Chemistry For Your Life

How do plants defy gravity to "drink" water?

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#209

Melissa and Jam dive into the fascinating chemistry behind how plants transport water from their roots to their leaves, effectively defying gravity. They explore processes such as capillary action and the cohesion tension mechanism, citing a primary source from Nature journal. Melissa and Jam also touch on key chemistry concepts like water polarity, hydrogen bonding, and osmosis, providing examples from everyday life. Jam shares a personal story about germinating an apple seed with his son, while Melissa discusses her adventures in native plant gardening. The episode concludes with a shoutout to their Patreon supporters and details on upcoming Chemistry for Your Life merch.

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00:00 Introduction and Tea Talk

00:17 Plants Defying Gravity
01:05 Welcome to Chemistry for Your Life
01:20 Listener Question: Chemistry of Pregnancy Tests
02:11 Capillary Action in Everyday Life
03:57 Personal Stories and Plant Enthusiasm
05:15 Chemistry Lessons: Water Polarity and Hydrogen Bonds
10:32 Water Transport in Plants: Xylem and Capillary Action
16:00 Transpiration and Water Loss in Plants
23:32 Curiosity About Soil and Water Content
24:23 Water Movement in Trees
26:53 Understanding Osmosis
28:37 Practical Applications of Osmosis
31:12 Capillary Action and Plant Water Transport
33:15 Fun Plant Stories and Experiments
41:11 Supporting the Show and Community

References from this episode:

  1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890856711009531
  2. https://www.gao.gov/assets/hrd-82-3.pdf
  3. https://pubmed-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.libproxy.library.unt.edu/23026007/
  4. https://www.fda.gov/food/hfp-constituent-updates/fda-revoke-authorization-use-red-no-3-food-and-ingested-drugs
  5. https://cen.acs.org/food/food-ingredients/FDA-bans-red3-food-drugs/103/web/2025/01
  6. https://www.acs.org/education/chemmatters/past-issues/2015-2016/october-2015/articial-dyes.html
  7. https://cen.acs.org/food/food-ingredients/Editorial-Fewer-risky-food-colors/102/i26
  8. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10502305/

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