TINTED TOPS!

By Sari Custer

This is a project that will get your (color) wheels spinning! There are seven colors in the visible light spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (ROY G BIV). When all seven colors of light combine they produce white light. The colors of objects appear the way they do because of how they interact with light. When an object appears red, it absorbs every color of visible light except red, which it reflects. Thus, how light is absorbed and reflected in relation to these objects is what determines their color.

SUPPLIES

• 1 paper plate or piece of cardstock paper

• 2 rubber bands

• 1 pencil

• 1 pair of scissors

• 1 set of crayons (in ROYGBIV)

Challenge

• Draw a circle with a 4-in diameter on the plate

• Use the pencil to mark the center of the circle

• Cut the circle out from the paper plate

• Mark seven evenly spaced sections on your circle

• Color each section of the circle using the crayons, each section being a different color

• Using your pencil, poke a hole through the middle of the circle

• Secure the pencil in the middle of the circle using the rubber bands

• Spin the top

Ask Yourself Some Questions

What are the colors of the rainbow? What colors do you think are in white light? What happened to your top when you spun it? How did the colors change? Would this experiment work using a different color plate? Why or why not? How does speed change how the colors change?

Before doing this activity - did you think there was a science to color? Colors are just one of many ways we see art and science connect. Many times art can be inspired by science, and sometimes science needs art to help explain complex ideas and happenings. Can you think of any other ways or places art and science connect?

Sari Custer is a lifelong science junkie, Chief Curiosity Officer at Arizona Science Center, and mom to daughter Carson, 7. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @SariOnScience.

By Shay Moser

Photos by Kimberly Carrillo.

Though born and raised in Kentucky, Jason Higgins has spent a lot of time developing his successful regular and vegan spicy Buffalo sauces in Arizona.

As the creator of Jupiter Rings Buffalo Sauce, Higgins opened Jupiter Wings restaurant in Peoria on his birthday, July 29, so Valley residents can taste his vegan-friendly wings and Buffalo sauce in person again.

Vegan Wings

“We serve everything on our menu as traditional or vegan, and we are known for our amazing Buffalo sauce, but also for having the best vegan wings in the world,” says Higgins. “Restaurant visitors can also get loaded fries or something off the seafood menu. All our menu is available online for carryout or delivery.”

BUFFALO SAUCE BEGINNINGS

Higgins started his career as a sous chef in Lexington after finishing his culinary arts degree at Sullivan University in Lexington. While he left the restaurant industry because it wasn’t suitable for raising his son as a single dad, Higgins hosted game days at home for friends and family, serving wings, nachos, and other finger foods with his homemade Buffalo sauce. His wings — and especially the Buffalo sauce he used — were everyone’s favorite. That’s when he realized there might be a market for it.

“I made a bottle of my sauce for the buyer at a local co-op store,” says Higgins, who worked full-time as a warehouse project manager and did side hustles to help make ends meet.

The next day, she ordered five cases from him. Motivated, Higgins began offering samples around his hometown, which helped secure a butcher shop and a farm store to carry the sauce with the co-op.

But continuing to build the business in Kentucky wasn’t in the plans.

Starting From Scratch In Arizona

As Higgins continued making sauce and sharing samples, his mother-in-law, who lived in Phoenix, was diagnosed with cancer. Relocating to the Valley in 2018 to help care for her meant making the sauce to share in new places.

Farmer’s markets and a few restaurants brought in revenue, but it wasn’t until he demoed the sauce at a vitamin and sports supplement store that business changed. When the store manager couldn’t try the regular sauce on her diet, Higgins made a vegan version.

“I wanted her to be able to try it, especially since she allowed me to sample the sauce at her store,” Higgins explains.

Not only did the manager love it, but non-vegans did, too. Its success prompted Higgins to reach out to vegan grocers across the nation. Food Fight! Grocers, one of the largest vegan chains, contacted him to sell the vegan version of Jupiter Rings Buffalo Sauce. Sprouts stores nationwide began carrying the sauce soon after.

Opening Jupiter Wings

Even though Higgins never intended to open a restaurant, he and his older son, Rashaad, opened the first Jupiter Wings restaurant in May 2020 after previously serving wings at Fuego Bistro in Phoenix.

“When Fuego Bistro wasn’t open, I could share my wings and sauces with the public in its space,” says Higgins. “The owner, Jeff Ward, could see the popularity of my offerings and helped me find my first location.”

By October 2020, with help from Rashaad, who inspired the business name, there were four Jupiter Wings locations in the Valley.

“Rashaad loved studying the solar system when he was growing up, and Jupiter Rings is a combination of our initials,” Higgins says.

But in late 2020, a life-changing event for Rashaad pushed Higgins to focus on his son and family.

“At that time, dealing with the restaurants and my son was too much. It wasn’t about business; I was a single father. I had lost my best friend. So, I kept one location, on Northern and 19th Avenue through 2022,” explains

Higgins. But after four burglaries in eight months, Higgins closed the last location.

The break from the restaurant business allowed Higgins to focus on his family and son and make and sell his regular and vegan Buffalo sauces. Today, he sells the spicy Buffalo sauces in nine countries and 4,500 stores, restaurants, and businesses worldwide.

“I hope Jupiter Rings becomes a household name,” he says.

Rashaad is recovering with Higgins’ parents in Kentucky and hopes to open a Jupiter Wings restaurant someday.

While Higgins celebrates the opening of the new location on 91st Avenue and Union Hills in the ABCO Center, he puts family first as a single father, living close to his kids’ schools. He also makes Buffalo sauce and works at the restaurant around their school calendars.

Traditional Wings

Everything on the menu can be traditional and made for vegans. “If one family member is a meat eater and the other a vegan, they can get what they want,” he says.

Customers can order the sauce online or buy it at the restaurant. Visit

This content is sponsored by Jupiter Wings.