Science Chat: Scotch Balls & Red Urine

One of my favorite socializing activities is discussing how or why something is (basically, trying to talk to the scientist in each one of us). I'm an introvert who doesn't interact with people often, so I try to make it easier for myself by inserting science and/or math into the socializing equation. Car Talk puzzlers are great for this; sometimes it's the only thing my boyfriend and I talk discuss on long drives.

This week I had two hot topics for discussion.

Frozen Balls for Scotch

Last Sunday, I went to buy my boyfriend a birthday gift. I decided to go to a cocktail store and get him some spherical ice molds (for whiskey). The lady informed me, "The trick to clear ice is to use hot water." I thanked her and went home. I passed this information to the recipient of the gift, who agreed we should do an experiment.

Round one was done without me, and I thought he didn't use enough control, but my boyfriend used hot tap water and room temperature filtered cold water. He checked a day or two later and said the hot water made slightly clearer ice but not as clear as he would expect.

Round two was my experiment. I used cold, unfiltered tap water microwaved for 90 seconds and checked 12.5 hours later. We both agreed that the hot water definitely made a clear ice ball (my ball was clearer than his, but we don't know what that really means).

Question at hand: Why does using hot water make clear ice?

After a week of gathering people's answers, here is what people suggested:

"Boiling it takes out more of the oxygen/air bubbles." -- Chris (engineer)

"If you use distilled water and put the mold in a tupperware container, that should do the trick. Maybe the extra insulation helps." -- Jon (engineer)

"I don't know. You should ask Daphne. Her PhD is in water phase changes." -- Evan (engineer)

"Well, it's not because hot water freezes faster--it will reach the same temperature as the cold and then freeze at the same point from there. We did this in in thermodynamics. It's more about the rate of change..." -- Rob (engineer)

"Did you Google this?" -- John (a lawyer)

I took John's advice and Googled the issue (but coming up with ideas among people whose degree was not related to water phase changes is thrilling to me). Of course, I came across wonderful keyboard warrior arguments (entertaining) and Wikipedia and scholarly articles.

Wikipedia is where I was first directed toward the Mpemba effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpemba_effect). The Mpemba effect is defined as, "There exists a set of initial parameters, and a pair of temperatures, such that given two bodies of water identical in these parameters, and differing only in initial uniform temperatures, the hot one will freeze sooner."

Wikipedia also mentions Aristotle (who learned from Plato, who learned from Socrates), who noticed that ice fishers would pour warmed water on reeds to freeze them faster for use. Aristotle explanation relied upon antiperistasis, in which one quality increased the intensity of another, opposing quality. For example, water feeling warmer in winter than in summer. Many ideas that relied on antiperistasis were later explained as exothermic reactions or sensory adaptation.

For some reason, at this point, I am reminded of YouTube videos of people tossing boiling water into the well-below-freezing air and it immediately turning into snow. Would this happen with regular water?

There were many ideas suggested about why the Mpemba effect can happen, but I came across two articles I found particularly interesting.

First, there was a contest for explanations in 2012. The winner of the contest was Nikola Bregovic. His paper is easily read and understandable. I found it to be a good Sunday morning read (he suggests namely supercooling and convection and cites other people's findings as well as discussing other theories that are less suggestive).
Mpemba effect from a viewpoint of an experimental physical chemist by Nikola Bregović:
http://www.rsc.org/images/nikola-bregovic-entry_tcm18-225169.pdf

Second, Xi Zhang wrote another article (after Nikola Bregovic, who is mentioned in the paper), suggesting properties of the bond lengths in relation to Mpemba effect (which I've just glanced over right now, but also an interesting read).
O:H-O Bond Anomalous Relaxation Resolving Mpemba Paradox by Xi Zhang:
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1310/1310.6514.pdf

Enough about water. What about urine? The second science subject is...

Beeturia

This topic has been discussed less because I just heard about beeturia yesterday.

For the past couple of days, I've been dragging and feeling not-so-great, but I was determined to run long this weekend (I was sick last weekend, and I've had a terrible headache all week...blah blah blah woe is me). On Saturday, I woke up, had some lunch (steamed beets, kale, asparagus, mushroom, and beans were involved), waited around for a few hours, and went for a ten mile run.

During my long run, I started feeling very unwell. By the time I got home, I ended up puking in the toilet. Very shortly after, I was alarmed to be peeing pink/red! I thought I might have been peeing a little blood! Slightly concerned, I Googled my problem. Beeturia. I would like to state that I normally eat beets, I have eaten these beets from this vendor made in this fashion, and I have never had red pee.

Beeturia is when your pee or poop is pink/red due to eating beets or the pigment in beets (betanin). This pigment is sensitive to oxidative degradation in strong acidic environments (meaning, it will stay red until it interacts with stomach acid). I read that betanin is a redox indicator. A redox indicator is an oxidation-reduction indicator.

Quick review:
OIL RIG

Oxidation is loss of an electron.
An oxidant oxidizes, which means the oxidant causes another substance to lose an electron while the oxidant gains an electron (electron gainer). Good oxidizing agents are usually highly electronegative, wanting to gain that final electron to become more stable.

Reduction is gain of an electron.
A reducing agent reduces another substance, losing an electron itself (becoming oxidized itself, electron donor). Good reductants/reducers are electropositive--sodium, iron, zinc, lithium, magnesium--or hydride transfer reagents (carbonyl compounds to alcohols).

This suggests the idea that perhaps low acid in the stomach or intestine is to blame for beeturia. Of course, the Internet being the Internet, I came across other ideas that beeturia could be an indication of anemia or inability to absorb B12 (something my mother was deficient in at one point).

Since I had a party to attend that night, I went to the store, got some Flintstones complete vitamins (it was on my list anyways, seeing as how sometimes my iron gets a little low with running and having a long-freaking-period), popped one, and waited until the beets had finished going through my body. I'll eat beets again today and see if my pee turns red again.