Snooping Around

Menthol formula Eating a peppermint or a slice of mint cake, especially during a hot day,  is such a pleasurable experience. Feeling that fantastic sense of cold is one of the reasons we love these sweets so much. And obviously the characteristic flavor is loved everywhere. But why mint tastes cold? is temperature really involved in this process or maybe is just a trick of our body? Let’s find out… Menthol Crystals Most of you knows that the responsible is Menthol, an organic compound normally obtained from all mint plants. Of course nowadays, with the extreme high demand and the huge amount of products is used in, menthol is synthetically produced in form of a waxy, crystalline substance that can be both clear or white. At room temperature is solid, but few degrees are enough to make it melt. What happens when we eat a product that contains menthol? Well, our mouth contains some specific receptors that responds to this chemical compound. The receptor we’re tal...

Sometimes our brain is not completely perfect. All over the world there are tons of molecules that have the power of fooling our natural complexity. For example, using a part of us that never sleeps…our constant search for food. All you have to do is look up at the spices you have at home and, if you have a little bottle with the words “Spicy Pepper” written on it, you’ve been fooled more than you could imagine. This because we’re going to discover the secret of Capsaicin, the Spicy Cheater. As some of you might have deduced, this molecule can be found in almost all kinds of peppers. Most of the capsaicin in peppers (which is a fruit, not a vegetable) is mostly focused around the seeds. The plant uses it as a defense mechanism against potential eaters and threats, and this clever method is actually more than useful. Except for specific animals, like birds, that eat seeds without destroying them, so they can spread them all around with feces. This means new plants and great advantag...

It's so magical... A night at the disco. Flashing colors all around. A little glowing bracelet around your wrist. The music is so loud you don’t care about everything. But maybe a little question makes its way into your mind… How does this stuff glow? Well, here I am to tell you why. All the glowing in the dark products contain a chemical structures called phosphors. This name is given to any substance that emits light after being energized in some way. Thousands of chemicals can be classified as phosphors. The great variety of chemicals with this property permits lots of degrees of brightness, color, and length of time they glow after being energized. A phosphorescent eagle There are three main types of ways these phosphors can absorb energy and then releasing it: Phosphorescence, Chemiluminescence and Radioluminescence. Phosphorescent structures , most common for glow in the dark items, are things like the glow in the dark stars many people put on their ce...

When we were kids, there was that day when our parents let us have a look at a dusty collection of historic old, yellowed newspapers. The Moon landing, political victories that started the great history of our own country and many more pillars of history, now sitting on bookshelves or hidden in trunks. These newspapers are fascinating artifacts documenting history, from remarkable moments to daily news. Unfortunately, these ancient relics are so hard to read due to the yellowed, brown color and fading print. So one day I asked myself: why does this happen? Is there any way to prevent this from happening? Let’s start with the invention of paper. It’s thought that paper was invented around 100 BC in China. Originally made from wet hemp that was, then, replaced with pulp, tree bark, bamboo and other plant fibers. Paper soon spread across Asia, first only being used for official and important documents, but as the process became more efficient and cheaper, it became far more com...

Welcome everybody to a new Snooping Session. Let's start with a question: Have you ever seen amazing chemical reactions? I'm sure you have, at least once. Thanks to the Internet, plenty of videos are made every day showing these wonderful processes. But most of the time you just see a video, without explaining why what you are witnessing is happening. Well, my Snoopers, ChEmIcAmAzInG will do the job. Here to simply describe the reality behind the wonder.... Let's start with one of the most common reactions. Maybe some of you have tried this before. I personally have, and by the time I did it it gets very, very, very messy. This is the Mentos Diet Coke Geyser. Everybody that has a computer and a social media should know this trick, and if you have ever wondered WHY the reaction between Diet Coke and Mentos is so strong.... Keep reading for the answer. First of all, it should be noticed this is not a “strict ingredients reaction” ; lots of other carbonated beverages wi...