Lush-ous green pastures

Open up the windows, breathe the fresh air, and start a new day. Each day is unique, surely, but force yourself into a set of circumstances where absolutely everything is new and you find yourself astonished at your own capacity to absorb each surrounding detail. Take the first steps to a new, though brief, phase of your life… the road may be paved with cobblestones that throw you off your balance, but in my experience [thus far] the destination up ahead is glorious in comparison.

Standing at the edge of reason, I’m looking up into the dome-shaped and vaulted ceiling of a towering structure. All sense of scale has escaped me as I look up at the letters lining the edge of some higher-up level. As I look at the letters that hold no personal linguistic meaning, I turn up my hand to the light coming from the windows up high in the dome of St. Peter’s Bascilica (in Vatican City). The beautiful black letters on a gold background stand at a staggering 2 meters in length, though from where I am standing it measures to about the size of my pinky nail, at most. Already a little dazzled, I turn again, I squint, I stretch my neck further out for verification and take a little breath as I realize that the small moving dots about another one and a half pinky nails above the gold lettering are people! The journey to rectifying impossibility has begun. My mind reels at the implications; this country never ceases to amaze me.

Fast forward to a new city and even a greater array of new experiences, though it may be hard to imagine… Here, in Siena, surrounded with constant Italian gibber, soft leather, good wine, and tiny cars- this is where the journey really begins. Behind me lies a past filled to the brim with huge auditoriums overflowing with students and uncomfortable chairs, before me lies a world that can only count up to 19 students per class AND THEN add a little touch of sun for the beautiful days when class can be taught outside! This is where I will spend the next month or so of my life.

Do not be fooled, however, by the seemingly greener pastures that can presently be seen from the window of my room two stories up. Oh no, there is work involved. As always, even outside the class room, but more so in it, there is learning to be done. CHEMISTRY is not exactly something a college student hoping for an “A” can deduce for herself without at least cracking a book or attending a lecture, the setting is only secondary. In Siena I, we, have already learned so much. Under the guise of “field trips” we are lured from the security of our beloved dorms (and place of study) to crystal blowing factories and wineries (and yet more enticing places), where, before we realize it in order to prevent or counter it, we learn! Simply unforgivably, we leave doe eyed and brains stunned with the sheer amount of information we so unwittingly took in.

Did you know that that lovely smooth substance you indulge so eagerly in at special events or “sophisticated” meals actually is riddled with tests? Oh yes, tests! Scrunch up your nose if you want at the scientists interfering with your favorite drink, but you may just appreciated our [scientific] community more when you realize exactly what the benefits to you are…

Most people are aware that if you leave wine exposed to air it will turn to vinegar, but few people actually know the many other tastes and chemicals wine can possess. We had the opportunity to learn, first hand, from the Isvea Labratories that cradle the outcomes of many Tuscan wines. Here they test everything related to the wine production and content, from amounts of heavy metals to the bacteria responsible for the fermentation of the grapes to yield the alcohol.

Pipettes and corks litter desk tops to the one side, while organized rows upon rows of opened wine bottles line the other half of the room. Doesn’t this sound like a great place to work? Rethinking that career in scientific research? Ah, but again, don’t be fooled. This is serious work. Strict regulations must be met for the certification and release of the wines on these shelves, along with further research and collaboration between the chemistry and biology divisions of this institution. But I am getting ahead of myself.

The day before this wonderful trip to the wine laboratory, our class attended a presentation of selected research done at the University of Siena in the Chemistry department. Here I listened intently at the various short lectures and my ears visibly perked when Dr. Tatiana Baldari took the stage to thrill me with her speech on immunology. I am, fist and foremost, a biology student. In fact, I work in an immunology lab at the CDC; this, I thought, was a sign from the heavens especially for my benefit. I was completely set on doing my first blog entry on this topic. Luckily I am a bit lazy, because if it were not for my “procrastinative” nature I would have not given my laboratory experience the next day quite the same weight as otherwise would have been distributed. And thankfully, now I also see that my original project, if I had stuck to it, would have only been repetitive, since a few other students had my similar train of thought. Thankfully, though, there was the poster project about the “Characterization of Antioxidant Properties of Wine and Determination of Metal Pollutants by Electrochemical Techniques,” which then fell into place the next day, lining up perfectly with our visit to the wine laboratories.

Now back to the learning. In both my Chemistry Seminar and Analytical Chemistry classes we covered the subject of antioxidants. Antioxidants, the word shows up on labels and in commercials, its value is on equal ground with “fiber,” and “organic.” Most people haven’t the slightest clue to its actual meaning, but they know it means “good for you.” Oh yes, eat that dark chocolate, don’t feel bad, it has antioxidants! Oh, indulge in that glass of red wine, no harm done, it has antioxidants! It may sound like I am poking fun at the justifications people tag onto gluttonous behavior, but the truth is- if you’re going to do it, at least find some benefit in it, right? Wine does contain a nice dose of antioxidants.

We are air-breathing beings, air is made up of oxygen, and so then oxygen is good for you, right? Well, yes… and well, no. A nice little side effect to our addiction to this vital substance we breathe to keep a constant state of, um… life, is that free oxygen radicals form. What harm could that be? Much. These radicals are actually quite detrimental to our well being. Unpaired electrons on these atoms make them highly reactive and thus toxic to humans. Everything from eye sight to your DNA can be affected by this little bugger. Antioxidants, as the name implies prevents oxygen free radicals from reacting with chemicals in your body that may lead to adverse outcomes. These lifesavers, as I said is present in wine and “can be evaluated by electrochemical techniques” as explained by the aforementioned research project. And this is also done at the labs also mentioned before.

Red wine contains two important classes of antioxidants: phenolic acids and polyphenols. These lovelies are said to lower the risk of many age related diseases, such as coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD), when consumed in moderation along with lowering levels of bad cholesterol (low density lipoproteins, LDL) and leading to higher levels of good cholesterol (high density lipoproteins, HDL). So take the advice of a chemistry student grazing in the “lush-ous” pastures of the Tuscan vineyards and have a glass of red wine with your dinner tonight.