Summary of Dr. Joe Schwarcz's Dr. Joe & What You Didn't Know

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 The walls of refrigerators are typically insulated with polyurethane foam, which was originally blown with chlorofluorocarbons. The refrigerant was later replaced by hydrofluorocarbons, which contribute to the greenhouse effect.

#2 The snake that coiled around a staff is a symbol of healing, and it was originally found in Greece. It may be that snakes have some healing properties because their mouths are vulnerable to damage as they ingest their prey.

#3 The workers who built the underwater foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge often experienced excruciating pain when they returned to the surface of the Hudson River. It was caused by decompression sickness, but they referred to it as the bends.

#4 The snake that coiled around a staff is a symbol of healing, and it was originally found in Greece. The workers who built the underwater foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge often experienced excruciating pain when they returned to the surface of the Hudson River. It was caused by decompression sickness, but they referred to it as the bends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Oct 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350039832

IRB Media

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Insights on Dr. Joe Schwarcz's Dr Joe What You Didnt Know

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The walls of refrigerators have to be heavily insulated to ensure efficient cooling. Foams are created by blowing a gas into a material to form bubbles. The gas must not react with the material, and it should not transmit heat readily. CFCs, the substances used as refrigerants, were ideal until their environmental consequences were discovered.

#2

The staff of Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine, is a symbol of healing. It is believed that the snakes in the staff heal wounds by inducing the proliferation of certain skin cells.

#3

The Brooklyn Bridge workers who built the underwater foundations of the bridge experienced excruciating pain when they returned to the surface of the Hudson River. The risks of working in a chamber of compressed air at the bottom of a river were little understood in the late 1800s.

#4

Wine vinegar is made by adding mother of vinegar into wine to convert it to acetic acid. It is a popular gourmet grocery item, but it can also be made industrially by diluting pure acetic acid in water.

#5

The gel candle story is completely false. Gel candles do not produce a mysterious explosive gas that can blow your house to smithereens. They do, however, produce carbon dioxide and water vapor, which can cause a fire if the glass container is not tempered.

#6

The eye in the jar made some of the most important scientific observations in history. It belonged to John Dalton, the English schoolteacher who, in the late years of the eighteenth century, formulated the atomic theory. He was color-blind, and his eyes were different from others.

#7

Acrylamide is a known carcinogen in animals, and has been found in many fried and baked foods. It is formed when certain amino acids react with glucose or sucrose under frying or baking conditions.

#8

The Fizz Keeper is a little hand pump that you can screw into the neck of an opened bottle in order to pressurize the contents and preserve the carbonation. However, Henry's Law states that the