Reactions

You're probably craving ice cream to cool you down this summer. Reactions looks at the chemistry involved in making the treat creamy and sweet. Turns out the creaminess of ice cream has little to do with cream. It's all about the ice crystals. The smaller the crystals, the creamier the treat. We make ice cream three different ways with American University Assistant Professor Matt Hartings, and taste the difference.

Garlic is good for your body, great for your taste buds, but terrible for your breath. This episode looks at the plant beloved by chefs and feared by vampires. Once again we teamed up with the Compound Interest blog to break down the chemistry of garlic, and how to beat the bad breath it causes. There are four main volatile organic compounds that contribute to garlic breath. None of them are actually present until garlic is crushed or chopped. These compounds also contain sulfur, which can penetrate bacteria cell membranes, making garlic an antibacterial assassin.

Thomas Edison is hands-down one of the greatest inventors in history. He also had a love of chemistry that banished him to the basement as a kid. In this episode, we go behind the scenes at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park to see how Edison's love of chemistry fueled his world-changing inventions. Edison Park is an amazing complex home to more than 400,000 artifacts (which we definitely weren't allowed to touch) and is considered the template for modern labs everywhere.

What is it about cooking bacon that makes it smell so good? The Reactions team puts its nose into everyone's favorite breakfast food. We teamed up with the Compound Interest blog to break down the science of that sweet smell. Turns out there are about 150 volatile organic compounds that contribute to bacon's meaty aroma, many of them hydrocarbons and aldehydes, with some nitrogen-containing compounds thrown in for good measure.

This volume is packed full of new chemistry-fueled solutions for everyday problems, like spotting rotten eggs, reviving soggy green vegetables and fixing busted buttons.

In this Reactions bonus video, find out what scientists believe causes morning sickness in pregnant women.

Pregnant women go through a lot to bring a baby into this world: 2 a.m. food cravings, hypersensitivity to certain smells and morning sickness, not to mention labor and delivery. In honor of Mother's Day, our latest video highlights the chemistry behind pregnant women's altered sense of taste and smell, how mom's diet influences baby's favorite foods and other pregnancy phenomena.

In the American Chemical Society's (ACS') newest Reactions video, we explain the chemistry behind marijuana's high, and investigate what scientists are doing to ensure that newly-legalized weed won't send users on a bad trip.

Game of Thrones gave us a shock with the Purple Wedding and now everyone is asking: "Who poisoned King Joffrey?" While the search for the killer continues, the American Chemical Society's latest Reactions video focuses on what killed the hated king.

In the American Chemical Society's (ACS') newest Reactions video, we explain the chemistry behind marijuana's high, and investigate what scientists are doing to ensure that newly-legalized weed won't send users on a bad trip.

It's not just in coffee anymore. From drinks to jerky to gum, caffeine is everywhere. In the American Chemical Society's (ACS') latest Reactions video, we look at the science behind the world's most popular drug, including why that little molecule keeps you awake and reveal just how much caffeine is too much.

Learn what causes the allergies that spoil spring for the millions of allergy sufferers who get runny noses, puffy eyes and an itchy throats this time of year.

April Fool's Day is coming up, so here are a bunch of chemistry jokes to celebrate. Enough said.

With AMC's The Walking Dead season finale less than a week away, Reactions is revealing the chemistry you need to know to survive a zombie apocalypse. Everybody knows that zombies love the smell of live humans. But if you smelled like a rotting corpse, they would probably pass on you for, shall we say, a "fresher" meal. With that mind, chemist and zombie film buff Raychelle Burks has come up with what could be a life-saving solution. Behold, the future of zombie apocalypse survival: Death Cologne!

Pepper is one of the most common condiments in the world today, but it used to be more valuable than gold. In the our latest video, we examine how pepper's delectable chemistry made it a key player in the global spice trade. In 1498, the sought-after spice helped usher in the so-called "Age of Discovery," which bridged the gap between the Middle Ages and the Modern era.