Enzymatic sex appeal

By Emily Eggleston

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For the curious thinker, the slow apple eater, and the chemistry lover, the brownness of an apple is bound to pop up. I am here to reveal the sexy truth behind the discolored fruit. A bronzed beach bod and an over-aerated apple acquire darkness by producing the same pigment. Science communicators eat your heart out.

Since you were a small child, you’ve known apples turn brown in the open air. Even with a simple chemistry background, you might guess that oxidation is the culprit. And yes, oxygen plays a role, but let’s dig deeper.

Artisanal sausage’s charged relationship

By Emily Eggleston

If there’s one thing a science education teaches you it’s that pH is crucial. The concentration of hydrogen ions has everything to do with, well, everything. So I wasn’t too surprised to find that pH is the star of the show in old world dry sausage techniques.

During an interview with Jeff Sindelar, assistant professor and meat extension specialist at University of Wisconsin – Madison, I was looking for a more explicit explanation of the science involved in artisanal meat curing. Turns out, it comes down to diffusing a very charged relationship between meat and moisture. To smoothly convince water to walk away, it’s important to understand two things: the chemical nature of water and the effect of pH.