Chemistry Department
Which professor is referred to as Tricky Tom and why?
Professor Tom Hummel, because of his “tricky” exams
In the intro of breaking bad, what real life elements do Br and Ba represent?
Bromine and Barium
When recipes call for baking soda as a leavening agent, what ingredient must be present for it to react and produce carbon dioxide bubbles?
An acid. Bonus pts if you can name common ones in baking!
What enzyme class catalyzes the transfer of phosphate groups from ATP to substrates, regulating processes such as metabolism and cellular signaling?
Kinase
What activity, often done with paper and a pencil while listening, may help some learners maintain attention and process information?
Doodling
Which chemistry professor teaches a class on coffee?
Professor Andino teaches CHEM 199: Coffee, Chemistry, and the Community!
Walt chose “Heisenberg” as his outlaw name. What quantum physics concept did the real Heisenberg actually give us?
The Uncertainty Principle
We all love chocolate chip cookies. What is the chemical reaction called that is responsible for the browning reaction between the amino acids and reducing sugars when you put cookie dough in the oven?
The Malliard Reaction
What weak acid produced by muscles and other tissues has a conjugate base that accumulates when glycolytic flux is high?
Lactic acid
What term describes the brain's ability to change and form new connections in response to experience and learning?
Neuroplasticity
Which Chemistry professor is good at badminton and plays at the ARC on occasion?
Dr. G (he’s the faculty sponsor for REACT)!
In season 2, while stranded in the desert, Walt jump starts the dead RV by building a galvanic battery. Which metal on the spare galvanized bolts did he use as his anode to donate electrons? Which was the cathode?
Anode: Zinc
Cathode: Copper (Aaaah...wire)
Red velvet cake traditionally gets its deep reddish tint from an acid base reaction. What natural cake ingredient turns bright red when exposed to acidic buttermilk and vinegar?
Cocoa powder
What protective substance, combined with bicarbonate, helps keep the stomach from being damaged by its own highly acidic contents?
Mucus
Babies are born with far more of what neural connections than they will retain into adulthood, and experience helps shape which connections remain?
Synapses
Who was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry in the US?
St. Elmo Brady completed his doctoral research in Noyes lab in 1916!
In season 1, Walt throws a chunk of crystal on the floor of Tuco’s office, causing a giant explosion and claiming it’s Mercury Fulminate! What would actually happen if you carried a bag of mercury fulminate in your pocket like Walt did?
it would explode fr (anything could set it off like friction, heat or movement)
Opening the oven door too early can ruin a cake. The cool air causes the cake to sink and collapse in the middle because which specific part of the flour hasn’t finished trapping water and solidifying?
Starch
What positively charged ion is released inside muscle cells to help trigger the interaction between actin and myosin that produces contraction?
Calcium ion
What structure of the central nervous system reaches nearly its full length by early childhood?
Spinal cord
This building, also hit by lightning and had to rise from the ashes, had an even more devastating explosion in 1960s. Which building is this, and how many windows were completely shattered?
Noyes Laboratory, 35 windows
In season 1, Walt warns Jesse multiple times to use polyethylene plastic to hold hydrofluoric acid (HF) rather than a ceramic bathtub. What could explain why ceramic gets destroyed and why wouldn’t HF actually melt a body in real life like Hollywood portrays?
HF reacts with the silica in ceramic, but can’t break plastic bonds. HF is a chemically weak acid, so it would take a long time to dissolve that!
Sugar does more than just make desserts sweet. Sugar is hydroscopic, meaning it tightly binds to water molecules. What structural part of a cake does sugar weaken to keep the cake soft and tender instead of tough like a loaf of bread?
Gluten! Bonus if you know why overmixing cake batter can make it tough.
What principle predicts that adding carbon dioxide to blood shifts the carbonic acid–bicarbonate equilibrium toward increased proton concentration?
Le Châtelier’s principle
A child’s brain reaches 90% of its adult size by what age?
5-years-old