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.

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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.

What do you resolve to do in 2009? Get in shape? Improve your eating habits? Stop smoking? We cover them all on this week’s show. Producer Lara Ratzlaff takes us along for a jog—and then shares what she finds out about what’s causing her sore muscles. (Hint: it’s not necessarily lactic acid.) Our Mystery Solved! segment investigates why fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants, like the pomegranates pictured here, are being credited with all sorts of health-saving powers.

Finally, with this episode, we bid farewell to the Element of the Week. After a year’s worth of shows, we were running out of elements. As much as our editorial team will miss the challenge of finding compelling stories to tell about obscure substances like gadolinium and astatine, it was time to move on. Our new segment, The Chemical Agent, will feature molecules, reactions, and, yes, sometimes elements. And starting next week, it will even have theme music. This week’s Chemical Agent? Nicotine.

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Show Clock

00:00 Opening Credits
00:32 Introduction
01:06 Chemical Agent: Nicotine
03:52 Mystery Solved! Antioxidants
07:00 Feature: Aching Muscles
11:22 Closing Credits

Resources and References

For information on nicotine, we turned to the trusty Merck Manual.
In October 2001, PBS broadcast “The Search for a Safe Cigarette” as part of the NOVA series. The companion Web site has extensive information on cigarettes, smoking, and nicotine.
For antioxidants, see this helpful site from the National Library of Medicine.

Credits

Special thanks go to Jennifer Dionisio and Eleanor Goldberg for researching and writing the show.

Our theme music is composed by Dave Kaufman. Additional music from the PodSafe Music Network. Additional music is “I Quit Smoking,” by Feed the Kitty, “Founding of Youth,” by Latch Key Kid, “Running from the Law,” by Mean Gene Kelton and the Die Hards, and “Running in Place,” by Sunspot.

The illustration is “Pom Wonderful,” uploaded to Flickr.com by aluvendale.

Western medicine has always looked at the body as a system in balance. Today’s show looks at how ideas about the body’s equilibrium have changed over the past few centuries, from humoral theory to the discovery of vitamins and the role of trace elements in human health. In a new segment, “Mystery Solved,” Erin McLeary, CHF’s curator of exhibitions, explains how public health officials in the early 20th century uncovered the cause of pellagra, a strange and frightening disease associated with poverty in the Deep South. In a feature on the role of trace elements in the diet, naturopath Amy Rothenberg shows us around a health food store and Michael Maroney, a professor of chemistry at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, gives us a medical tour of the periodic table. The Element of the Week: Black bile.

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Show Clock

00:00 Opening Credits
00:32 Introduction
01:12 The Element of the Week: Black bile
02:52 Mystery Solved: Pellagra
05:39 Trace elements, or why do we need selenium and nickel, anyway?
08:55 Quote of the Week: Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
09:15 Closing Credits

Resources and references

On humoral theory: Noga Arikha, Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humors (Harper Collins, 2007), and the helpful entry on Wikipedia.
On pellagra: Elizabeth W. Etheridge, The Butterfly Caste (Greenwood, 1972).
On Joseph Golderberger: Dr. Joseph Goldberg and the War on Pellagra, an online exhibit by the Office of NIH History.
On trace elements in the body: NIH Office of Dietary Supplements Fact Sheets.
Quote: Attributed to Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine. Although we found this quotation on a number of Web sites, we were unable to locate an original source. If you know where it comes from, please tell us!

Credits

Special thanks to Erin McLeary for researching the show.

Our theme music and all additional music this week is composed and performed by Dave Kaufman, from merple.com. The music during the Element of the Week is Oh Buoy. The music for the end of Mystery Solved is Guicello’s Attempt. The music for the quotation is Une Plaisanterie.

“Vitamins” photo from stock.xchng, uploaded by n_yfe.