Ologies with Alie Ward - Potterology Part 1 (WIZARD SCIENCE) with Rebecca Lai

Episode Date: September 10, 2019

**UPDATE: since this episode was first released, J.K. Rowling has said and written some deeply transphobic sentiments and for this, Alie no longer stans nor supports her. So in listening to this episode, let's marvel at the -ologist herself and her love of Chemistry and remember that feminism is intersectional and trans women are women, and trans folks are welcome and beloved in the Ologies universe.** Accio: ALL YOUR DREAMS COMING TRUE. Whether you've never read the Harry Potter series -- or you have dogeared copies on your nightstand -- there's something for everyone in this 2-part episode dissecting the science of the spells in J.K. Rowling's books. Electrochemist and professor Dr. Rebecca Lai is a devoted fan who teaches a university course called "A Muggle’s Guide to Harry Potter’s Chemistry." Alie travels to her lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to chat about disappearing ink, gold nanoparticles, ancient alchemy, spells that burn your enemy's eyes, others that protect you from the elements, how writing a novel is like a scientific experiment and how to keep going in the face of stumbling blocks. **Bonus: I managed not to swear, so you can listen with the kiddos in your life. A donation went to PBS.org Sponsor links: Zevoinsect.com/ologies; TakeCareOf.com (code: OLOGIES); HelixSleep.com/ologies; HelloFresh.com/ologies80 (code: OLOGIES80) More links up at alieward.com/ologies/potterology Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month: www.Patreon.com/ologies OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, pins, totes and STIIIICKERS! Follow twitter.com/ologies or instagram.com/ologies Follow twitter.com/AlieWard or instagram.com/AlieWard Sound editing by Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris Theme song by Nick ThorburnSupport the show: http://Patreon.com/ologies

Oh hey, it's your neighbor who's always out vacuuming his car and you're like, is he really clean or is he so dirty that he needs to be vacuuming it that much? Alleyboard, back with another episode of oligies. Okay, so today one half of a two-parter on Potter. Are you ready for this? Have you been ready for this since 1997? Were you even born in 1997? Now whether you've read all seven books in the Harry Potter series or you've just seen

a movie or two or all you know is that Harry Potter is about a charming adolescent member of the occult who has, I guess, pretty bad vision. This episode is about chemistry and the science behind the spells. It's just dang magical and fun. Also it's kid-friendly. I'm not going to swear. I've managed not to swear. It was difficult.

You are welcome. But before we board the Hogwarts Express, a really quick bit of business prior to leaving the station. So thanks are in order to everyone who supports the show by signing up on patreon.com for as little as 25 cents an episode, which lets you submit questions to the oligists. Thank you everyone sporting oligies wares from oligiesmerch.com. We have brand new merch up including some stickers to help you find all the oligites around you.

Thank you also to everyone who rates and subscribes to oligies and shares episodes on social media. Y'all keep it up there in the science charts and especially to the folks you know close to my heart who leave reviews. You know I creepily read each one and I pluck a fresh one each week such as for example Cup Eater who said, if you ever thought about the movie Legally Blonde and were like, gosh, I wish Elle Woods had an awesome podcast about science and creativity and fact-based thinking in general that I could listen to every week. Well that is a not least specific request but also what this podcast is.

Thank you Cup Eater. I will take that with a bow. Also Sarah Jean Horowitz, your secret is safe with me and anyone else who reads every single review. Okay. Paterology. Come the frick on dadward. I've got it.

Okay. I've got it making up. Paterology, right? Listen, my standard is the ology has to have been used previously by a person not involved in this podcast in an educational or an academic setting. And yes, Paterology does count. It does exist. There are book clubs called Paterology.

There's an Instagram at Paterology. It has like 50,000 followers and it serves up some hot Harry Potter memes. Even Urban Dictionary which is a terrible website affirms Paterology is quote the study of all things in the wizarding world of Harry Potter. So Paterology, it's in the lexicon. And one cold January day, a letter fell from the gray sky. Just kidding. It was in my email inbox and it was from a real witch.

Just kidding. It was from a PhD student in Nebraska Channing Thompson who works with a professor who has created a seven week course for exploring the science behind each Harry Potter book. She teaches it to local middle schools as an after school program and even has an honors class at the undergraduate level at the university. So her college course is called A Muggle's Guide to Harry Potter's Chemistry. Her mission to prove to muggles, a.k.a. non wizards, humans like you and me, that science and technology are muggle magic and to highlight all of the real world chemistry and botany

and alchemy and love potions and stun guns and hybrid animals that we love from the wizarding world. So thisologist is a chemistry professor who works on the development of electrochemical biosensors that could be used to diagnose disease. She's been an author on papers such as use of thiolated oglonucleotides as anti-fouling dilutants in electrochemical peptide based sensors. I needed to meet her. So I road tripped.

I made a special stop, my first ever visit to Nebraska and on a rainy morning, I made it to the chemistry building at the University of Lincoln, Nebraska to meet up with her. She is small in stature, wearing fashionable black pants, black boots, polka-dotted black blouse, and we popped into her office, passed a rustic looking sorting hat and a life-size cut out of Daniel Radcliffe, a.k.a. Harry Potter, and she slipped on a pair of circular Potter-esque glasses. We sat down at her desk where she proceeded to demonstrate disappearing ink before I really even had recording level set or handed her a mic.

Just wait. You're going to fall in love with this genius human person, but I don't need to spell out how charming she is. So without further ado, get ready to blast through platform nine and three quarters into the world of chemistry professor, honorary wizard, and potterologist Dr. Rebecca Lai. And you can see it eventually fade away again because the chemistry is really what happens is that this ink is basically made in a basic pH such as like pH 11 to pH 13, so the color is blue.

But the fact is that when, you know, in the presence of just exposed to air such as, you know, that air has CO2 in there. So what happens is that CO2 carbonic acid, so carbonic acid neutralizes with the base, which is a sodium hydroxide that is in the ink, dropping the pH around pH nine or so. When that indicator at pH nine is actually colorless. Yes, we hit the ground running. We blasted through a brick wall and straight into her showing me a muggle's way to simulate the spell Eperissium, attempted by Hermione in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

to read hidden writing from one Tom Marvolo Riddle's diary. So not a wizard caught in a struggle of good and evil, no worries. That special blue ink is basic, but neutralizes in air to be invisible on the paper. So she swipes a liquid 0.05 molar solution of sodium hydroxide, raising the pH again to very basic and the message pops back up on the paper. Magic, intrigue, hidden messages in a diary that Professor Leigh gives me to take home. This is literally before the interview even began and I got to ask her anything about her classes and I swear we pick up the microphones like normal in a minute.

It's great because I'm having a real class about it and I remember students seeing this class on the website, the catalog universe, someone actually wrote me, are you sure this is a real class that you can receive a credit and I was like, yes, absolutely, you have an exam, you have a group project that you have to work on. Yes, absolutely. Oh my god. This class closed really fast, you basically only got 16 slots, it's not a big class. Honor's class is only for 16 slots and it always ended up, you know, the class will

close very early because it's just kind of full, exactly. And some people would also mention that they would like to take the class just to have that on their transcript. A Muckles guide to Harry Potter's chemistry. Okay, all right, let's get into this. Tell me a little bit about your background with chemistry. When did you realize that you loved chemistry? I actually, I would say I started to like chemistry when I was in high school, but I

do have to tell you that it is a bit unusual, a path that I took actually in my whole life. I've always liked arts, not until even my first year in college, I was still going for fashion design or fashion merchandising major. Really? So in my second year, I switched to biochemistry. How did that happen? So in my whole life, I've always been into, you know, arts and actually really wanted to be, you know, a fashion designer.

And what happens that when I took, you know, took a chemistry class in my first year and realizing that in college, I went to Cal State Los Angeles realizing that I really liked chemistry. And I think there's a little bit, you know, pragmatics reason or lazier reason. I should not have my students hear about that, but the fact to me, because I thought that I did well without needing a lot of studying. Yeah, I just thought, well, maybe I do actually get this. I get chemistry.

I was like, wow, I just ended up doing well in the class and I thought, wow, okay, I should try to think about this, um, might be, could be a career option. This career hunch was confirmed when she was getting her bachelors in biochemistry at California State University and met her undergrad research advisor, Dr. Zhao. Dr. Feming Zhao. And I really learned about, you know, the transformative ability of research. So he basically taught me a lot about how it is to do research and also how to be a scientist, basically, to have a scientific mindset.

I think that's a very important idea is to how to approach a scientific question. That's really the time that when I look at research, I, wow, you can actually do so much with research. And that's when I decided to switch to biochemistry majors. And what do you think is a scientific mindset? How would you describe it? A scientific mindset is, of course, first, you know, you have to figure out what's the question and then you have to think about how you can approach it.

And there are multiple ways to approach it. You can't be all like, I want to try that all of them at the same time. It's not possible in some cases, it might be possible, but it's more ideal is to systematically isolate one part of the questions because some scientific questions are really, really broad and really complex, but how to isolate, you know, small chunks, small parts and attack small chunks at a time and be able to achieve, get to a conclusion because you can think of it as like a network of, you know, questions are all related. So how am I going to prioritize which part I want to address first?

And you have to think about the amount of time, the resources and all the others, right? Simplify the question or at least address one part of the question at a time. And even within that one part of the question you would like to address, there are multiple approaches to address a question. It's very difficult to try to address everything at the same time, no matter how big the lab is, I think in general. I think I always would say scientific processes do you think systematically rather than trying to go, I like this, I like this, I like all of them?

Wow. How much time you have if you have the time-turner right over there? This is a time-turner, Harry. And okay, you might. But even then, time-turners can only go back one hour, so I don't know, you still can't address too, too much problems, so you keep turning it back another hour, oops, go back, right? Dude, Rebecca, have a necklace nearby that looked like Hermione's time-turner pendant.

I'm going to let you guess. Also, before getting her bachelors, she studied at a British school in Hong Kong, but for her PhD in chemistry, she went to the University of Texas at Austin and then did postdoc at UCSB. So, what sparked this interest in lab work? Was it like solving puzzles as you go? What did you like about it? I consider that as, you know, it's not as good as the Veritas serum, it's not truth

serum, but it is truth finder. You know, at the end there's a truth to all these things that are happening in science in different chemical reactions. Even at this moment, I may not know all of them. There's always an answer to it. I think there's always a truth in science, whether we can at this moment know it or we don't have to, we're not technologically advanced enough to be able to understand it, whether it's about a pathway in the human body with diseases or just new technologies, we may

not be able to understand all of them. But I think it has, I think I like science because, or chemistry or science in general is because it's truth finding, I think. I think it is. I really think, even if I don't know and understand it all right now, but slowly and surely I'll get there. That's how they'll get it. Oh, that's a beautiful answer.

It's just my humble opinion. It could be entirely wrong, you see. I think it's right. And then when you were getting your PhD, what exactly you were studying, ions, correct? Oh, I studied electrochemistry. So then when I decided to go to graduate school, I wanted to continue on with that. Rebecca said that she had great mentors like undergrad advisor, Dr. Feng Mingzhao and PhD advisor, Dr. Alan Bard.

So if you have academic dragons to slay, it's good to have a posse. I'm guessing both of them were more Hermione and less Weasley. Now Rebecca herself seems like a kind, excitable Hogwarts professor. And when it came to teaching, you got to design a syllabus and you are clearly a Harry Potter fan. Yes. Yes. Let's actually go back to that.

When did you read your first Harry Potter book? It's been such a long time. I have to say, actually, I would say it was probably the time that the first one came out. Yeah. 2001, I believe. The Sorcerer's Stone? Absolutely.

And at that time it was already us. It was the time that when I was like, oh, it's a very cool, it's a really cool book. Yeah. So. But I didn't actually, I mean, I had that book then, but I didn't really get into seriously studying it, completely digesting the books and learning all about it until later on for sure. Okay.

Quick aside, a little background on the books. The first in the series was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, published in 1997 in the UK. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in 1998 was the US version. A name change which was suggested by the publisher, Rowling says that she regrets it. We'll talk about that more later. Also fun fact, the initials JK were to sidestep any issues with young boys who bristled at reading a female author.

Now J stands for Joanne, K stands for Kathleen. She didn't actually have a middle name, but she made it up. Now the first imprint of the book was a scant 500 copies and 300 of those were sent to public libraries in the UK, which means then a rare signed first imprint complete with a few typos and some misnumbered pages has fetched nearly $90,000 at an auction earlier this year. So Evanesco, your life savings. That means it disappeared. It's a very old book, but and it's very used looking because I read it so many times.

I think that book is probably the one that I read the most number of times. I think the others at least around seven or eight, that one's probably 10. I love that. I cannot say that I remember everything, but I definitely have read it many, many times. It's also quite short. Yeah, compared to the other ones. And so what was your impression when you were reading it? It really hooked you.

I just thought it's really amazing. I was thinking very much at that time, not a long time ago, you know, I wasn't thinking about having this class yet or chemistry when I first read it, but I was just more so really amazed by how intelligent, how creative, how awesome J.K. Rowling is. I really thought, I thought, wow, she, you know, she basically came up with a world, a world that is new, unique and all her own. There are other ideas, you know, or books could be similar, but yeah, at the same time, I think, you know, she really, you know, generally, she really has this niche right

there, you know, generating, you know, a whole, just a whole world that I think is uniquely hers. And I was more, at that time, I was really amazed of her writing ability and also just be able to generate, come up with a world like that, because I've always been into arts. Actually, I wrote short stories myself, never to anyone, but you know, I've always been interested in writing stories and also sci-fi and things like that. So I think it's actually quite amazing to be able to come up with an idea like that, because there's a lot of internal logic, you have to make it consistent. Yes, you can generate all sorts of sci-fi world, whether it is for books or for manga or animation,

you know, Japanese animations, a lot of them got based on some really unique sci-fi ideas, but you really have to maintain that logic throughout the series. And I think she thought about it a lot, even when she first wrote The Sorcerer's Stone. So therefore, how to tie everything to be consistent. And I'm still very amazed by that and it's very inspiring. And it's kind of like how chemistry is consistent. It's predictable because of certain chemical laws and physical properties. Yes, absolutely. I think so too.

You learn one concept could be applied to other systems or other reactions as well. It is very much the case. Learning from what's previously been done and use that to advance what you are going to do or what you are currently doing is very important in chemistry and science, as in writing as well, I think in creative writing and storytelling. It's analogous in some ways. When did it first strike you as a chemistry professor that hot damn, I can do a whole class on essentially potterology? Were you like, wait a second, can I do? Will they let me do this?

Exactly. I'm sorry, I squealed. You seem very, very absolutely correct what you just said there. And actually, the idea I was talking to my friend who's another professor here is Dr. Barry Chong. And I always thank him when I have these podcast and when I talk about his classes because he really helped me and encouraged me because at that time I basically asked him, I was like, yeah, I would really like to do this honors class, but will the university allow these type of things? I mean, this is really, I just worry they'll say, are you nuts?

You know, it could be, you see, but so he said, what's, you know, basically he said, well, there's nothing to lose, just try it, ask them if they will let you, if they don't let you, then the answer is no, at least you try, you know, you don't try, you don't know. And that's what I did. And I was entirely surprised that, yeah, yes, the university allowed it. And so, so that's how it happened. Then I was like, great. And after the class showed up on the catalog that the students look in and just like, oh,

and a student actually wrote me, asked me about whether the class is lit. Is that legit or not? Is it where I actually get the credit for it? I was like, yes, you absolutely will. Well, you have to pass it and do a good job. But still, you will get one. Exactly. So, yeah.

So while Rebecca also teaches the curricula in much simpler form for high school and elementary after school programs, her university class was four honor students. And it met 15 or 16 weeks in a row. Pre-rex, having read all seven of the Harry Potter books, that is over 4,000 pages. It's over one million words. Posers need not apply. Now, I wish we could have made this a four hour episode because she covers everything from the science of invisibility cloaks to the spells Petrificus Totalis, which freezes

your foes and chemicals in nature that can simulate it, like Haitian zombie powders from plants and the deadly pufferfish neurotoxin that blocks the conduction of nerve impulses along fibers and axons. It comes from bacteria in the pufferfish, not the pufferfish itself. So not a wizard. Can't cast any spells. That's fine. Just get yourself a dirty pufferfish.

This class is amazing. Anyway. And so that's how it started. And I think it was just, it was just great. Just trying to come up with a syllabus of what I would like to talk about. And it's just, it's really, it's good fun. I think, you know, really setting up the class and thinking about how to run this class to make it fun, but still educational.

I think that's always going to be the case because after all, it is a chemistry class and will be graded and they should learn things, right? As a chemistry professor, as a scientist, I cannot just say, oh, I'll have a class. It's all good fun. Funds great, but they have to learn things. I have to put effort into it. And I think at the end, I definitely receive because we have students evaluation for our classes.

And definitely a few students mentioned that despite it seems like it's a, you know, a fun class and whatnot, I've learned a lot. That's actually a lot of science material. They learned a lot about not just chemistry, but science and technology as well. And, but the most important part I would like to mention this class is that either homework, there's also, of course, attendance point because there's class participation. They need to, you know, answer questions and participate in class discussions as well. So these are all part of it.

But, but before I want to get there, I would like to mention how the class, the first thing I did on my first class was that I sorted them into houses. Quick aside, for those who have never read the Harry Potter series in totality, Hogwarts is Harry Potter's wizarding school and it has different houses, kind of like fraternities, but for cool witches. Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw mascot, eagle, colors, blue and bronze. Values, creativity, wit, intelligence and learning.

Ravenclaw's kind of seemed like the guy at work who's always reading books on his lunch hour and you're like, good on ya. Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff mascot, the badger. Colors, yellow and black. Values, loyalty, justice, hard work and patience. I feel like Hufflepuffs are the friends who help you move. Gryffindor.

Gryffindor mascot, lion. Colors, red and gold. Values, bravery, gumption, chivalry and courage. Harry Potter himself, along with his buds Hermione and Ron Weasley. All Gryffindors. Gryffindors, ultimate wingman and finally. Slytherin. Slytherin mascot, the snack.

On the snack. Now colors, green and silver. Values are leadership, cunning, resourcefulness and ambition. They seem kind of like hedge fund account managers of tomorrow. Like congrats, you drive a Benz. But do you need to also pop your collar? I don't know if I like you, but I admire you. Now at Hogwarts, the talking sorting hat bellows your house before a packed hall of students.

But in Rebecca's class, she fills it with slips of paper and then let's fate decide. I pass the hat around and they all pick one. If they pick the green snake logo, the Slytherin's logo. So they Slytherin then if they got the, you know, if they got the Raven, the Ravenclaw. So the blue logo, so Ravenclaw and then etc. Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. After that, for the rest of the semester, they will sit with their house. Yes.

Before you can take your seats, you must be sorted into your houses. So I felt in the beginning there were like three friends. They took the class together, but I split them into three houses. Not me. Actually, the hat did. That's why I was like, you know, I might actually put those little logos, little pieces of papers inside and then seal it with a piece of paper. And I left it out overnight on that desk right over there. So to let the hat make some decisions that night, right?

And it's got a night to decide. Okay. And it's not related to me. You got sorted into Slytherin as a hats problem. Then Slytherin house will have gained a wonderful young wizard. So it was quite funny too. I think in another class, I think in 2013, one of the students was saying that, but I'm a Gryffindor.

I got sorted into Slytherin. And she was very unhappy about it. Really, it was very unhappy about it. But what's cool was that towards the end of the semester, she actually learning more about the Slytherins and learning more about the class and working with the other students. Because I sorted them into teams, right? She actually had a great time still, you know,

despite the fact that she was truly unhappy. I could see her face. It's just like, it just sorted me in the Slytherin. I was like, the hats sort of easy. So, but towards the end, I think independent of what they came into the class wanting to be in this house or the other, they all ended up learning something about different houses and enjoyed. Because making new friends too, right?

Because by, you know, having them, you know, work together for the rest of the semester with each other. And why I also mentioned that is because there are house points. I have four jars and I have, I purchased this, I love Swarovski crystals, four colors of it, because the sapphires, you know, the emeralds, and then, you know, you can think of with the rubies. And then the yellow one, I end up choosing something

that's more like a topaz, right? For the Hufflepuffs. And I have bags of these crystals. And then in the beginning, they are all empties or four jars. And then when they answer the questions correctly. I award 10 points. Basically, it's to mimicking what they have at Hogwarts, right? Because they have these four, you know, big jars.

They're not really jars, but columns of it. You can see how many would they gain house points. They'll be, they'll open it, open the valve, and then be like, ooh, six rubies. Just drop to the bottom. You know, no, it's a Gryffindor. I've got six points or 10 points, right? So that's also what I did as well.

So the four jars. I have never seen so many hands going up. Yes. Because usually, you would think of college classes. Most people, you ask a question to like, I don't want to answer your question. I know the answer, but I just don't want to. Now I'm just kidding.

But you could see just, and realizing that, I think no matter at what level, college or K-12 level, everyone likes to win. Yes. So in the college level class, they also have final projects in the form of a presentation. And everyone in each house has to participate. No ducking behind the loud person in your group,

wallflowers. Now Rebecca had me guess the last two winners. And they were Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. And I was dead wrong guessing both times. Literally the last house I guessed each time. I might as well get Muggle tattooed on my neck. P.S. I checked around and yes, there are people out there with Muggle tattoos on their necks.

And I sadly salute them. How did this happen twice? Oh my God. Magic is not on your side today. Sorry. I need to give you some potions. And I do want to talk potions. So tell me a little bit.

Tell me about the lessons that you run through. I want to hear about the chemistry lessons on your syllabus that you relate to the books. What are some big takeaways that you're able to give people based on the book? Yes. So first I started with talking about Sorcerer's Stone and about gold.

Because Sorcerer's Stone, right? That stone's ability to basically touch anything and turn it into gold. So I talked about the history of gold and why the chemistry of gold. Why gold is something that's so sought after back in the medieval times, right? Why is gold such a unique metal

compared to other metals and lesser metals, etc. So I talk about gold. I spend two lectures talking about gold. And I think based on the student evaluation, the gold portion end up being actually the most well-liked lectures. What are some lessons about gold? What are some takeaways?

Because I've died to know. Well, we talked about macroscopic gold versus microscopic gold, like gold nanoparticles. And how macroscopic gold looks gold in color and compared to microscopic gold when the gold becomes like gold nanoparticles, very, very small. It has a reddish color.

And how it ties to many other things, including arts, is that if you go to a cathedral or places like that, basically red stained glass contains colloidal gold. Wow. Did you know that about gold nanoparticles? I did not. So teeny tiny gold particles,

less than 100 nanometers, show as an intense red color. Well, larger particles or nano rods absorb and scatter light differently and they present as blue or purple. Gold is like, hey, just because I'm called gold, doesn't mean I'm gold. How dare you?

So I talk about, you know, the chemistry of gold or what it means. And I, you know, talk about other objects, gold objects in the Harry Potter's world and compare to and talk about European alchemy, about, you know, Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus and how they also thought that gold being the perfect metal. And therefore the others are all, you know,

just not as perfect. And they also thought about this idea, how it ties to the sorceress stone and that J. K. Rowling used this idea, which was an idea that was real, that people thought about, well, can we make something or discover something that is so good, so much more perfect than gold,

than could be used to transform or make change other baser metals, such as iron or lead or anything else to reach the perfection of gold, basically convert them into gold. So it's related, this idea of the philosopher's stone, I would say it's not J. K. Rowling's original idea, but she utilizes this idea very well in her books,

but it is an actual idea. PS, side note, for those who aren't up on centuries old alchemy gossip, a philosopher's stone was a real thing folks were looking for. A philosopher back then didn't necessarily mean someone in like a turtleneck writing essays about nihilism, but rather like literally a lover of wisdom, aka scientist. Now who was Albertus Magnus or the Big Albert?

He was a 13th century friar, philosopher, perhaps an alchemist, although scholars disagree about the degree to which he dabbled in gold making, but he did believe in the occult powers of rocks. So if Big Albert wore a bra, he'd have a crystal tucked in it, we both know it. Now Roger Bacon was a contemporary of Big E. Albert and he had a reputation as a wizard.

He also reportedly owned a mechanical bronze face that could answer any question you asked it. This was called a brazen head, kind of like a magic eight ball, but metal and looked like a decapitated head. So knowing all of this backstory about real philosopher wizards and stones and gold, I see why JK was bummed that she let the publisher change it to sorcerer for us Americans.

So who was it who urged the change? It was one Arthur Levine at Scholastic Books who thought philosopher just wouldn't grab US audiences and he suggested instead the title Harry Potter and the School of Magic and JK was like, no, but compromised with sorcerer stone. Did I look up Arthur Levine? I did. He's at Arthur A. Levine one on Twitter.

He lives in New York. He owns his own publishing company now. He has about 2,400 followers. So if you were to tweet at him and say, wow, dude, that was all you, huh? He might even see it and reply, but be nice though, because that is quite a dual triumph and a burden to carry. Okay, back to the wizard Roger Bacon who, I'm sorry,

wizards named Roger the best. As far as I knew, Roger is just a name for stepdads or the guy in accounting who wears dockers, but must have a wild dark magical life outside the office. Roger Bacon, the alchemist actually thought that gold is of in something else, is called the elixir of life. And that's something called aqua regia,

which is nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, which is something that no one should be drinking at all. There's no way of lengthening anyone's life whatsoever, drinking that. You can see, but it's also interesting in a way that how JK Rowan also used this idea, mentioned this elixir of life related to the sorcerer stone, but this idea of elixir of life was around as well

for the European alchemist Roger Bacon, but of course it's a different chemical. But yet at the same time, I find it kind of interesting why aqua regia, why they, I do not know why he would consider that's the elixir of life and giving this solution this name, but it could be because aqua regia is known to be able to dissolve gold.

If you just add the HCL, you put the gold wire right there, you do not see any dissolution. Now, if you just add the nitric acid right there, you don't see the dissolution. But as you combine them together, you can see it's generating a beautiful dissolved gold solution, which is a golden color, yellowish color solution. And what happens is that the aqueous,

the gold three plus right there, is going to eventually form this gold chloride, which is aqueous, is also soluble. And that's what you see in this yellow solution right there. So these two reaction equations basically is telling exactly the story going from here with the solid gold, right there, solid. The gold wire to become this gold chloride,

which is aqueous basically in the liquid form. So that's basically the transformation from here is magic right from here to here. I'm sure at that time people, at that Roger Bacon's time, that must be quite magical when you just add some stuff and like, whoa, look, it's all dissolved, you know, and it's really amazing. But why the other on its own cannot do that, right?

Why does it need that type of combination to be able to do that? So while aqueoregia might be three parts hydrochloric acid and one part nitric acid, not exactly the philosopher stone that Harry is trying to protect, it does look in a beaker kind of like a glowy, orange, apparel spritz cocktail,

which can be magical in the right amounts and caustic if too much goes down the hatch. So what if your gold has been cursed into a sloshy jar and you need it dry and solid and like gold again? What if you're going through TSA? What can we do is that we can actually convert it back again and that's one thing the magical part about gold is that and I wouldn't say only gold,

many of them you can dissolve it from a solid form to a solution form and then you can precipitate out. We just mentioned that we use aqueoregia to dissolve the solid gold wire or gold ring into the solution and then we can actually precipitate it out. That's what one could do. Now, if the aqueoregia solution contains only gold, this beautiful yellow solution,

and we want to collect these powders back so that is more portable. We can walk around with this caustic solution everywhere. You have to, you want to take it everywhere so you want to bring it back into its powdery form. So what happens is that you can boil off the excess aqueoregia and removing residual nitric acid by repeatedly heating with hydrochloric acid

so you might, you will be able to obtain the solid tetrachlororic acid. So you end up getting this salt right there. So now it's back into this powdery form that you can take it everywhere. At that time, I'm sure it's very magical to think about. You can go from something shiny, beautiful solid and then go into a yellow solution

and then by doing some chemistry right there, right? To be able to transform it back into a powdery form so that you can take it everywhere. Yeah. Rebecca had pulled up some PDF slides to show me a pile of powdered gold, which surprisingly looks less like a glitter bomb and more like desiccated mustard. So chemically, in a muggly way,

how do you completely reverse the spell? You want a beautiful shiny gold again. You can selectively reduce it with sulfur dioxide or hydrosine. You can get back to the shiny gold and then you can make your gold rings or any other thing. So it's just think about the gold cycle from solid to liquid to the powdery form and then reduce it back to the elemental gold

or the shiny gold and then use it again and go through the cycle. It's very... I really do believe if I were living at that time, I don't know what woman most... Okay. In medieval time, I don't know how many... There might be some female scientists. I'm sure there were a great female scientists, but to be able to see that and work on that

would be just very magical. Side note. First chemist ever? Taputi, a perfume maker in Babylonian Mesopotamia, 3,000 years ago. She was not a man, folks. Now, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize? Madame Curie. Speaking of noblesse and spells

in gold and sorcery with Agua Regia. But it was actually used with a Nobel medal. It was? Yes, it was used on that because during World War II, two of those gold medals, because at that time, German prohibited the export of these noble medals

outside the country. Nazi Germany did not allow people to do that, and yet the two Nobel laureates would not like their medals to become something other than what they really want. So they actually gone through this process and ended up having converted into the powder and then shipped it out.

And then after the war was over, it was recast it back as the medal. Basically, exactly going from this to this process. So you can see what the process I mentioned here was clearly useful. It was a canvas to help them out. Two physicists wanting to have their medal not be destroyed,

or they wanted it to be shipped out. But how you can disguise it? How can you, in what form, that you can ship precious metal out when it's clearly prohibited and illegal to do so? So I think these type of methods are very, could be useful, let's say. Little Nazis are the worst, trivia.

So the Golden Nobel Prizes belonged to Max von Loh and James Frank. And Hungarian chemist George de Hevesi dissolved them in a beaker of aqua regia as the invading forces were literally marching the streets of Copenhagen. This dissolved gold remained on a shelf for years, despite the laboratory getting ransacked by Nazis,

who left the beaker untouched because Nazis represent extreme ignorant evil. P.S., if you're like, man, can you imagine being smart enough to win a Nobel Prize? I will never be that perfect. I just want you to know that on the official nobelprize.org site,

on the very website that affirms the story, there is an easy to miss typo. So let that be a lesson. That perfection doesn't exist. But perseverance through obstacles and failure does. Of course, we're scientists, chemists, physicists, we like to talk about Nobel Prize. Who doesn't want to have one?

I mean, I know most people will not have one. I'm sure we're all aware of that. But doesn't mean we have a tiny small amount of hope that we would like. I think most would like to have one. So you can see before 1980s, actually 200 grams of 23 carat gold, 24 carat gold is pure gold.

So that's a lot of money. But later on, it's changed. Now it is just 175 grams of 18 carat gold, played it with pure gold. But actually it's green gold. Basically it's the silver gold alloy. If you have heard of what green gold is, basically silver gold alloy.

So they've made it a little bit cheaper. Yes, correct. So Nobel Prize is beyond the value of a Nobel Prize to the person who received it. It's a lifetimes work beyond that worth 5380 US dollars. Yeah, which is I think what my 2007 Prius is worth. But it's much more than that. It's the fact that it's a huge honor.

Exactly, it's the amount of work, the honor, and also the amount of work to go into that, to continue to believe your own idea. Because a lot of times when people first started, even if you were to ask a few of them, a lot of them perhaps might thought, oh, I didn't think the idea would work out. But I just kept, in the initial trials,

things were not working. I could have given up, but I persevere again and again. And eventually believing one's own idea and eventually be able to get there. I think there are a lot of that kind of story. If you interview different Nobel laureates, I think not every single career is just like, oh, sail through, okay.

I came up with this idea and I tried it and it worked. It continued to work, work, work. It's not always like that. Of course, there are cases that are like that. But there are also cases in which people truly have to persevere to really got a lot of challenges, but they were not giving up. So they just continued to work at it

and ended up becoming successful in doing what they set out to do. So including J.K. Rowling, who started this book in a napkin. I know. In a coffee shop. J.K. Rowling's writing brought impact on so many people. I think it's amazing.

Oh, my God. It is amazing. I do hope one day to meet her. Oh, my gosh. Maybe you can help me with it. Yeah, I feel like enough tweets. With enough tweets, perhaps one Rowling will learn of Dr. Lias homages to her.

Do you think? Also, on the topic of napkin drafts, I've looked into this further and Rowling says that she had the first ideas for the Harry Potter series while on a train from Manchester to London, which had been four hours delayed. Also, J.K. Rowling's parents met on a train.

Two reasons, perhaps, why trains and terminals might make such charming appearances. Now, P.S. train nerds, please see the Ology's episode, Ferro Equinology, for more shockingly kid-friendly train information. Anyway, J.K. started writing the books

by sketching the characters, perhaps on a napkin, and then wrote much of the rest of the books in cafes as a single mom herself nursing one cup of coffee for hours while her newborn slept in a stroller nearby. It seems that the scientific method of a hunch followed by trial and error plus determination

works not only in the lab, but also while staring at a blank page. On Rowling's website, she shared her struggles and advice, and she says it took her seven years to write and publish her first book because she was convinced it was rubbish. She continues,

just giving the pep talk of the century, writing, fear of failure is the saddest reason on earth not to do what you are meant to do. Ultimately, wouldn't you rather be the person who actually finished the project you're dreaming about rather than the one who talks about always having one to do? Ultimately, in writing as in life,

your job is to do the best you can, improving your own inherent limitations where possible, learning as much as you can, and accepting that perfect works of art are only slightly less rare than perfect human beings. Pop quiz. How much did I cry while working on this episode?

So inspired by her. If you guessed a truly embarrassing amount and thank God you were alone, five points to your house. As long as we're getting mushy, each week we donate to a cause of the oligest choosing. And this week, Rebecca chose PBS.org, and PBS provides content and experiences that inspire,

inform, and entertain over the air, online, in the community and in the classroom. Nearly 50% of their funding comes from individual donors and viewers. So a donation went to PBS.org in Rebecca's name. That donation is made possible by having sponsors and here are a few words about them before we talk about spells and technology.

Okay. All right, let's get back into it. And now what about spells and technology? Yes, spells and technology. Even though I end up not picking all the spells that are the most commonly used, but I pick the ones in which I can talk a lot about the science. Yeah, give me some of them.

For example, like impervious. Impervious is a spell that is used to make sure that substances such as water will not affect it. Of course, it was used very much when Harry was playing the Quidditch game. So impervious basically making sure that my glasses will stay perfectly fine in the rain, just like Harry's glasses when he was playing Quidditch

in the third year, right? Prisoners of Azkaban, he was playing in the storm, right? Okay, side note, if you haven't seen or read it, Harry is being pummeled by rain. It looks like CNN hurricane coverage, just lightning chased by ghostly dark dementors in the sky. I do not know what kind of liability insurance Hogwarts has,

but it cannot be cheap. So what do we have is that impervious actually is used in other locations as well in the book, but I think the most famous example or that people relate to is the one I talk about, Harry's glasses, you know, that Hermione's basically always the smartest ones, like impervious, you know? Okay, your glasses are fine.

Go win the Quidditch match, okay? Don't complain, stop it. Okay, so... And how do you get your glasses from fogging up? For me, exactly. That's what I'm going to say. Rainax, right? If you think rainax or any or aquapel,

I would not recommend that for glasses, but rainax is very good for your car, right? For the car windows, the windshield, and same with aquapel. It's basically, they have these polysiloxanes, have functional groups that end and bind to the OH group on the glass surface, and therefore making it this, the surface chemistry

that you basically making it difficult for polar solvents such as rainwater to wet the surface. So products like rainax have compounds called polysiloxanates that have functional groups that bind to the glass surface, and that changes the surface chemistry, making it harder for solvents like water to wet the surface. And aquapel is another product that has fluorinated compounds, and that binds the glass surface.

So windshield wizardry with magic for muggles. Now, another way the impervious spell could work via chemistry, Rebecca says to turn your eye, or rather your SEM scanning electron microscope toward lotus leaves. The lotus effect is that if you think about looking at a lotus leaf up close,

it's beautiful and green, but if you look at it under an SEM and like to see, you will see that they have these little tufts of straw, tufts of sticking out. So it's actually not flat. It's basically have these little tufts sticking out. And that's one of the reasons why you never really look at, see lotus leaf being super dirty.

It's because of using this nano structuring, having this nano structuring effect that enables the water to just like roll off and taking the dirt, the soil particles and whatnot with it. So you can see the rain, the water, and then just go away, right? If you think about that. And that's due to the nano structuring,

the unique surface of that lotus leaf. So from afar, we cannot see that. But people now, that's research, right? You know, the fact is that people, first of all, have to build powerful microscope to be able to see it. If not, you wouldn't know, right? Yeah.

So by seeing that they're like, wow, okay, why, how does that happen? Having these small little nano structures, these little tufts sticking out, how could this be a self-cleaning technology? You know, so once people figure out, you know, the science behind that, they use it to do a lot of things.

I think they have a paint called Lotus Sun. We actually got some sample in the lab that they gave us for free because I mentioned about that I'm using this for outreach and for education. And you can paint the wall. And then when it dries, it will have these little spikes and nano features or micro features sticking out

so that if you paint the wall and then the rain would just, so that dirt and all these things will not stick. Wow. Especially for the outside of the house, it's very important, right? So, so again, you can think about it. It's paint that's derived from information.

People obtain when they study Lotus leaf. When water drops on these ultra hydrophobic Lotus leaves, these are Nalumbo plants, Lotus plants, it beads up and it looks kind of like a ball is just sitting on the surface. And it turns out that the more boingy and ball-like the water droplet looks is an indicator of how hydrophobic the surface is.

So imagine the difference between a bowl overturned on a countertop versus a partly deflated basketball on the countertop versus a pretty much fully inflated basketball. So the angle of contact between the droplet and the surface even has different names. Wenzel is the kind of deflated ball shape and Cassie Baxter is the rounder droplet.

So does anyone need a pen name for a fantasy or sci-fi novel you're newly inspired to write? May I suggest Cassie Baxter? Okay, side note, that Lotus technology exists in hydrophobic shirts, which is perfect if you're a proud slob who can't do an impervious spell or if you just want to Google hydrophobic shirts and watch people intentionally spilling barbecue sauce on themselves

then marveling in wonder. Rebecca explains. And they also have a nanostructure shirt as well. We actually have a shirt that is in the lab. If you spray water on it or your coffee, it just drips, it will completely not absorb. It's again because of the texture of that shirt, how they actually made that fabric

is utilizing the Lotus effect as well. And so that's like impervious. It's impervious, absolutely. And that's how I look at it. Actually not just impervious because they have a few spells such as, you know, scurgify and turgio. It's also about self-cleaning.

How to, in Harry's world, they have that when things get dirty. I've always wanted to use that spell. But you can see we also have self-cleaning technology right there, right then. So which one's actually better? I have to say, I think ours is actually quite up there, you know. Hey, this is not bad, right? Apparition versus our sodium hydroxide.

Yeah. Oh, that's amazing. So that's one of the spells that I covered quite a bit. Apparition, by the by, would be the incantation behind that invisible ink from earlier. And that can be used to reveal invisible writing or invisible illustrations. Hermione attempted this charm again on Tom Riddle's diary. To no avail, as there was nothing written in it.

Also, Rebecca is the best. She gave me the pen with the invisible ink and the base to revive it. And I kept it as a keepsake in my purse all through my road trip journey. Weeks later, I was home taking measurements for a new refrigerator. I took the note with me to the appliance store

and the paper was blank. So muggle trubs. Now, what other spells does Rebecca cast through chemistry? I have the congentivitis curse. It's basically a curse that causes great pain to the victim's eyes. So that was used by Victor Crum during the Goblet of Fire Triwizard tournament.

He used this curse to affect the dragon's eyes. It was also mentioned in other books as well. But what we have is, of course, pepper spray. Capsaicin, Oreo Capsaicin, exactly. So I spent time talking about, yeah, they have the congentivitis curse to affect people's eyes. And we have one that's even better.

Cover your nose and mouth as well. Actually, it's the milkest membrane. So it's basically Capsaicin. Capsaicin is a compound from chilies, right? And basically, all the pepper spray got different concentration of Capsaicin. Some could be pretty high. Most will have around 2% to 10% of Oreo Capsaicin,

but doesn't mean the higher the merrier. Actually, you want it, you know, you want the fluid to be really light so that it could penetrate the membrane so your nose and eyes quicker. At the end, this is a defense and perhaps offense. You want it to act, work very fast, okay? You could just, even if you have to,

like I'm sure Victor Crum would try on that dragon. You really would like that to be fast, seriously, okay? The Chinese fireball. So we talked about the ingredients, which is called OC or Oreo resin Capsaicin. You could see that actually when you, if you have one, I have quite a few, I don't have one with me,

but I have pepper spray and actually different, you know, different concentration of that as well. And you could see that. And I just basically spend time describing what Capsaicin and how people actually have done a lot of work to even isolate it. I mean, I'm sure at the start of the human time when we know how to eat some sort of a jalapeno or other,

you realize, wow, this thing is spicy. Wow, this thing is spicy. And, you know, it takes a lot more science and chemistry and to work out, to actually figure out what's the compound. Isolate a compound that it's a molecule that is responsible for this feeling, right? So actually going through a lot related

to analytical chemistry. I'm an intellectual chemist, but I'm also an analytical chemist because I like to analyze what's in, you know, food or different type of complex samples. I want to know what's in there. PS, if you have not ever scorched your own eyes or mouth on a hot pepper,

you may not know that scoville units measure hotness, with a bell pepper being a zero, a jalapeno going up to 3,500 scoville units, a habanero, which has reduced meat to tears, ranks on average a quarter million scoville units. So what is the wizardy dragon's breath pepper rated at? 2.5 million scoville units, nearly doubling the scoville units of former record holder,

Puckerbutt Farms Carolina Reaper Pepper, which itself has sent people to the hospital. So dragon's breath peppers must be the muggle's answer to the conjunctivitis curse. Yes, not so fast. Puckerbutt Farms takes the lead again with owner Smoke and Ed Curry cultivating a new, not even commercially available pepper X

that hits the 3 million mark, surpassing dragon's breath. PS, why does capsaicin hurt so much? Oh, it triggers the same pain receptors that think you're literally burning alive, which is why you start sweating. Also, you release endorphins and dopamine. So in lieu of a spell that keeps you chipper, just pack hot sauce in your bag.

Now, how do they know how hot is hot? Ask a chemist. So they compare it to, you know, ghost pepper, habaneros, and, you know, habanel, scorpion peppers, and all sorts, right? So you can see that's actually, in order to obtain those information, they actually have to analyze,

mostly using chromatography to be able to separate and then quantify. When they make a mixture of this chili pepper, they have to, first of all, digest the sample, and then they have to clean it up and then inject it into an instrument, and then look at separating these different species because the fact is, the sample,

food samples are very complex, right? Got tons of things in there. Or you can do that for the Buffalo Wild Wings. Yeah. Something soft. And that's all analytical chemistry. Yes, absolutely. And actually, I would like to mention that,

I think, two years ago, or maybe even more that, because I teach a class called, you know, analytical chemistry, basically, it's an instrumental analysis class. Two years ago, also, one student actually studied the amount of capsaicin in different types of chilies. Wow. And he likes chili himself, like,

eating, he eats spicy food, and also, he grew this chili, and he wanted to study when the chili pepper, that's from home, when he processed it differently dried in the oven versus other methods, will it change the amount of capsaicin in it? And also, if it's grown in a different environment, like a different type of soil,

will it affect the same chili plant? Will it affect the fruits, which is this chili peppers, the amount of capsaicin in there? So it's actually really fun. It's one of the students in my class who did a project like that. Rebecca kind of hooks people into chemistry by letting them study things that they already love.

And in her analytical chem class, one student is analyzing what makes Chanel number five perfume smell like Chanel number five perfume, and why imitations are a little off. The nose knows, but the analysis shows, I suppose. So that's why analytical chemistry and analytical science is very important.

And that's why this class that I'm currently teaching, the students get to spend half of their semester analyzing things that they're interested in, whether it's about perfumes, real versus imitation. So it's really fun, especially when you have 13, 12 students, et cetera, and each one come up with something that's drastically different.

Another student is testing a different olive oil to see if the amount of antioxidant polyphenols correspond to better taste, although they're not allowed to lick anything inside the lab itself. Now, if this episode has taught you anything, don't drink a beaker full of apparel for so many reasons.

Speaking of eating, one thing about the Harry Potter series I find challenging is that I end up slowly reading the feast scenes. And even though I don't even know what triacal is, I'm starving and I'm taking a break to go stir pudding mix with a splash of coffee creamer and toss in some corn pops.

I am a kitchen dragon and my fuel is carbs. Now, Rebecca said that one aspect of the course is, of course, food science, starting with none other than the kaleidoscope of flavors in a bag of jelly beans. Yes, we actually have that. I talked about the process of how jelly beans are actually made.

I talked about the process of not only that, is that in food science, one to one may not be, may not equals to two. So if you mix a few flavors together, you will completely actually taste a different flavor. And the jelly bellies people, they know that, they absolutely know that.

I think it's everything is top secret, very proprietary. It's because they did a lot of work. For example, I looked up their process when I talked about jelly beans for my food chemistry lecture. They really, they analyze, like for example, making the pomegranate jelly bean, they really analyze the juice from the real pomegranate and they use, they use, you know, separations.

They use separation techniques such as chromatography. They use mass spec to analyze what's in there and they want to know what's the concentration of each of these compounds. It's called the components of this pomegranate juice and see, can they recreate that in the lab into this jelly bean? So you can see the scientific process

to make a flavor that is so close to the real thing. It's a lot of work. Okay, so I know I fell into a deep badger hole and I think this would be odolaryngology, but I believe a man by the name of Ambrose Lee heads up jelly belly flavor science. Boy, howdy. Would I like to ask that smart person

stupid, disgusting questions? Meanwhile, Rebecca explains. Basically, as they design new flavors, they will have the people actually, you know, hold, maybe have a bite of the real thing and then taste that bean and then gotta be the same. So they actually it's gone through very, you know, I think it's really rigorous process

in terms of, for food science is amazing, I think to really understand what's in there so as to recreate it. Jelly bean chart. Okay, here. But you can see they actually encourage you to eat a chocolate and then I think... Oh, a peanut butter.

Yeah, and then something like that, a strawberry and a blueberry and become something else. And then if you want a honeydew melon, you go with a cantaloupe and green apple. You can eat a whole banana split if you do it right. Exactly. If you do it right, you see, and that's why they themselves, I think it's really amazing. I mean, I could see why people think jelly bellies are

not the cheapest jelly beans you could find around, but yet if you think about the kind of processing, you know, these people, the creativity that they put in, it's very amazing. And I think I could see creativity. I could see amazing science in anything. I really can see that. I think that's how why people think

how I can correlate just some sci-fi books of Harry Potter or some books to science is because you can see that. Just in terms of you look at how much food chemistry and food science got into how people think about each type of combination. And each of them takes a lot of time to actually develop that bean, this bean, and then try out under what conditions you can

how humans' perception of taste, you know, works. It's amazing. Okay. Chew on this. Some people have more taste buds than others, but each taste bud has receptors for salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. So that notion that only certain parts of your tongue can taste things, that is flimflam, friends.

That was very hermene of me. I'm sorry. And so what do you do in the class? I have small old bags. Each one have them to ask them basically to identify without looking at the chart. Can they even say that this is Dr. Pepper, this is Island Punch? Because if they could, then they have done a great job.

Then Jelly Belly has done a great job, right? Because that's the ultimate goal, right? You know, is to be able to eat that and realize that, oh, that's peach. That's not a mango. It was quite fun in terms of, but more so really want to you want them to understand that getting something from an idea to a product, it takes a lot of work.

And a lot of times it will take, will go through a lot of steps to get to the right, get to what they want finally. And a lot of science is involved. Actually, I want to say it's simple jelly beans. But think about the time that people go into analyzing those spectra, whether it's the mass spec or the HPLC, the chromatograms, they really have to put effort

into analyzing that so as to be able to get a product that is so well-received. Even though I really dislike some of those flavors. No, I think one of my students gave that to me last Christmas or something little, you know, that every place, some of them I just, I think I'm okay with the soap. I don't know how much I like the vomit.

Oh, it's pretty bad, that one. Earthworm is very okay. Pepper is actually, I like pepper. It's actually perfectly fine. I could eat tons of those. But some of them, those two, I just, I left that at the bottom and I just, I think I chucked it. So non-wizards, you'll have to learn yourself

some mass spectrometry that measures the mass to charge ratio of ions or APLC, high performance liquid chromatography, if you don't have a magic wand handy. Oh, which left me wondering, where does the wand would come in chemistry wise? To a lot, actually, because you think about the wand would. Okay, do you want to guess what this,

this is of course not wood, but, but it's Harry's wand. Harry's wand is made from Hollywood. Really, holly, holly plant, holly wood. The elder wand and a different type of elder trees. And we also ended up talking about different types, like willow, because willow is also a wand wood. I believe that is Harry Potter's mother.

Lily's wand is made from willow. And then there's other wands such as Lord Voldemort, himself's original wand, not the elder wand. It's from yield trees and yield. There's a lot of folklore related to it, but people also study these unique type of plants and be able to find, you know, again, go through the analytical process

to obtain chemicals that could eventually be used for finding cancers or all the others. A lot of times there's a lot of researchers actually doing a lot of research with different type of plants is to try to look at, you know, plant derive, you know, anti-cancer drugs, or at least try to understand that, right? Very simple things such as, you know,

methyl cellulose, all cellulose like acid, you think about, you know, willow bark. People use McT's out of willow bark back in the days without knowing cellulose like acid type of compounds that's that. Isn't the Pacific U tree is used in breast cancer research, but that's a Voldemort wood? Yes. Voldemort's one cures cancer and my mind's blown right now.

How do you explain that? It's because it's related to death and things like that. Yews are usually planted in the mythology. Yew trees are related to death and they plant it usually in cemeteries. Wow. Oh my God, that's amazing. Pieces of yield buried with the body

can protect the soul on this journey to the other world. So, there's a lot of, you know, mythology that, you know, J.K. Rowling, you know, she's clearly expert and incorporates that in her books. So. Oh my God, that is so great. So, that's more divination, there's more like, you know, the myths and rituals.

And of course, this is what you're talking about. Yes, tachylox, exactly. Exactly, pachytexel. So, there are poisonous, but of course, but we can get something out of it, you know, not all poisons. I mean, poisons, a lot of things is that you look at it being poisonous is also dose response, right? It depends on how much you use.

Basically, therapeutic windows very, very small. So, therefore, you have to be very careful if you... So, therefore, it is not telling people, oh, let's get some, you bark and then chew on it. No, that's not a good idea. Everything has to be well controlled and, but again, but nonetheless, if you look at, you know, if how many people are trying to really study

what's nature, what nature is offering and then see what one could use to improve human life, whether it's about, you know, for cancer, as cancer drugs or not. So, it's kind of neat, you see, that's one of the main part because tachylox, everyone knows that, right? Exactly. Oh, that's so fascinating.

For more on how the Pacific U treats cancer specifically, it's discovery in breast cancer therapies, see last October's surgical oncology episode. I promise it'll leave you hopeful. Will you cry? Maybe. Will it be worth it? Definitely.

Okay. Back to wands. So, these are the wands that you... One was Elder Wand, Holly, Elm, Yule, Vine, Hawthorne, Willow, Walnut and, of course, the cores. These are the things that we don't have, but at least we can talk about the different wand woods. So, it's all related to the Celtic tree calendars as well.

Basically, Harry's wand is because he was born July 31st and actually matches the holly. Wow. And then Hermione was born between September 2nd, September 29th, and she has vine woods. So, you can see these are the things that J.K. Rowling, it's not random how she chose what type of wand said what wood she chose for the trio, the three main characters.

So, would you be Birch, Caesarean Capricorn? Yes, that is correct. Oh! Birch is all right. I don't know. Actually, Willow is also nice. So, I talk about, you see, the holly tree, the name comes from Holy. It repels evil.

While Yule, which can achieve astonishing longevity, can symbolize both death and resurrection. The sap is also poisonous and that's actually a quote from J.K. Rowling when people ask why she ended up choosing Yule for Voldemort and Holly for Harry because the word comes from Holy. Okay, real quick. I was reading about how Professor Dumbledore had an elder wood wand

and McGonagall had a fur wand, Hermione had vine wood, and I, a grown woman who hasn't even finished all the books, was like, oh, I need a wand. I need to carry a polished foot-long piece of wood in my purse at all times. This is the new me. Also, if you're curious about types of wood and haven't listened to the dendrology episode,

I honestly feel bad for you. Thatologist is amazing. So listen to that while you kill time waiting for the second part of this potterology episode to come out next week. Yes. Okay. Tree chemistry. And so when you're teaching this in your lectures,

is there any kind of chemistry that goes into analyzing what a wood is? Oh, yeah. I actually, in terms of like the rings, the growth, and all the other, I wanted to, but I want to focus more on the chemistry. Yeah, yeah. But you see, that leads to one thing, is that this class, when I first started it, I know we're going not very linear here.

That's actually, I was hoping that eventually, there will be other professors in the school would be interested in a Muggle's Guide to Harry Potter's Plant Science, a Muggle's Guide to Harry Potter's Linguistic, because all the spells, many of them are Latin-based. And then you can also have a Muggle's Guide to Harry Potter's Biology or Zoology, because you have all these fantastic bees, right? So I'll do the chemistry portion and have other people do that.

It would be wonderful if it's within the university, but of course, everyone's busy. You can see it's quite a bit of work to get to research. You have to research both the science part and the non-science part, right, to get people to be, to correlate the two things, right? So that was actually what I was always, what I hoped that it would be great to have this type of synergy, to have Nebraska UNL be Harry Potter-related educational courses,

you know, and things like that. Because it's, I cannot do all of them. I mean, I've been talking a bit about fantastic bees, looking at, maybe we'll talk about biology and things like that, but linguistic, I can't do that. I don't think I'm expert in plants either. You see, there are no plants here, because I kill them all. You've got a leaf over there?

Not alive. I'm only, that's why I only have plastic stuff. Because the real ones are long gone. Can I ask you some questions from listeners? But before we ask the smart person, you're smart, and maybe hopefully at least a few blissfully stupid questions, you're just gonna have to wait a week. I'm sorry.

Yes, this chat was so long, I had to divide it into, meanwhile, you can listen to the dendrology or surgical oncology, or pharaoh equinology episodes, or you can spend the time reading all the Harry Potter books, or watch all the movies, or start your own novel. Next Tuesday, we'll learn more about her courses, and we will field your questions to Dr. Lai. Now, you can also spend the week saying hi on Twitter or Instagram.

We're at oligies on both, and I'm also on both at Allie Ward, Allie with 1L. And stickers and shirts, even some back-to-school inspired merch, and backpacks are at oligiesmerch.com. Thank you to Shannon Feltas and Bonnie Dutch for that. They're also hosts of the comedy podcast You Are That, which is wonderful. Thank you to Hannah Lippo and Aaron Talbert

for admitting the Facebook group, which is full of wonderfuls. Hello to all the subredditors out there, to assistant editor Jared Sleeper of the podcast My Good Bad Brain, and he whose name shall be spoken, Stephen Ray Morris, who also hosts The Perkast and C. Jurassic Wright. Thank you for editing all these clips together. All Harry Potter films are Warner Brothers, so do go treat yourself to those films.

Binge them all at once. Tell your boss you ate bad shrimp. We're out for the week. Also, the theme music for this podcast was written and performed by Nick Thorburn of the Band Islands, which is a very good band. So if you stick around until the end of the episode, I tell you a secret.

And this week's secret is that I still have not bought a garbage can. And also, every time I walk in a bookstore or a library, I get so excited I immediately have to pee. Okay, next week. Potterology part two. Get stoked. Bye-bye.

Factorology. Nephology. Cereology. Cereology. Singin' our song all day long at Hogwarts.