What is silica gel and why shouldn’t you eat it?

Moment of Um

American Public Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever gotten a new toy or pair of sneakers and noticed there’s a little white paper packet inside the box filled with tiny clear balls? It’s called silica gel. But what is this stuff? And why are the little packets labeled “Do not eat?” We asked science professor Mark Lorch to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s left you high and dry? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll offer up a fresh answer!

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the brains behind brains on.
0:02.9	This is moment of um.
0:06.5	Answering those questions that make you go.
0:10.3	Um.
0:31.5	Moment of. Um, um, um, um, um, um, moment of um comes to you from APM studios. I'm rabbit De Niro, the dust bunny.
0:33.2	Um.
0:38.2	You know, one of my favorite places to hang out is under your bed.
0:43.6	Technically, I don't have a choice. I'm just a messy little ball of hair and dust that literally goes wherever the wind takes me. But I can't complain. There's lots of cool stuff
0:50.0	on here to keep a dust bunny like me entertained. There's an old checker set.
0:55.0	I'm a tough opponent.
0:57.0	I've never won a match against myself.
0:59.0	There's a circa 1998 Furby,
1:02.0	best toy ever made, in my humble opinion.
1:05.0	Oh, and of course,
1:08.0	the old harmonica you dropped under your bed last summer.
1:11.6	I'm getting really good. Check it out.
1:13.6	There is one mystery item, though.
1:21.6	It's a tiny little white paper packet that says,
1:25.6	Silica gel, do not eat on it. I'm pretty sure it fell out of the
1:31.2	box when you got a new pair of sneakers. What is silica gel anyway? Why can't you eat it? Timmy asked
1:38.7	about this too. So I found someone who knows a lot about it.
1:49.1	The point of these things is they absorb water,
	...

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