- I'm hear with Jaren Lewison, give it up!
(audience clapping)
So joining us now is one of our
favorite STEM Queens, Kate the chemist.
Welcome it's nice to have you in person.
- Thank you so much for having me
I'm so excited to be here.
- I am excited, so very nervous.
We've discussed this in the break,
but you have a new book out and it's called,
"It's Elemental, The Hidden Chemistry In Everything."
- So like what?
- Literally everything.
So if you can see it, touch it, interact with it, smell it.
It has chemistry in it.
So in the book, what I do is take you
through the busiest day of your life.
So from breakfast, to working out, to happy hour,
making a pie, and cleaning your house.
And I just highlight my favorite parts of chemistry
throughout the book.
- I love that you included happy hour.
Nice. - [Kate] Of course.
- Wine, right?
(Kelly laughs)
That's chemistry.
- I love it. I love it.
So were you good in chemistry, Jaren?
- Yeah, I was pretty good in the chemistry.
Yeah. High school. - Wow, the confidence in that.
I was not, Jaren.
So I can memorize the periodic table.
That's about it.
Oh, okay.
See, we were different students.
What are we learning about today?
- Today's all about pressure and the science of soda.
So I'm sure you guys are familiar with soda.
So essentially it's like a sugary liquidy solution,
but most of it's water surprisingly.
And so when water molecules come together,
they form these like cages or cubes.
And so they have these holes or pockets in the center.
And so when you carbonate soda,
what happens is the carbon dioxide,
it's this long tubular molecule,
it goes and fits like perfectly in the hole of the cage.
Now, just like we wouldn't wanna be in a cage,
carbon dioxide doesn't wanna be in a cage.
So when you open the soda.
- [Kelly] Pressure.
- Yes, you're literally hearing
the carbon dioxide molecules go, "Freedom!"
And they just like spray and they get out
as much as they possibly can.
- Anytime I have soda, I'm gonna think that now.
(Kelly laughs)
I'm gonna think "Brave Heart."
It's awesome.
Well, okay.
So we're making soda.
We're both Texans, so maybe we can make some Dr. Pepper.
- I'm from Texas too.
- That's right, that's right.
- We're all three. - Yeah.
- That's right.
This is a great show.
Okay, I love this.
I love this.
All right, what do we do first?
Okay, so the first thing we have to do
is since we're gonna put a twist on this
and make it more of an explosion, we need to suit up.
So we gotta get our gear on. - I'm down.
Oh, okay. so this first.
- Lab coat first.
- Okay. - Okay.
- [Kelly] Here we go. - [Kate] Put this on.
Suit up.
- [Kelly] Okay.
- [Kate] The next one is the face shield.
- I already feel attractive, Kate.
- [Jaren] It's gonna make an explosion, right?
- [Kate] Yeah, a little bit.
Mm-hmm. Over your ears.
- [Kelly] And these are noise canceling?
- [Kate] Noise canceling.
So you'll still be able to hear me.
- This hat thing is huge.
What do we do first?
- Next part, gloves.
- Oh, next gloves. Okay.
- Try to skip one part.
So we need our cryogenic gloves on, so we're good.
- [Kelly] Are you good?
- [Jaren] Oh yeah.
- [Kelly] I'm nailing it, Kate.
- I think we're ready now.
Okay, so the very first step
is we're gonna take an empty soda bottle
and I'm gonna fill it with liquid nitrogen.
So Carter, I need Carter.
Where are you?
Every scientist needs a Carter.
Come here. - Oh, okay.
- All right.
- Thank you.
So what we have here is a soda bottle
and we've kind of pre frozen it just a little bit
to speed this process along.
Here's our funnel.
- So what are you pouring in there?
- This is liquid nitrogen.
And so we're breathing in nitrogen molecules right now.
Our atmosphere is 98%, excuse me, 78% nitrogen.
And so what we're doing here
is just taking the liquid nitrogen and we're allowing it
to warm up to room temperature.
And when that happens, the liquid nitrogen
is gonna convert into gaseous nitrogen.
And we're gonna trap the gaseous molecules
inside the bottle.
And then we're gonna see
if we can make the bottle explode.
- Okay.
Oh God. I'm nervous.
Okay. Okay.
Don't try this at home, everybody.
- [Kate] Thank you.
That's very important.
Don't try this at home.
Okay, so what I'm gonna do is take this cap right here,
and I'm gonna seal it onto our soda bottle.
As soon as I seal that, we now have an active situation.
So we're on the clock, okay?
Once I seal it, I'm gonna throw it into this drum,
and then you two are gonna add ping-pong balls.
So bring in the ping pong balls, please.
- Oh, okay. - Oh yeah.
- [Kelly] Wait, so like how much time?
- [Kate] Not much time.
- [Kelly] Oh my God, - [Jared] You go first
and I'll go really quick.
- Yeah, you have basically five seconds to get that in,
then he has five seconds.
- Okay,
No, wait, wait!
- [Jared] Yeah, you go first, you go first.
- Okay, here we go.
- I'm sealing. I'm sealing.
And now we are on the clock.
Kelly go! Kelly go! - Okay, okay, okay.
- [Kate] Jaren go! Jaren go!
Nice, nice.
Now come on over here, come back.
And now we're just gonna wait.
And so what we're doing is we're allowing
the liquid nitrogen to kind of boil.
So it's going from the liquid state
and it's gonna go up into the gas state.
(drum explodes) (Kelly and Jared scream)
(audience cheers)
- I couldn't get the damn head gear off.
Oh my gosh.
I wanna see it again.
Can we see it in like slow mo?
(drum explodes) (Kelly and Jared scream)
Oh my God, that's like colorful awesomeness.
Is that me just screaming?
- That might've been me to be honest.
That might've been me.
- Oh my God.
I know, I almost tripped too.
That was incredible.
Thank you so...
Look at it
- That's what we blew up. - Freedom.
It yelled it. I heard it.
You just couldn't hear it over my squealing.
Thank you so much.
Science is so rad.
It's so cool.
I love that you incorporate it in everyday life too.
It's so awesome. - I try to.
Make it fun, right?
- Absolutely.
And we don't even realize it's happening
when it's happening.
Be sure to pick up Kate's new book,
"It's Elemental, The Hidden Chemistry in Everything"
wherever books are sold.