This workshop will teach you to separate various components in food, not biochemically (like your stomach), or mechanically/pretentiously (like molecular gatronomists), but chemically, using the basic principles of thin-layer chromatography.
We will primarily investigate and compare pigments from a variety of healthful and junk foods, with the opportunity for some artistic forays using these food-derived hues. There will also be discussion of the other major ingredients, their properties, their molecular behavior, and ways to detect these non-colored components. Participants are invited, though not required to bring a colorful food to experiment with.
Chelsea Martinez is visiting faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Oberlin College, after stints working in science education policy at the National Academy of Engineering and the White House. She graduated with a PhD in Chemistry in 2011 from UT Austin, where she also hosted a science news talk show on student-run KVRX-FM. She likes color, especially lots of colors all at once.