Fancy Chemicals With Long Names

I have an old Nalgene bottle: the wide-mouth, clear Lexan water bottles once a talking point among yuppie hikers but now ubiquitous in plenty of venues. Disregarding the Bishpenol-A debacle that rocked the reusable water bottle industry a few months ago, I like my retro container from the early 1990s. Sadly though, it broke recently when I dropped it on my driveway, suffering a large crack on the bottom that quickly emptied it of its liquid contents and shattering (figuratively) any future utility it had for me. So much for it's indestructability. Since it was part of my childhood I decided to repair it, though its future use would be for containing things other than liquids. I was wary of the pitfalls, however, of using an incorrect method of repair. I knew if I just dabbed some generic super glue on it then it likely wouldn't hold up, my confidence in my own repair skills would be compromised, and I'd probably throw away my most evoking piece of outdoor nostalgia that I own. I knew I had to do this right.


I looked at Gorilla Glue technical assistance forums, I looked at melting it, I looked at using PVC pipe glue. I researched a lot; I learned more in one hour about acrylics, Plexiglas, Lexan, and many other plastics than I had ever known in my life. This page is particularly educating. As I suspected from classes on differentiation of labor, the industry has produced thousands of types of plastics with thousands of characteristics and uses. I learned that my Nalgene bottle is a type of acrylic plastic called Polycarbonate, and the best way to fix it was to "weld" it back together by effectively melting it with a particular solvent called methylene chloride. This liquid runs into the crack via capillary action, reacts to and breaks down the polycarbonate, and melts it back together into a single piece. I wanted this stuff, so I went to Home Depot. They did not have it in the plumbing/pipe section, and much to my chagrine I later found out that methylene chloride is a common component in paint strippers. Before I got a chance to go back, I found out from a hobbyist and model building website that there are plently of model glues that consist of this stuff. So, ten minutes and $5 later, I had a brand new bottle of hobby glue being sent to my door from eBay. I haven't received it yet, so let's hope this stuff works!

Sore Sore Sore Muscles

After what I like to think of as an extended Christmas break, I finally went back to the gym to begin my “regular workout routine” this week. I worked out here and there over the last few months but have not had a regular, 3 day a week workout schedule. After trying to make many excuses to not go to the gym, I finally went. I attended my regular “lifting” class which consists of lifting free weights and aerobic conditioning. I knew I needed to lift lighter and not push myself as hard since I haven’t worked out for so long. I used five pound free weights instead of my normal seven pounds. I ended up pushing myself more than I would have liked. The instructor was on top of my every move and I was not feeling sore or tired, so I kept pushing and pushing. After the hour long class I ran a few miles on the treadmill, stretched and called it a night. After getting home I showered and that’s when I began to feel it. My muscles began to tighten. I thought standing in the hot shower water would loosen my muscles but no such luck. I finally got out of the shower and went straight to bed. Let’s just say I did not have a relaxing night of sleep. I tossed and turned and felt like I got little to no sleep. When I stepped out of bed the next morning my muscles were as sore as I can ever remember them being. Somehow I got ready for work and managed to get myself into my car. My car is a stick shift and I struggled changing every single gear. My muscles felt like they were tearing with my every move. When I got home from my very long day at work I decided to research on the internet what I could do to cope with sore muscles and prevent my muscles from feeling this way in the future. I learned about Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS which is caused by tiny microscopic tears that occur in the muscle as a result of high intensity exercise. The “sore feeling” you get after working out usually means you had a productive workout or you’ve trained intensely enough to break down muscle tissue. I did not feel this way when working out before, probably because I did it on a regular basis. I also learned that if your muscles are sore you can still work out the next day, as long as the soreness is minor. However, if your soreness is very, very sore, you should wait until your muscles recover. As far as preventing soreness I found what I already knew…stretching, drinking lots of water and icing after a hard workout will help prevent soreness. I had to wait a few days to work out again and now I definitely limit myself based on how much I’ve been working out!

Orchid Schmorchid

I received an orchid last weekend,as a gift from a wedding that I attended. I'm not sure of the variety, or species, or genus, or family, or order, or class, or phylum, but I do know it's from the plant kingdom. I realized didn't know much about orchids except that they're prized and relatively expensive. I thought I had heard something about them being finicky to care for and foster, but that's about it, and I didn't want to sacrifice this plant as I learned how not to grow an orchid. Luckily for me the orchid had already bloomed and was coiffed nicely in a decorative pot. However, unlike the poinsettia that I tragically over-cared for a few holidays ago, I wanted to keep it alive; I didn't want to see it wilt, wither and die.

To keep it alive, I did some research. I knew a new pot was necessary since the existing pot had a volume of about a half-gallon but was not the weight that it should be if it were filled with soil. I suspected that the plant's roots were simply danging or worse, amputated. To start, I visited the library then searched online videos. Taylor's Guide to Orchids was the premier piece of rotogravure among my local library's paltry selection. Between thumbing through that book and watching some online orchid care videos I relinquished my initial plan of upending some soil from my backyard to use in a new pot for the orchid - it seems that orchids don't do well in dense soil. This makes sense because orchids are tropical plants, and I know from news articles about slash-and-burn farming in the rainforest that the top layer of the soil in these areas is mainly detritus - decomposed organic material that is relatively light and loose when compared to soil . Due to the recent rains, I thought about placing leaves and mulch into a pot, but ultimately picked up a bag of special potting soil for orchids at Wal-Mart. The soil is less dense than traditional dirt, however, is more dense than the wetted bark used in the videos, so I may supplement it with said mulch.

I also found out that orchids need water about once a week and that standing pools are the enemy. Maybe my poinsettia died because I kept its soil copiously moist and had a pot that didn't drain. To combat this, I drilled a hole into the bottom of the wooden orchid pot. Lastly, they love heat and humidity...who knew? The orchid stays in my bedroom at night, and likely enjoys the warmth of my heater. I know I do! In the next few days I'll transfer the orchid, let its roots heal and acclimate to the new soil, then continue the extended care. Hopefully with some luck and the research that I did my orchid will bloom beautifully for many seasons to come.

Chlorophyll Leaching...From My Dinner

02/02/2009

As I was preparing dinner the other night, I was steaming some bok choy - a leafy green vegetable sometimes called Chinese cabbage or napa cabbage. I placed a small amount of water in the bottom of a sauce pot, over which was a colander holding the bok chow. The flame under the saucepot heated and vaporized the water, cooking the vegetable. After dinner whilst cleaning up I poured the leftover water into the sink and noticed that is had a pale green tinge to it. Immediately I assumed this was color that was leached out of the bok choy, but what exactly? Was it from the outside of the leaves or the inside of the stalk? Did it even come from the vegetable or did I not wash it enough? Was I taking flavor out of my food? What was responsible for this colored liquid?

Upon further research I learned that a near-ubiquitous plant pigment was leached out: chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their green color (in an obfuscated way, discssed below) and also aides in their energy production.

I recall from high school that a red car is actually every color except red, because it's paint absorbs all but one color from the light that hits it and bounces that rejected color back to our eyes. Chlorophyll is to plants what paint is to a car; all colors except green are absorbed by chlorophyll, green is bounced back, and the plant appears that color. Green light in the visible spectrum does not have as much energy as other wavelengths, so it is rejected by the plant.

Chlorophyll is present in nearly every part of the plant and can be broken down easily, which is why some of it leached into water. The pigment can actually be isolated in an experiment for children, found in this PDF. Beyond chlorophyll, other chemicals and vitamins are leached out of a plant during cooking. Assuming that the rate of leaching is roughly constant for all chemicals, it follows that the greener the water after cooking, the more vitamins the vegetables have lost. In future dinners, I'm going to steam the vegetables just enough to retain as much nutrition as I can.