If you woke up this morning thinking how nothing more can surprise you or how the Universe is too boring to your liking, think again. We are usually too busy with our day to day lives to ponder upon the mysteries such as What is the meaning of life? but now and then some child or a drug-intoxicated adult might ask questions like What does the Universe smell like? What does it taste like? Rest assured, if science can satisfy your curiosity about black holes, relativity or the dual nature of light then it most definitely knows the taste of the Universe.
As it turns out, the Universe (more precisely our galaxy) has the taste of rum and the smell of raspberries or the other way around. You can just as easily say that it has the taste of raspberries and the smell of rum but we will get to that later. I wonder... If the Universe tastes like Rum, are we all Space pirates on a journey to find our special raspberry?
Coming from the plant species in the genus Rubus of the rose family, raspberry is the edible fruit that people all over the world enjoy. We produce around 800 tonnes of them each year (mostly Russia) and eat them raw, in salads, desserts, puddings, and all sorts of sweets. One raspberry weighs 3–5 g and is made up of around 100 drupelets with each drupelet containing juicy pulp and a single central seed.
Are they healthy?
Yes.
There are 53 calories in 100 grams of raspberries and they are classified as the low-glycemic index food, with a total sugar content of only 4%. They are 86% water, 12% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and 1% fat. As for the healthy nutrients required by our bodies, those 100 grams of raspberries contain 32% of our daily needed vitamin C and 32% of our daily needed Manganese but they have other vitamins and minerals too.
When looking into the chemistry of raspberries, we find two molecules that are responsible for their smell and taste. There is raspberry ketone on one side and the ethyl formate on the other. 4-(4-hydroxyphenyl)butan-2-one)) or the raspberry ketone is responsible for the aroma while C3H6O2 or the ethyl formate gives them the taste they have. The interesting thing is that ethyl formate while responsible for the taste of raspberries, smells like rum.
Raspberry ketone has a pleasant aroma and is used in perfumery, cosmetics, and as a food additive. We can extract 1 to 4 milligrams from one kilogram of raspberries which makes it costly but there are cheaper synthetic forms of the compound. This molecule can be found in other berries such as blackberries and cranberries but we still refer to it as the raspberry ketone.
Are they good for loosing weight?
Maybe.
There has been a study which found that mice given the compound showed an increased breakdown of fat but since there have not been any controlled tests in humans we can not say that the raspberry ketone has the same effect on us. Supplement makers would have you believe that their product for losing weight is miraculous, do not fall for it, it is just marketing and a shady one. Mice in that study were given huge amounts of the chemical before results were noticed and the amounts of it in pills is much lower. Sure, it is much more healthier to eat raspberries than french fries regarding their nutritional value but do think before buying a miraculous product that will help you lose weight overnight that claims to have raspberry ketone inside.
You can check the initial research from 2005 and the following one from 2017 on these links:
Anti-obese action of raspberry ketone by C Morimoto
Raspberry Ketone Protects Rats Fed High-Fat Diets by L. Wang
Nope, there are no raspberries in space, at least none that we have found so far but there are chemicals there that are also in raspberries. Does that mean that space smells or tastes like raspberries?
Not exactly but close enough...
Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute in Bonn used the IRAM radio telescope in Spain to study Sagittarius B2. Sagittarius B2 is a dust cloud near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Scientist were hoping to find amino acids or the building blocks of life as they are often called because they would indicate a possibility of life on other planets. No amino acids were found, not yet anyway, but they did find something else, ethyl formate. The same ethyl formate that is responsible for the flavor of raspberries and the smell of rum.
Cheers?
After analyzing electromagnetic radiation emitted by a hot and dense region of Sagittarius B2 that surrounds a newborn star, Dr. Belloche and his colleague Robin Garrod at Cornell University in New York have collected nearly 4,000 distinct signals from the cloud and identified around 50 molecules. Two of the most interesting ones were propyl cyanide and ethyl formate.
Why is this discovery so important?
Not because of raspberries...
A lot of the chemicals that we know and have on Earth can be produced in different ways. One of the ways is the impact of ultraviolet light on other molecules. We can also make ethyl formate by allowing ethanol to react with formic acid or we can extract it from raspberries. The main ambition of this and similar researches is to find amino acids. Glycine, the simplest amino acid, is no larger than ethyl formate. Since ethyl formate was confirmed, there is hope that amino acids in space will soon be discovered too.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we find an amino acid out there in the coming years."
Dr. Belloche
Even though the Universe smelling and or tasting of raspberries and rum may be a romanticized idea, you can not say it does not bring a smile to your face. Sure, you can not breathe up there and therefore can not smell the Universe and I have yet to wrap my head around tasting it, this sure does fall into the category of interesting things to know. There, now you know how the Universe smells and tastes. I am sure the information is much more valuable and interesting than 90% of the stuff you have heard or read about today.
So not only is the Universe smelling/tasting like raspberries and rum, there are also giant clouds of alcohol floating around like space booze waiting to be used in some groovy space party. If you thought that Sagittarius B2 was fun, wait until you read about this one.
Now can I say CHEERS?
Nope, not yet...
Space-filling model and structural formula of the ethanol molecule,
public domain images from wikipedia, 1 and 2
In 1995, a cloud 1000 times larger than the diameter of our solar system was discovered near the constellation Aquila. The cloud contains enough ethyl alcohol to fill 400 trillion trillion pints of beer but is 58 quadrillion miles away (you will not get there any time soon) and has 31 other molecules including carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and ammonia (sorry to disappoint you but that is not safe for you).
These clouds are formed when ethyl alcohol attaches itself to specks of floating dust and is then with them moved toward the star. As it gets closer, the alcohol heats, separates, and turns to gas.
"These alcohol clouds may help us better understand how life might arise elsewhere in the cosmos."
Barry Turner at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Finnaly, I can say CHEERS! There you go. We are living in the Universe that has a smell like raspberry-flavored rum but there are also giant clouds of alcohol floating around up there. All kidding aside, since alcohol is an organic compound, these kinds of findings are incredibly useful in understanding our Universe and exploring it more. Who knows what else we will find.
If I have gotten you interested in this, check out these references for more information:
Raspberries, Weight Loss, & The Galaxy – The Chemistry of Raspberries by By Compound Interest
Galaxy's centre tastes of raspberries and smells of rum, say astronomers from theguardian.com
The Center Of Our Galaxy Smells Like Raspberries And Tastes Like Rum from iflscience.com
There are Giant Clouds of Alcohol Floating in Space from mentalfloss.com, by LUCAS REILLY
Raspberry from wikipedia
Ethanol from wikipedia
Until next time,
KEEP YOUR SMILE ON!
Image sources AND LICENCES in order of appearance:
- all images used in this post are free for commercial use, they are royalty free with the links to original images provided under them
- line divider that I use is from FREE CLIPART LIBRARY, and is here
- titles are made by me using the CC0 licenced image from Pixabay that can be found here
- my bitmoji avatar was created on https://www.bitmoji.com/, visit the site to create yourown
- line divider that I use is from FREE CLIPART LIBRARY, and is here
- titles are made by me using the CC0 licenced image from Pixabay that can be found here
- my bitmoji avatar was created on https://www.bitmoji.com/, visit the site to create yourown
