Ologies with Alie Ward - Potterology Part 2 (WIZARD SCIENCE) with Rebecca Lai

Episode Date: September 18, 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.** PART 2: Your questions answered by Dr. Rebecca Lai, as a continuation of last week's foundational episode. 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; TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/OLOGIES; betterhelp.com/ologies; kiwico.com/OLOGIES 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 still your neighbor who's always out vacuuming his car and you're like, is he really clean or is he so dirty he needs to be vacuuming it that much. Ellie Ward, back with part two of the Potterology episode of Allergies. Okay, if you have not listened to part one, go do that first. So much context and backstory, there's wizard puns, so go there first. This is like the dessert portion involving your questions, but first go fill up on the main course. Go on, get it.

All right. Okay, thank you so much to all the patrons who support the show and submit questions and the folks who subscribe and rate and who also review because you know that I creepily read them such as, for example, Funky Fract Friday, who said this week, I'm not a huge podcast person and the podcasts I've listened to tend to come and go, but not allergies. It's kept my attention for over a year, plus I now have fun facts to spew at friend and family gatherings. Ellie asks the right questions and makes quality dad jokes.

In conclusion, I want Ellie Ward to be my dad. Good news, Funky Fact Friday, I am your dad. If you've been listening for a while and you wondered, why does this lady call herself my dad? It's dad jokes. And just because it darn lovely, I kiddos. Also, I do wear socks with sandals sometimes. I did just yesterday and I don't care how that makes you feel.

Well, I do, but I hope that you secretly are okay with it. All right. So buckle up. Here's a review of potterology, in which we ask all of your questions and we talk about poisons and anecdotes and anecdotes and noble gases and jerky wizards, dark arts, stun guns, risky business, fireworks, stomach butterflies, and more with University of Nebraska-Lincoln chemistry professor and electrochemist and potterologist Dr. Rebecca Lye. Can I ask you some questions from listeners?

Yes. Is that okay? 113 questions. We're not going to go through all of them. Oh my gosh. Sarah Nichelle wants to know, are you a real wizard, to be honest? Have you brought the veritas here? That I'm not prepared.

Are you a wizard? You can say no comment. I don't know. Rebecca pointed to a nearby tea-stained sepia-colored letter in a shadowbox frame. It looked like something, say, like an owl might drop down your chimney. Okay. I can tell you one thing. If you look at that letter right there, presumably, I received that when I was 11, but then I

was not 11 when J.K. Rowling had those books out, so I don't think I received it. You're not a muggle. You are not a muggle. You're a wizard. I think my brand of magic, people have asked that before. My brand of magic is really weird. I don't think there is that kind in Harry Potter C. I think my brand of magic, I look at it because I like learning.

I like to absorb other people's knowledge, so what they learn, so I guess my magic is absorbing other people's magic. People are developing all their great things and, you know, what I call magic every day, from whether it is listening to allogies or watching YouTube or just, you know, reading encyclopedia. I still like that, so any of those, I'm absorbing other people's magic, magic that has been developed years and years back in the days, and that's how I look at it. I love that.

My magic is to absorb others' magic. Sydney Brown wants to know, what's your favorite spell? Favorite spell? Expecto Patronum. Expecto Patronum. I think that is probably not just mine. I think it's probably the top one. Well, because it's repulsed de-mentors, de-mentors based on what J.K. Rowling's, you know, how

she came up with that was related to when she herself suffered from depression. It's basically something that is, you know, making you feel sad and unhappy and just despair. And you have this Expecto Patronum that will be an animal, mine's actually, according to Pottermore, a beagle, little dog. So that's my Patronus. So I think the Patronus charm is what I think is a really great spell, because sometimes we're humans. We do get sad and despair, sometimes sad or sometimes disappointed, or, you know, having

that to protect us is a great thing. Yeah. Okay, so quick aside. Is the comfort of a Patronus animal magic? Is it witchcraft? No, fam. It's just a big frothy stew of biology and chemistry. So according to psychosocial and psychophysiological effects of human-animal interactions, the

possible role of oxytocin, this is a meta-analysis of a bunch of studies looking at HAI, human-animal interaction, aka snorkels, aka slugs. So HAI has been investigated for its effects on hormonal indicators of stress. These are things like cortisol and on neurotransmitters like epinephrine. And one Australian study found that dog and cat owners had fewer sleeping problems and went to the doctor less frequently than non-pet owners. And in a Chinese survey, researchers reported that dog owners had higher self-reported fitness and health.

They exercised more frequently, they slept better, they saw their doctors less frequently, and took fewer days off from work than comparable non-dog owners. There was another study in the same meta-analysis that involved showing participants a live tarantula spider saying they'd have to hold it later on. Now, in the interim, they had the subjects either pet a live rabbit, a live turtle, a toy rabbit, a toy turtle, or they just had them chill out without a toy or a live animal. And petting a live animal was the only option that reduced fear and anxiety. And the tarantula is like, hi, hi, I am a live animal.

You don't want to pet me? Because look at my hairy butt. Look at it. Isn't it round? Isn't it cute? What's the matter? Now, the study also said that just loafing with a critter, especially doggos, can trigger oxytocin release in both humans and dogs, which decreases stress hormones and lowers

blood pressure. So thanks, pups. Me rubbing your belly helps you soothe my soul. Also, side note, every once in a while, I will get a really lovely sweet listener who says that squid or toads are their spirit animals. And I'm sure y'all are very compassionate and kind. I just wanted to let you know that saying spirit animal is something reserved for native and indigenous populations.

So if you would not wear a headdress to Coachella because you know it's really not your place, you might want a nicks spirit animal. Just burn that right out of your brain. Alternatives? Well, yes. Of course, there are many. I'm glad you asked. You can say alter ego, familiar, or you can say patronus.

So your patronus might be a toad or a squid. And some gracious furry folks have said that fursona is also fine with them. Okay. So moving into a different shape entirely, some listeners asked about the transfiguration realm. These listeners were Samantha Pinpinto, Claire Meyer, Hannah Riley, Danielle O'Bee Cannon, and first time question asker. Ashra Kulhakhtar says on a scale of one from 100, just how cruel is transfiguration when

it comes to animals? What happens when they mess up a switch and now your beetle is half button and half beetle? Any idea? That's a tough one. I think in terms of that is because the transfiguration, the fact is that I do believe that it's cruel in a way. I would say it's like about 70%, you know, like 70. But the fact is that I do believe it might not be mentioned here.

I think they probably could reverse it. I think there's some advance. Maybe not everyone can do that. Just don't count on Neville Longbottom to do that at that time when he was, okay, now he's much improved. But I'm sure maybe Professor McGonagall can do that. She can reverse it. I think it could be reversed.

Lauren Weight and Michelle Grondin both want to know, have you seen improvements in scores since introducing Harry Potter into your teaching? And also, what is your Hogwarts house? I'm Ravenclaw. Okay. Yes. I will answer that easily. I have matches my nails.

Rebecca did have a fresh tapered manicure and a lovely periwinkle hue and ever the scientist, she said it's tough to isolate the data to track down how much better students did in chemistry after taking her muggle magic course because they're typically enrolled in other chemistry classes from other professors. But all in all, she hopes it helps students become passionate about chemistry. Myself, I'm going to go on a limb and say it's got to help. Now, a few folks posed linguistic queries, including Jack, Benjamin Harrison, Wayne Brantley, Rebecca Zonbrecher and ...

Okay. So, Destiny Rector wants to know, I know a lot of spells and their names are based in Latin. Are there any based in other languages that are maybe a little bit less common? Have you ever found that? No. I have not done too, too much on that. Both of them are Latin based, but I think there might be others as well.

I cannot say. But that's what I'm hoping, imploring that's another professor. We'll continue this muggles guide to Harry Potter's Linguistic. That's amazing. Because honestly, right now, I look at it, it doesn't have to be in Nebraska, it would just be, you know, it could be global in these days, right? Oh my gosh. Because people did ask me if I could have this class broadcast live online.

It could be done, of course, there's some, you know, because it's paid and then the credits and stuff like that. It cannot just be for, you know. Not just for fun. But I don't mind if it could be. All right. Yes. Any Georgetown folks out there can scan your course catalog for a class called Knights of

Old and Harry Potter, which explores the medievalism of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels by diving into, quote, medieval antecedents from the 12th and 15th century in French, English, and Latin literature, as well as selected volumes of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. So spooky muggles, your people, they are out there. They are teaching classes. Oyef Casey asked, what Harry Potter subject is the most like chemistry in your opinion, mainly between potions and transfiguration? Potions.

Definitely potions. Because potions and some of them I'm, we didn't even get to that. Actually some of them I basically what I did in the classes that of course there's potions and then science. I actually look at a few recipes such as the draft of peace and also the wit sharpening potion. I actually look at the ingredients, what J.K. Rowling listed and I look at the chemistry of them and try to prove that whether J.K. Rowling is right or wrong to put, you know,

Valerian root in, you know, the draft of peace or putting ginger in the wit sharpening potions. So I think there's some correlations. I think she knows her stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So potions for sure. PS, if you've ever taken Valerian root to calm anxiety or to help you drift off into

a deep, deep sleep with wacky dreams, there is an acid in it that's similar to the neurotransmitter Gamma Aminobutyric Acid, nickname GABA, it's called a GABA for short, which handles calming the nerves and the jury's still out in the scientific community on its efficacy, but some trials show that it works better than placebo at helping you chill out and calm down. Another fun fact, Valerian root smells terrible, so bad, so awful. So if you try it, just push through that fermenting dung, rancid sock flavor, and then it's all good.

If you're not left traumatized, I mean, accursed is the stench, but just dreamy its effect. Trust me, I am in no way a doctor, though. So ask one first. Emily Reid wants to know, what's the most obscure and or seemingly useless spell? Hmm. I think a killing spell, sorry, the killing curse. I don't want to say it, the killing curse, because I don't think we need such things. Okay.

That's a good answer. And jam cruise wants to know what potions might actually be medically useful for us muggles. Hmm. Well, I think the witch sharpening potions containing ginger as one of the ingredients is not bad. So people have studied a lot of ginger has been used in India and China for many, many years, mostly for indigestion or some digestive system issues.

And I correlated to witch sharpening. It's that, well, it may not make you sharper, but yet, if you don't have stomachache, you feel a lot better. Okay, right. You can think, right? I mean, both of us right now having having digestion problem, I don't think we'll be sitting so comfortably talking right now. I really got to go.

All right. So we might want to be at other places that so I think it might just have some correlations in that I think ginger overall, people have studied it for a lot of different, you know, to see if they could find chemicals and components in that that could be able to help with other diseases and other maladies beyond digestive system issues. So yes, ginger, scientists are looking at it for its pain management and anti inflammatory properties. And of course, there's a reason they serve it on airplanes.

It's kind of like a magic potion. It makes you less nauseous. How does it do this? Well, I looked into it, it breaks up gas and it moves things through your system. So thanks, ginger, you're a real fart buster. Also I think people drink it on airplanes because if you have to walk through first class and see people drinking champagne, when you get to your seat, you want something gold and bubbly, but also free.

I have yet to pursue this theory academically, but I have a lot of faith in it. Okay, speaking of a classroom, this next question was seconded by L. McCall. A couple of people asked Emma Jane, Julian wants to know why is it leviosa and not leviosa? Like what if someone has an accent like if they're German wizards instead of English wizards? Well, I think in that scenario clearly both Ron and Hermione to my best knowledge, I think the British, I don't know why Ron said it that way. Ron just have a different way of, you know, maybe a different part of UK got different

accent as well. Absolutely. Maybe that right. That is a very, I have never heard of this question. This is lovely. And I would just recommend her to say, try her best to say it the right way because spells, you don't want to get it wrong, even though levitating this thing or not is not a big deal, but it could be, if it's a wrong curse, you might just get into more trouble than

what Ron got. It might just poke a person's eye out or something and beyond. So, okay. And you have kind of a beautiful, almost like a British lilt to your voice too. I'm originally from Hong Kong, so I learned British English. Oh my gosh. I was wondering because it's like you've been in LA and so, yeah, you know. Yeah, I know because it's just, yeah.

Oh, you have such a beautiful voice. Seriously, how golden and sparkly and wonderful is her voice? So much. Now, Margaret Hammerser-Slee had this next question, which, spoiler, gets us back to something from episode one that rhymes with schmin-visible-schpinks. What is the best lab demo to get people interested in chemistry and science because it looks like magic? Yes.

A perisium right now. Let's see. Do it again. Invisible ink. Alleyward is awesome, okay? That remains a factual thing, okay? This is the best day ever. So that is invisible ink, you got to say.

Yes, absolutely. Basically, this part. CRISPR wants to know, what would be considered the dark arts of chemistry? And Michelle Grondin says, second that question. Dark arts and chemistry. Dark arts. Well, there are some dangerous chemicals, too, I have to say. But in general, in the chemistry lab, no matter what we work with, we always consider them

being dangerous, and so we will take extra precautions and care. So one thing about me being a professor, training my graduate student or teaching the class later on, I always remind them safety is the most important, because if you're not safe, you're doing dark arts. You know why? You're in an explosion and kill your neighbor right there. Whether you want it or not, that could occur, or that you're going to break the whole glass case of chemicals that would cost $5,000 or $10,000, so that's not good.

Solid advice, safety first. Unsafe behavior is dark arts. So texting while driving, dark arts. Those weird kids who do parkour on top of skyscrapers, dark arts. From temperature may noise, dark arts. Safety first. Katie Shavas wants to know, what type of elixir will help us live longer and healthier? Well, elixir of life, that you can be Nicholas Flamel to 600-something if we have the sorcerer's

stone, that would be pretty good, but, well, we don't have that yet. I say drink some green tea, still pretty good antioxidant content, some EGCG and that's all good. I analyzed it myself. You are a wizard. But if you're like, hey, Pops, what's EGCG? I'm about to spill that piping hot green tea. So it's epigallocatechin gallate, which is a polyphenol compound that some studies show

has potential to reduce inflammation and possibly prevent cancer, needs a bunch more research. Also Rebecca, at this point, whispered something alluding to a process involving tea and gold, but I had to cut it because that chemistry might be proprietary. Don't worry, Rebecca, I didn't fully grasp it and would not begin to know how to steal it. Now, next question was also asked by first-time question asker, Don Ewald, Carrie Weber, Sydney Brown, Crystal Mendoza, Anika Murkelbach, and Jessica Beard wants to know, if you could perform only one spell, what would it be?

One spell. Wow. Sorry. It's a hard question. Yeah, if it's just only one spell, it's definitely not the killing curse, anything like that. Those should not even exist. And I suppose I still try to go with Expectal Patronum, I would say on a very sad day or maybe if I think that there are the mentors around or other people around that I don't

want, I will try to protect myself on, if not Expectal Patronum, I would go with I suppose Protego, because Protego you protect, basically you protect from any, who knows what will happen, right? It could be earthquake, it could be something falling, so if I could use one thing to protect the two ones, I think I would do that, you know, but hopefully I never need to use that. Hopefully you won't. Exactly, right. This next question was also asked by Aracely Contreras, Sonja Karp, Ace Lane, and Chem

grad student Jessica Beard. And she also asked Jessica Beard, what moment in your research felt most like magic? Actually, most of the first eureka moments, but that's one thing that's back to what I think about research is that no matter how, you know, you like your field, you really like what you're doing is that, you know, think about that the moment that you're doing the experiment, adding this and that and see that color change, for example, that I do different kind of research, but for example, that is the case, you know, for that one single second in the whole world, you might be the only person who knew about that fact.

And I think that's the eureka moment, and you can recreate it again and again, as you do experiments and you go in the lab, you like, you know, no matter how minute and people think, oh, well, your discovery is not as significant, but you know, at that moment is you're the first, the only person at that moment to be able to see that. And that's one thing I really, to know the truth of that reaction or this system or whatnot is amazing. I think that to me, it's not just one, it could be many of that moment, but you really just that little eureka moment that you're like, wow.

And then you think about it, that specific moment in the lab that you found that that's way before you making these beautiful figures published in a journal and getting news articles written about it, you know, maybe way before that, just at that instant, you're like, wow, I'm the only one who knew about this at that moment. It's kind of really neat. I wish I could go back in the lab to do more work these days. I cannot, because I run the lab and I teach and do other things, but those are the moments. I think what scientists will always cherish.

Now I cherish it vicariously, just like last night sending email to Channing's like Channing, how did the experiment go? Did it work? I'm just kidding. Channing is the oligite who told me about Rebecca. So Channing, thanks for hooking it up. I owe you one high five from each hand. That's really, if you think about it, that moment is pretty unique.

No matter other people think, oh, it's just my new, it's not like you found a cancer, you know, solution right now. But at that moment, you're the only one in that world who knew this fact, this truth after all science is about truth finding, right? Yeah. What is special surreal moment? Yes. Absolutely.

I don't want to exaggerate it or people think it's overrated or whatnot, but I think at that moment when you plan so much into that experiment, hoping to see that, because experiments are all not just, oh, let's put some stuff together and I'm sure some reaction is going to occur and whatnot. The same goes for spells. I'm sure put effort into generating these spells. And we really, you know, carefully plan it and have lots of hypothesis in your own mind what will happen.

And then when you see one happen, oh, wow, that is the truth, okay. Both of the, all the other options. So that's the answer because a lot of times you go into an experiment, you would think it could work this way, it could also this, this, this and what will happen. It's amazing. Just, just a process of it. Side note. I wondered what the etymology of Eureka was and Eureka, I found it is from the Greek

Eurek's kind to find. So in case you need a new way to say, I can't hurris kind my keys. What is wrong with my brain? Where are they? Why? Why? Why I'm late. Sarah Terry wants to know, are the sparks that come out of a wizard's wand, noble gases?

They wouldn't spark if they were noble, right or no? You are right. Exactly. They are not. I mean, I think they're most likely maybe hydrogen. No, no, noble, noble gases, you know, like argon and neon note, but could that be argon, neon? Well, you think about neon signs and all the others under some conditions it could be,

right? Like argon, neon, xenon, and xenon lamps and things like that, under some conditions it could be. So therefore, I think she's onto something, she should think about it, but it could also just be fireworks, you know? Maybe one box of different colors because fireworks are all depending on what chemicals is in there. Like if you have lots of sodium, you're going to get a yellow firework for sure.

So all the fireworks of different colors all depends on different elements. Yep. Celebratory sky explosions, all about chemistry. So the next time you're at a stadium or at someone's very expensive yacht wedding or hoping that your neighbors don't burn your city down on the 4th of July, just think, hey, that red one is the metal salt strontium carbonate. Oh, a look blue, copper chloride. Oh, yellow.

Hey, what's up, sodium nitrate? I see you and I see you. Also thanks to the sponsors of the show who make it possible for us to donate to a cause each week of theologist choosing, Dr. Rebecca Lye shows PBS.org, which is funded about 50% by individual contributions like this. And now, a few words about sponsors of the show who make that possible. Okay, back to your Patreon questions. This next one comes from Ashra Kohatkar.

What allows some spells to continue to have an effect after the spellcaster dies, like Madai Moody's protective spells over a grimmled place after his death, while others stop working immediately after the spellcaster dies? So why do you think some spells continue to have an effect versus others not? What do you think? That's a very interesting question, but I think it depends on the strength of that spell too. I think there are some spells that will have that ability and some will not.

I think I know I'm not really giving an answer here or maybe not an answer that's what you would like to hear or not a great answer, but I think that there are categories of spells as well. And there are definitely some spells that have time frame. Some of the spells will not even will end on its own as well. I don't think it even needs to be honest. I do not think that spells such as, you know, stupefied will last forever. Okay.

Side note, cliff note, the stupefied spell from the Harry Potter books stuns an opponent and Rebecca works it into the magic for muggles course by teaching the science of stun guns. Okay, so stun guns require contact with a foe, but taser guns shoot out coily wired darts kind of like a chameleon tongue and the electro shock they administer can be up to 50,000 volts, which in a stun gun, that can cause enough pain to just temporarily incapacitate someone. A taser, though, that can hijack the electricity system that neurons use to communicate and then make muscles spasm and leave an opponent floored, not dead, but floored on the floor. You see, even the, even the spellcasters still alive.

I don't think you stupefied. You stun a person. The person will come back to life. You don't need to use renovate to, you know, revive the person. I think the person could come back as a function of time. So you see, there are spells that actually got limits of number of hours that the effect could be. However, there are, of course, ones that are had much longer lifetime and there are some

that will end with the spellcaster being, you know, gone. So I think even among the spells itself, depending on what type of spells they're not forever, if you think about if it's forever, like Terji or Scurgify to you just use it once and it's already clean and got dirty again, do I have to reuse it or I already just did that spell two minutes ago and someone just threw some soil on this, whatever. So it just depends on the specific spell and how the wizard who developed that spell wanted it to be. I think so.

That makes sense. It's intention. Sarah Terry and Kirana Bergstrom both asked about finding antidotes to poisons and apparently it's not as easy as just waving a stick at something. That's a complex question. It's a very complex question. No, actually, the fact is that with chemistry in biology and to do it's really about understanding you ingested that chemical, whether it is cyanide or some scopalamine or mandrogoramine,

which is from Mandrake. These are these, you know, alkaloids compounds that are poisonous. You need to know what poison you ingested or you were forced to be ingested. So what you took and understanding how that poison will interact with your body so you find an antidote against that and there are multiple poisons. There are multiple poisonous compounds that could have the same effect. So maybe one antidote can go against them. As long as you need to know the biological pathway of that compound, that specific molecule

is affecting which part of your body and which, you know, down to very, very specific. So therefore, sometimes there are classes of antidotes that could go against a few different types of poisons. So some antidotes work as an anti-coagulant if the poison or the venom is bunching up blood cells. Now anti-venom can be injected antibodies that have been collected from animals who have been exposed to the venom and an epipen is a shot of epinephrine which can counteract anaphylactic shock.

Also fun fact, poisons are eaten and venom is injected. I feel like this was in a previous episode, but just in case you forgot. So there are no poisonous spiders unless you eat them and even then your stomach will likely break down the poisons. Now in case anyone ever points to your spider friend and accuses it of being poisonous. Rebecca Hall wants to know, what's the weirdest Harry Potter potions ingredient that you're like, whoa, this could not be a real thing, but it is a real thing. Any crazy potion ingredients?

Any like, what is this? I need to find a unicorn's horn or something first, right? Because the unicorn's component, there are definitely potions with unicorn components and I think that's a little bit hard to find. I want to find one first really. And I want a real one, not the ones that people presume they're unicorns, they're actually narwhals, they're taking that horn from the narwhals. And one should not be doing that either, it's because of the fact that just like people

should not be taking ivory from elephants, I don't think people should be just taking that from the narwhals either. So if they could find a real unicorn, I would be interested in that. Everybody will find a fossil one day. Across the rainbow somewhere. P.S. narwhals are called the unicorns of the sea and their tusks are just one big long tooth that's grown through their lip and they use it to communicate with each other about the water they've been in, just what's going on in their life, who got divorced.

And the name narwhal derives from Old Norse for corpse because of their blotchy gray skin looked like a floating dead sailor. So always just embrace those mutations, you magical unicorns. Also all those in favor of a future narwhal episode, say corpse tusk. All right, duly noted, will do. There are the other things such as a martencia. I know people like that one because that's the, you know, that's a love potion, but you need to get some ashwinder eggs.

I don't think I can find that. So it's a little serpent, it's the magical serpent. I don't, I cannot find that, but you see within the love potions, four common ingredients, rose thorns, peppermint, and powdered moonstone, I actually have some moonstone in my drawer. I showed my students moonstone as well. So those are okay. But there are some, yeah, I just, I think they find the unicorn for me, I might just ask them to do something for me.

Okay. Some magic. This next question was asked by Jen Anathas and Eunji Kwon, and it's very romantic. Another listener wants to know, is there anything close to life? Is there anything in life that's really close to love potion other than just like margaritas or something? Love potions, yes. I think if you look at it, it's more talk about in the animal world in that case is because

you can think about like pheromones, right? Pheromones really attracting, you know. You think about a lot of, you know, the queen bee will, you know, secretes, you know, different, you know, different type of compounds, pheromones are just compounds, right, molecules. And you can also think about even the moths. If you think about silkworm moths, basically a mulmix mori, they are a little, they cannot fly anymore. You think about, they cannot fly, they just move around.

How can they find to reproduce, right? Yes, how do you do that? Via pheromones, the sense of it. They could just sense that, oh, the right person's right there, okay, the right moth is over there. Oh, hey. Basically you can use that. Pheromones are important.

I think if one could concentrate that and make some extract, maybe could, could be used. 60% of the time it works every time. Other than that, I really, no, actually there's a joke too, you know, forget, forget amortensia using love potion. Why don't you just make beautifying potions, because they're for the others too. Well, you know, I mean, that's also not a bad thing, I think, you know. Make everyone a little hotter. Exactly.

Never go amiss a little bit, you know, a little bit beautification is a good thing, okay? So, yeah, you have that one as well. That's your fashion background coming in too. Just get a little bit of style. You gotta do that, you know, it's just, it's part of life, so. For more on the science of grooming, you can see the cosmetology episode, and for more on the psychology of beautification, see the two-part collology episode, which debunks the need to pluck every hair from your body and or hate yourself into looking perfect

for others. Now, speaking of myth-busting. Any flim flam that you would want to debunk about chemistry? Any myths about chemistry that you want people to get over? I think to think that chemistry, first, you think that chemistry is really hard, or maybe I cannot do it. No, I think if you like it enough, a lot to do with the passion, you need to like it. You like it enough, you'll be able to do it.

I think that's one thing. Another thing is that chemistry is only useful in this and that, but actually everything that you use from the food science, I cover so much, involves chemistry. You can do a lot of things with a chemistry degree. There are a lot of career options and we talk about perfume, right? People were not necessarily associated with chemistry, but actually Dr. Chang and myself, my friend, last semester we actually taught a skincare chemistry class. It's also a one credit honest course.

We talked about antioxidants, talked about sunscreen, we talked about a lot of things. They do, a lot of chemists are involved in formulation and making sure the product is good and feels smooth. It's about the efficacy, the fact that it should work and work well, but it's also about it should feel nice on your skin. There's actually a lot of science involved in just making one cosmetic product. I think there, one could think about chemistry in many different ways. I'm just using this example, perfumes and cosmetic chemistry.

If you're interested in food science and food chemistry, right, we all like most people. I like food, and I talk about it a lot because I do, so I'm just speaking from my own perspective that there's just lots to study, right? If you are botanist, you want to, you like to be like Navo Longbottom to be, you know, herbologists, right? I mean, you study, we just talk about yield trees, talk about taxel, we talk about holly trees, we'll talk about people could do that type to study. You want, if you're a naturalist, you like to find out about nature, understand nature,

you can study trees and look at what kind of compounds and chemicals you can get from trees and that will these compounds be able to help human, to improve human life? I think at the end, doing chemistry, doing science, I think in my humble opinion is to really improve human life. And I think there are many ways of doing it, you know, making perfume mix people smell nicer is good, you know, beautification is good. But you know, of course, it's also very important, very good to do biomedical research and understanding the effects of these compounds on cancer cells and different type of cancer cells.

These are just a few examples of what one could do if one has an undergraduate degree in chemistry. Of course, if you want to go into specialization, to go into graduate school, you can choose different topics. As long as, again, it's about passion, right? If you look at, ultimately, why J.K. Rowling can create a world like that is because she's passionate about it. Without passion, she cannot, I mean, I'm sorry, very few people will be able to do that, to

sustain a career at that level, you know, to, so therefore you have to like it. You have to wake up and want to do it, I think. Ah, ah, how inspiring is that? Having stomach flutters for your job, PS, even that is chemical. I just Googled it and apparently having peptic lipidoptera, butterflies in the stomach, is because when we're excited, we think we're going to have to fight someone. So our blood gets rerouted to our muscles, even if we're just happy. And the butterflies are because of a lack of blood flow to your food sack.

So mention that on your next first date, if you need an icebreaker and instantly weed out decent people who are not into those disgusting fun facts. And the last questions I always ask everyone, what is the suckiest thing about your job? What is the hardest thing about your job or about chemistry? What is something that you're like, even though I love you chemistry, this gets your goat? I wouldn't say in terms of chemistry, I would say the toughest job about being a professor in an R1 school or like a PhD level school, ultimately, is the amount of work. You have to work a lot.

The fact is, it's really tough to be good at everything. The trilogy of academia is research, then teaching, then education and outreach. And each of them will require a lot of time if you want to do good at it, right? If you want to do a great job, right? Research involves doing, I do biosensor research and I have graduate students, I have to train, I have to obtain funding, you have to do a lot of writing and all the others. It's a lot of work. And then teaching, you know, it's also very important because I look at it teaching and

mentoring, ultimately, what I really like about this job the most. I know you asked me what I dislike, but I would like to, you know, buy one, get one free. I'll give you what I like the most. That's the next question. Exactly. Oh, sorry, preview. I should stop. Okay.

I thought you asked me what I like first, usually. It's like, you want the bad news first or the good news? No, I always end on it. I always make you say the worst thing and then I end on a high note. Okay. So the hard part is really about, you know, the amount of time that in order to be very good at research, very good at teaching and very good at, you know, education and outreach, you have to put a lot of time in there.

And I'm trying my best, you know, I do research and I teach and I also currently am the Nebraska Chambers Education and Outreach Director and Jocelyn is the Assistant Director. That's why we are partners in crime. Yeah, yeah. Hi, Jocelyn. And so to do that, I really enjoyed it, but of course, you know, every part of the work in order to do a great job, it's a lot of time involved and you have to prioritize things. So I think the tough part is, it's hard work.

Yeah, yeah. So. A lot of hours. A lot of hours, exactly. I think hard work. I would say most people in academia would agree. It's a lot of, it's hard work. But if you like it, that gets to your next part, Ray.

Yeah, yeah. What do you love the most about what you're doing? I can't even, I don't even know how you're going to answer this because what you do is so awesome. It's so cool. I like too many things. I think probably people like to say, would think that about me. I like, but ultimately, yes, I do like a lot of things, but ultimately I think I like the

most is really about teaching and mentoring students. Those two are actually together in some sense, right? You think about my research group with my graduate students, my undergraduate students or visiting professors in my research group doing research and how I teach them, mentor them, provide them with opportunities to do different things to so as for them to advance in their career in the future. So I really enjoyed that part of it. But also my classes, like right, you know, class I'm going in half an hour.

And because you can also, it's also very satisfying to see that before the students starting your class versus after, you know, how much they learn, just seeing them learning. I think that is a very rewarding part. And you can see that from, even though within one semester of teaching them, all like with Channing's already close to five years, I've been with her, right? Channing, the student we just talked about. And so you can see that it's actually both are equally important and very, to me, it's very satisfying.

And also even for the students, you know, that I teach in the class only, you know, maybe with them for one semester, whether it's the class I'm currently teaching or the Harry Potter class, you know, if later on I could see their future and some of them I still keep in contact and then I could see them doing great things in life. It's amazing, you know, it's just, you know, not trying to say that I had, you know, that much impact on them, maybe even if it's just a small little part, it's still, I think it's still a very good thing. So and that's what I continued.

I would like to continue to do that, to be a good teacher, to be a good mentor, I think. And I think it's an important thing because I think being a good teacher, a good mentor and be able to communicate well. And I think it's not only for this profession, right? It is probably very important for nearly most, many different professions. Right. Whether you're an author or a professional or a chemist or a teacher. I think so. I think so. Even if I'm not a professor, I work in the industry or another place, you still have

to teach people, right? You still want to mentor people because at some point you go higher, you're going to have new people that's hired into your company. You know, how do you guide them? How do you help them so that so that they will continue to do great things, right? So I think that's a it's a skill set that would be nice if we all have that. Right, right. OK, I had to ask one more question.

And if you could tell Jackie Rowling anything, what would you tell her? If you could send her a message. Oh, this I thought about. But there are so many things. I suppose I'll just say that Jackie Rowling, you're awesome in this. All right. In invisible ink. Exactly. I think that I will physically show her that she will have her own Jackie Rowling diary, not just Tom Riddle's diary.

It will not be stabbed by a, you know, by the basilisk tooth. It will be fine. It's not a horcrux. With a basilisk fan. So I would say thank you. Actually, I really would say I think thank you because because because of what she has done, basically so inspiring for me to be able to develop this class. And usually when I give my talk, I always end with thanking her to give me all these inspiration. So to me, I think two words, just thank you.

I think it's great. I mean, of course, I would like to meet her and hope that there are other things. But if it's just a very short meeting, I would just like to thank her for what she what she, you know, what she has done and continue to do, inspiring me and so many other people for her to have done. You know, I'm sure she's also gone through a hardship and all the others, but to be able to persevere. I think that's very, that's very powerful.

And I think a lot of us could always learn from that. Thank you so much for doing this. I think you just made a bunch of people who didn't realize they were chemists and a chemist. You may have just birthed some new chemistry aficionados. Why not? Exactly. It can do all sorts of lots of things with it. And just being an experimentalist, going into a lab thinking about, oh, this is what I think it would happen.

Let's see. If I do this together, will I be able really to get this reaction? It's an amazing feeling when you get it, when you get it right and it worked in a way that you you expected, it's very good. But remember, you learn a lot when it's when you did not get it right either. I told my students are just no bad results. If your experiments were not well planned, then that's bad. You go in the lab without knowing what you're supposed to do.

But if you have planned it and the results were not as what you expected, then you want to learn from it. You see, well, what could what could this be? Did I do something wrong? Or is that really how this reaction go? If it is really how this reaction go, well, I may never get to the next step. So how am I going to circumvent that? What am I going to do to solve this problem?

People say that, OK, chemists, they make solutions literally as solutions like that coffee is a solution. No, we make solutions. We find solutions that solutions that may not be able to be placed inside a cup. So I really do see that. I think that if people have that type of mindset, you know, curiosity is always driven by curiosity, curiosity, creativity, hard work, perseverance. If you have all those are throwing a good number of five time management

because we all have finite amount 24. If you have a time turner, you might have 25. But other than that, you get that amount of time. How are you going to utilize it? I think I think with these combination, I would I think lots of people will become fantastic scientists, not just chemists, just wide range. I mean, chemistry chemistry is great. But but if they're interested in pursuing other fields of science,

I think it's also amazing, right? With the ultimate goal of trying to improve human life and improve this world. So curiosity, creativity, hard work, perseverance. And if you can throw in number five, time management. So keep asking smart people, goofy, stupid and poignant questions, because that is how they learned everything they know. And we're all going to die anyway. You might as well ask questions.

Now, for more on the University of Nebraska, Lincoln's chem department, you can follow them on Twitter and Instagram at UNL chemistry. Allergies is also on both of those platforms at Allergies. I'm on there, too, at Allie Ward with 1L. Allergies merch is at allergiesmerch.com. We now have stickers. We have shirts that say hey on the front and bye bye on the back. There are hats, totes, back to school merch.

It's all on there. Thank you, Shannon Feldes and Bonnie Dutch. They host the comedy podcast, You Are That, which is amazing. They help manage all my merch, too. Thank you to Hannah Lippo and Aaron Talbert for adminning the Allergies podcast Facebook group full of nice people. Thank you to Assistant Editor and domestic cheerleader, Jared Sleeper, who hosts the mental health podcast, My Good Bad Brain, for Assistant Editing

and everyone's mustachioed patronus, Stephen Ray Morris, host of the podcast Sea Jurassic Wright about dinos and the Purr cast about cats for helping stitch this all together each week. And if you like dinos and Stephen Ray Morris, side note, he will be live this weekend, September 21st and September 22nd at the LA Natural History Museum's Dino Fest, so you can go see him there live, give him a T-Rex high five. Nick Thorburn wrote and performed the theme song. And if you stick around to the end of the episode, you know, I tell you a secret.

And this week's is that I recently bought a bunch of washcloths and started using a fresh one in the shower each day and I get it. I get it. What a luxury. What an exfoliant. It feels like a spa day every day. What a gross thought. All of the dead powdery skin I've been carting around for just years. Wow. So washcloths, where have you been all my life?

Thank you for coming into my linen closet and my shower with me. You are appreciated. OK, we will be back next week with a phenology, which is a study of the seasonal change. We're going to talk a lot about fall leaves. Who birds migrating? That is a precious episode and I cannot wait for you to hear it. And then the week after that starts spooktuber. I'll be in Austin this week doing a few interviews there that will be airing in

spooktuber. I can't. I'm it's I can't. OK, all right. Bye bye. We need your help. Magical emergency. Oh boy, let's go.