Learning Science is Just Being Lied to a Little Less Each Time

            I’ve said it before, now let’s put it to practice. Don’t worry, I’ll pick an easy topic… well, easy to start with. You’ll see. Let’s learn about the states of matter. This is a topic that is typically introduced by first grade. Like I said, easy. So as we all know, there are three states of matter: solids, liquids, and gasses. These have unique defining properties. Solids hold a definite shape and size, whereas liquids take the shape of their container, but still have a definite size, and gasses take on both the shape and size of their container. Still with me? Don’t worry, it gets better.

            Matter transitions between these phases as temperatures increase. As solids get warmer, they eventually melt into liquids. As liquids get warmer, they eventually boil into gasses. Conversely, cooling gasses will condense into liquids, and cooling liquids will freeze into solids. But wait, there’s more. Pressure can also influence the state of matter in the inverse manner of temperature. As pressure increases matter shifts towards solids and as it decreases it shifts towards gasses. This means that matter can transition from one phase to another even at a constant temperature.

            Now phase changes between the states are not always a linear transition from solid to liquid to gas and back. Since they are affected by both temperature and pressure, we add a second dimension into the mix. At relatively low pressures, it is possible for solids to sublime directly to gasses, and conversely at higher pressures, gasses can deposit to solids. Again, I am talking relative pressures here, they very from substance to substance, and for some, ambient pressure may be sufficiently low for sublimation.

Now water is an exception to the typical phase relationships, so forget everything I just said. Water’s freezing temperature actually decreases with increasing pressure, meaning the more pressure the colder water has to be to freeze. This is due to hydrogen bond formation disrupting the expected interactions of molecules. In fact, variations in the formation of the solid phase brought on by differing rates and conditions under which the solid is formed can lead to numerous different solid forms of the same substance. There are several different kinds of ice, for example, all comprised of pure water. This can even be observed with pure elements; think diamonds and graphite. So to say something is solid is not necessarily as straightforward as you may think. Other interesting phenomena occur with mixtures, due to the interactions between the components, including changes in the transition point, separation of the components, and combinations of two different phases, but we’ll leave that be.

            Now, what happens at high temperatures and pressures? Everything falls apart and you get supercritical fluids, effectively both a liquid and a gas at the same time. This is considered a continuous transition, in contrast to the changes previously mentioned which all had a latent thermal period; that is, where matter is either absorbing or releasing energy during its transition, but the temperature remains constant. Continuous transitions also include things like transitions between magnetic states and transitions into superconducting states.

            So there are the three states of matter. Except that there are actually four states of matter. Let’s talk about plasma. This is a classically identified, distinct phase of matter. It is characterized by the coexistence of stripped electrons and ionized particles. The net charge is typically near neutral, as there are an equal number of electrons and ions coexisting. Often the process occurs through collisions displacing electrons, and displaced electrons begetting more collisions. Plasma is ionized gas and thus cannot transition between the other states of matter directly. The degree of ionization at which a gas becomes a plasma can be up to interpretation, but physical properties differ greatly between the two. One of the key differences is potential, as plasma has very high conductance, whereas gasses have very low conductance.

Similarly to the other phases, plasma can take unique forms when produced under atypical circumstances. For example, although plasma is typically very hot (we’re talking 17,000^oF), so called ‘cold plasma’ can form where the electrons take on their typical high energy, high temperature nature, but the ions in the mix exist at near ambient temperature.

So there are the four fundamental states of matter with some of their less conventional variants. Other variants on the traditional states include glass which is a non-amorphous solid, liquid crystals which act as both liquids and solids, superfluids which have no resistance and thereby perfect fluidity, supersolids which are superfluids that maintain their shape, and even superglasses, as well as others, some of which are likely still to be discovered.

What about the non-classical states of matter? You didn’t think it was just those four? No, depending on who you ask there are seven or more states of matter. Some of the more well-known include Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), quark-gluon plasma, and degenerate matter. A BEC occurs when temperatures approach absolute zero and matter no longer behaves as independent particles, but rather a quantum singularity. Quarks are subatomic particles held together by the strong force mediated by gluons. At very high temperatures (now we’re talking about 7,000,000,000,000^oF), energy becomes sufficient such that quark can overcome the strong force and move freely amid gluons. Degenerate matter is what happens at pressure extremes, think the center of stars. At these high pressures, particles become so compressed that matter behaves quite differently than it would otherwise be expected to. There are many flavors of degenerate matter, but it’ll probably turn out that those are just oversimplified versions of the truth too.

-AMS

$82 Pizza

            Let’s make an analogy. I’ll use pizza. Everyone loves pizza, myself included, and it’s a business model I think we can all pretty easily wrap our minds around. So, let’s say you own a pizza business. You buy ingredients, you use those to cook pizzas, then you sell the pizzas to people for an amount greater than what you spent on the ingredients. People will pay the premium price, either because they cannot make a pizza as delicious as yours, or they simply don’t want to go through the time and effort to do so.

Now let’s say you typically sell your pizzas for fifteen dollars a pop… er, pizza. You can sell pop too if you want. But anyway, fifteen dollars will get you a large cheese pizza. Now, your pizza is pretty darn good. I mean, you even won a local contest last April for “Best Local Pizza.” I think we can all agree fifteen dollars is a steal for your pizza. Maybe it is about time you raise your prices a little.

So, the next day you open up shop. A regular customer rings you up and says, “I’ll have one large cheese pizza and a 2-liter of pop.” Incidentally, you decide to start selling 2-litters of pop for a $1.99.

“Sure thing Frank,” you say, “That’ll be $83.99 plus tax.”

“What!” exclaims Frank. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Look Frank,” you say frankly, “My pizza is the best in town, so I deserve to make a nice little profit off of it.”

Frank is outraged. He begins protesting outside of your store, he writes letters to the legislature demanding your restaurant be forced to lower its prices, he even takes to villainizing you the internet. All the while, you actually found a market for high end pizzas. Go figure. At the end of the month you posted record profits and even opened up a second store. As you hire new employees to staff your new store, you decide to bring Frank on. You know, to make amends.  Little do you know, Frank is still begrudged over the price hikes. He steals your secret pizza recipe and opens his own store, selling your pizzas for $50 each. He even sells pop too, just like you.

At this point, you take Frank to court and the judge sides in your favor. You run Frank out of business and ruin his life. The media runs a story on the “greedy pizza giant” destroying the local pizza market. People talk about the corrupt pizza business owner that takes advantage of their customers. You are probably the most hated person in the pizza business. But you know what? Profits have never been better.

-AMS

What You Should Know

            In working our day to day jobs, we become very familiar with every aspect of those job. We come to know all of the ins and outs, what makes things run smoothly, and what can throw off an operation in an instance. And in this familiarity, we can forget the laypersons understanding of our service and problems can arise. We have all had the encounters where we wonder: doesn’t this person know how this is supposed to work? But maybe they don’t. Perhaps, this is the first time this person has ever had to utilize this service. Or maybe they’ve been making the exact same mistake for the past five years and no one has bothered to teach them otherwise. What we often fail to realize is that the things that have become so familiar to us, were not inherently that way. Thus, I have compiled a list pertaining to my career field of pharmacy of things that might benefit you to know.

Pharmacists are typically doctor level trained professionals. They know a lot more about healthcare than just what the drugs do.

Pharmacists are specifically trained in recommending over the counter medications. The next time you feel overwhelmed by the shelves upon shelves of cough and cold products, ask for a recommendation based upon your specific symptoms, other health conditions, and concurrent medications you are taking. You will get a much better, more individualized recommendation than your coworker who says: Nyquil always works for me.

Pharmacies are busy. The next time you ask what is taking so long with your medication, keep in mind that pharmacies can fill upwards of 800 prescriptions a day, and every one of those people inevitably think their orders should be top priority.

Pharmacists typically want you to get your medication, save for inappropriate orders for drugs of abuse. It is good for your health. It is good for their metrics, or if they have a stake in the pharmacy, their profits. It is the essence of their business, so they have every incentive to get you your medications. But, they have to be compliant with the DEA, the board of pharmacy, the policies of whatever company they work for, and someone has to pay for the medication. With the current insanity that is drug pricing in the U.S., if your insurance isn’t paying for it, there’s a very good chance you cannot afford it.

Medications are very expensive. If you are insured, you might not realize just how expensive. Every pharmacist has had some variation of this dialogue:

“I’m afraid your insurance doesn’t cover this product.”

“Well I’ll just pay for it then, how much is it?”

“For a 30 day supply it would be $1,399.”

Luckily, your pharmacist is also an expert at third party claims adjudication and can recommend an alternative to your physician that is both cost effective and therapeutically equivalent.

Lastly, the number one thing I wish people knew about pharmacy. What are those prescription discount cards I keep getting in the mail? It says I can save up to 80%. Prescription discount cards are alternatives to billing a prescription drug to your insurance. Typically, they help reduce costs for the uninsured, although occasionally they can offer lower prices than your prescription drug benefits. Here is what you need to know.

You cannot bill both the discount program and your insurance for the same medication, it is one or the other.

Claims to the discount program do not apply to insurance benchmarks such as meeting your deductible or out of pocket maximum.

The copay for a covered product will almost always be less billed through your insurance e.g. a drug that costs $80 will probably have a $10 copay if billed through commercial insurance but cost around $40 with a discount program.

It is not a coupon. Even checking the price for a card requires the initial claim to be reversed, the new claim to be processed through the discount program, and if the price is higher, as I just mentioned it probably will be, you then have to reverse the new claim and rebill the insurance company, then re-ring the entire sale. All, essentially, for nothing. These cards are great options for the uninsured, however, if you have prescription drug coverage they are not likely to save you much. If you have medication that is already very expensive through your insurance it may be worth a try, however, if this is a chronic medication, using a therapeutic alternative that is covered by your insurance is likely a much more sustainable option. Luckily, your pharmacist can make such recommendations if you ask.

I hope this helps you the next time you visit the pharmacy.

-AMS