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Questions/Answers #2
Mar. 7th, 2009 08:01 am"You have a considerable background in chemistry. Do you have any interesting personal stories about memorable chemical mishaps that you've participated in?"
Honestly, I haven't had any memorable chemical mishaps that I was directly involved in, that I can recall. Egotistically, I could make the leap that it made me a decent chemist in that I never lost control of an experiment or a test I was conducting. I will tell you a story that always made me giggle a bit.
I was doing research the summer between my sophomore and junior years in college. I was assigned to one professor who took very little interest in what we were doing, while the professor I really wanted to work for ended up with the pretty girls and one male student whose attitude was that he was "god's gift" to chemistry. We were working in separate labs on the top floor of the science building while summer classes were being held in the lower floors.
After setting an instrument to run, I left for lunch. One my way back, I found all the students from the science building standing out front and the fire department visiting with lights flashing. It turns out that "god's gift" had poured a huge beaker of ether down the drain in the fourth floor lab to dispose of it. Thanks to gravity and apparently his lack of foresight that ether is flammable and heavier than air, the noxious fumes went down to the lower floors and proceeded to gas the students downstairs.
Luckily no one was hurt, but I think it tarnished his brilliance a bit. While I don't doubt he's a very smart guy (I think he's got a Ph.D from an Ivy League school now), sometimes it's hard to see the smaller basic things when your sitting on such a high pedestal.
It's March, Question Meme Month, so if you want to ask me a question, please go here.
Honestly, I haven't had any memorable chemical mishaps that I was directly involved in, that I can recall. Egotistically, I could make the leap that it made me a decent chemist in that I never lost control of an experiment or a test I was conducting. I will tell you a story that always made me giggle a bit.
I was doing research the summer between my sophomore and junior years in college. I was assigned to one professor who took very little interest in what we were doing, while the professor I really wanted to work for ended up with the pretty girls and one male student whose attitude was that he was "god's gift" to chemistry. We were working in separate labs on the top floor of the science building while summer classes were being held in the lower floors.
After setting an instrument to run, I left for lunch. One my way back, I found all the students from the science building standing out front and the fire department visiting with lights flashing. It turns out that "god's gift" had poured a huge beaker of ether down the drain in the fourth floor lab to dispose of it. Thanks to gravity and apparently his lack of foresight that ether is flammable and heavier than air, the noxious fumes went down to the lower floors and proceeded to gas the students downstairs.
Luckily no one was hurt, but I think it tarnished his brilliance a bit. While I don't doubt he's a very smart guy (I think he's got a Ph.D from an Ivy League school now), sometimes it's hard to see the smaller basic things when your sitting on such a high pedestal.
It's March, Question Meme Month, so if you want to ask me a question, please go here.
