After that high, explore the fizz in your soft drink

New Year’s morning is generally a time for retrospection, resolutions, or if you had a good night, a time to hunt for hangover cures.

For a Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) scientist, the first day of the new year will be spent doing something fun — performing experiments that will show people how harmful carbonated drinks are. Arnab Bhattacharya’s experiments and the scientific explanations behind them will be witnessed at the Prithvi Theatre on Sunday morning.

Bhattacharya said, “There will be a range of experiments based on soda waters — plain and flavoured. We’ll find out how super-cooled liquids freeze instantly, how much sugar is there in a typical soft drink, we will make raisins dance, check whether normal or diet soda cans sink or float, measure how acidic various drinks are, and of course, demonstrate the widely popular ‘coke-and-mentos’ fountain experiment, that shoots up often two floors high.”

The programme has been named ‘Why this Cola VERY Di?’. Bhattacharya said, “It will focus on extensive consumption of colas and other carbonated beverages.”

The fizz in soft drinks arises from carbon dioxide dissolved in it. While many natural “mineral water” springs have dissolved carbon dioxide, making flavoured carbonated beverages is something that is more than 200 years old.

The timing is apt, given that the night before people will have consumed their share of carbonated drinks.

Bhattacharya explained, “It’s not all mindless fun. The reaction between carbon dioxide and water, which is the basis of all soft drinks, is probably at the heart of one of the most important chemical processes on earth. The carbonation reaction is a key step in photosynthesis, and using enzymes plants manage to do the job of getting atmospheric carbon dioxide and water to combine to form energy-rich molecules such as glucose in a beautiful manner.”

Bhattacharya will also explores the various truths and myths about popular soft drinks — from historical stories of cocaine in Coca-cola and lithium salts in 7-up, to modern day tales of how coke cleans toilet bowls or dissolves teeth, or about the caffeine and taurine in energy drinks, and whether all ingredients are “vegetarian”.