Dr. Joe Schwarcz - Thats the Way the Cookie Crumbles: 62 All-New Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of Everyday Life

Funny thing, memory. Save for some vague recollections of pulleys, pumps, inclined planes, and a cute redheaded girl, my grade-nine science class is mostly a mental blur. But one little episode that occurred way back then did manage to etch itself indelibly in my mind. I remember asking Mr. Labcoat a question, the nature of which I have long forgotten, and being surprised by his rather curious answer. Thats just the way the cookie crumbles, he blurted out. I didnt quite understand the reference to culinary chemistry, but I did understand that he had no ready answer and was unwilling to search for one.

These days, when I spend much of my day trying to answer peoples questions about science, that phrase uttered so many years ago often leaps to mind. There are two basic reasons for this. First, it is a great motivator to do the necessary research instead of offering up the easy, cookie answer. But it is also a constant reminder of the limitations of our scientific knowledge. Why do some people experience side effects from a medi-cation, while others do not? Why does cancer often seem to strike people who do everything right in terms of lifestyle and spare those who have a more cavalier attitude towards their health? Why do some people say that they sleep better with their feet pointed towards the magnetic North Pole? Why do they believe in such nonsense? We just dont know. Sometimes, I guess, its just the way the cookie crumbles.

Ive now been dealing with crumbling cookies, in a manner of speaking, for over twenty years. About two decades back, a couple of colleagues and I were approached to mount some sort of science display at the annual Man and His World exhibition, a descendant of Expo 67, the hugely successful Montreal worlds fair. One of the demonstrations we featured was making polyurethane foam. This involved mixing two reagents in a cup, and it resulted in a mountain of foam which, to the delight of young and old, quickly hardened into a mushroom-shaped blob. A really neat demo. We had a lot of fun with it until the proverbial fly fell into the ointment one Monday morning. I remember it well.

I picked up my newspaper and began to glance through it in the usual fashion. To my great surprise, the page 3 city column was all about our chemical escapades. It described how, in spite of the great public anxiety about urea-formaldehyde foam insulation, some chemists were brewing it up in front of a live audience and singing its praises. Well, that got me more than a little hot under the collar. True, there was concern at the time about urea-formaldehyde insulation, specifically about its potentially toxic formaldehyde content. But we were not dealing with urea-formaldehyde. We were demonstrating the properties of polyurethane, a distinctly different material. The only common feature was that these were both foams.

By nine oclock that morning, I had delivered a letter to the newspaper, along with a large egg formulated out of polyurethane, which I suggested the columnist hang around his neck for penance. After all, he had laid a large egg by not appreciating the difference between urea-formaldehyde and polyurethane. His misunderstanding, I went on to say, had undoubtedly created unnecessary concerns. Much to his credit, the columnist wrote a retraction, explaining that the real problem was his lack of scientific education, which had caused him to leap to inappropriate conclusions. I was satisfied and thought the issue closed. But then I got a call from a local radio station asking if I would like to comment on this controversy, which of course was really a noncontroversy. The people at the station must have liked the way I explained the matter, because a couple of weeks later they again asked me to go on the air and discuss some chemistry-related issue that had arisen. Soon, this evolved into a series of spots, eventually leading to a regular weekly phone-in show entitled The Right Chemistry, which continues to this day.

The radio program spawned requests to give public lectures and make television appearances, as well as invitations to write newspaper columns and books. In 1999, these efforts culminated in the establishment of the McGill University Office for Chemistry and Society. The goal of this unique venture is to increase the general publics understanding of, and appreciation for, science. Now expanded and renamed, the Office for Science and Society aims to provide accurate, unbiased scientific information on various issues of public concern and welcomes all kinds of queries about scientific matters, particularly as they pertain to daily life.

Interacting in this fashion with the public over so many years has been a fascinating, exciting, fulfilling, and sometimes frustrating experience. Above all, it has afforded insight into the publics fears, concerns, hopes, and dreams, both rational and irrational. Anyone involved in this business quickly realizes that there are numerous misconceptions about science out there that need to be addressed. It has also become painfully clear that whenever science cannot provide an adequate answer, charlatans rush in to fill the void. This volume like its predecessors, Radar, Hula Hoops, and Playful Pigs, and TheGenie in the Bottle aims to educate and entertain the reader with up-to-date, readily understandable commentaries designed not only to help develop a feel for the workings of science, but also to provide some of the background needed to separate sense from nonsense. And theres plenty of down-to-earth, practical scientific information here as well. Youll learn how to remove stains from clothes, how to lower your cholesterol with oats, how to make oobleck and youll discover why the cookie crumbles.

Copyright Joe Schwarcz, 2002

Published by ECW Press

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National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication data

Schwarcz, Joseph A.

Thats the way the cookie crumbles: 62 all-new commentaries

on the fascinating chemistry of everyday life / Joe Schwarcz.

ISBN 978-1-55022-520-4

QD37.S383 2002 540

Cover design: Guylaine Regimbald Solo Design

Copy editor: Mary Williams

Production: Emma McKay

Interior design: Yolande Martel

Interior cartoons: Brian Gable

Author photo: Tony Laurinaitis

The publication of Thats the Way the Cookie Crumbles has been generously supported by the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program.

Dr. Joe Schwarcz

Director
McGill University Office for Science and Society