Perhaps I’ve mentioned it before, perhaps not, but my brother-in-law, Uncle Owen, is a wicked, smart chemist. Uncle Owen, Ph.D, if you’re impressed by a lotta book learnin’ and credentials. He’s bonafide. He’s also useful to have around for those moments when [...]]]> “Wait, I know that laugh…” – Han Solo, Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

Perhaps I’ve mentioned it before, perhaps not, but my brother-in-law, Uncle Owen, is a wicked, smart chemist. Uncle Owen, Ph.D, if you’re impressed by a lotta book learnin’ and credentials. He’s bonafide. He’s also useful to have around for those moments when people get themselves worked up into a lather about some chemical ingredient in our food, clothing, soap, or toys labels that will, obviously, launch us all onto the brink of the abyss. Sodium lauryl sulfate will poison us all…. *

Get it? Lather. Sodium lauryl sulfate. Get it? Get it? Never mind.

I find chemistry fascinating, sometimes perfectly incomprehensible but fascinating nonetheless. As such, I’m a total sucker for books, TV shows, and radio broadcasts that explain why things happen or don’t happen – such as MythBusters, Alton Brown’s Good Eats, NPR’s Science Friday, and Joe Schwarcz. What? Joe Schwarcz isn’t a celebrity around your place? But he’s fascinating. He writes about the chemistry of everyday life. I would love to be a student in one of his classes at McGill University, but sadly Montreal, Quebec is a bit of a commute for me.

I’m reading The Fly in the Ointment and Padawan Learner is starting That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles. He is a bit too mocking sometimes of people who worry about the long-term safety of food additives, non-degrading plastics in the environment and such, you can almost hear him laughing derisively from some of the pages, but mostly he’s a breath of fresh air in a world that increasingly seeks out the attention-grabbing headline and ignores the real story beneath the fold.

*Snopes, if you’re still worried.