This week, we discuss team discuss the boundaries of the atom and breakdown the US’s plan to eliminate synthetic food dyes with Jennifer Newton and Phillip Broadwith.
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In our early education, we’re introduced to the atom as a uniform sphere, an easy‑to‑grasp representation of a nucleus surrounded by neatly orbiting electrons. But the reality is very different. Atoms are surrounded by a diffuse cloud of electron probability, making the very notion of a boundary inherently fuzzy. Consequently, there are multiple definitions for the atomic radius of an atom, depending on context and convention. It begs the question, how do we decide on a single, unified definition? Or is that necessary at all?
And, the US’s health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is pushing to eliminate all synthetic food dyes. There’s a visible difference between the dyes used in the US and UK. Fanta, for example, has a vibrant, almost neon orange color in the US, due to synthetic dyes Red 40 and Yellow 6. Meanwhile it’s UK cousin is paler, resembling the color of actual orange juice, due to natural extracts from pumpkin and carrot. The FDA’s move to phase out many of these synthetic food dyes comes from a concern for public health, with Kennedy calling them ‘poisonous compounds.’ But are they as dangerous as he claims?
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