The Misery (Laugh) Index

     Slapstick comedy has been around for ages. The ancient Greeks were familiar with it. The Marx Brothers made a living off of it in the early 1900s. That transcended across mediums into cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes, and became its own sub-genre of movies with hits such as Hot Shots, Airplane, Scary Movie, and Dumb and Dumber. and it's a genre that's still seen today with shows like Impractical Jokers, Jackass, and Ridiculousness; but it's more than movies. Physical comedy has been one of the largest sources of comedy for ages. Have you ever seen a friend fall down, trip over something, or get smacked in the face or groin, and you laugh? Of course you have. Where you ever in college and you watched your drunk jump off the roof onto the pong table and break his arm - and then you laughed about it? Of course you did. Your friend experienced physical pain, and you laughed at their expense; but it wasn't on purpose, it's one of those things that just seemed to happen. Why do we do this? What's the science?

     According to Stanford University professor William Fry, "play frame" is when real life events in a non serious context prompts phycological reactions. Seeing someone fall to the their death of course is not funny to most, if not all people, but witnessing someone fall onto the sidewalk is. The non-serious nature makes it comedic. Injury is not comedic, but embarrassment is. And there is also incongruity, which is the relation between the "punchline" and the "body" of the joke. Falls, trips, and running into things are incongruent because they are not expected. Steve Ellen, the director of Melbourne's Psychosocial Oncology Program, proposes that nervous laughter is a psychological response to anxiety and tension. Jordan Raine, a PhD researcher into "Human Non-Verbal Vocalizations" at the University of Sussex agrees. They say laughing as a way to diffuse tension and as a coping mechanism when faced with traumatic experiences. According to Medical Daily, many neurologists that mirror neurons fire inside the brain, mirroring the neurons of the person performing the action (falling, tripping, being hit, etc), making us feel as we're the ones experiencing it, therefore making us laugh. It's also suggested that the further away we are from publicly humiliating situations, the more likely we are to laugh out loud. Psychologist Peter McGraw at the University of Colorado suggests that seeing others getting hurt is funny when the viewer doesn't feel empathy for the victim. We can't personally resonate with the guys on Jackass and we're not there live to witness it, so when they ride a shopping cart down a ramp and smash into the ground - and considering the fact that they're choosing to do this - we're distanced enough that laughing at them feels natural.

     As much as you may not want to laugh at others pain, it is an actual medical condition. Pseudobulbar affect (PBA) is a medical condition when a person has uncontrollable and inappropriate episodes of laughing and crying. Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS) is another disorder that can trigger inappropriate laughter episodes. People with PBA experience normal emotions, but they can be expressed in an dramatic or inappropriate way. With PBA, laughter can turn to tears. Joker in the movie Joker (2019) a (Hollywood) version of PBA. PBA can be caused by head injuries, PANDAS, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, ALS, and Alzheimer's.

     While pseudobulbar affect can come off as severe, if you laugh because someone runs into a lamp pole, don't worry, that's just a natural human effect. While seeing someone slip and fall on a patch of black ice in the moment may shock you initially, it's the the embarrassment after they get up and dust it off that gives your brain a green light. As humans, physicality is important to us, and since we're so complex, situations just aren't going to illicit the same emotional response in every similar situation. So next time your friend breaks their face, but doesn't really break their face, it's okay to laugh. Make sure they're okay of course...but bask in the moment.

*ABC News, Medical Daily, Scientific American, New Statesman, Mayo Clinic, Vice

The Real World: Tuna

It may not come off as the sexist fish, but tuna is in high demand. According to the National Fisheries Institute, canned tuna is the second most popular seafood item in the United States after shrimp and represents over 1/3 of the total seafood segment. The United States, European Union, and Japan consume 88 percent of the worlds tuna. Nearly half of American households eat canned tuna at least once a month, and tuna is a big lunch food. Tuna can be used in salads, sushi, pasta, sandwiches, wraps, and so much more; it's a versatile fish, but when you buy tuna, are you truly getting it?

     According to Huff Post, a study by Oceana found that 21 percent of market and grocery tuna was mislabeled. According to Oceana, this is a rampant problem that plagues the seafood industry, with tuna being the second most mislabeled fish. So if it's not tuna, what is it? Likely: escolar.

     Escolar is nothing like tuna. It's an inferior quality fish (and it's uglier too). In their study, Oceana found that 84 percent of white tuna samples that they tested were actually escolar. "White tuna" should raise a red flag, considering there is no such fish as white tuna. Albacore is the lightest tuna, while Yellowfin, Ahi, and Bluefin are the darker types. And according to Oceana, the biggest offenders are sushi restaurants. 74 percent of samples tested were fakers.

     So what's the big deal? Is there really one? Well, if you ordered or purchased tuna, isn't that what you want to get? Not only is it misleading, but escolar is a pretty poor replacement. So poor, it has been banned in Japan since 1977 and is banned in Italy. In the European Union, escolar has to be sold with health warnings. The FDA had a bulletin in the '90s advising against selling escolar, but I presume someone lobbied that in Washington because it was taken down. While escolar does have a fine taste thanks to its fats, its fats comes from wax esters, which humans can't digest. Consuming too much escolar can cause diarrhea and...anal leakage. Its a swimming laxative.

     So how can you spot escolar vs tuna? One big way is price. If the price is too good to be true, it is. When it comes to color, escolar is milky white. And if you get fish from a fish market, make sure the fishmonger can tell you where it came from. According to Mother Jones, escolar has gone through rebrandings, now being labeled as "white tuna", "butterfish", "hawaiian walu", and "rudderfish." This picture gives a great visual. If you do get an escolar craving and have to satisfy your fix, start with portions under six ounces and go for meat closer to the tail. Freezing it and cooking it various ways does not make much a difference according to a report on escolar from Nick Ruello.

     While escolar has been shown to be a faker, one thing that is not fake in tuna is mercury. Mercury is a naturally occurring element. Burning coal and erupting volcanoes emit it. Mercury in the atmosphere eventually ends up in the oceans and lakes, where it builds up in marine life. Tuna contains more mercury than oysters, salmon, scallops, and tilapia. Tuna feed more on smaller, contaminated fish. And since it can't be excreted easily, it builds in tuna tissues over time, the same way fat builds up in our bodies. Light tuna contains the lesser amounts of mercury, while bigeye tuna contains the most. Albacore and yellowfish fall in the middle with 0.350 to 0.358 ppm. High exposure to mercury can lead to brain cell death, depression, heart disease, and impaired motor skills. 

   So should you cut tuna out? Honestly, no. While mercury is a concern, tuna is packed with vitamins, healthy fats, and protein. Like most foods, moderating it in your diet is better. 2 to 3 times a week is all you need to get a healthy amount of omega 3's. Healthline breaks it down the best.

     The mislabeling problem is not exclusive to tuna. Always research your food and make sure it comes from where you expect it, and the product is what you wanted to get. Escolar tried it, but it'll never replace tuna. And canned tuna has done a great job of avoiding the escolar problem. Your Starkist tuna salads are safe.

sources: National Fisheries Institute, Oceana, Huff Post, Mother Jones, Healthline

Vanilla Impossible

Vanilla, like it's flavor, has a rich history. Not just in food, but in medicines, perfumes, candles, industrial applications, and so on; vanilla is multi-purpose. Vanilla has become a top tier flavor that is known by all and loved by most. Vanilla is so common, it's often times mistaken as the "plain" flavor in food products (being white also doesn't help). Vanilla ice cream, cookies, yogurt, pudding, cupcakes, crackers, coffee creamer, soda, the list goes on and on. An estimated 18,000 products contain vanilla flavor, yet as widespread as that may seem, vanilla is not that easy to find, nor is it cheap to produce. According to Huffpost, the average price for a kilogram of vanilla is $350-500, with a peak of $600 in 2017; the price constantly fluctuating (prices being higher lately thanks to hurricanes). Things haven't changed as vanilla is still staggeringly expensive - the second most expensive spice after saffron according to Huffpost - even though Americans consume 638 million beans a year. The reason vanilla is so expensive is because it is hard to grow. When many people think of growing fruits, vegetables, and flavors, they think of just throwing a seed into the ground and watering it. Vanilla beans are actually pollinated by hand. Hand pollination is not an easy craft and growing operations are small. Vanilla can only grow 10 to 20 degrees away from the equator, and 80% of today's natural vanilla hails from farms in Madagascar. It takes 600 hand-pollinated vanilla blossoms to produce 1 kilogram of vanilla beans. One pound of processed vanilla takes five to seven pounds of vanilla beans.

     Vanilla can be traced back to Mexico, which made its way across the world as colonization and conquests took place starting in the 1500's. In 1841, a 12 year old slave on the French island of Reunion named Edmond Albius developed the method of pollinating vanilla flowers by hand with a stick: a method that is still done today. 

       Because cultivating vanilla is such a task, and an expensive one at that, the vanilla that you know and love is highly unlikely actual vanilla, but rather vanilla flavoring made through chemistry. According to The Conversation, less than 1% of vanilla flavor is from actual vanilla beans. According to The Conversation, vanillin was developed in the 19th century, around 1858. Vanillin is the flavor compound that gives vanilla its smell that we know and love, and scientists were about to pull it out of "lignin" and "eugenol." 85% of vanilla today comes from "guaiacol", which in chemistry is also known as C6H4(OH)(OCH3). Vanilla is one of up to 250 chemical compounds that make up vanilla flavoring, according to Smithsonian. Water and ethanol are added to make vanilla extract. This chemistry and the fact that a little vanilla/vanilla goes a long way is why extracted vanilla is brown, but vanilla-flavored products are typically white and d on't change the color of other typical ingrediants such as milk and sugar. If your vanilla ice cream was brown, it would cost hundreds of dollars, and the overpowering flavor and taste would make you pass out, honestly.
     Brands today have joined the "natural foods" wave, but at a cost. Artificial ingredients and flavors in foods have been dropping this decade from fast food to grocery brands, with consumer support - mostly. The problem with vanilla is that it's just not as easy to switch as other flavors. According to Scientific American, Nestle was the one of the first major companies to announce an artificial overhaul in 2015 when it came to flavorings. Nestle announced that they would stop putting vanillin in their chocolate to contrast with the cocoa. This put the pressure on other brands and their products. And often strawberry, chocolate, coconut, and caramel flavors rely on vanilla as well to create a holistic flavor experience. Vanilla is a big part of what makes Nestle's chocolate "Nestle." 

     Even if food brands decide to rely less on synthetic vanillin, that doesn't mean completely natural beans are going to benefit from the switch. According to Scientific American, Solvay makes "natural" vanillin by fermenting yeast with ferulic acid, which comes from rice bran oil. So, still not beans. Eugenol is also used, but it's an industrial process, and it's not a cheap. Even petroleum can play a role. GMO vanillin has also been created by Evolva, but it has not yet been embraced by the FDA, food companies, or the public.
     The good thing is that because of the chemistry, it's become hard to really tell the difference between actual vanilla and vanilla flavoring - many actually preferring the latter. And vanillin is safe to consume. Again, it makes up 99% of what we know as vanilla. No other spice or flavoring can lay the crazy claims that vanilla does. So next time you crack open the vanilla ice cream or get a sugar high off vanilla icing on vanilla cupcakes, remember it's actually science that's made it possible and made it cheap.


*sources: The Conversation, Smithsonian, Science Meets Food, Fortune, Food Business News, NPR, Scientific American, Business Insider, Rodelle Kitchen, picture from Fine Cooking

The Truth of Juice

   

     The juice is loose. I'm not talking about OJ, but rather OJ. That OJ, yes the drinking one: orange juice. Orange juice, apple juice, grape juice, cranberry juice, papaya juice - there is a huge market for fruit juice. And now you can even get fusions such as "cran-apple", "cran-grape", "crango", and if that isn't enough - "orange-apple-pineapple", all in one bottle. Fruit juices are in a class of their own when it comes to commercial drinks such as water, sports drinks, and sodas, but are fruit juices really what they appear to be in the grocery store?

     How is orange juice really made? You shouldn't be surprised that the process involves more than just squeezing oranges. Most commercial orange juices are made by yes, squeezing juice out of the orange, but typically that juice is then stored and oxygen is removed. This process affects the juice flavor, which means artificial flavor packs have to be added. Flavor packs are packs of chemicals that have been engineered to replicate flavor. They are not listed on the ingredients label because they are derived from orange essence. These flavor packs are what makes Minute Maid, Tropicana, Simply Orange, and so on all have unique tastes. Companies such as Calvin Klein and Dior even supply these fragrant flavor packs. Ethyl butyrate is a chemical commonly found in the flavor packs of American orange juices. That is not exactly what you'd call, "freshly squeezed."
     The biggest argument presented against commercial juices is the added sugar content. According to Food Renegade, it takes 6-8 apples to make one cup of apple juice. Drinking one cup of apple juice is much easier (and in my opinion, more delicious) than eating 6 apples in a sitting. Yet that deliciousness of the juice make it easy to over-consume and load up on sugar. Healthline argues that the small amount of antioxidants and vitamins in juice doesn't make up for the sugar content. A 12 ounce Coca Cola contains 40 grams of sugar, while 12 ounces of apple juice contain up to 39 grams.  Another issue with fruit juices is that they lack the fiber that real fruits don't. Liquid calories are dangerous. I often catch myself consuming glasses upon glasses of juice without thinking about how much sugar that really is. Juices easily fly under the radar and the calories go unnoticed.

     Many consumers have lately caught on to the potential juice fraud. Naked, a popular juice brand has been under fire this decade for its ingredients. In 2013, Pepsi had to pay $9 million in a class-action lawsuit after it was found that the "all-natural" marketed (and not really naked) juices weren't that "natural." Zinc oxide, calcium pantothenate - a product of formaldehyde, and GMOs were found in Naked juices. That lawsuit was not the first for Naked. Trader Joe's, a fan favorite, has also been involved in lawsuits for "deceptive labeling."
     According to Today and the Food Institute, juice consumption is going down. Even Jamba Juice has decided to ax "Juice" from their name. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that the average American consumed 5.2 gallons of juice in 2017, the lowest number in at least 49 years. Recent consumer reports have not helped matters either. One report found levels of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic in fruit juices that could pose health risks. Consumer Reports tested 45 popular fruit juices and found "elevated levels" in almost half. This is a concern, considering 74% of parents surveyed give their children 3 and younger juice at least once a day. The report also found grape juice to have the highest average level of heavy metals, 5 of the products with elevated levels were juice boxes, organic juices did not have lower levels than conventional ones, and every product tested had measurable levels of at least one of cadmium, arsenic, lead, or mercury. Check out the entire interactive report here.
     According to Today, 2013 was the first time in 43 years that Americans consumed more fresh fruit than we did sweeteners. Grapefruit consumption has torpedoed from 9 pounds a year in the 1980s to 1.9 pounds in 2017. Grapefruit juice consumption has plummeted 89% from 1968 to 2017. Orange juice has not been hit only in the United States, but rather the world, dropping 21% worldwide in 15 years - falling another 4% from 2016 to 2017. Every major juice type has been in decline since 2013.
     Does this all mean you should forever stay away from Minute Main, Tropicana, Motts, Ocean Spray, and company? Not necessarily. Even with the added chemicals, orange juice and other fruit juices are still generally safe to drink, otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to be sold. Yet if you want to be more health conscious, then you really want to watch how much of it you drink. It's ridiculously easy to load up on sugar through fruit juices, and you aren't going to get near the health benefits of eating actual fruit. There is also the concern of heavy metals in juices, but avoiding them completely is impossible as they're also found in soil and air. There are definitely more natural options for juice lovers. Smoothies are delicious and a great alternative for juice, but be careful when buying commercial smoothies as they can also be loaded with sugar. Making your own juice at home can be easy, fun, and will most assuredly be healthier.
     Fruit juices may be going though a tough time, but apple juice will always be #1 with me. Drink your juice, but drink in moderation, watch sugar content, buy from trusted brands, and always consider alternatives.

*Food Renegade, Huffington Post, Washingtonian, Today, Healthline, Consumer Reports, Citrus Industry, McKeany Flavell

Ketching Up

      Ketchup is an American icon. Ketchup is so versatile, being put on and/or dipped into with fries, hamburgers, chicken tenders, hot dogs, meatloaf, onion rings, baked beans and 93 other things. Ketchup is a potato chip flavor now. And these days you can find sriracha ketchup, curry ketchup, bacon ketchup, mango ketchup, Whataburger's delicious spicy ketchup, and if you had the privilege of being a 90's kid, back in the day you could find ketchup in blue, green, and purple. Ketchup is great at making food taste better. Up until recently, I hated tomatoes, but ketchup has always been my #1 condiment. According to Mobile Cuisine, 97% of Americans have ketchup in their kitchen, and June 5th is National Ketchup Day. Heinz alone sells over 650 million bottles a year. While ketchup is considered a pinnacle of American diets, it actually is not American, nor did ketchup originally come from tomatoes.

     As early as 300 BC, texts documented using soybeans, fish entrails, and meat to create an early ketchup-ish concoction. According to National Geographic, the word "ketchup" comes from the Chinese word "ke-tsiap", which is the name of a sauce that was made from - fermented fish organs, coming from Vietnam in the 1600's. Yes, ketchup did not come from America or tomatoes, it came from jarred Southeast Asian fish bladder. The British, of course, encountered this fish sauce while in Southeast Asia and began to try to replicate it in the 17th and 18th centuries. Those early British ketchups used everything but tomatoes; mushrooms, anchovies, oysters, and even walnuts. The British had already been introduced to tomatoes thanks to South America, but many in England saw them as poisonous. Around 1801 is when the first tomato ketchup recipe was published. This recipe contained brandy and spices, but still no sugar or vinegar. Ketchup evolved over the next few decades with Jonas Yerkes being the first to begin selling bottles of tomato ketchup in 1837.

     With ketchup connoisseurs not knowing how to properly store ketchup early on, plus public health concerns over additives led to the ketchup movement almost failing. One boujee, but right cookbook author in 1866 called commercial ketchup "filthy, decomposed, and putrid." Because of all the additives and chemicals, ketchup was even lethal.  The tomato growing season was short, meaning ketchup could only be made for a few months of the year, but because of supply and demand, ketchup needed to be able to be preserved year long. In an era before regulation, this often resulted in commercial ketchup being spoiled with bacteria, mold, and spores. And in an era before modern medicine, this often meant a lot of sick people as a result. "Death by ketchup" doesn't sound as great as you would think it would sound. 

     In came Henry J Heinz in 1876 who figured that using fresh ripe tomatoes, natural preservatives, and more vinegar was key; no more chemicals and tighter preservation methods. By the 1900's, commercial ketchup began to take over America. 1906 also saw the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act, which in turn made ketchup less deadly. Before then, ketchup was found more in cookbooks than commercially. 

     Not only has ketchup served as America's condiment, at one point it was seen as medicine. In 1834, a physician from Ohio named Dr. John Cook Bennett declared that tomatoes could be used to treat indigestion and diarrhea. Dr. Bennett published tomato ketchup recipes, which were turned into pills.

     Ketchup has had a colorful history and it goes to show how food can amazingly evolve over time. Early ketchup was salty and bitter, but now it's sweet and savory. From fish stomachs left in the sun to tomatoes and vinegar, ketchup has came a long way to accompanying our chicken nuggets.

     Also a side, the "57 varieties" in Heinz means nothing. The "5" was Heinz' lucky number and the "7" was his wife's. When Heinz decided to put that on bottles, his company was already producing over 60 products anyway. Also, if you happen to be in the Collinsville, Illinois area anytime soon, be sure to pull over and get an Instagram selfie with the World's Largest Catsup (Ketchup) Bottle.

     

*Maxim, National Geographic, History, Mobile Cuisine, Smithsonian, The Spruce Eats, Fast Company

Clear Purple Sky

   

     Ever taken a look at the sky during the day? Notice how it's blue? Good, so you're not crazy, but you are seeing things. While we have always perceived the daytime sky as "blue", according to scientists, the sky is actually in fact "purple." It's the ingenuity of the human eye and brain that makes us think and see otherwise.

     As you already know, we receive our light from the Sun. While light appears "white", it is actually made up of a spectrum of colors. When that light is bent, those colors can be seen. This is why our sky appears blue and not red, yellow, or green. The light from the Sun is bent by molecules in our atmosphere, which causes the light to scatter. This is called Rayleigh scattering and it is more prominent with the blue/violet end of thespectrum. The fact that we even have a daytime and a colored sky is because Earth has an atmosphere. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is completely dark because there is no atmosphere to bend and scatter light.v  Red light contains longer wavelengths while blue and violet light are shorter. Shorter wavelengths are scattered more, so during the day, the blue wins. Sunsets and sunrises appear red because the Sun is magnified being so close to the horizon, which means the waves of red light win. This picture from Live Science simply explains it.

     So since the shorter the wavelength means the more scattered the light, wouldn't purple win out over blue? Correct, and is does; the sky is purple, but the reason we don't see it that way is simply the structure of our eyes. According to Forbes and the Rochester Institute of Technology, our eyes contain rods and cones which allow us to process light and color. The cones in our eyes are most sensitive to short, medium, and long wavelengths, which is the same as saying blue, green, and red. 

     Our blue-sensitive cones would be stimulated the most by blue light, but the green and red cones experience a little stimulation as well. If the sky truly was blue, then to our eyes it would appear as greenish-blue. While violet is the most scattered color in the sky, our eyes are not as sensitive to violet as they are blue. Yet our red cones are actually more sensitive to violent than blue, so if red cones dominated our eyes, violet with a tinge of red is what we'd. When all 3 types of colors are combined: the reddish tinge of violent, the bluish green tinge, and blue and violent, it all equals a pale blue sky that we have come to know and love. This all also means that animals perceive colors differently as well since the types of rods and cones vary among animals. 

     Don't freak out now and think that you have been lied to all your life. The sky may in reality be purple, but it's likely not as deep of a purple that you would imagine. Most ultraviolet light is blocked by the atmosphere, and the Sun lets off less violet light than the other colors. Still, it's a fascinating phenomenon, and it's also not unique Earth. 

     

*picture from BBC, links from Forbes, Rochester Institute of Technology, Live Science, HyperPhysics

Blue's Clue

It's cool to be blue. According to Digital Trends, Instagram posts that contain majority blue objects or backgrounds get 24 percent more likes than any other color. Blue is a fascinating color that has played a role in science, religion, fashion, art, history, music, politics, culture, marketing, and even pants. Blue is seen as the color of comfort, harmony, and confidence. Blue is also seen as the color of sadness, masculinity, intelligence, concentration , mourning, and coldness. Blue is the world's favorite color (and mine), winning 23 to 33 percent of the vote. There's many reasons why blue is a miraculous color that's not the same as the others.

     Color comes from the electromagnetic spectrum and from natural resources. Visible light, which contains the rainbow, is the only wavelength that humans can see. While the spectrum is how we see blue, pigments and dyes from flowers, rocks, and the roster of the periodic table is how we make it. Blue also gets free advertising from the sky and oceans. In reality, the sky is purple, but because of "Rayleigh scattering" and our brains, it appears blue to our eyes.

     According to AC Lens, an estimated 8 percent of the world's population has blue eyes. Blue eyes are frequently found in people with northern European ancestry. Many scientists believe that blue eyes formed from a genetic mutation that affected the "OCA2" gene, which is involved in melanin production and eye, skin, and hair pigmentation. Blue eyes also aren't really blue - they appear blue because of the Tyndall effect, which is similar to Rayleigh scattering. The iris is the colored part of the eye, which is made up of two layers: the stroma and the epithelium. The epithelium contains black-brown pigment while the stroma is colorless collagen. People with blue eyes lack melanin in their stroma, which means that light is not absorbed in the iris. Instead, light is scattered, and like the sky, it's blue wavelengths that win. So there you have it, blue eyes aren't technically blue at all, who knew? "Atmospheric perspective" is another similar concept which explains why mountains in the distance appear blue. 

     Blue animals are rare. How many true blue animals can you name? There's blue jays, dart frogs, butterflies, crabs, peacocks, jellyfish, and Dory, but then it starts to get hard. According to Mother Nature Network, while plants can produce blue pigments due to anthocyanins, most animals cannot make blue pigment. Animals that do appear blue, such as the blue jay, is typically the result of structural effects such as reflection and iridescence (why bubbles appear multiple colors). The Bangor Daily News agrees: cardinals are red in the sense that their feathers really contain red pigment - carotenoids (which is also why carrots are orange). Yet blue jays are blue because of structures in their feathers that filters certain light, not because their feathers have blue pigment.

     Blue pigment is also a hard color to find in food and coloring. Strawberries and cherries give off red. Peaches, bananas, lemons, and pineapples are yellow. Leafy greens, limes, and broccoli squeeze out green. Blueberries? While the berry may be blue, the juice is not. 23 years after introducing blue M&M's, Mars Foods is still trying to find a suitable natural blue dye for them. There is a search for one for Trix cereal too. In 2009, a grad student at Oregon State University accidentally discovered a new kind of blue pigment in the lab after mixing and heating chemicals, the first discovery in 200 years. Crayola has now introduced that new blue to their famous 24 pack, kicking out dandelion yellow.

     One crazy thing that makes blue unique is that it is believed that it didn't "exist" to most people until modern times. As stated, blue is rarely found in nature, and even the sky isn't really "blue." And if you have no idea of what "blue" is, then is it really blue? Matter of fact, the mention of blue in language hasn't been found in texts older than 4,500 years old. In "The Odyssey", Homer describes the ocean (?) as "wine-dark." In 1858, William Gladstone analyzed "Odyssey" and found oddities such as honey being described as "green" and sheep as "violet." The color black was mentioned near 200 times and white 100 times. Red was mentioned fewer than 15 and yellow and green fewer than 10. Yet, no mention of blue. The word "blue" didn't really exist, which isn't that crazy considering how rare blue is in nature.

     A philologist (studies languages) named Lazarus Geiger studied other cultural texts, such as Chinese, Arabic, Icelandic, and Jewish, and blue as we know it was not mentioned. Other than the Egyptians who had blue dye, blue was the last color to start to appear to be mentioned in cultures.

     According to Business Insider, a study was done with the Himba tribe in Namibia who have no word for blue and don't distinguish between green and blue. They were show 12 squares: one blue and eleven  green. None of the members of the tribe could immediately pick out the blue square, yet when shown 12 green squares, they could pick out the one that was subtly different than the rest. To put it another way, while we can differentiate between "true green" and "light green", the Himba tribe and many of our ancestors probably registered blue as just another shade of green instead of it's own color since they didn't know the concept of blue. Welsh, Japanese, and Chinese cultures also had words for the color "grue", but not blue itself. To everyone, it was just another shade of green. 

     Another study done by MIT in 2007 showed that native Russian speakers who don't have a word for blue, but yet do for "light blue" and "dark blue" can pick out shades of blue much faster than English speakers. So basically, even if your eyes can see millions of colors, the language you speak can determine how you recognize color.

     Blue may be just another wave on the length, but it's a special one, and not just because I'm bias. Don't take blue for granted. Those "blue eyes" you use to see "blue jays" zooming across that "blue" sky right before the "blue" moon could just as easy be one of the other ugly, not-blue colors.

*AC Lens, Live Science, NPR, WBUR, Science Alert, Wikipedia, You Gov, Mother Nature Network, Bangor Daily News, Business Insider, IFL Science, New Scientist, The Conversation, New York Times, Digital Trends

World War Bacon

   

     Bacon has been involved in a heavily contentious war for ages, and not just between carnivores and herbivores. The health community has been divided on whether bacon is a good, healthy food, inside and outside of breakfast. While the consensus used to lean towards bad, it seems the good side has had the stronger pull lately.

     Everyone is aware that bacon contains fat, but as we've learned, not all fats are created equal. The three main types of fat are saturated fat, unsaturated fat, and trans fat. Trans fat is man made fat and is considered the big no-no by everyone. Unsaturated fat can be found in nuts, seeds, and fish, and is universally agreed on being the fat that your body always needs. Saturated fat, typically found in meat, used to be considered the devil, but now it is becoming more agreed upon that natural saturated fat shouldn't be actively avoided, though you shouldn't consume it as heavily as you would unsaturated fat. As it turns out, bacon is full of unsaturated and saturated fat, but contains no trans fats. This acceptance of saturated fat has led to an acceptance of bacon. According to Healthline, 50% of the fat in bacon is monounsaturated or "good" fat, which is also found in olive oil. 10% is polyunsaturated, which is also considered healthy, and the remaining 40% is saturated fat. The cholesterol in bacon is also not seen as negatively today as it used to be.
     Nitrites and nitrates have been a concern, but according to Healthline, bacon contains less nitrosamine, a known carcinogen, than it did in the past. Vitamin C being added to bacon has also reduced the presence of nitrosamine, though it can still be dangerous in high quantities.

     Another issue typically raised with bacon is the sodium. Because most commercial bacon is cured to preserve the meat, a lot of salt is used. Yet just like fat, the evils of sodium aren't seen as strongly today as in the past. You shouldn't eat a bowl of salt for breakfast, but completely steering clear of it is not good for you either. Sodium helps the brain, muscles, heart, and skin, and it helps your body remove carbon dioxide. That said, too much sodium can cause high blood pressure, water retention, bone loss, and more. Uncured bacon is out there if you want to avoid the sodium as much as possible, though taste may vary.

   Typically not talked about by the anti-bacon coalition, bacon contains vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, phosphorous, and selenium. Iron, magnesium, zinc, and potassium can also be found in bacon. All are nutrients that your body needs. According to Bacon is Magic and Bacon Today, bacon also improves your mood, protects your heart, fuels your brain, and can even power your car. HealthWire claims that bacon can stop food cravings, provide you a low carb meal, and raise good cholesterol.
     While things are looking up for bacon, there are still some studies that say not so fast. One study claims bacon and other processed meats could be linked to a lower sperm count. Another study claims that factory farmed pigs are more likely to get you sick than free range, which is an issue considering many consumers don't take the time to compare brands. And a study from the University of Zurich believes bacon could still contribute to heart disease and cancer.
     Bacon also needs to be cooked to perfection, aka done. Overcooking bacon can form polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic amines or PAH's, which can increase cancer risk. Undercooking the bacon can expose you to pathogens, viruses, and foodborne illness. If you cook the meat fully, then you have nothing to worry about.
     If pork isn't your thing, but bacon still is, luckily bacon doesn't only have to come from pork. There are many alternatives to pork bacon, made from both meat and non-meat sources. Turkey bacon contains less fat than pork bacon, nor does it shrink. Conversely it doesn't have the same crunch or "bacony" taste. Lamb bacon comes from the belly like pork bacon, but the bacon strips are narrow and don't get too crispy. Duck bacon is very salty, but it's full of flavor, but it can also be tough as a carpet if it's overcooked. Pancetta is cured in salt, but it isn't smoked. Shiitake bacon and tempeh bacon are BINO's (bacon in name only). Made for vegetarians and vegans, shiitake bacon is made from shiitake mushrooms and roasted or fried. Tempeh bacon comes in strips, but it's not strips of meat. Tempeh is made from soybeans and the bacon is marinated in savory and sweet sauce. While you won't get that authentic bacon taste from these non-meats, I guess it's better than no bacon at all.
     While bacon is better than it was once believed to be, it's still a processed meat, so you still shouldn't order a big rig full of it to your house. Yet in moderation, bacon is a healthy treat and is much healthier than it looks when it's sizzling in a pool of fat. If you want to make brinner, go right ahead. If you want to journey to an all-bacon restaurant, sure, do it. Just...don't order bacon as the entree and the side.

    

*My Recipes, HealthWire, Healthline, Bacon Today, Bacon is Magic, Good Housekeeping, Prevention, Huffington Post, Eater, NCBI

Happy Feet

   

    Picture this: you're sitting somewhere, waiting for a train, a plane, a class to start, or the doctor to come poking into the waiting room. You put in some headphones to pass the time and play your favorite Spotify playlist. About 15 seconds go by and you notice you're already tapping your feet, humming loudly, and nodding your head. You don't want to draw attention so you stop. 20 seconds later you're back at it again. Why do we do this? Are Metro's beats really that good?

     Turns out that when you listen to music, quite a few things happen. Your heart rate increases, you feel desirable emotions, and multiple areas of the brain are stimulated. One study done at McGill University showed that listening to music can release dopamine, the chemical that is responsible for making you feel good. Dancing is believed to have evolved from rhythmic movement, such as tapping feet.

     According to a study posted in Science Daily, moving to music is a part of a human cognition called "motor theory of perception." According to the theory, when we listen to music, we have a habit of actively simulating the body movements that we believe went into making that sound. Researchers at the University of Oslo also determined that people make sense of what they hear by mentally simulating it to make sense of it.

     There's nothing wrong with being an incessant foot tapper. According to one study, fidgeting helps burn calories, up to 350 a day, and we hate those, right?

     So tapping feet is cool and all, but what's up with humming? Well it's believed that humming has evolved over time and used to be the "contact call" of humans, which is a way animals communicate. Humming is also believed to be a type of relaxer for humans, since sitting in complete silence can be uncomfortable and seen as a sign of danger. Like breathing and putting our fingers in our mouths, humming seems to be something we do unconsciously without much thought.
     An earworm, or "stuck song syndrome" is the habit of humming or moving to a song that you're no longer listening too. You can easily "catch" an earworm: after listening to your new favorite song, seeing the same annoying commercial, or watching the intro to your favorite 90s sitcom. Even seeing something that reminds you of the sound. Who hasn't hummed the Disney theme after popping in the Lion King VHS tape?
    No one knows what causes them, though it's believed that 98% of people experience them. One study found that lyrical songs may account for 73.7% of earworms, while instrumental music may only account for 7.7%. A piano piece, or Bruno Mars? Hmm. It's also believed that musicians and people with OCD suffer the most earworms. Earworms typically don't last more than 30 seconds and they're very forgettable. Humming is also believed to be contagious, just like yawning, and is also believed to have benefits on the body and mind.
     Tapping your feet and nodding your head is natural. Music influences us and moving to it is what we're supposed to do. If tapping your feet or nodding your head does annoy you though, well hey it's at least better than tinnitus.

*Fast Company, Washington Post, Science Daily, Psychology Today, Skyword, Scientific American, The Straight Dope, Quora, Rejuvenation Lounge, Joseph Jordania "Time to Fight and Times to Relax: Singing and Humming at the Beginnings of Human Evolutionary History."

Arguing over Peanuts

    

     Peanut butter is a world delicacy. According to the American Association of Agronomy, we spend over $800 million a year on it. The average American child has 1,500 PB&J's before high school graduation. January 24 is National Peanut Butter Day in the US. We take peanut butter so seriously that according to Atlas Obscura, Stuart Parnell, the former CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America, was sentenced to 28 years in prison after knowingly shipping salmonella-tainted peanut butter in 2009. According to Ad Age, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the most popular chocolate candy in America. Snickers, the world's #1 brand, contains peanuts as a main ingredient. FiveThirtyEight also ranked Reese's as the top Halloween candy. And I mean, come on, it makes sense. Chocolate and peanut butter is the world's best match up. Name a better one, I'll wait. You can even get peanut butter colored paint, and peanut butter interior in your car.

     As it turns out, for peanut butter to be considered "peanut butter" in the United States, it has to contain at least 90% peanuts. While that seems like common sense, it didn't always used to be that way.

     In 1959, the FDA revealed that items labeled as "peanut butter" only contained 75% or so peanuts. Consumers weren't happy about it and started referring to peanut butter as "peanut flavored face cream." Manufacturers were altering recipes to cut costs, such as hydrogenated oils being used instead of peanut oil and using alternative sugars. For the next 12 years, the FDA and the peanut butter industry fought back and forth over how much peanut is enough peanut.

     According to Atlas Obscura, the FDA wanted peanut butter to be 95% peanuts. Jif, Peter Pan, Skippy, and the rest of the brands said “no.” The FDA then said 90%, the PB industry said 87%. In 1964, both sides finally met to try to compromise in what was called the "Peanut Butter Hearings." A few years of peanut butter corporate legal jargon and 8,000 transcript pages later, the hearings ended in favor of the FDA. Regardless, peanut butter moves slow as it took 5 years until the 90% peanut rule became standard in 1971.

        Ruth Desmond was fundamental in the FDA landing the win. She was instrumental in getting changes implemented after the 1959 Cranberry Crisis that included cranberry sauce contaminated with weed killer. She eventually became known as "Peanut Butter Grandma" for her persistent fight.

    The FDA is now more into fighting for accurate labeling than fighting for accurate food. Regardless, what exactly is in our food has become a hot topic as consumers have became more educated about food health.

     From lies and misconceptions about the sugar content in cereal, to natural food being all-natural, to gluten-free always being a healthier alternative, the list goes on with instances of consumers being misled. While peanut butter being 90% peanut vs 87% peanut might seem like a silly difference to argue over, it's the principle about not letting consumers be purposefully misled, and in that case, the FDA made the right push, no matter how silly "Peanut Butter Hearings" sounds.

     If you're not a big peanut butter person, but still want to experience the peanut butter life, you can pick up some peanut spread instead, which is less than 90% peanuts.

     And a peanut butter international fun fact: in the Netherlands, peanut butter cannot be called "peanut butter", because by law, butter has to be actual butter. Instead, it's "peanut cheese." Not kidding.

*sources: Atlas Obscura, photo from Wonderopolis, American Association of Agronomy, Business Insider, FiveThirtyEight, Healthline, The Atlantic Online, Marketplace.

M&M-igma

     M&M's are America's second favorite chocolate. With milk chocolate, peanut, almond, and other delicious flavors, M&M's are a true assortment of delicious. Did you know though that M&M's have had a pretty colorful history? And much of it is due to science.

     M&M's were introduced in 1941 by Mars and became a hit with Army soldiers. After World War II, they were here to stay. The original colors of M&M's were brown, yellow, green, red, and purple. In 1949, purple M&M's vanished and were replaced by tan. Red M&M's disappeared in 1976 and were replaced by orange. The popular red didn't return until 1986. And in 1995, tan M&M's bowed goodbye as they were replaced by blue.

      The 1970's saw a surge of new public concerns over personal, common, and global health. The Environmental Protection Agency was formed in December 1970, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission formed in 1972. The Marine Mammal Protection Act ('72), Endangered Species Act ('73), Safe Water Drinking Act ('74), Clean Water Act ('77), and the Wilderness Act ('78) were all passed. Aerosols and lead-based paint were banned in 1978. Anti-smoking campaigns were full steam ahead. Red is a popular color and is commonly seen in food, so what was the big deal over red M&M's? Turns out it was all due to chemistry. In 1976, the FDA pulled red dye no.2 over carcinogen concerns, and Mars pulled red M&M's in response. 

     The dye was linked to cancer in a 1971 Russian study, and then after the FDA did their own study, decided to ban the dye in 1976. Turns out though, the red dye that was so controversial, actually wasn't used in M&M's, but to make consumers feel better and to quell any confusion, Mars pulled the red candies anyway. Orange replaced red, and then ten years later after the red dye panic had died down, Mars brought red back, but decided to keep orange along.

     There's a saying that "today's kids will never understand..." and it's true. As a 90's baby, I shake my head at all of the great things in my youth that today's youth will never get to experience, such as Windows XP, flip phones, green and blue ketchup, Game Boy's and Nintendo 64's, Disney movies on VHS tapes from Blockbuster, Lite Brites, and actually good cartoons on TV - and not watching them on 46'' flat screens either. Well that's how 70's and 80's kids feel about tan M&M's.

     Tan M&M's were dropped by Mars in 1995 after a contest was held to bring in a new color, which blue won by a large margin. Yet unlike orange and red, tan M&M's didn't get to stick around when blue arrived. It seemed redundant to have brown, tan, and orange all in the same bag. Plus blue is such a better color anyway. Well why keep tan all those decades, then just dump it? Well that's the world of marketing. Sometimes brands need a refresher, so contests are held to bring a new face. Here's an M&M commercial from 1995 where the end began.

     Organic chemistry is a real thing in the world of food. As Mars and other companies move to replace "artificial" colors with "natural" colors, more suitable ingredients have to be found. As it turns out, blue is not an easy color to find in the wild. A blueberry is actually more red than blue, for instance. Even General Mills ran into the same problem, as they have not yet been able to find suitable blues and greens for Trix, and now have been forced to bring them back. 

     Mars has looked into using spirulina algae to create natural blue, but they have hit roadblocks, from poor taste, poor coloring, and not enough spirulina. Other ingredients being considered to help make natural blue are red cabbage, berries, flowers, bacteria, fungi, sea sponges, and aged red wine. While blue dye has been a debacle and debate, some scientists think it should be given even more attention. In 2009, University of Rochester researchers claimed that blue dye in M&M's could possibly help cure spinal injuries, after running trials in rats. The only side effect was well, it temporarily turned the rats blue.

     Not only does changing colors take a visual adjustment, as with Trix, but getting consumers on board with new taste can be a challenge - even if there wasn't actually a change in taste. It has been shown that colors in food can make us think we taste things that aren't really there. One 1980 study showed that adding red coloring could make food taste 10 percent sweeter. In the same study, a drink was given red dye and some subjects claimed to taste cherry. They were given the same drink with green coloring, and there were claims of a lemon-lime taste. Our brains have evolved to appreciate colors, so even the slightest change to our blue M&M's could create displeasure among consumers.

     Making colorful candies takes more than just painting some rainbows on them. A lot of chemistry goes into M&M's and other candies, and there is a psychological science as well. "Sensory-specific satiety" is the scientific phenomenon that the more variety in flavors or colors in food, the more you're going to eat and the more appealing it looks. This is possibly a reason Mars decided to give tan the boot in favor a more eye-popping and visually pleasing blue, pink, or purple.

     While there may be a shortage of blue dye, and a complete shortage of tan M&M's, you won't ever have to worry about M&M's running out. The New Jersey factory makes 2 billion M&M's every 8 hours, or 69,000 every second, enough to fill every seat in the New England Patriot's football stadium. No wonder Tom Brady won't retire.

*NBC News, Live Science, Mental Floss, M&M commercials Youtube, Bustle, Washington Post, CNN, NJ.com, New England Patriots, Movieclips Youtube, New York Times

Lucky Strikes

     Recently it was revealed by the World Meteorological Association that the longest recorded lightning bolt to strike the world was half a mile short of 200 miles (322 km) long, occurring in Oklahoma. The June 20, 2007 bolt was so long, it spanned nearly three-fourths of Oklahoma - the 20th largest state by area. The organization also announced that the longest living strike ever recorded occurred in France on August 30, 2012, at 7.74 seconds long.

     Lightning is one of the most fascinating phenomenon in the Solar System, but what is it? It's an electrostatic discharge. The same stuff that zaps you when the carpet and your socks get too comfortable.
   First off, you need warm and cold air, which help form clouds. Water droplets, ice crystals, and graupel (soft hail) collide in the cloud, creating positively charged particles at the top of the cloud and negatively charge particles at the bottom. An electric current called a stepped leader finds a path through the particles and the process of a lightning strike begins. The average lightning flash is 0.2 seconds and is made up of several shorter strokes, which last less than a millisecond.
     70% of all lightning occurs in the tropics, and cloud-to-ground lighting, the most dramatic, is only about 25% of the lightning that occurs on Earth. 

     Lightning strikes the United States an average of 25 million times a year and the Democratic Republic of the Congo experiences the most strikes on Earth. Even the Empire State Building averages 23 strikes a year. An average of 49 people are killed in the United States every year by lightning. While the odds of getting struck by lightning in your lifetime is only 1 in 13,500 according to NOAA, you still shouldn't press your luck. Most people that are struck survive, but typically suffer permanent, life-long damage. Lightning may be cool to look at, but that's about all you want to do with it.
     Since lightning moves at the speed of light, which is too fast for our eyes and brain to process, the strikes that we see are actually the reflections of the initial stroke. We typically perceive lightning as blue-white, but in reality lightning can be blue, red, yellow, purple, green, etc. The color of lightning depends on what is in the air, such as water vapor, hail, dust, pollution, etc. Latitude, humidity, winds, elevation, and seasons can also effect lightning. Lightning strikes are also around 5 times hotter than the surface of the Sun at around 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
     You actually have a better chance of getting struck by lightning twice than winning the Powerball, and whoever told you that lightning can't strike twice lied to you. Not only can lightning strike twice - it usually does. Have you ever heard of Roy Sullivan? Probably not, but he holds the record for "the most amount of times to be struck by lighting" with seven. Yes, seven times over 35 years. Even his wife was struck once in his presence. Roy worked at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, so working around so many trees, which are lightning magnets (my neighbor's tree actually exploded from a strike), it makes sense. Still, the odds of getting struck seven times as he claimed? 4.15 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

     As stated earlier, lighting is not exclusive to Earth. Lightning has been observed on Mars, Jupiter,  Venus, and Saturn. Lightning does not exist on Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, because of its lack of a significant atmosphere. Scientists think they've even recorded lightning on exoplanet HAT-P-11b. In 2009, a lightning storm was observed on Saturn that had been going on for 9 months. And while it's very rare for lightning to strike the north and south poles of Earth, lightning has been clearly observed on Jupiter's. Lightning in the gas giants are believed to be hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than Earth's.

     Ever heard of sprites? No not the soda, but the lightning? Sprites are electrical discharges that happen high above thunderstorms. Sprites typically appear reddish-orange, not lemon-lime, and occur in clusters 30-60 miles (50-90 km) above Earth. Elves and blue jets can't be left out either. All three are different forms of upper-atmospheric lighting. Blue jets are shaped like a cone and project from the top of cumulonimbus clouds 25-30 miles (40-50 km) above the Earth. Blue jets weren't recorded until 1989 and they are considered rare as less than 100 were seen between then and 2007. Elves are typically dim and flat and last for a millisecond. They occur in the ionosphere 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth. So are auroras technically lightning? Actually no, auroras are caused by solar wind in the magnetosphere, but I agree they look just as cool. 

     Heat lightning is actual lighting, the only difference is it is too far away for you to hear. You've most likely seen heat lightning before, even if you don't recall. And while we typically associate lightning with thunderstorms, it can actually form from volcanic eruptions and snow as well.

     So remember, you may enjoy looking at lightning, but you don't want to go farther that. There are many myths out there about lightning, so study up and stay safe thanks to the NWS, How Stuff Works, and NBC News.

*Live Science, WNCN, Mental Floss, Space, Science News For Students, National Geographic, OSU Volcano World, Encyclopedia of atmospheric science, Wikipedia, Museum Victoria, NWS, NBC News, Hyperphysics, How Stuff Works, University of St. Andrews, Astrology Today, Mental Floss, Colour Lovers, CBS North Carolina, NASA, picture from Weather Underground Pinterest

Volcanoes 101

   

     Nothing on Earth has more awesome might than a volcano. Eruptive, hot, and violent, volcanoes have the ability and the power to shape, mold, create, and destroy our landscape, whether directly or indirectly. Volcanoes are typically mountains, hills, or bowls, but always include ruptures in Earth's crust that allows magma from the mantle to get through.

     Ever wonder why there are no volcanoes hanging around New York or London? It's all because of plate tectonics. Volcanoes are located on major diverging and converging fault lines, or at hot spots. Neither are anywhere near New York or London, or the entire eastern United States for that matter. They can be found in western Europe, but not near the UK.

     One way to think of volcanoes, although not a pretty way, is as a zit. The Earth's crust is like your skin, and a volcano is a zit. The same way you squeeze your zit to pop it, pressure from the heat squeezes magma under the crust until it becomes too much, and the volcano erupts. I know that wasn't a pretty analogy, but it works.
      We tend to think of volcanoes as cone-shaped mountains that spew lava, but there are actually a few different types. Cinder cone volcanoes are the most common type and are the smallest. Stratovolcanoes look like cones, but are much larger, rising up to 8,000 feet. Stratovolcanoes typically have the most violent eruptions. Shield volcanoes are gently sloping and are typically several miles in diameter. Calderas are bowl-shaped depressions. They do not look like your average volcano and typically form from previous catastrophic eruptions.

     Over 70 percent of the Earth is covered in ocean, yet we tend to forget what's under it. Volcanoes are not restricted to land; there are undersea volcanoes as well. Those undersea volcanoes are how Hawaii and many other sea islands were and are formed. Just last year a new island was formed in the South Pacific thanks to the eruption on an undersea volcano called Hunga Tonga.

     Volcanic eruptions have shaped our planet over time. Mount Vesuvius is a famous volcano in Italy that has erupted at least 30 times. Vesuvius buried the famous ancient city of Pompeii in 79 AD. Krakatoa erupted in 1883 in Indonesia with the power of 13,000 atomic bombs. Krakatoa's explosion is considered the loudest sound in history and was heard over 3,000 miles away on the African coast. Krakatoa's explosion was so powerful, it was suicide. The original volcano ended up sliding into the ocean. Mauna Loa, the worlds largest volcano, is a synonym for Hawaii. Mauna Loa is located in the middle of Hawaii's Big Island and is 13,700 feet high and last erupted in 1984. The city of Hilo, Hawaii is partly built on 19th century lava flows from Mauna Loa. Eyjafjallajokull is a volcano in Iceland that erupted in 2010 and cost the airline industry over $1 billion in interruptions. Mount Pelee in the Caribbean erupted in 1902 and miraculously killed 29,933 of the island's 29,937 residents.

     Mount Saint Helens is arguably the most famous volcano in the United States. Mount St Helens' last eruption was in 1980, so many Generation Xers and Baby Boomers likely remember it well. Geologists were aware that Mount Saint Helens would likely soon erupt, but they were not aware that it would be caused by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake, which created a landslide on the volcano, allowing built up pressure to escape and the volcano to erupt. The Mount Saint Helens eruption was so spectacular that the northern face of the mountain was blown off. Mount Saint Helens' elevation dropped from 9,677 feet to 8,363 feet. Mount Saint Helens also produced the worlds largest landslide.

     Other famous volcanoes include Mount Fuji, Mount Rainier, Mauna Kea, Mount Tambora, Cotopaxi, and Yellowstone.

     Yellowstone does not look like your average volcano. It is actually a caldera shaped supervolcano. Legend has it that a Yellowstone eruption could wipe out all life on Earth. It turns out that that is false, but that doesn't mean that an eruption wouldn't come with consequences. A Yellowstone eruption would be catastrophic for the world's health, agriculture, economy, and climate: Earth's average temperature could drop for a decade. Luckily, this is something we likely will not see in our lifetimes.

      And volcanoes are not restricted to Earth either. The largest volcano in the Solar System can actually be found on Mars: Olympus Mons. Olympus Mars is an estimated 72,000 feet high, or 13.6 miles, and is around the same size as Arizona.

      Volcanoes are interesting things. They can create lightning, trigger tsunamis, mudslides, and even earthquakes, and they have the ability to change our climate. Some volcanoes erupt every millions of years, while others have been continuously erupting. Every day there are an estimated 20 volcanoes erupting at once, with the majority happening under the ocean.

     If you're ever in Iceland and have $400 to spare, you can even join a tour and go inside a volcano. Now that's what you call hands on.

*TIME, Active Wild, Live Science, BBC News, Do Something, Universe Today, Wikipedia, Space, Extreme Iceland

Tears of the Sun

     

   

 The 20th century was arguably our most important. There were many new discoveries, innovations, and events such as World War II, that forever altered the course of history. When people think of the 20th century's mightiest inventions, people tend to think of color TV, the internet, commercial aviation, the Space Shuttle, traffic lights, or even the microwave. One invention that tends to get overlooked: the nuclear bomb. As sinister as they are, the amount of energy they could produce is baffling, and that's an understatement.

     Everyone is aware of the two bombs that were dropped on Japan in 1945, but many people don't realize that actually over 2,000 bombs were dropped or detonated in history. Just like cars, jet engines, and new Iphones, bombs had to be tested and tested and tested. While no nation used the bomb for war after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, tests still went on for another 50+ years. The US and the Soviet Union came very close to nuclear war a few times. So while the Japan bombings led to no more being dropped on populations at the time, countries, mainly the USA and USSR, the two superpowers, still had them in stock, ready to let loose if need be. That's why it was called the Cold War after all.

     The science of the bomb is what is truly remarkable. The nuclear bomb was invented before we had computers, or frisbees. Nuclear bombs worked through nuclear fission or fusion. With fission (atomic bomb), the nucleus of an atom split into two. Radioactive isotopes of uranium or plutonium (they just sound radioactive, don't they?) were used. Fusion (nuclear bomb) was the other method, where two atoms were brought together. Hydrogen or helium isotopes were used. A carefully timed chain reaction set off the fission or fusion process, which became incredibly hot - million of degrees actually, the same as the inside of the Sun - which in turn, well, blew up the bomb. Nuclear fusion is the same process that occurs in the Sun, or any star.

     The detonation of a nuclear bomb would create a fireball and a shock wave, which would travel hundreds of miles per hour. And then there was the problem with nuclear fallout, which would be carried with the wind. Bombs had different "yields" and interior different designs. Some worked via implosion, while others worked like a gun ('Merica!, right?).

     So why a mushroom cloud? Well there's actually science behind it, called the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, which is when is when two layers of different densities and/or matter react. This process creates the mushroom shape. When a nuclear bomb detonates, the hot air from the fireball and the cold air from the atmosphere meet. The heat from the explosion is so hot, it expands the surrounding air and it rises rapidly, which creates a vacuum. The cold air sinks, but with the vacuum, pushes the hot air inwards and the "stalk" is created. Eventually the surrounding atmosphere pushes the heat from the top sideways and back down. It cools as it sinks, but is sucked back into the hot center and rises and heats up again. This forms the "cap" shape. The rings that form are just condensation from the low pressure and the humid air. Mushroom clouds can form from volcanoes as well. As a side note: mushroom are gross, how do people eat them?

     Some of the most famous detonations in history were Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and the only bombs used in war, the Trinity test in 1945, which was the first ever, Operation Crossroads in 1946, which was the first underwater explosion, Ivy Mike in 1952, which was the first fusion bomb test, Castle Bravo in 1954, which was the largest test ever by the US at 15 megatons, and the Tsar Bomba test in 1961, which was by far, the largest ever nuclear test in the world. The oceans, remote islands, deserts (including the states of Nevada and New Mexico), and mountain ranges were all used as test sites.

     The most powerful bomb ever dropped was the 27-foot long Tsar Bomba. It was detonated in October 1961 by the Soviet Union in remote Siberia. Tsar Bomba was so powerful, it had to be scaled down by 50%, and was still the equivalent of all the explosives used in World War II...multiplied by ten! It was 57 megatons, measured as a moderate earthquake on the Richter scale, and cracked windows 560 miles (900 kilometers) away. The flash from the explosion could be seen from 600 miles away, the distance from New York City to Detroit. That's a 10 hour car ride, man.

     Tsar Bomba was so powerful that the crew that dropped it was nearly killed, even though the plane was 28 miles away when Bomba detonated. Matter of fact, Tsar Bomba needed a parachute, otherwise the crew surely would have perished.

     No one knew exactly what Tsar Bomba was going to do, but when it finally did it, it did it in a way that hasn't been rivaled. The shock wave was so strong, it traveled across the Earth not one, but three times. Total destruction would have occurred within a 15 mile radius and 3rd degree burns would have occurred 64 miles away. This is a picture of the mushroom cloud. That picture was taken 100 miles away and the cloud is 35 miles high. This illustration best shows just how big the Tsar Bomba was. If you want something a little more sinister, then here.

     One misconception about nuclear bombs is that they detonate after crashing with the ground, but most, if not all land-based bombs, were detonated in the sky. Tsar Bomba was detonated 2 miles above the ground and the Hiroshima bomb was 2,000 feet in the sky. In order for a nuclear bomb to detonate, specific steps had to occur inside the bomb to create a chain reaction. Bombs also had safety mechanisms and most were detonated remotely or by barometric sensors, not by crashing into the ground. Some bombs did detonate if they crashed, while others did not. 

     In 1961, a B52 bomber disintegrated shortly after take off in Goldsboro, North Carolina. The crew had two bombs and had to jettison both of them. One of the bombs floated gently into the swamp thanks to a parachute. The other bomb didn't. It landed in the swamp and was never fully found. An easement was placed around the swamp and the military said "leave it be." 

     To this day, the bomb is just lounging in the swamp in eastern North Carolina, likely encasted in mud and icky swamp stuff. Can it still detonate? Well, it can as it's still live, but it won't. The bomb has six safety mechanisms, and only five were activated during the fall. Had that six mechanism been activated, well, the Outer Banks definitely wouldn't be a hot vacation spot (and I likely wouldn't have been born as Goldsboro is where my dad was born, ironically). That's how close we played with fire, literally, as that wasn't the only accident. There are other "broken arrows", or accidental lost bombs in Greenland, Savannah, Georgia, the Atlantic, Pacific, and so on. The US DOD recognizes 32.

     So why? Why did we obsess over nuclear weapons, especially bombs, so much? Well the threat of war was the biggest reason, but we also wanted to test our scientific capabilities and show off our power to other countries. While the USA and USSR were bitter competitors during the space race and race for communism vs democracy, the nuclear race was no different. The USA could make very precise missiles, but the USSR could not. So they made devices like the Tsar Bomba to flex their muscles. The Tsar was four times bigger than anything America has ever detonated, and the USSR carried out 8 of the 12 most powerful tests. Luckily, we never destroyed ourselves, and treaties and legislation were signed on nuclear weapons. There's even a flag. While the destructive power of nuclear bombs are no laughing matter, they are true testimates to what man is capable of, and they helped show a contrasting side to how science can be used.

     So, I know you're dying to know - what would happen if you dropped a nuclear bomb into a volcano? Well, nothing, actually. I know, I know, what a rip off.

     Bonus fact: nuclear weapons release X-rays, and one cameraman once used his hands to shield his eyes after a detonation, and he could actually see his bones through his eyelids. I know, I know, what a rip off.

     

*Sources: Campaign for Nuclear Disarment, Restoration Systems, Quora, Atomic Heritage Foundation, SciShow, Gizmodo, Popular Mechanics, IFL Science, Restricted Data