Chemistry used to feel difficult and distant, but let's enjoy it as a fun hobby!
With 800,000 subscribers, the star YouTuber scientist's mission to "spread the spirit of chemistry"
"What can you do with chemistry? Everything!"

For most people, 'chemicals' are associated with things that are harmful, toxic, and artificial.
Even in schools, chemistry is often dismissed as a difficult subject, often because students don't truly understand what it is! Author Dr. Mai Thi Nguyen Kim, inspired by a mother's desire to make her ugly child look as attractive as possible, introduces chemistry to the general reader in an accessible and engaging way.


From waking up to the sound of the morning call until falling asleep after a glass of wine, readers are invited to a novel experience of looking at and solving the daily routine through the eyes of a chemist.

- Why do I get annoyed when the wake-up call rings in the morning?
- When is the most effective time to drink morning coffee?
- What kind of toothpaste should I use to prevent cavities?
- Are natural soaps really better for you?
- Why do people say what's on their mind when they're drunk?

Breaking down everyday phenomena that we've likely wondered about at least once in our lives into chemical elements, it provides a unique and entertaining explanation of what chemical reactions secretly occur within us and around us.
If you follow the author's daily routine and read without thinking, you will soon find yourself enjoying chemistry as a hobby.

"The World is All Chemistry" is a book that compiles the chemistry topics covered on the YouTube channels "The Secret Life of Scientists" and "maiLab" by Dr. Mai Thi Nguyen Kim, a famous German YouTuber, young chemist, and journalist with over 800,000 subscribers, into the author's daily routine.
Dr. Mai Thi Nguyen Kim describes her fascination with the fun of chemistry as “chemical spirit,” and is on a mission to spread this spirit of chemistry to as many people as possible, like an epidemic.
I hope that through this book, you too will be infected with the spirit of chemistry and gain a new perspective on the world.
After reading the book, you will realize that the world is truly full of chemistry!

As a chemist, I sometimes think that my relationship with chemistry is like that between a mother and her ugly baby.
Just as an ugly baby looks infinitely pretty in the eyes of its mother, the baby named Chemistry, who is known to be picky, looks attractive in my eyes.
When people think of chemistry, they usually think of something nasty, toxic, or artificial.
It is also the most hated subject and the first to be dropped from the elective subjects in the school curriculum.
Introducing my baby to these people in a pretty way is a huge mission and can be considered a discipline in itself.
The best condition for my mission is that my opponent knows nothing about chemistry.
When you introduce chemistry babies to such people, they usually ask with wide eyes and a puzzled look on their face.
“What can you do with chemistry?”
At times like that, I want to grab the other person's shoulder, shake it wildly, and shout passionately.

“Everything!! Everything is chemistry!!”
--- p.7, from 'Prologue'

Tiddididit, tiddididit, tiddididit!
I was so surprised that I almost fell out of bed.
My heart was pounding like it was going to burst.

“Matthew!!”
I wanted to scream in anger, but my vocal system hadn't yet woken up.
In a strangely mixed state of half-asleep and close combat, she threw herself toward her husband, snatched his phone, and quickly turned off the vicious alarm.
Damn it, it's 6 o'clock.
6 o'clock in the morning.
My husband, Matthias, has a very terrible habit.
At least two days a week, I wake up in the dark of dawn and go jogging.
The problem is that because of that, I always have to wake up a little earlier than that.
If I don't want to start my day with stress hormones.

[?]I opened the curtains to lower Matthias' melatonin levels.
“Hmm,” the husband mumbles, still half-asleep.
I'm really dumbfounded.
The melatonin molecule is produced in the pineal gland, a small gland located in the center of the brain, and is also affectionately nicknamed the "sleep hormone."
There is a reason why it has this nickname.
Melatonin plays an important role in our circadian rhythm, or sleep-wake rhythm.
The higher our melatonin levels, the more tired we feel.
But conveniently, light blocks the production of melatonin.

The light's effect seems to be gradually reaching Matthias as well.

--- p.14, from 'How a Chemist Starts the Morning'

Toothpaste and mouthwash advertisements boast that their products will prevent plaque.
I don't want to sound like a spoiler, but as a chemist, I have to tell the truth.
We can never be completely free from tartar.
However, you can change the internal conditions of plaque to make it difficult for the bacteria that have settled there to survive.

When we eat sugar, or carbohydrates, bacteria gleefully gobble it up and reward us with sour gas (not the best metaphor, but when I explained this to my friend's five-year-old daughter, the smile vanished from her face).
It is said that after that, the child brushed his teeth very diligently.
So why not use this parable again?)
The bacteria that have eaten the sugar now go through a complex chemical process to digest it.
Bacteria, like us, convert sugar molecules into acid molecules through metabolism.
If the problem is that the metabolism takes place on the surface of our teeth, then that would be a problem.

Tooth enamel is mostly made up of a mineral called hydroxyapatite.
Did you remember that Jonas' toothpaste I mentioned earlier contained this ingredient? It's also found in teeth.
Brushing your teeth with toothpaste? Sounds like a bizarre idea, doesn't it? But not only is it bizarre, it's also not very effective in preventing cavities.
Once you understand exactly what cavities are, you will have a clearer picture.

--- p.59, from 'Every bathroom is a chemical laboratory'

I got off two stops early.
I couldn't stand the stench any longer.
I really didn't want to believe that the mind-numbing smell of sweat was coming from the handsome, attractive man standing next to me.
But when I got off the bus, I was able to clearly see where the stench was coming from.
The man smelled like trans-3-methyl-2-hexenoic acid, or TMHA for short.
It is a relative of caproic acid, a type of fatty acid.
It is called caproic acid after the Latin word capra, meaning goat, because it really does have a very strong goat smell.
Caproic acid is a so-called saturated fatty acid, meaning it has only single bonds and no double bonds in its carbon chain.
If a double bond is added to caproic acid, it becomes an unsaturated fatty acid, and if a methyl group is added to this double bond, a TMHA molecule is created.
It's a powerful molecule that produces a truly suffocating sweat smell, with a distinctive goaty odor.

Maybe you'll just let out a "ugh" and want to hear more about saturated and unsaturated fatty acids rather than the smell of sweat, but let's save that for later over dinner.
Now, let's calm down and take a moment to learn about odor molecules.
I also hate bad smells terribly, but I still find bad smell molecules attractive.

Odor comes from volatile molecules.
Volatile means easily evaporated.
If you smell something bad, it's because molecules that give off that bad smell have entered your nose.
The same goes for the smell of sweat from the man standing next to me on the bus.
Some of the sweat flew from his armpit into my nose.

--- p.196, from 'The stench is terrible, but the stench molecules are attractive'

I now head through the drinks corner to the snack corner.
Because sweet things are delicious after all.
Even I don't think I can ever give up the sweet taste.
But I eat chocolate with much more ease and less guilt than I do cola.
Sugary drinks are so insidious because they are 'empty calories'.
It's just consuming calories without any other nutrients or feeling full.


[?] The reason why smoothies are considered particularly healthy drinks is because they are made with '100 percent fresh fruit'.
But unfortunately, it is not the same as raw fruit.
This is because the peel is often peeled and ground to make it smooth to drink, and fruit juice is added to it.
So, compared to regular fruits that are rich in fiber, they have a higher sugar density.
While you can safely consume a lot of sugar from processed smoothies, you can't consume the same amount from fruit.
Because I'll be full before then.

There is one thing that is particularly interesting.
Even if you grind the whole fruit at home and drink it, it tastes less good than eating it raw.
Also, the hardness of food affects the feeling of fullness, and food that is drunk is less filling than food that is chewed.
So, without a twinge of conscience, I put three hard chocolates in my cart and went to the checkout.

--- p.228, from 'There is something special about water'