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And perfect.

Speaking of perfect, I found these amazing flowers in the yard.

I think my mom would really like them.

I was kind of wondering why there were all different colors, though.

I think it is so new can tell us.

Follow me.

Hi and welcome to Alabama's STEM explorers.

I'm Anderson and I'm Katherine, and we're at Southern Research today in Birmingham, Alabama.

And Anderson was just telling me about some flowers that you picked for your mom, right?

Yeah.

So I saw these flowers on my counter and I looked really closely and I noticed that all of them were different colors and I was wondering why.

So to answer Anderson's question, I thought we would start today with a magic trick.

A magic trick.

Yeah.

A magic trick.

So what I have right here is a tea kettle, but it is not just any ordinary tea kettle.

It is a magic tea kettle.

And this kettle will pour whatever color I tell it to.

Do you believe me?

I don't think so.

Well, let's check it out.

All right.

So say the magic words Alakazam.

That works.

All right, Mr. Magic Tea Kettle, I say to poor pink.

Oh, that is pink.

Like my shirt?

OK. You could just put pink dye in there.

Maybe, maybe I could have.

Maybe this water was already pink, so I think pour a light pink.

What do you think?

Like pink?

Well, how about some purple?

What is going on?

OK, now I want some southern research blue.

How about that southern research of blue?

Pretty close to southern research.

Blue?

All right.

I want turquoise.

Let's go.

Turquoise.

Whoo.

What about some green last one?

Let's see green light lime green.

What do you think about that, Anderson?

Now I believe you.

It really is the magic tea kettle.

So what I just did was not quite magic.

It's just some pretty cool science.

And I love this experiment so much because it's beautiful and colorful.

There is a ton of chemistry going on.

Anyone can try it at home.

So pH is a key player in so many different aspects of our lives, and maintaining the right is crucial for everything from your body to the environment in our oceans, to even safely swimming in a swimming pool on a hot summer day and having a good understanding of pH can help us answer questions like Why do I take an Alka-Seltzer when I have an upset stomach?

Or Why do I use toothpaste when I'm brushing my teeth?

Have you ever thought about that before?

Well, yeah, actually.

Yeah.

So some substances can be classified as either being an acid or a base, and you can think about them as sort of opposites of one another.

And scientists can tell if something is an acid or a base by using a pH indicator.

And pH indicator is really just like a chemical compound that changes colors when it comes in contact with an acid or a base.

So to make our indicator, we are going to use a simple red cabbage.

And what we want to do is we want to extract this purple pigment that's found within the cabbage, and that pigment is called anthocyanins, and that's actually the same pigment that's found in the hydrangeas that you picked for your mom.

So that pigment is that you can use it as a pH indicator, meaning it will change different colors based on whether or not it comes into contact with an acid or a base.

And we can do this a couple of different ways.

We can extract this purple pigment a few ways so we could use a blender.

So that's what I have over here and we can cut up this cabbage, throw it in the blender and get that purple juice that way.

Or we can boil the cabbage leaves.

But today we're just going to cut up our cabbag and we are going to throw it in the blender and make us a red cabbage smoothie.

Are you ready?

Oh, no, I don't have to drink it.

Do I see about that?

So actually, I have already cut up some purple cabbage leaves to make a little bit easier for you.

So if you just want to throw those cabbage leaves into our blender, do we need all of them?

Sure.

Why not?

Yeah, you could throw them all in there I look like a mad scientist.

It's like you do look like a mad scientist.

Actually, that's probably good.

Oh, that's really good.

Yeah.

And then we'll need to add some water.

Do you want to pour this in there into here?

Into here?

Yes, into here.

Oh, you can do it there yet.

I think that's probably a good hour, right?

And so now we are going to blend up our purple cabbage.

So you just want to press you.

All right.

Well, too high.

You can press high.

Oh gosh, there it goes.

OK, so I think that this is pretty, pretty good, this is blended pretty well, and so now Anderson, I are going to go filter out the big chunks that are left behind and we will be right back Anderson and I are back from filtering out our purple cabbage smoothie.

Innocent may or may not have taken a big giant gulp of that purple cabbage juice.

How was that experience Anderson?

It was heartbreaking and probably a little gross, too.

So will we have in front of us as we have our pH indicator?

And as a reminder, this is just that purple pigmen from our cabbage and it's diluted into water, which has a pH of seven on a scale of zero to 14.

So acids have a low pH less than seven and have a high pH greater than seven.

And when a substance comes in contact or when a substance that's acidic comes in contact with that indicator, it's going to turn more of a pink color.

So, for example, a battery or battery acid is super acidic And so if you got battery acid and you put it into this indicator, it would turn a bright pink or maybe even a red But substances that are basic are going to turn more of a blu or green color.

All right.

And so here we have a bunch of household items, different substances, foods and drinks cleaning solutions that we are going to test out to determine if they are acidic or basic.

Are you ready?

I'm definitely ready.

OK?

first one up is we have this lemon lime soda.

And do you think that this will be acidic or basic?

I think it will be acidic, acidic.

OK, so what I want you to do is just pour it in that cup and give it a little stir.

And we will see, oh gosh, all of it.

You just keep pouring a little bit.

There you go.

That's pretty good.

All right.

What do we see?

It is pink, so it's acidic every minute.

Yes.

Ding.

Ding.

Oh yeah.

11 correct one.

Correct?

Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, there you go.

Negative word there.

Good job.

All right.

The next one that we have is a glass cleaner.

Do you think glass cleaner will be acidic or basic Basic, basic?

All right.

Go ahead and pour it in there.

I love this one.

Look at that is green.

So Anderson was right.

It is basic and a kind of a good general rule of thumb is its bases are kind of slippery to feel.

So a lot of soaps are typically basic.

Oh yeah, OK, how about this one?

This is vinegar, um, acidic or basic?

I think acidic OK to test it out.

You're pretty smart, Anderson.

Oh right, let me know, did you go is acidic.

Oh, and look how pink this is.

So when you say that this is more or less acidic, then your sprite.

Probably less, probably less of the I would probably say a little bit more because it's more pink right to the pink or it is the more acidic.

But you could be right.

All right, next one.

This is a little tricky.

So here we have some carbonated water, some sparkling water, acidic or basic.

00.

Acidic, acidic, OK, go for it, let's see.

And it's a much basic.

You can also say neutral.

OK. OK.

So it's actually neutral.

Yeah, it's slightly acidic, so it's a little bit pinker than the purple, so it is neutral.

It would just be this purple color.

So it is slightly acidic.

This one was a tricky one.

Yeah.

All right.

Now, how about this sour candy?

Do you like this stuff?

Not exactly.

Sour candy, acidic or basic.

Acidic, acidic.

OK. Oh, very, very, very acidic.

All right.

Good.

job All right.

Next one up is baking soda.

So this is a little bit different because it's not a liquid, it's a powder.

But do you think it'll be acidic or basic?

I think.

Acidic, all right, let's test it out.

Oh, look, I'm pretty this one is so is Blues very, very pretty, so blue, acidic or basic.

Basic, slightly basic or actually, it's a pretty it's a good bit basic.

OK, the next one, this one is pretty cool.

So now we have toothpaste, but before we add the toothpaste, I want you to think about this in our viewers at home can make this prediction as well.

So what is your what is your dentist?

Always tell you is bad for your teeth.

Candy?

Candy and soda, right?

And that's because those are really acidic, right?

We just saw that the soda turned a bright pink and that candy turned a bright pink.

And so what do you think toothpaste would be if your dentist says that those things are bad for your teeth because they're acidic?

Basic.

All right.

Well, let's give it a shot.

So you're just going to squeeze that into this cup.

That's good.

That's funny.

Yeah.

All right, and we will stir this one up.

Minty fresh, I wonder if we can put like a ding in there.

It's just like minty fresh thing, I think.

Say Ding ding, OK.

It worked out.

So it turns out that toothpaste is slightly basic, and so the normal pH range of in your mouth is somewhere between 6.2 and 7.6.

So relatively neutral like water, but food and drink can lower the age of the saliva or the spit in your mouth.

Because when you say, for example, when you eat a bag of Doritos or you chomp down on a quarter pounder, the bacteria in your mouth are going to start to break down those carbohydrates.

And as they break down those carbs, acids like lactic acid, aspartic acid and other acids are going to be released, lowering the level of your saliva.

And so by using toothpaste, we're sort of counteracting tha to bring that level of your mouth back to more of a neutral, healthy state.

Because whenever the pH level in your mouth gets too low or too acidic, those acids are going to start to demineralized or to break down the enamel on your teeth.

So to put it simply, toothpaste takes the sweets away.

There you go.

Exactly right.

OK, how about this one?

This one?

Is laundry detergent acidic or basic?

Basic.

OK, give it a shot.

Oh, I love.

This one is this is a right line briefing, so Anderson, you were right.

Yes, I don't know how many I got right so far, but I feel the power.

You feel the power.

All right.

And so we're going to leave one as our control because remember, this is neutral.

So this is seven.

So the last one ad that we going to test in this one is kind of my favorite This is egg white.

Do you think that Egg White will be acidic or basic?

Um.

Probably acidic.

All right, let's give it a shot, so you'll pour that in there.

All right, we'll stir it up so it turns out that Egg White is a little basic, it's a little bit beautiful green.

And so if you're feeling a little I don't know, maybe get some cabbage juice and add it to your eggs.

And there you go.

You have Green Eggs in here.

I wouldn't recommend using cabbage juice.

Maybe just a little bit, and it wouldn't taste so gross.

But again, I love this experiment so much because it's beautiful, colorful.

Anyone can try it at home, and I would encourage you guys to test out other substances.

You don't have to just test vinegar, test out a coffee test, lemon juice.

The world is your laboratory.

So what you're saying is you can basically try out anything food.

That's right, Anderson.

Hello, my name is Shreya, and I was wondering why the ocean is blue.

The main reason the ocean is blue is the way water molecules absorb and scatter the colors of sunlight.

The ocean looks blue because red, orange and yellow, which are the long wavelengths, are absorbed more strongly by water than the blue, which is the shorter wavelength So when the white light from the sun enters the ocean, it's mostly the blue that gets returned.

Same reason the sky is blue.

The ocean may also take on green, red or other hues.

As light bounces off our floating sediments and particles in the water take control.

Welcome back to Alabama, STEM explorers, we just did an experiment with red cabbage and we made a pH indicator.

We used regular household items and tested them to see if they were basic or if there were acidic, right?

And so when we added our indicator to the acids, it turned more of a pink color.

And then when we added them to the bases, it turned more of a blue or green color.

And so now what we're going to do is we're going to take what we learned in that last experiment.

We're going to apply it to a real world situation and we're going to explore the science behind ocean acidification.

So as our world industrialize is and we continue to burn, fossil fuels and fossil fuels are things like oil and coal and natural gas.

As we're burning these fossil fuels, they are emitting a lot of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.

And the greenhouse gas that we're going to talk about today is carbon dioxide.

And you've heard of carbon dioxide before, right?

Yeah, that's what we exhale.

That's right.

And so most people are familiar with carbon dioxide because it's one of the products of cellular respiration.

So you inhale oxygen.

A couple of reactions are going on and then you exhale carbon dioxide.

But carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that is leading to our oceans becoming more acidic.

And we're going to do a couple of experiments to look at that because don't just take my word for it, Anderson.

I love to experiment and I love to test things out to see if it's really right.

So what I have in front of us is a model ocean, and this ocean has a neutral pH because it is just our pH indicator in water and oceans are really saltwater but that's really not going to play a role in this experiment.

And so here's our model ocean.

And then over here, Anderson have a lot of different supplies that we can use, and we are going to use these two to introduce carbon dioxide into our ocean.

So based on what you see, what do you think that we could use to introduce carbon dioxide?

So we have some baking soda vinegar, this is some dry ice and then we have some drinking straws.

Hmm.

And no, we're not really supposed to do this, but I think we can get straws and blow bubbles in the ocean .

That's a great idea.

So here are some drinking straws.

I will give you this green one.

And I am going to take this yellow one.

I love the color green.

I know you do.

So here is Anderson's ocean, and here's my ocean.

And remember, this is going to be our control ocean.

So we are not going to introduce carbon dioxide into the control ocean.

So what innocent are going to do is we're going to take our drinking straws and we're just going to blow bubbles and we're going to exhale this carbon dioxide and see if we can make our ocean turn pink Because remember, if carbon dioxide is really making our oceans more acidic and this is a pH indicator, we should see our ocean also become more acidic and it should turn pink.

Are you ready to go?

Oh yeah.

All right.

Let's see who can make it the most acidic.

All right.

All right.

Gets set.

Go, Oh man, that is a lot of lot of breathing.

A lot of bubbles.

Let's check it out.

Let's look at our oceans.

They are pretty pink, right?

Thinking, Oh, look at that.

So we are based on this investigation.

We can see that exhaling that carbon dioxide, introducing carbon dioxide into our ocean like this, definitely making it more acidic.

And I think that mine is a little bit more pink than yours I always knew you were a little basic, Anderson.

Oh, OK. No, I think you should do what I think all of the viewers at home want to see you drink it.

I don't think so.

Oh, how many are you really after the fact?

OK. No, that would be gross That is something we definitely don't want to try at home because it's pretty stinky.

OK, Anderson.

So we have tested out this straws.

What is something else that we could do to introduce carbon dioxide into our ocean?

Hmm.

We could use the vinegar in the baking soda.

That's right.

So, yeah, vinegar and baking soda.

Whenever you mix those two together, one of the products is carbon dioxide.

So I am going to grab this.

And again, same color because we're starting over.

So the pH level is the same.

And what I've done, if our viewers at home want to try this out, I've just gotten like a bathroom cup with some tape and I've taped it to the inside of our to the inside of our cup.

And now Anderson, we measure one teaspoon of baking soda and just put it into that cup.

Oh, goodness.

This is about one teaspoon, right?

That's pretty good.

Oh, there you go.

Don't fall And now you don't want to add a ton of vinegar because you don't want it to bubble over.

But we'll just add just a little bit.

Oh, if they were a little bit, that's OK.

So now as this reaction is happening, carbon dioxide is being produced in those bubbles.

We capped it off so we could trap that carbon dioxide gas in our ocean.

And then I really like this one a little bit better because before when we are blowing those bubbles with the straws, you are just blowing carbon dioxide straight into the ocean There are not giant straws in our oceans that are introducing carbon dioxide that way.

That's really not how it works.

It's more of a slow diffusion.

And so in this experiment, it takes a little bit longer.

But whenever you try it at home, you can start to see just a really thin pink line at the top of the ocean.

Do you want to check it out?

And do you see that thin pink line?

Yes, there's a.

It's really small, though it's really small.

And as this experiment goes a longer period of time than your entire ocean is going to start to turn pink and you can really see a gradient.

And so I did this earlier just to show you guys enjoy already.

This is after about 30 minutes of the the carbon dioxide being produced and dissolving into the ocean.

That's pretty cool.

That is really cool.

And I think that this really explains how carbon dioxide gets into the oceans.

That's right.

Yeah.

So this is so we have carbon dioxide.

Whenever it interacts with water, you're going to get out carbonic acid and then there's a lot more downstream effects that will happen with marine life.

So for our last experiment, Anderson, we have one more ingredient over here that we could possibly test out you know, through that over there.

Okay.

And actually throw it, that would be kind of weird and we need this Yes.

So this is our model ocean.

So we have tested our straws.

We've tested the baking soda and the vinegar.

What do we have left?

The dry ice?

The dry ice.

And so dry ice is actually just frozen carbon dioxide.

It's frozen gas.

And so as this carbon dioxide warms up, it's sublimated.

It goes straight from a solid to a gas and that gas is carbon dioxide.

And so we can do this experiment a couple of different ways.

We could use a bathroom cup like we did before and let it slowly diffuse.

But I don't know.

I think we should just throw it in.

What do you think?

Oh, yeah, yeah, that's always a little bit more fun.

So here is our ocean.

So remember to our viewers, we are comparing of seven neutral and now let's see what happens when we add our frozen carbon dioxide gas.

You ready?

Oh yeah.

Oh wow.

Now take a look.

I know the fog is really cool, but take a look at that color change.

What kind of moving away from our model ocean do?

See how it's becoming lighter is becoming more pink.

Oh yeah, I do see that.

Yeah.

So when dry ice starts melting, it doesn't turn to water.

It turns into gas.

That's right.

Yeah, so the dry ice is just frozen carbon dioxide, and so it goes to a different sort of process.

It never changes into a liquid atmospheric pressure.

It just goes directly from a solid to a gas.

Thanks for watching.

Alabama's STEM exports.

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Thanks again for watching.

We'll be back next week.

Alabama STEM Explorers is made possible by the generous support of Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, translating the power of genomics into real world results.

Southern Research Solving the world's hardest problems The Holle Family Foundation established to honor the legacy of Brigadier General Everett Holly and his parents, Evelyn and Fred Holley, champions of servant leadership Alabama works a network of interconnected providers connecting business and industr needs to a highly skilled and trained workforce.

Alabama STEM Council dedicated to improving STEM education, career awareness and workforce development across Alabama.

Alabama Mathematics, Science, Technolog and Engineering Coalition for Education advocating for exceptional STEM education in Alabama.

Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, the Alabama Department of Education's initiative to improve math and science teaching statewide.