We'd rather not think about it, but the process of how sewage is transformed back into drinkable water is one of the great, underappreciated marvels of modern life. But how does this happen? In our latest ChemMatters video, we&'re going to show you how wastewater goes from polluted to pure. To get more acquainted with this process, we visited DC Water&';s Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, which treats a whopping 370 million gallons of sewage a day!

Is that 'priceless' painting the real deal or a cheap fake? When it comes to detecting art forgery, the stakes are high. Paintings and sculptures carry price tags of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. A chemical analysis can validate the price, or trash it. In this episode of ChemMatters, find out about the scientific techniques, many based on chemistry, used to examine paintings at the molecular level and determine whether they are fakes or the 'real deal.'

Hydrogen peroxide is constantly breaking down into water and oxygen, though it isn't the most exciting reaction to watch. But add a little dish soap and a catalyst called potassium iodide, and suddenly you get the eruptive, awesomely messy reaction known as Elephant&'s Toothpaste! Produced by the American Chemical Society

Here is some good news for you: you can blame the sounds and odors that come from your body on bacteria. Yup -- those little critters are the ones responsible for a lot of what goes on inside our bodies. People can be uptight about all these bodily sights and smells, but understanding the science behind what may appear gross may make these things a little less gross. So without further ado, check out the latest episodes of ChemMatters on the chemistry behind bad breath and acne.

You could call digestion a disassembly line. Your body takes whatever morsel of food you give it, breaks it down, wrings out all the nutrients it can, and discards the waste. It's an amazing example of chemistry in action, and it happens 24/7. Our body relies on three major types of food: carbohydrates, fats and proteins. In this latest episode of ChemMatters, find out how the body breaks down these big three food groups and puts their nutrients to use.

In the first ChemMatters video, we find about why the very smallest machines, known as nanotechnology, hold very big promise. Nanotechnology may help create tiny devices that bring medicine exactly where it needs to go in your body, powerful computers the size of a grain of sand or vital new sources of energy. ChemMatters, the award-winning magazine for high school chemistry, demystifies chemistry at work in our everyday lives.

In business suits, lab coats and dressed as everything from magnesium to Marie Curie, more than 200 chemists kicked up their heels for the 2011 International Year of Chemistry (IYC) with a mass dance and original rap at the Anaheim Convention Center on March 28 at the 241st American Chemical Society National Meeting. Funds for the International Year of Chemistry 'Chemists Can Dance' rap were provided by the American Chemical Society.

John Lucey, Ph.D., director of the Center for Dairy Research at University of Wisconsin in Madison, explains how cheese makers leverage chemistry to transform milk into cheese. It involves special 'starter cultures' of microbes that convert lactose, 'milk sugar;' into lactic acid; enzymes that 'clot' milk proteins into a gel; separation of the solid curds from the watery whey; and other steps. Lucey explains how food scientists use analytical chemistry techniques to test the levels of fat, protein, and flavor compounds in cheese to ensure a tasty, nutritious product.

In the past decade, our cell phones have evolved into multi-functional, always online digital assistants and gaming devices. Nate Lewis, Professor of Chemistry at Caltech, is working on technology that may turn your next smartphone into a bomb-sniffing, disease-diagnosing 'electronic nose.' Like a canary in a coal mine, chemical vapor sensors — or electronic noses — can sniff out chemicals that might be hazardous or undetectable by human noses. These e-noses have potential applications in public safety as bomb or toxin detectors.

What happens when you combine luminol and hydrogen peroxide? In this video, UW Madison graduate, Jay Sekhon brightens, enlightens, and illuminates our knowledge of a phenomenon known as chemiluminescence. Special thanks to the guys and gals of Alpha Chi Sigma for spreading the chemistry word!

Everyone knows that chemistry and beer go hand in hand, but can you guess what hops, barley, and Louis Pasteur have in common? Grant Wood, the Senior Brew Master at Boston's Sam Adams brewery takes us on a quick tour of their world famous facility and gives a chemical explanation of the traditional four vessel beer brewing process. It&'s about time all you home brewers out there get up to speed on your chemistry! [Note: At Sam Adams&'; Boston location, the mash tun is used as a substitute for the brew kettle because of the small size of the brewery.]

The next time you heat leftovers in your microwave, we can't guarantee you will get a great meal. But if you check out this video, you can find out the physics and chemistry behind how your food is cooked!

Why do people have different reactions to the same food? One person may love chocolate while another may find it too sweet. Some people love cheese while others find it totally nasty. Uncover the chemistry behind the taste and smell of food, and find out how scientists apply this knowledge to develop artificial flavors.

Did you know that malaria has caused more than half of all human deaths since the stone age? Get the scoop on the severity of this global threat with Nobel Prize winning chemist Dr. Peter Agre and his colleague Marcello Lorena-Jacobs of Johns Hopkins University. Watch our latest episode to find out the interesting direction their research has lead them on in their quest for a cure.

The first day of summer is June 20th! To celebrate, we're kicking off a trio of summer-themed episodes with a video that explains the chemistry of sunscreen. Whether you have dark or light skin, the truth is that sun exposure can lead to sunburn, premature aging, and skin cancer. Fortunately, using sunscreen properly can help protect your skin all summer long.

Just in time for Earth Day, check out our latest video that reveals the journey recyclable materials take beyond those blue curbside bins. Take a tour of a typical recycling center to see out how these facilities sort the mountains of recyclables they receive everyday. The video shows how the Montgomery County Maryland Recycling Facility in suburban Washington, DC, serves as one of the first links in the recycle-reuse chain. It receives more than 80,000 tons of mixed plastic, aluminum and other recyclables every year, and uses staff and machinery to sort out the various materials.

Find out why smaller ice crystals make smoother, richer ice cream in this video hosted by Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Food Engineering, Richard Hartel.

Whats inside of one-sixth of the worlds population and is a thousand times smaller than the head of a pin? Its Helicobacter pylori, the pesky bacterium behind ulcers and other unpleasant stomach diseases. In our latest episode, find out more about H. pylori, and how a scientist from Spain named Javier Sancho may have a new way to fight this common microbe.

After an epic 354-million-mile trek through space, the Mars Curiosity Rover is zooming along at 13,000 miles per hour toward a scheduled Aug. 6 landing on the Red Planet to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. We took a visit to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to talk to the Mars Science Laboratory Deputy Scientist, Ashwin Vasavada, who gave us a look 'under the hood' of the rover, explaining the role of the analytical chemistry instruments found onboard Curiosity. Curiosity&'s primary mission goal is to determine the habitability of the Gale Crater.

Phytochemicals, or plant chemicals, are found in a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, each one with an associated color. Did you know that blueberries get their blue hue from a chemical called delphinidin? Did you also know that that same chemical is a known cancer fighter? Find out more about why phytochemicals are so beneficial to your health in this video featuring Linda Van Horn, professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and discover why it&'s a healthy decision to eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables!

Researchers from Utah are whipping up an alternative to the screws, nails and metal plates used today to repair bones. Instead of using metal hardware, they want to use glue. To do it, theyre calling on Mother Nature, where theyve found a tiny sea creature that could help. Get our video and audio podcasts as soon as they're available by subscribing to Bytesize Science in iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=266670954