Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2021 February 16

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February 16

Milk questions

I am working on my science project. I have ten properties of milk. There are two properties that I want to include, but I can't find information on them. First, can you make milk not curdle? Is there something you can put in milk that keeps the curdles from clumping up? I wrote about how proteins coalesce into curds, but it seems like there should be something that makes them too slippery to stick together. The other question is about chocolate milk. If I make it, the chocolate will settle at the bottom after a bit. But, the stuff at the store stays mixed. Why is that? Does the chocolate stick to the milk somehow? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.82.165.112 (talk) 13:09, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

On the second part, there are two processes involved in keeping things mixed. There is a physical process, called Homogenization, which involves mechanically making one of the liquid particles so small and well dispersed that individually, they don't have the activation energy to reform clumps, so they stay in Suspension. There is also a chemical process called emulsification, which involves the presence of substances called surfactants that act as a way to keep two immiscible liquids mixed together. This can include ingredients like lecithin or polysorbate or things like that, which are often added to pre-made chocolate milk to keep it from separating. --Jayron32 14:07, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

The Science of Chocolate Milk (And How to Prevent Sedimentation). We also have an article called Chocolate milk with lots of links in the "References" section at the bottom. Alansplodge (talk) 15:15, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Googling prevent milk curdling and prevent chocolate milk separating suggest various methods, both chemical and physical. Be creative in inventing more search terms! Cheers! 85.76.75.69 (talk) 16:01, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

[1] has some good leads on particular chemicals used. Rmhermen (talk) 00:15, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

Transgender hormone therapy stats

Neither reading our articles on this topic nor the web seems to help me to find numbers or statistics of gender-affirming hormone use in transgender individuals, in the U. S., ideally for F-T-M and M-T-F separately. There are obviously studies that provide numbers about gender-affirming surgery, but when it comes to hormone therapy, I only found the statement that the occurrence has been increasing, but no exact data. Can somebody help me out? (Please, ping me.) --Stilfehler (talk) 18:00, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Found an answer here. --Stilfehler (talk) 19:35, 16 February 2021 (UTC)