Fossil fuel has gotten us into all sorts of trouble lately. Gas production and consumption has caused international conflict, wrecked havoc on our planet, and lightened our wallets at the gas pump. Why not turn to plants? They get their energy from the sun; and with a little smart science, they can pass on their clean green energy to our cars. In this episode producer Catherine Girardeau takes us to San Francisco and Tempe, Arizona, where researchers rely on abundant sunshine to grow marine life that can be turned into fuel. And we’ll get the recipe for making biodiesel out of leftover cooking oil. Chemical Agent: Cellulose.

Listen now (streaming file)
Download (10.6 MB MP3 file)

Show Clock

00:00 Opening Credits
00:32 Introduction
01:24 Chemical Agent: Cellulose
04:01 Chemistry in Your Cupboard: Biodiesel
06:52 Feature: Algae as Fuel
11:00 Closing Credits

Resources and References

For everything you want to know about biodiesel, including how to make it, where to buy it, and the latest news, visit the National Biodiesel Board.

For a digest of information and articles on biodiesel, including debate over the ethanol, visit the New York Times’s special topic section.

Visit Solazyme to learn more about their quest to turn marine microbes into renewable energy.

Credits

Our theme music is composed by Dave Kaufman. Additional music from the PodSafe Music Network. Additional music is: ”Paparazzi French Fries,” by Schmee, and  ”Soma Magnet,” by Pablo Perez.

This week’s image shows algae tubes in Milton Sommerfield’s lab at Arizona State University. Photograph provided by Rene Gutel.

For over a year now, a new episode of Distillations has appeared each Friday. Unfortunately, like many endowment-based nonprofits, the Chemical Heritage Foundation now finds itself in challenging financial circumstances. In order to continue to produce the show as long as possible, we are shifting to a biweekly distribution schedule. Look for new programs on biofuels, plants, pets, and more every other Friday, starting February 27.

We want to take this opportunity to thank our loyal listeners and ask for your continued support. If you enjoy the show, please consider making a donation to support CHF. Your gifts make our public programming possible.

Audra Wolfe
Executive Producer

It’s Valentine’s Day this weekend, and love is in the air. We won’t even bother trying to understand the laws of human attraction. Instead let’s learn how atoms find each other with an examination of chemical bonds. We chat with Alan Rocke, Henry Eldridge Bourne Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University. Rocke enlightens us on past scientific theories on the ways that materials joined in molecular union. And we examine ozone. Until recently, humans did not fully understand our own powers of destruction when it came to this important molecule made up of three oxygen atoms. Chemical Agent: Free Radicals.

Listen now (streaming file)
Download (10.9 MB MP3 file)

Show Clock

00:00 Opening Credits
00:32 Introduction
01:05 Chemical Agent: Free Radicals
02:56 A conversation with Alan Rocke
08:19 Mystery Solved: The Ozone Hole
11:19 Closing Credits

Resources and References

Visit NASA’s website for information on its Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer.

Learn more about free radicals and how they affect your health here.

For a detailed examination of the political and scientific controversy on the ozone hole, read Stephen C. Zehr’s article, “Accounting for the Ozone Hole: Scientific Representations of an Anomaly and Prior Incorrect Claims in a Public Setting,” in the Sociological Quarterly, August 7, 2008

Credits

This show was written and researched by Hilary Domush and Eleanor Goldberg.

Our theme music is composed by Dave Kaufman. Additional music from the PodSafe Music Network. Additional music is: ”snowfall,” by rada, and  ”Sense of Snow,” by Andrew Gaskins.

This week’s image is from istock.com, provided by Nicole Cioe.

Space, the Final Frontier! Mention the chemistry of space and you’re likely to hear bad jokes about Tang or the behavior of liquids in zero gravity.  But it turns out that there’s an entire field—astrochemistry—dedicated to understanding the chemistry of the universe. Astrochemists investigate the matter that makes up the stars, the planets, and the vastness of interstellar space. The closely related field of astrobiology investigates both the possibilites for life in space and the origins of life here on earth. On today’s show we talk with Stefanie Milam, a research associate with the SETI Institute, about the kinds of molecules found in space and what they can tell us about the possibilities of life beyond earth. We also explore how radio telescopes like the ones pictured above transform chemical information into images of the universe. Chemical Agent: Panspermia.

Listen now (streaming file)
Download (11.4 MB MP3 file)

Show Clock

00:00 Opening Credits
00:31 Introduction
00:56 Chemical Agent: Panspermia
03:11 A conversation with Stefanie Milam
08:11 Tools of the Trade: Radio telescopes
11:15 Closing Credits

Resources and References

Find out more about science in space from NASA’s astrobiology program and its astrochemistry progam.
Our own executive producer, Audra Wolfe, has written on panspermia and the origins of exobiology. See Audra J. Wolfe, “Germs in Space: Joshua Lederberg, Exobiology, and the Public Imagination,” Isis 93 (2002): 183–205.
Watch videos, listen to podcasts, and see more images taken by and of the Very Large Array radio telescope site at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory homepage.

Credits

This show was written and researched by Audra Wolfe.

Our theme music is composed by Dave Kaufman. Additional music from the PodSafe Music Network. Additional music is: ”Colors Lost,” by Ichiro Nakagawa, and  ”Pangalatic Glasstree,” by spheric lounge.

This week’s image is of the Very Large Array radio telescope site in New Mexico, and is courtesy of NRAO/AUI. For details, see the NRAO Image Use Policy.