at low temperatures so the engine does not have to heat up much for the gasoline to turn into fuel. Gasoline is a petroleum-based compound so when the engine is running, the gasoline reacts with the air and a combustion reaction occurs turing the gasoline into a gas. To understand gasoline further we must know how the gasoline reacts with the engine. Despite the type of engines used, all of them use pistons. When the gasoline combusts, the explosion pushes the piston down which transfers energy to the crankshaft and so one eventually leading to a running car. How we know how gasoline works but what about the differences between gasoline. At the gas station we see two options, premium and regular and normally we use regular gasoline due to its price but why do these options exist. Well the main difference between regular and premium is the ocatnce level. Premium gasoline has a higher octane level. The level of octane in gasoline indicated the likelihood of improper engine combustion which is known as engine knock. The higher octane concentration in premium gasoline causes a lower likelihood of engine knock happening, this is why high premium gasoline is used in high-performance cars. Jets and cars both use fuel but what is the difference between them. Both aviation fuel and regular fuel use hydrocarbons but the difference is the type of hydrocarbons each fule uses. The hydocarbns that make up normal gasoline contain 7 to 11 carbon atoms attached to hydrogen atoms, the ones that make up Avatioan fuel contain 12-15 carbon atoms so jet fuel is made up of mostly kerosene. In theory jet fuel can be used in cars but car fuel cannot make a jet run because the conditions that a jet goes through are very different as compared to a car. At the hights that a jet travels, the temprature becomes -40 Celcius so normal gasoline would freeze at those temperatures so the combustion reactions would stop. Since jet fuel is mostly kerosene it has a low freezing point so that is why jet fuel and gasoline are different.

We all drive cars and have been in cars as long as we can remember. One of the converstones of driving a car is gasoline. We pull up to the gas station and see options for gasoline and we wonder what they all mean. We also wonder how a liquid can help a car or plane run.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Chemistry...

Welcome to Chemistry Connections, my name is dongxuan and I am your host for episode #16 called . chemistry in steroids Today I/we will be discussing the structure and some basic information about the steriods

The first therapeutic use of steroids occurred in the 18th century when English physician William Withering used digitalis, a compound extracted from the leaves of the common foxglove, to treat edema.

steroid: any of a class of natural or synthetic organic compounds characterized by a molecular structure of 17 carbon atoms arranged in four rings.

Today I’m gonna talk about 6 types of steroids. I’m gonna talking about their structure and their functions.

Cortisol plays an important role in the stress response. Maintaining an adequate balance of cortisol is essential for health.

In many species, including amphibians, reptiles, rodents and birds, corticosterone is a main glucocorticoid involved in regulation of energy, immune reactions, and stress responses.

Aldosterone A steroid hormone made by the adrenal cortex (the outer layer of the adrenal gland). It helps control the balance of water and salts in the kidney by keeping sodium in and releasing potassium from the body.

Progesterone is an endogenous steroid hormone that is commonly produced by the adrenal cortex as well as the gonads, which consist of the ovaries and the testes. Progesterone is also secreted by the ovarian corpus luteum during the first ten weeks of pregnancy, followed by the placenta in the later phase of pregnancy.

Oestradiol is a steroid hormone with a molecular weight of 272. It is secreted mainly by the ovary, but small amounts are produced by the adrenals and testis, so that in males and in post menopausal females' Oestradiol is always present at low concentrations.

Testosterone is the primary male hormone responsible for regulating sex differentiation, producing male sex characteristics, spermatogenesis, and fertility.

Personal connection:

Several weeks ago, I’m just doing a regular blood test, and the doctor said my platelets are low, and it’s getting lower. I have to go to the doctor. After the examination, the doctor told me that my immune system recognizes that my platelets are harmful and is destroying my platelets. So the doctor gave me decadron, that’s corticosterone. that’s a medicine that will suppress the immune system so it won’t destroy more platelets. SInce the decadron has many side effects. It cause me headaches, muscle pain, and stomach pain. So I decided to do some research about steroids. Because it really cause a lot of trouble to me. That’s the main reason that I choose this topic. That’s my connection with the steroids.

Thank you for listening to this episode of...

Welcome to Chemistry Connections, my name is Matthew Nguyen and I am your host for episode 15 called Fumes to Fresh Air. Today I will be discussing the chemistry of catalytic converters.

General Information on Catalytic Converters

• Used to reduce emissions from car engines
• Used in exhaust systems to remove harmless byproducts from internal combustion engines
• Removes nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons and turns them into carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen gas
• Converts 98% of the harmful emissions to less harmful gasses
• Most stolen parts of the car because it has valuable materials like platinum, rhodium, and palladium which can sell for a lot of money
• No more than 4-9 grams of these precious metals are used in a single converter
• Located between the muffler and the engine
• Composed of metal housing with a ceramic honeycomb-like interior with insulating layers

1. To begin, I’ll first dive into what specifically a catalytic converter is and what its function is for those who don’t know
2. A catalytic converter filters out harmful emissions released by a vehicle.
3. It is a metal square box containing a ceramic honeycomb interior, located on the underside of the car between the engine and muffler with insulating layers composed of precious metals like platinum, rhodium, and palladium.
4. Because these metals are extremely valuable, they make the converter one of the most frequently stolen items in a car. Put a pin in that idea, we’ll come back to it later.
5. Due to the elements of palladium, platinum, and rhodium, a single converter can filter 98% of harmful emissions like nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons into harmless gasses of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

The Chemistry part of Catalytic Converters

• One reduction and two oxidation reactions occur inside a catalytic converter
• Nitrogen oxide reduces into elemental nitrogen and oxygen
• Carbon monoxide oxidized into carbon dioxide

Welcome to Chemistry Connections, my name is Zoey and I am your host for episode #14 called The History & Chemistry of Agent Orange. Today I will be discussing The notorious herbicides used during the Vietnam War, its composition, and its impact.

We’ll first start by introducing the herbicide, agent orange and its history and use during the Vietnam War.

• Agent Orange was a mix of two herbicides which was sprayed in high concentrations during the Vietnam War by the U.S. Military. The name came from the orange stripe that was found on the containers of this chemical.
• Agent Orange, and other herbicides known as the “rainbow herbicides,” were part of a large operation, operation Ranch Hand, which aimed to defoliate lots of land through spraying chemical herbicides from aircrafts. Agent Orange was the most used herbicide during the Vietnam War.
• The chemical was sprayed in up to 20 times higher concentration than suggested for killing plants normally by manufacturers. This caused severe damage to millions of acres of forest, affected three million Vietnamese people with disease and defects, including children who were not alive during the war, and remained in soil for decades and disturbing the food sources.
• Agent Orange was the most commonly used chemical during the war to defoliate the forests and farmland of Vietnam and its neighboring countries Laos and Cambodia. This was for many reasons.
• One, this took away cover from the Viet Cong, who were guerilla fighters dependent on the cover provided by Vietnam’s thick forests.
• The destruction of farmland also caused many of the viet cong to be unable to sustain themselves rurally, which starved them or forced them to move closer to sustain themselves. This would take away rural nourishment support for the Viet Cong during the war, which were their main food sources.
• Agent Orange was eventually banned in 1971 by the United States, and remaining stocks were destroyed on a remote island.

Now we’re going to talk about the chemistry behind Agent Orange, and how it impacted the environment and people involved in the Vietnam War. We will first talk about the composition of Agent Orange, then why this chemical mixture caused so much damage to the environment and people.

• Agent Orange is a 1:1 mixture of two herbicides which are (2,4-dichlorophenoxy)acetic acid, or 2,4-D and 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid, or 2,4,5-T.
• The herbicides were originally developed in the 1940s, but only used domestically until after WWII,...

Welcome to Chemistry Connections. My name is Fox Ueng-McHale, and I am your host for episode #13, the Chemistry of Radiation Poisoning. Today, I will be discussing several chemical processes related to the effects of radiation exposure.

Since the advent of the hydrogen bomb during the Second World War, radiation has quickly captured public attention. From medical uses to paint forgery detection, in one form or another radiation can be found in almost every industry. But uncontrolled, radiation can kill. And it’s this destructive potential that has dominated the public’s perception of radiation.

But what is radiation? In chemistry, radioactivity is the spontaneous breakdown of an atom's nucleus, emitting particles or waves. This is caused by chemical reactions. Here, atoms become more stable by participating in a transfer of electrons or by sharing electrons with other atoms. In nuclear reactions, it is the nucleus of the atom that gains stability by undergoing a change of some kind.

This occurs as unstable isotopes shed. This radioactive decay is a reaction where a nucleus spontaneously disintegrates into a slightly lighter nucleus, emitting particles, energy, or both. One of the most important ways of measuring radioactive decay is the half life. This is the interval of time required for one-half of the atomic nuclei of a radioactive sample to decay, calculated with the half-life formula. Shedding particles include alpha and beta radiation, as well as shedding protons or neutrons.

The effects of radiation are horrifying, but surprisingly straightforward from a chemical perspective. Radiation poisoning comes in two classes: particulate and electromagnetic. Particulate ionizing radiation include alpha particles, beta particles, neutrons, and positrons; gamma rays and X rays are forms of electromagnetic ionizing radiation.

Ionization is the cause of the toxic effects of ionizing radiation. Ionization of tissues creates highly reactive compounds. Radiation generates H2O+ and H2O- ions. In turn, these create H and OH radicals. Hydrogen and hydroxide ions are extremely reactive, causing massive biological damage, targeting DNA and proteins. Especially, ionizing radiation quickly kills rapidly dividing cells, targeting immature blood cells in bone marrow, cells lining the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract, and cells in the lower layers of the epidermis and in hair follicles. Ionizing radiation is the most harmful because it can ionize molecules or break chemical bonds, which damage the molecule and causes malfunctions in cell processes. It can also create reactive hydroxyl radicals that damage biological molecules and disrupt physiological processes.

Moving into the future, it will be increasingly important to...

Welcome to Chemistry Connections, my name is Maggie Maclean and Lilla Antal and I am your host for episode 12 called Chemistry of Bread. Today I/we will be discussing the chemistry involved in the making of bread.

The first bread was made around 12,000 years ago and was created by coarsely crushed grain mixed with water, with the resulting dough probably laid on heated stones and baked by covering it with hot ashes. At the time, we can imagine it was the tastiest bread out there. However, there is such a wide variety of different types of bread now. Whether it's sourdough, bagels, croissants, whole grain, Irish soda bread, English muffins, biscuits, pumpernickel, banana bread, or pizza dough it is found in all parts of life. Even people intolerant to these ingredients can enjoy a substitute made with gluten-free dough.

• Maggie: My personal favorite is the classic Irish soda bread with gluten-free wheat of course toasted with raspberry jam and butter. This is the bread my parents made me growing up to connect me to my heritage.
• Lilla: You know I like a good whole grain rye bread toasted with eggs and cheese.
• Unison: Comment down below what YOUR favorite bread is, and while you’re down there smash that like button!!!

Getting back on track… By the late nineteenth century, enzymes in the form of malt were being added to flour and dough to control and aid the breadmaking process in emerging commercial bakeries. However, over time this practice was abandoned as new chemical additives and processing aids became available. Let’s pause here and look at some of the chemistry at work.

Lilla: The yeast in bread contains enzymes that can break down the starch in the flour into sugars. Yeast produces the enzyme maltase to break maltose into glucose molecules that it can ferment once the starch has been broken down into these simple sugars, other enzymes in yeast act upon simple sugars to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide in the bread-making step called fermentation.

Maggie: The enzymes in yeast are natural catalysts. A catalyst is a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction or lowers the temperature or pressure needed to start one, without itself being consumed during the reaction, in bread making the catalysts accelerate the fermentation of bread. Fermentation is the process where the dough produces and retains carbon dioxide in the form of microscopic air pockets. It rises as a result of this. Catalysts break down complex carbohydrates into sugar which yeast can feed off of. With sugars fueling yeast, it releases CO2 which makes bread rise. An you know I like a fluffy bread.

Lilla: When reactions happen, there energy is needed to break the...

Welcome to Chemistry Connections, our names are Lucy and Jack and we are your hosts for episode 11 called The Chemistry of Ice Hockey.

Ice hockey is one of the greatest sports to both play and watch. It features extremely fast-paced and physical gameplay because it's played on ice. Hockey originated in Canada during the early 1800s and comes from the French word “hocquet” meaning stick. The game involves one goalie and five other players who skate around trying to score goals. One of the greatest sporting achievements ever, The Miracle on Ice, was an Olympic ice hockey game when the underdog US men’s team beat the top seed USSR team. This illustrates the elusive nature of hockey and the unpredictability surrounding it drawing fans from all around the globe.

Both of us adore sports. Hockey has been a key aspect of my childhood and a way I have connected with my family. And I hope to become a professional sports commentator, so it was only natural for both of us to research the chemistry and science behind hockey.

Lets pause here to talk about some chemistry at work. We will be covering the most important aspect of hockey, the ice (but put a pin in that)! First, though, we will discuss the pucks that slide across the ice.

Pucks are made out of vulcanized rubber. Vulcanized rubber is used to create o-rings, tires, and much more. Its unique properties make it a useful tool in not just ice hockey. Before the process of vulcanization was developed rubber was susceptible to changes in temperature, too hot and the rubber would quickly melt, too cold and the rubber would become extremely brittle. This would be ineffective as an ice hockey puck because it is a sport played in the cold on ice, it would lose all of its strong yet elastic properties. Vulcanization is a process that involves heating rubber and combining it with sulfur to improve its elasticity and strength.

Vulcanization works by forming chemical cross-links or covalent bonds (attractive force between nonmetal atoms) between long isoprene molecules (a natural rubber monomer aka a carbon chain) using sulfur. This when diagramed looks like long carbon chains parallel to each other, connected by perpendicular bonds with sulfur. This forms a net-like structure which contributes to the hockey puck’s key characteristics (resistance to extreme temperatures and strength). This allowed Alexander Riazantsev, from the KHL (Russian pro league) to hit a slap shot at 114.27 MPH.

Maybe even more important to...