this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
757 points (99.1% liked)

Science Memes

15749 readers
3184 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] T156@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Interesting. Always thought chewing gum was more like when you made "plastic" out of the caesin in milk.

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You can buy chewing gum made from natural materials but it's not the norm. Most chewing gum is made from mineral oil.

[–] fristislurper@feddit.nl 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Also, chemically they are identical. Plastic made of a plant is still a plastic.

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Nah it's just rubbery dried chicle sap, no chemical refining like with oil

This is what it looks like

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I can almost taste the six seconds the flavor added to that will last!

Five minutes of microplastics or a blink of flavor? Answer might just be no gum :(

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 4 points 2 days ago

Yeah no idea why this is so hard to achieve but it's a very noticeable difference.

[–] fristislurper@feddit.nl 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes really, still a polymer: it forms polyisoprene upon drying. You also find the stuff (synthesised from oil, yes, but chemically indistinguishable) in tires and condoms.

[–] ThoGot@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] fristislurper@feddit.nl 1 points 2 days ago

Does not matter. All these natural rubbers are very similar in how they work, you can find a paper on the polymerization in chicle here if you don't believe me.