1 00:00:00,880 --> 00:00:03,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to How Stuff Works. Now. I'm your host, Lauren 2 00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:07,960 Speaker 1: voc Obama, a researcher and writer. Here at How Stuff Works. 3 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:12,639 Speaker 1: This week, we've got a couple of different types of 4 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:16,000 Speaker 1: fluids flowing. Some scientists to finally solve the problem of 5 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:18,160 Speaker 1: how to get that last little bit of shampoo out 6 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:21,280 Speaker 1: of the bottle, and others are electrifying chocolate to make 7 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:24,599 Speaker 1: it easier to manufacture and to reduce its fat content. 8 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:27,880 Speaker 1: But first, Ben Bollen, one of our writers and producers, 9 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:30,840 Speaker 1: brings us a more sober story. It's about a recent 10 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:33,559 Speaker 1: Supreme Court ruling that caused a great divide among the 11 00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:36,960 Speaker 1: justices and could change how legal evidence is gathered and 12 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:42,040 Speaker 1: how convictions are made. If you've ever seen those crime 13 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:45,440 Speaker 1: shows on TV, you've noticed how often they emphasize the 14 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:48,800 Speaker 1: importance of a clean arrest. If the cops don't follow 15 00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:52,440 Speaker 1: the rules, the perp can get off on a technicality. So, 16 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:55,880 Speaker 1: for example, if a person is illegally stopped, can they 17 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 1: still be prosecuted for any crime discovered during that stop. 18 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:04,160 Speaker 1: As of June, yes, the Supreme Court ruled that evidence 19 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:08,479 Speaker 1: found by police officers after an illegal stop can still 20 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:11,880 Speaker 1: be used in court. There's an important caveat here. This 21 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 1: only works if the officers conducted search after learning the 22 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:19,360 Speaker 1: person has an outstanding arrest warrant. Here's what's set it 23 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:22,160 Speaker 1: in motion. So, once upon a time, way back in 24 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:25,680 Speaker 1: two thousand six, as Salt Lake City narcotics detective named 25 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:29,720 Speaker 1: Douglas Factrel was conducting surveillance on a suspected drug den 26 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:32,840 Speaker 1: when he saw a guy named Edward Street leaving the house. 27 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: He followed him to a seven eleven parking lot, stopped 28 00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: and questioned him. After he called in Street's information to 29 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:43,119 Speaker 1: dispatch a routine operation, he discovered that Streef had an 30 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:47,400 Speaker 1: outstanding warrant for a traffic violation. He then arrested and 31 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: searched Streef, and it turned out Streef had meth. So 32 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:55,280 Speaker 1: he was charged and convicted for possession. Pretty simple stuff, right, 33 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 1: But and there is a big butt here. It's not 34 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:02,160 Speaker 1: as cut and dry as it might seem. First, FACTORL 35 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:04,880 Speaker 1: didn't see Street enter the house, so he had no 36 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:08,800 Speaker 1: idea how much or how little time the guy spent inside, 37 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:12,240 Speaker 1: meaning he could not know for certain whether Street was 38 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 1: at the house for a drug deal. Second, if this 39 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: was an unlawful search, then any evidence found in this 40 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:22,320 Speaker 1: case methamphetamine would be thrown out due to what's called 41 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: the Fourth Amendments exclusionary rule. After all, let's think about it. 42 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:30,359 Speaker 1: If police can benefit from illegal searches, then they would 43 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 1: presumably have no reason not to perform them. The court 44 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:37,120 Speaker 1: in Utah defended the illegal search with what's called the 45 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:42,680 Speaker 1: attenuation doctrine. This essentially means that if some intervening circumstance, 46 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:48,200 Speaker 1: unrelated or remotely related, leads to illegal evidence, it's admissible. 47 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:52,200 Speaker 1: So because Street's warrant was for a traffic violation, but 48 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 1: the arrest was for meth the attenuation doctrine, according to Utah, applies, 49 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:01,440 Speaker 1: and the Supreme Court agreed. But this was a deeply 50 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,959 Speaker 1: divisive ruling, with Justice Soto Mayor pointing out that people 51 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:09,520 Speaker 1: of color are disproportionate victims of illegal stops. She also 52 00:03:09,639 --> 00:03:13,320 Speaker 1: noted that this means the discovery of something as innocuous 53 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: as an unpaid parking ticket could forgive a police officers 54 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:20,919 Speaker 1: violation of your Fourth Amendment. In a country with more 55 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 1: than seven point eight million outstanding warrants, most of which 56 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:29,839 Speaker 1: are from minor offenses, this raises troubling implications for the dissenters. 57 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:32,280 Speaker 1: This is a blow to the Fourth Amendment, one, which 58 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:36,480 Speaker 1: essentially allows police to make illegal stops and searches without 59 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:40,480 Speaker 1: any cause or consequence. Time will tell how this ruling 60 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:47,760 Speaker 1: is interpreted across America's law enforcement and legal system. Next up, 61 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: senior writer Jonathan Strickland explains how a team of researchers 62 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:54,200 Speaker 1: found a way to manipulate chocolate so that it flows easier, 63 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:59,240 Speaker 1: contains less fat, and maybe even tastes better. How the 64 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:07,240 Speaker 1: answer may coccio clickbait jokes aside, this story is pretty interesting. 65 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:11,720 Speaker 1: Temple University scientists used an electric field to alter liquid 66 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: chocolate so that it flows more easily and doesn't clog 67 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:19,360 Speaker 1: up candy manufacturing machines, and they didn't employ a single 68 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:24,840 Speaker 1: umpa loompa. A consulting firm working with chocolate behemoth Mars Incorporated, 69 00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:29,600 Speaker 1: approached the scientists for help. Previously, Temple University researchers had 70 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:33,720 Speaker 1: experimented with electric fields to reduce the viscosity of crude 71 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 1: oil and found success. Could they do the same with chocolate. 72 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:42,359 Speaker 1: The team designed a special chocolate zapping approach. First, you 73 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:45,679 Speaker 1: load your precious chocolate e cargo into a melting chamber 74 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: and seal it. Then you pump nitrogen gas into the 75 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:51,600 Speaker 1: chamber to increase the pressure. At the base of the 76 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:54,800 Speaker 1: chamber is a tube with a series of metal mesh screens. 77 00:04:55,120 --> 00:04:59,160 Speaker 1: The melted chocolate flows through the tube. The researchers used 78 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:01,360 Speaker 1: the screens to ap lie an electric field in the 79 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:04,760 Speaker 1: same direction as the flow of chocolate. The electric field 80 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:09,279 Speaker 1: reshaped cocoa solids suspended in the liquid. This is what 81 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: made the chocolate flow more easily. Normally, those coco solids 82 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:16,440 Speaker 1: are ball shaped, which means there's a lot of wasted 83 00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:18,719 Speaker 1: space when you try to pack them together, But the 84 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:23,200 Speaker 1: electric field elongates the cocoa particles, allowing them to snuggle 85 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:26,600 Speaker 1: up to each other and reduce the liquid chocolate's viscosity. 86 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:29,920 Speaker 1: Then the team realized that reducing the viscosity also means 87 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:32,919 Speaker 1: you could reduce the fat and chocolate and still avoid 88 00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:36,240 Speaker 1: clogging up the machinery. Normally, you need that fat to 89 00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:39,719 Speaker 1: help keep things loosey goosey, but the electric field removes 90 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:43,560 Speaker 1: the necessity for higher fat content. They tried it out 91 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: and discovered that, depending upon the chocolate, they could remove 92 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,800 Speaker 1: up to twenty percent of the fat without experiencing problems 93 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: with viscosity, and the team says some people think the 94 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:58,440 Speaker 1: chocolate tastes better this way, with more pronounced cocoa flavors. 95 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:02,520 Speaker 1: The bottom line is this approach could help candy manufacturers 96 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:05,560 Speaker 1: keep their equipment clog free while also giving them the 97 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:08,120 Speaker 1: chance to reduce the amount of fat in their products. 98 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 1: Plus the candy might taste even better. I'm not seeing 99 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:22,760 Speaker 1: a downside here. Finally, this week, senior writer Robert Lamb 100 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:25,240 Speaker 1: lets us end on the material science that could end 101 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:29,040 Speaker 1: humanities battle with shampoo bottles. But the answer isn't to 102 00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:36,080 Speaker 1: make the plastic more slick. It's to add nanoscopic texture. Yes, 103 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:39,400 Speaker 1: researchers at Ohio State University have devised an inner lining 104 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:42,719 Speaker 1: for plastic shampoo and soap bottles. They consists of ultra 105 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:47,159 Speaker 1: fine silica nanoparticles. They use solvent to temporarily soften the 106 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:50,839 Speaker 1: inside of the bottle, allowing the microscopic y shape structures 107 00:06:50,839 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 1: to embed in the polypropylene plastic zooming close enough and 108 00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:58,440 Speaker 1: according to engineers Barat Buchan and Philip Brown, these structures 109 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:02,240 Speaker 1: resemble shaggy hearts aped pillows that overhang the surface of 110 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:06,360 Speaker 1: the plastic, creating tiny air pockets. The structures physically prevent 111 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 1: the soap from sustaining the droplet shape necessary to drip 112 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:13,760 Speaker 1: through and cling annoyingly to the plastic. Now, engineers solve 113 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:16,600 Speaker 1: similar problems with ketchup bottles and other food containers a 114 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:20,200 Speaker 1: while back, but soap has always proven a more difficult challenge, 115 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:23,200 Speaker 1: in large part because this is just how soap works. 116 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:26,960 Speaker 1: The very chemical properties that make soap soapy also make 117 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:29,920 Speaker 1: them stick to plastic. It's a surfactant, which means that 118 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 1: it acts to lower the surface tension of liquids, allowing 119 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:36,360 Speaker 1: grime and oils to wash off our bodies. That's great 120 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:38,400 Speaker 1: when it comes to cleaning your naked parts in the shower, 121 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:41,480 Speaker 1: but it also causes the bottled soap to spread out 122 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:45,720 Speaker 1: and hang on for dear life. Engineers have devised nanostructures 123 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:49,280 Speaker 1: like this before for soap bottles, but applications more in 124 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:53,880 Speaker 1: keeping with microchip microfabrication have always been too costly. This 125 00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:57,160 Speaker 1: new method promises a cost effective way to cut down 126 00:07:57,160 --> 00:07:59,600 Speaker 1: on all of that end of the bottle product waste. 127 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:03,760 Speaker 1: So the immediate application here is obviously a better shampoo bottle, 128 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:08,120 Speaker 1: but the researchers think the technique might benefit biomedical devices, capeters, 129 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:10,800 Speaker 1: and anything else that needs to stay clean in the 130 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:18,120 Speaker 1: face of viscous invasion. That's our show for this week. 131 00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:20,880 Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning in. 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