So a few days ago, I asked what you guys assumed a chemist to be or do and what you think of them. A lot of you answered that chemists are cool and when i showed it to my batch, they were all really happy to see and I think some of them even got a good laugh out of it. I showed them before replying to you all, actually so they never saw the rest of it but we all sincerely thank you guys for thinking so.
But despite some positive light on it, there are still some funny assumptions we all though needed to be corrected
Chemists are nerds and are studious
Honestly, all serious college students become nerds and get really studious when they need to or when exams are coming, it's not just us XD
Chemists don't have love lives or a life outside of the lab
I beg to differ, you'd be surprised how often people from my batch hook up with other chemists from other schools when we have our regular district meetings per semester. Plus a lot of us actually have lovers, me included XD as for our lives? well we do our own thing outside of school and all the group study meetings though
We have unlimited access to chemicals
nope, we don't. almost every chemical we use is under regulation but there are chemicals that need a police escort when you buy them XD I experienced this. I only needed a liter of acetone but when the school head chemist was informed, I was suddenly given guards to accompany me to the school's supplier. Those which could be used to make illegal drugs have stricter regulations
The video below is also another chemical under regulation and I think you can understand why if you watch. That's how concentrated ethylene diamine is. I was using this for my research but it was only for a trial. I also still needed the police escort to buy this because the lab ran out of it ;-;;
We make bombs and drugs
Well, my batch was taught how but it was a special case because we had a military chemist as a professor then so we were safe from being caught. same thing with the drugs, we were taught how to make crack but that was only because we needed to see how easy it was to detect it and it explained why making it required a lot of running from one place to another, it stinks like hell. This was taught in our forensic chemistry minor subject. But again, chemicals for both materials are under very strict regulation and I do not need another pair of guards watching my every move
This is something we do for fun though. I apparently lost all the old videos we had of the stuff we did XD but I think this will suffice. Our military chemistry professor had left the school by that time so our fireworks creation was put to a stop then. Some chemistry related courses like chemical engineering also do this, it's called the flame test or metal validation test
Don't get on our bad sides?
We had no idea how to react to this because we don't really splash acids and chemicals on other people when we're mad. That one was an unusual assumption but we can't blame them, they don't get to see us in the labs and how often we burn ourselves with acids when we accidentally spill on ourselves. Lol you guys have no idea how many clothes I've ruined and burnt because of those acids- so knowing deadly it is, do you think we would even dare do that to other people?
We are creative and make a lot of stuff in the laboratory
Not sure about this one, we mostly just follow procedures for regular analysis. We only get the chance to modify or make our own methods when we experiment for out own researches, really.
We make things explode?
I'm not sure? I thought it was only me? The freshmen set the lab on fire a lot though but it's rare for things to explode. It mostly happens when we work with high pressure extractions like in distillations. I remember the first explosion I caused was the fractional distillation we did. It was really scary because we were purifying gasoline then and the fumes went all over the place, then the most recent was the microwave at home... because I was trying to do my research at home... but it just got me banned from the kitchen... so now I need to beg my mom for food when I'm hungry so that I can access the kitchen ;;-;'
We work with high-tech stuff?
No, we don't really have that many laboratory equipment in the Philippines to begin with. We're lucky with our school because we at least have the most common instruments used for analysis but none of them are high tech at all. most of the stuff we have are close to being obsolete, really XD but the stuff in Japan though. It's a common dream for us materials researchers to go to their NMR park so that we can test our samples for free
So I think these clarifications are enough. And on that note, I'll leave you with this myosin molecule. This cute enzyme is responsible for transporting endorphins to your neurotransmitters. They're called waling happiness because they literally walk around with the hormone that makes people happy
I honestly watch this to lessen my stress XD
Waooo amazing ..good writer