Leaving Weird Things In Acid For A Month (Experiment)

- What happens when you leave a raw steak in acid. for a month? - Let's talk about that. (energetic playful music). - Good mythical morning. - And please give a good mythical welcome. to someone who's gonna be extremely helpful to us today. Science Mike McHargue. - All right. (audience clapping). Welcome to the show Mike. - Yeah, it's fun to be here. - Okay, now there's a handful of reasons why. Mike is our special guest today,

and for starters if you don't already know Mike. he hosts a wildly informative podcast called. Ask Science Mike. And, he's got a new book we think everyone needs to read. called You're A Miracle And A Pain In The Ass. Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery. That Make You You. But also, the real deal, Mike is one of our closest. real life friends. - Aren't we? - I believe so. (Rhett laughs) - I believe so too. - It's mutual in my way. - Yes. - He's our mutual. best friend guys, isn't that sweet? We also need Mike here today to offer his.

scientific knowledge, which he has a lot of, and emotional support. Which you're also very good at. As we once again visit the shelf that we leave things on. or as we like to call it, The Shelf That We Leave Things On. - And Mike, why don't you do the honors today. - Okay, here we go. They've done Coke, bleach, air, guinness, salt, pool water, nail polish remover, mouthwash, champagne, Shamrock Shakes and Irish whiskey,

a 93 Infiniti G20, margaritas, dirt, wine and glowsticks, but today, they're shaking that lemon tree. and tapping that acid, it's time for: - [All] Left On A Shelf. Citric Acid Edition. - Yeah. Ooh Mike got a special badge. - We didn't. - VIP scientist. - Where's our special badge? Are we not-- oh we're not scientists. Okay. (Mike laughs). Working as a team we're gonna be presented with an item.

or multiple items, and options. for what happened when those items were left in citric acid. for a month. - All right, if we get three or more of these correct, we will win the coveted bedazzled, bebobbled, lab goggles. (Mike whistles) - No pressure. - Yeah you want that, don't you. - Oh definitely. - I know how you feel about bedazzled and bebobbled stuff. (woman screams). - All right, for our first round. we have the meats. And we also have the Beyond Meats. We left this T-bone steak and a Beyond Meat sausage. in citric acid for a month.

Okay, let's look at our options. Which jar of citric acid developed a thick layer of mold. like Link's love doll made of cheese. A-K-A Miss Swiss. (Rhett laughs). - What? - You're playing dumb now? - I don't know. - I know about Miss Swiss. Was it A, the T-Bone steak, B, the Beyond sausage, or C, both. - The total outcome confuses me. Because citric acid, specifically citric acid solution. usually uses a food preservative.

So the fact that we have mold at all is kind of wild. - Here's the thing though, Mike. It may not be mold. It may just look like mold. - Ah, that's possible. - And all these. liberal arts people-- (Mike laughs). - Who don't wear lab coats that say VIP. - That happens all the time on this show. So we might wanna say developed a thick layer of. mold-like stuff. (Rhett laughs) Or it might be mold. - But the thing with this sausage is, I don't know what's in a Beyond Meat.

- Usually plant fibers especially from Legumes. My kinda take here, it's very unlikely being mold. So it's either the plant material. here has tried to escape, simply probably because of saturation. Or, if the pH of the solution was low enough, then we started to get some basically metal. coming out of the steak, which would be black in appearance. - Metal? - What in the world? (Rhett laughs) - You talkin' about metal. coming out of a steak? - That's so metal. - Hold on, hold on, so if I eat a steak.

metal's gonna come out in my innards? - It's the iron right, there's iron in beef. - Iron's not a metal. - And so you can use. strong acids to start to pull metals out of other materials. So it's a tough call. - This seems like--. why that sounded really compelling is like. it's basically breaking it down and is kind of escaping. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - So I'm gonna go with B, Beyond Sausage. - I'll go with B, Beyond Sausage. - I'm in. - All right, B Beyond Sausage. - Okay, so, let's see the steak first. - We'll see if we got some of this escaped metal.

- Oh my gosh, that--. - Ooh. - There's mold on that. I'm sorry. - That's green, it's above the surface of the solution. Oh that smells truly horrible. - Oh gosh, welcome to our world Mike. - You do see that blackening there. (Link wails). - There's some green, are you guys classifying that as mold? - [Co-Host] Why don't you open the other one? - Let's see the other one. - I wouldn't call that.

a thick layer. - That's not a thick layer. (bell dings) But that is! - [Link] Okay. - [Rhett] Oh man. Look how big. that thing got. - You've gotta open it. for science. - You out there you gotta be. so happy it's not smellevision. - Oh gosh. - That is proper mold on the top of the solution. - Now I learned how to waft, but my problem with wafting. is I often turn over the entire thing I'm trying to waft. - Man, that is gross. - [Co-Host] Did you guys have anything you wanted to say. to our liberal arts Mythical Crew? Rhett? - Uh, Rhett.

(Mike laughs). (crew laugh). - Good for you. You're using your degree. - Rhett doesn't know how to say sorry. (Rhett laughs). We're working on that. - Citric acid isn't a super strong acid. so one thing we're gonna remember as we go through these, it looks like over time the acid is actually. losing its acidity as it reacts to the items in the jar. - That's what happens, see? - It's allowing. mold to grow. - That's science, y'all. (Mike laughs). All I know is, we were right, right?

(woman screams). - We have two bug creatures in front of us. We have this, oh my goodness, it is dead right? - [Rhett] No! (Mike laughs). - A rhino beetle. - That thing looks like something you buy at a toy shop. But that's real, isn't it? - It is real. It can be found on dry land, on every continent. Except for Antarctica. We also have this thing. Mike, what is this? - That's an isopod. That's a sea crustacean, I think it looks like half a lobster.

No claws though. - I thought those went extinct millions of years ago. - They're related to organisms that are extinct. for millions of years. - Okay. - Relatively unchanged since then. - Okay, here's our options presented to us. When left in citric acid for a month, which bug changed the color of its surroundings. like the bag of flour that hit Link in the face. really hard and then everyone laughed really hard? - Yep. - I remember that. Was it the rhino beetle, the isopod, or both? - Change the color of its surroundings.

- Both of these creatures share in common that. their exoskeletons are primarily chitinous. They're made of chiton. And we know that when--. - Chitons? - Check your mouth. (Mike laughs). - Chiton. The protein. We know that with some sea life like crabs, as ocean levels become more acidic, that their shells begin to break down. And get soft, and would I imagine if they were stuck. in a solution, those particles. would start to float loosely. Gosh, this is tough. - It looks to me--.

- We've eaten that on the show before I believe. - Like there's more pigment in this one. - Yes. - [Link] Have we eaten that? - [Rhett] Right, is that a good word? - Do my nightmares serve me correctly? - [Co-Host] Yeah, but it didn't have that coloring. It was all black, so I don't know. if it was a rhino beetle that you ate. (Link winces). - I would think that if this exoskeleton broke down. because it's so dark, that it might change color. - There's a lot of juice in that beetle, trust me. if it's like the ones we have eaten. - Would you call it beetle juice? (Mike laughs) - More so than this one.

- This is gonna have a more poorer shell, also. It's the citric acid is gonna have an easier time. permeating the shell completely. Although a month, both could happen. But we've also seen that the. pH of the solution changes over time. - We have seen that. - I'm just thinking the rhino beetle just 'cause. it's got a couple of different colors. Using my deductions, that's just more. chance is there's gonna be colors coming out. - [Rhett] Right, how do you feel about that? - What color, I don't know the context here, was the color of the bag of flour that hit Link. - White. - It was white?

I think I might be with Rhett here. I might favor the isopod, just based on pigmentation. - All right, so we're just gonna go with. B, the isopod. - All right. - Nothing. - Oh, we're right! 'Cause this didn't do anything. - You saved us Mike. (Mike laughs) You saved me from myself. So it made it yellowish. - Yeah, it did nothing to this basically. No he looks like, just perfectly preserved, almost. - Yeah. Well it is a preserving agent. - I wonder if it's mushy. - [Rhett] This guy's still very firm. It didn't do anything to him.

- [Link] Oh this, this is mushy. - [Rhett] It stinks though boy. - That's a whole different episode. Will you come back for is it mushy? (laughs). All right, so right there. - This is really a preservation agent. So I would expect it to do a pretty good job. of preventing decomposition because there's no. microbial growth inside to do. Yeah, that looks great. - Eat that lobster, why don't you. (Mike laughs) - Dink it. - Ugh. (woman screams). - The Mythical Crew left cracked raw eggs in citric acid.

and uncracked raw eggs in citric acid. Which eggs became engulfed in a strange, white growth. much like Link's lip during a herpes flare up. because he has herpes on his lip. (Rhett laughs) - You're right. Just so you know, - Not currently. - He's got herpes on his lip. - I got it in my blood stream. - Okay, engulfed in a strange white growth. - I'm actually really confident in this. - [Link] Oh yeah? - Because when you put. egg shells in acid, they react in foam. And that's a pretty immediate and energetic reaction.

- What about this one? There's no shell, it's not going to react? - [Mike] Well it'll react, but primarily by being preserved. It won't look visibly different, I don't think. - You know I feel really good about this reasoning. (Rhett and Mike laugh). So we're gonna go with A, the raw egg in the shell. Oh yeah, look at that! (muffled vocals). - Nice. (clapping). Yeah, that's just--.

that's just broken down egg shell. - Did it swell? Or is that just an optical illusion? - Oh there's probably some swelling, yeah. Well especially now, eggs have a complete membrane. on the inside, they won't have the--. - [Rhett] Oh look at that, it did exactly what you said. It's like soft. - [Link] That is crazy. Here, put it--. - [Rhett] Oh look, I mean the egg. is waiting to just pop right out. - Oh, oh, oh. - You know what, we should do that. Take a little scalpel. - This one's got some mold on top. Look, there's a Snoo packet of mold on top of this thing. - What's a Snoo packet? (audience laugh). - It's like a tobacco you put in your lip.

- That's a new term for me as well, Rhett. - Snus. Snus? (Mike laughs). Oh, look at this egg. - Those eggs basically got poached. You know what I'm saying? They basically poached themselves. - So visceral. - All right here we go, I'm gonna break the membrane. Everybody watch out. - [Mike] Could be a little squirt. - [Rhett] No. - [Mike] Excellent technique. - [Rhett] Ugh. Ew. (Rhett grimaces). - [Link] It just deflates, man. (Rhett grimaces).

- Like the worst egg drop soup I've ever seen. - Yes. OK, that's three for three. - We're three for three. - We already won, but let's do one more for kicks. (woman screams). Yeah, we already won so we're just floating it now. And we saved our most colorful round for last. We have a Barbie doll, that has been. submerged in citric acid for a month. And we have something that I think Mike will enjoy. called Bismuth, which is element number 83. on the periodic table. - Ooh. It's a brittle, crystalline metal with a. rainbow-like color, it's also the active ingredient.

in Pepto-Bismol. - What? - That's true. - Are you serious? - That's what the Bismol is from. - Is that why it's pink when it goes in your mouth. and black when it comes out your poop? - Yeah. - Which item lost its color, like Link's anus before a spring break trip to Cancun? (Mike laughs) - Gotta get ready. - Because he bleaches his anus. (laughs). Oh, wow. - Is it the Barbie, the bismuth, or both? - To me, the bismuth would break down. Instead of changing color, which makes me suspect the Barbie. but I'm the least sure about this one.

of all of them. - [Link] First of all, this is mesmerizing stuff. I mean, the geometric--. - Unless it reacted and became mostly a salt which is. possible over here as well. - Gosh, I was thinking the. same thing. (crew laugh). - That when it becomes a solution becomes a base, and a salt and a base react to create a salt. No, with acid and a base. - What is your answer? It doesn't matter, we've already won the goggles. - I go with the Barbie. - Okay. - We're going with the Barbie. Let's look at the bismuth first. - Look at the bismuth first. - Oh, we were wrong guys.

And let's see that Barbie? Oh she turned upside down! (crew laugh). She turned white. - Barbie. Look at her, what's wrong with you Barb? (Mike laughs). Oh my gosh. - This is surprising. And why in science we back up a hypothesis. with an experiment. - Yes, that was why we did this. (metal clangs) Oh, gosh! (Mike laughs). So we made bismuth not cool anymore. - I don't know, that's pretty cool. It makes it more classic metal. - The damage this show is doing is insurmountable.

- This girl is stuck in here forever. (laughs). You know what, she is gonna just continue--. there you go, just like that. That's all we're gonna do. - We couldn't have done it without you, Mike. - But you know what? We also left Link's glasses in citric acid for a month. (spinning metal cap). - That doesn't seem safe at all. - Don't let any of that drip on you. - Huh, that's where those have been. - All right, be sure to pick up Mike's new book.

You're A Miracle And A Pain In The Ass, Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery. That Make You You. - Thanks for subscribing and clicking that bell. Now you say you know what time it is. - Guys, I watch the show. You know what time it is. - Yeah! - Hi, I'm Elliot Cangus from Minnesota. and it's time to spin the wheel of mythicality. (crashing into snow). - We don't know if he's still around. But that was worth it! Totally worth it! - He's definitely cold, whatever happened. (upbeat happy music) - Click the top link. to watch Mike answer the Mythical Crew's.

most pressing science questions. on Good Mythical More. (spinning wheel) - And to find out where the. wheel of mythicality is gonna land. - [Link] In honor of our all time favorite musician, grab a listen to more Merle Tee. and do what the shirt says. Available now at https://mythical.com.