Dr. Joe Schwarcz - Dr. Joe and what you didn’t know

DR. JOE SCHWARCZ

Director McGill University Office for Science and Society

ECW PRESS

Copyright ECW Press, 2003

Published by ECW Press

2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 1E2

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any processelectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW press.

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Schwarcz, Joseph A.

Dr. Joe and what you didn't know: 177 fascinating questions and answers about the chemistry of everyday life / Joe Schwarcz.

Includes index. ISBN 1-55022-577-4 1. ChemistryPopular works. I. Title.

QD37.S374 2003 540 C2003-902203-X

Copy editor: Mary Williams

Cover design: Guylaine RgimbaldSolo Design

Cover illustration: Peter Till/Getty Images

Interior design and typesetting: Yolande Martel

Interior illustrations: Brian Gable

Author photo: Tony Laurinaitis

Production: Emma McKay

Printing: Transcontinental

This book is set in Stempel Garamond and Koch Antiqua.

The publication of Dr. Joe and What You Didn't Know has been generously supported by the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program.

Distribution

Canada: Jaguar Book Group, 100 Armstrong Avenue, Georgetown, Ontario L7G 5S4

United States: Independent Publishers Group, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610

Europe: Turnaround Publisher Services, Unit 3, Olympia Trading Estate, Coburg Road, Wood Green, London N2Z 6T2

Australia and New Zealand: Wakefield Press, 1 The Parade West (Box 2066),

Kent Town, South Australia 5071

Printed and Bound in Canada

ECW Press

ecwpress.com

What does being barefoot and pregnant on a cactus have to do with cherry ice cream? You probably think that's a pretty bizarre question. But there is method to the madness. For over two decades now, I've tried to answer the public's questions about everyday chemistry on the radio, I hope with some degree of success. Then, a few years ago, I had an idea. Why not spice things up by turning the situation around and asking my audience questions?

Everybody seems to like quiz shows, especially when there are prizes at stake, so I took to beginning each program with a question, offering a prize for the first right answer. We're talking local radio here, not national TV, so the prizes were modest, but we did manage to come up with some books, gift certificates, restaurant meals, and highly coveted Dr. Joe t-shirts. A new adventure was in the offing! I started off with some pretty straightforward questions like, Why does ouzo turn white when you add water to it?; and, What is emu oil?; and, Why does lemon juice lighten the color of tea? All good questions, I thought, and somewhat challenging.

Indeed, for the first few weeks, callers struggled to answer my questions; then suddenly it seemed as though they had taken smart pills. They started providing the correct answers with impressive frequency. It didn't take long for me to figure out what was going on. I wasn't testing the audience anymore, I was posing my questions to Google. And Google, as we know, is pretty smart. As soon as a question passed my lips, those little fingers hit the keyboard. I tried instituting an honor code, requesting that respondents not run to their computers. Yeah, sure.

Obviously, another approach was needed. I attempted to phrase the questions in ways that would confound the search engines. Like, What is the connection between tangerine trees, marmalade skies, and morning glory?; or, What is the link between Frankenstein and frog legs? This approach seemed to work, and that's why you'll find a number of unusual-sounding questions in this little volume, which is a collection of the questions I've posed on my radio show over the years. Of course, you'll also find the answers at least, my version of them.

The questions come from a number of fields, but all have some interesting scientific connection. There is no specific order to the questions, no systematic attempt to educate. What I've tried to do is demonstrate science's broad scope and show how scientific pursuit links to so many areas of our culture. So, come along for the ride, poke around, read a little here, a little there, pick up some bits of knowledge to fling around the dinner table, and have some fun doing it. And if you want to know what being barefoot and pregnant on a cactus has to do with cherry ice cream, just turn the page.