When life hands you lemons, say, "thank you," and use them to do a bunch of science!
A little while ago, we did a DNews Lab where we created a battery with lemons!
But then we had a bunch of extra lemons around, so we thought…
what else can you do with these…
Turns out, quite a lot.
Lemons contain citric acid, a weak organic acid that acts as a preservative.
With a pH of 2.2, citric acid which means it's got Hydrogen ions all over in there,
aside from making a pretty awesome battery, the food industry uses sodium citrate all
the time -- a salt derivative of citric acid -- it's called sour salt and it gives club
soda both its sour and salty flavors.
When added to foods, it can lower the acidity, change the consistency and (like other salts)
add to the shelf life.
Magically (ok, scientifically), when added to regular old cheese, this citric acid derivative,
lets melted cheese create an emulsion with water or beer or whatever!
Emulsions are minute droplets of one thing, suspended in another without clumping back
together.
Basically you can make the best nacho cheese ever at home.
In 1916, James L. Kraft, figured this out while creating the chemistry for American
cheese.
To put it simply, a bit of beer, a bit of sodium citrate, and a bit of your favorite
cheese creates homemade nacho cheese sauce.
It's amazing.
Make it.
Eat it.
Tweet me if you do.
Lemons aren't just for eating though, human hair is made of a protein called keratin and
it normally moisturized by oil from the hair root.
Sometimes, especially with long hair, the shafts can dry out, and then you can mess
with it if you know a little chemistry.
Kid Trace liked doing experiments and, as you might guess, had very little fashion sense.
Adding lemon juice to hair oxidizes just like the rust on a bike!
Hair loves moisture, and lemon juice is moisture, among other things… but when combined with
oxygen in the air and UV energy from the sun, the citric acid causes weak bleaching.
Unfortunately, it also dries the hair out more, so if you do this, make sure you deep
condition and get some new moisture in there but it’s a cheap way and an easy way to
lighten your hair.
If you want to go even more hard core, grab those lemons and use them to polish your stainless
steel pots and pans, chrome the bumpers on a car or faucets, even silver, copper, or
the brass on your aunt's tuba…
If your aunt has a tuba.
It requires various mixers, but the citric acid removes the tarnish from all sorts of
metal.
There's more acid in the rind than in the juice, and you don't have all those sugars
-- so slapping a lemon rind onto a chrome bumper and rubbing will restore its shine!
I mean, sure, so you could just make lemonade, if you're into that sort of thing, but if
someone hands you lemons make yourself some cleaners, emulsions and batteries!
And as long as you're thinking outside of the box, Toyota is fueling the future with
the new Toyota Mirai.
Using the most abundant element in the universe, Hydrogen, the new Mirai is looking to the
future with sustainability in mind.
If you want to see how we used the majority of our lemons to make a cool-ass battery.
Check out this video (sound up) and if you have other science experiment ideas we've
got comments go use 'em.