I’ll admit right away at being cynical about the chemical industry, so I look suspiciously at information sent to me by the American Chemical Society. (Something comes from them every day.) But chemistry is science, and you need to know more about it and to see how it relates to your day to day existence. In this case, “Without Chemistry The Middle Class Lifestyle Would Possibly Be A Little Less Good …”
What am I talking about? Have a look at this interesting video, the first in a series of chemistry life hacks, from the American Chemical Association:
“Without chemicals, you are less likely to end up passed out on the couch so your cookies dry out…”
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or Paperback
*Please note:
Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.
Thanks Greg – I just subscribed to their youtube channel. Another one every cook knows is that a bit of salt will make something with sugar sweeter tasting than simply adding more sugar
Here’s the science behind it from http://io9.com/5779217/theres-a-scientific-reason-why-a-pinch-of-salt-makes-things-sweeter
“An intestinal glucose sensor also found to be located in the sweet-sensitive taste cells may provide an explanation for another mystery of sweet taste: why just a pinch of table salt tastes sweet or salt added to baked goods enhances sweet taste. Known as SGLT1, this sensor is a transporter that moves glucose into the sweet taste cell when sodium is present, thus triggering the cell to register sweetness.”
And thus the expression, “I’ll take that with a grain of salt”!
I’m curious about your attitude towards the American Chemical Society – I think of them as the organization behind the huge annual meeting at which thousands of scientists (academic, government, and various forms of private industry) gather.
Are they actually more like a speaking platform for major chemical corporations? I can see somebody like Dow paying a big chunk of the bills for the annual meeting, but does it go further than that?
I get their information all the time and it looks to me like they are a regular industry-supportive advocacy society that runs, like you said, a conference. My comment was about the chemical industry generally. I’m sure the chemistry industry is great and we need them etc. etc.
But back in the day of Bhobal (1984) and Love Canal (story broke in the late 1970s) the industry spewed out a lot of meaningless rhetoric about how the chemical industry was our friend, etc. etc. when what was really happening is that the industry itself had been dragged kicking and screaming through the previous decade of regulation following a lot of bad things.
I think it is just the usual thing all industries do.