Science Influencer Reveals Secret to Viral ‘Glowing Mountain Dew’ Experiment

@chemicalkim Behind the science (scene) coming soon! Try this to make #MountainDew #GlowSticks #LightSticks #Chemistry #DollarStore #ScienceAtHome ♬ original sound – Chemical Kim

Mountain Dew is one of those beverages that catches your eye when you are browsing the grocery aisle due to its electric, fluorescent color. Its hue is boldly unnatural and its hard to pin point its exact flavor. Mountain Dew exists, largely, in its own realm separate from other sodas, let alone drinks entirely. And that is exactly how it is supposed to be.

Most would describe the color similarly to a glow stick and now science professor and influencer @chemicalkim is sharing a science project you can do at home with America’s fifth favorite soda to recreate chemiluminescence. Chemiluminescence is described as the emission of light during a chemical reaction which does not produce significant quantities of heat.

But does it actually work? The video has over 13 million views on TikTok and had the comments in a frenzy debating whether the above video was real or fake.

Some point out that the Chemical Kim cuts the video and switches out the liquid for something else. The video claims that to do this DIY experiment you need three simple items: Mountain Dew, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Combine all ingredients and boom you’ve created chemiluminescence. Seems simple enough.

Apparently. In a follow up video, Chemical Kim unveiled the real secret to how she got Mountain Dew to glow:

@chemicalkim Behind the science (scene) THIS IS HOW I MAKE THE GLOW #MountainDew #Glow #GlowSticks #LightSticks #Chemistry #DollarStore #ScienceAtHome #LGBTQCreator ♬ original sound – Chemical Kim

Lesson learned — don’t believe everything you see on TikTok.

Feature photo: @chemicalkim