/sci/ - Science & Math

Filthy 2nd year Bioinorganic chemistry student here.

>>9593523
Will probably 'research' lanthanoids complexes with pinacol derived ligands for my thesis next year.

I'm an undergrad and I got my name published on a paper a few months ago and I still haven't bothered to read the paper.

>>9594324
Are you part of one of those filthy labs with 30 undergrads who spend all day following orders and not learning anything?

>>9594328
stemcels are so fucking repulsive holy shit literal ant people

>>9593369
Working on flow chemistry proof-of-concepts. PhD Organic Chemist.

>>9594328
No there aren't that many undergrads in my lab. Probably about an equal amount of undergrads to grad students here.

For the most part I haven't read it because I've been busy studying and when I get a break the last thing I want to do is extra work. The best way to kill my interest in something is to attach a grade to it and force me to learn it.

I'm on vacation this week so there's reason why I shouldn't read at least the abstract and introduction to see if it's something I could even understand.

What's the worst accident you've seen? I'll start
>someone poured hydrofluoric acid down the drain
Or
>Retard spilled toxic e-coli proteins on the floor

>>9594380

One of my students in orgo dumped a heating mantle's worth of hot sand into the garbage can.

Yes, it started a fire. I had to be the mean TA that day.

>>9594380
I once walked into a room which was intentionally closed off so they could perform an ozone reaction over night. I got light headed in seconds, and then I realized that maybe just because ozone is made from oxygen doesn't mean that ozone is breathable.

>>9594398
That's pretty bad.

>>9594380
I fixed the eye juice in my tear duct with osmium tetroxide once by accident and pushed a fucking bullet out of my nose after. I wish I had taken a picture but it looked like 2 or 3 grains of rice squished together.

>Keeping mercury thermometers
>Keeping mercury thermometers in a chem 101 lab
>Keeping mercury thermometers on a stand easily knocked over
>Spending the rest of the day cleaning up after idiots
Thinking

>>9594413
It's pretty easy to clean up mercury, plus it's not that toxic. 2/10

>>9594380
>centrifuge blew up

no one was harmed, but holy shit was that scary. loudest sound I've ever heard

>>9594418
Did the retards not balance the samples properly?

>>9594413
If we were talking about organic mercury this would be a lot more serious. Pretty annoying shit still.
>>9594412
I don't understand why you would even do that. Sounds like a hell of a nose blowing session.

>>9594380
>someone poured radioactive stuff on the floor of the hotlab, stepped into it, and spread it all over the floor of the coldlab, too

>>9594380
OP here, I've got a story:
>Be in first semester orgo lab
>Old lab partner from gen chem didn't move on to orgo for whatever reason, even though he was competent
>Lab was filled with preppy pre-med and pre-dental students who do nothing but talk about Starbucks and daddy's money
>Other half of the class were obnoxious fratters, some from my gen chem lab
>Half of them dropped within the first quarter
>Two decent people that I've talked to in class were also in lab, but they're partners
>And then there was Ronnie
>Ronnie unironically wore MAGA hats and orange camo to lecture every day
>Held up class with his stupid, tangential questions every single day
>Actually voiced his displeasure to the teacher in class over an extra credit assignment where we had to synthesize Estradiol from substituent pieces because "birth control is immoral"
>Also fought the teacher on there being man made mercury pollution in seafood and ocean water during section on organometallics. >Anytime climate, vaccinations, or pharmaceuticals were brought up in any way, you could always count on Ronnie to give you the /pol/tard perspective
>I desperately look around for someone else who isn't partnered
>I then hear a voice behind me
>"You partnered yit?"
>Turn around to face the stench of Cabelas and burning rubber being me
>It's Ronnie
>My future lab partner, who, in addition to fucking up every single day in hilarious ways, would one day nearly kill us all
>MFW I'm forced to be Ronnie's parter

Continue?

>>9595400
I don't think I've ever had a good lab partner. They always want me to help them cheat or have no idea what they're doing but take full control anyway. I've gotten caught for helping a lab partner cheat twice, and the third time that I was "forced" to give them answers I ended up throwing them under the bus and they subsequently failed the class and was forced to drop out of school. It was actually much worse than that though, because that person was a "friend" of a couple years (she a complete retard and cheated on literally everything she could). I got a ton of backlash from our mutual "friends" for doing that to her but I don't regret it at all because she deserved it.

I actually have had one or two good lab partners in physics labs, but never once in chemistry. Chemistry labs are full of brainlets and cheaters from other departments that love to shit up chemistry classes.

>>9595541
I think it has a lot to do with what majors require chemistry and physics. Out of the 15000 or so students at my school, ~100 are chemistry majors and nearly a quarter of students are majoring in biology or some kind of medical science. Nothing against life sciences, of course, I myself am biochem, but they tend to not give a shit about the chemistry portions of their curriculum. Whereas students in physics labs are usually in a related major, whether that be engineering, chem, or physics itself, so they tend to pay more attention and be more competent.

Gonna go in to calc then I’ve got lab work to do, but part 2 of the story will be out soon

>>9594418
Did they not set it up properly because there's been times where idiots don't look them down and the rotating part just fly out

>>9593369
>stories
>Dumb teacher asks for a dumb undergrad to clean up the whole lab for some suck-ass points
>Dumb undergrad, freshman offers himself, let's call him Ass
>Ass goes to the lab, starts cleaning
>College janitor helps him
>lets clean this
>switch the oil inside some jars
>washing jar
>white solid over the table starts catching fire
>Kerosene (the oil) around the solid is going off too
>holyshit
>janitor instinctively throws water on it.
>it is [math] {Na}_{(s)} [/math]
> [math] {Na}_{(s)} + H_2 O \rightarrow {H}_{2} + 2NaOH [/math]
>reaction is explosive
>on fire Kerosene burns H2
>NaOH all over Ass
>Explosion all over Ass
>Fire all over Ass
>3rd-degree burns (i guess)
>scary ass scars all over him
>lost part of the ear
>goes to the right ear to the right leg
>becomes a fucking inside joke for not recognizing sodium

What’s up with this meme the that being good at orgo requires a lot of memorization? All you need to know is that opposite charges attract and have a little spatial visualization.

Also, is analytical or physical chemistry more boring?

>>9595829
>orgo
premed spotted

>>9595829
Yeah except for listing off the bajillion different reagents used that are generally highly specific to reaction types. The actually chemistry isn't difficult for memorization but the things used to achieve the effects make a massive laundry list.

Both are awesome, one for it's lab the other because it's the fundamentals of how all chemistry works. Pchem made all of Chemistry come together for me.

>>9595871
I didn’t know that was a premed term. Only just saw it in this thread so I thought I’d be cool. I’m majoring in biochem and thinking of doing clinical lab work or forensics.

>>9595400
check this out anon

>physics lab
>1st day
>don't really know anyone except 2 people who are friends of a friend
>decide to go to their table
>then another friend of theirs joins who is a friend of a friend
>like them he was also an engineering student
>every fucking class he would spam that pimp my ride meme with his voice
>like actually say it out loud multiple times in a row with different variations; that weren't even creative
>would also quote bender's binary copy pasta from that futerama special
>he'd saythe entire thing multiple times every class
>while doing experiments the professor would let us do them in some neighboring class rooms
>since they didn't have sessions then and their wasn't enough room in ours
>he would go sit in a corner and watch shit on his laptop without headphones and the volume up
>that fuckers autism made it so hard for me to work I ended up getting and B
>nicely asked professor if she could bump my 89.996 up to an A.
>chuckled and said no

>>9593523
is this a bsc major?

Can I ask you all what got you interested in chemistry?

The beauty of chemistry is in the details and I feel like there isn't much spectacular to get people interested. With biology you have genetics and ecology, physics you have astronomy and quantum mechanics, engineering has robots to amaze people and get them interested before they can appreciate the details.

I suppose with chemistry you have interesting reactions but I don't think anyone enters chemistry for the pretty colours or explosions.

>>9596152
I imagine it's a 3rd or 4th year optional class

>>9596285
>pretty colours or explosions.
that's more than enough for me

>>9595798
>college janitor cleans lab
what could possibly go wrong here?

Pic semi related

>>9597929
Fucking hang yourself
https://derpibooru.org/1184262

>>9594380
This past Wednesday someone charged an extra 160 kg of therminol-59 to our 200 gallon reactor. Then set the TCU to 205 C. There was no room for thermal expansion. At 105 C the reactor started pushing out therminol through the traps, bubbler, and secondary vent. The force was sufficient to dislodge the secondary vent line from the scrubber and proceeded to belch skin melting heat transfer fluid all over the room, raining down from the second floor onto the first. Someone could have died.

That's the worst I've SEEN.

>>9594380
>undergrad in final semester
In my quant analysis class, I leaned on the vent hood to collect some 18M Sulfuric Acid, and accidentally leaned my forearm on a drop that got away. Shit stung.

>>9596285
Inorganic chemistry-Conceptual theory of how matter behaves
Synthetic chemistry-The actual processes by which molecules are synthesized
Materials chemistry-The design, synthesis, and application of systems (society develops and prospers on the back of materials)
Analytical chemistry-fuck that shit, i'll do what i have to, to find out what I made (exception: 2D NMR, the theory changed the way I view the transfer and spread of information in its most reduced notions)

>>9593369
Not sure if I'm worthy of calling myself a chemist seeing as I'm only in my 2nd of 3 years BSC Chemistry degree. Anyways, here's my thoughts on my modules since I'm revising now:

>organic
Pretty straightforward but I wouldn't be surprised if I do worst in this exam since I hate AND suck at memorising. It's honestly embarrasing how the only remotely tricky mechanisms are the radical ones that we do a small amount of towards the end.
>inorganic
My best branch of chemistry, crystal structure stuff is really easy and even though you have to memorise a bunch of crystal structures it's at least far more interesting than just reagents and conditions like with organic. It feels a little disjointed with all the random stuff from periodic trends to term labels to the tree diagrams for splitting in nmr but the individual components are interesting enough and not hard.
>physical (and quantum)
I like QM in that it is both logical and illogical at the same time, you gotta change your whole view on chemistry and electrons. I don't like the maths, or rather the questions we need to be able to answer feel a bit contrived. Symmetry is a mixed bag. I can understand everything but sometimes I have trouble identifying improper rotation (Sn operation).
>labs
Boring. We gotta type up reports on our experiments (shockingly) but I fail to see how making us write out the instructions but from a neutral and past perspective is anything other than busywork. My lab partner is the flattest girl I've ever seen, I'm honestly impressed that someones boobs could not grow or even shrink after puberty. She's capable when it comes to following the instructions at least but not the most intelligent. I remember this week trying in vain to explain that % error between titrations will use the adjusted titre when the mass of solid is varying. No we can't take the standard titres when mass 1 was 0.1356 and the second was 0.1082 g.

>>9598746
I have found the key to Rxn mechanisms is understanding stereoelectronic effects. Using relative nucleo/electrophilicities have served me well. HOMO/LUMO interactions are also useful, but not necessary

>>9596285
I want to construct a mean apparatus to extract cannabis oil and make THC Acetate; aside from this I want to get into the extraction of essential oils. I need a safety glove box for some of the extraction procedures that I've been going over. Inert is a chemical company that has some awesome ones.. for the right price. Nuclear atomic theory is the start of the drop down the rabbit hole. I'm barely learning to balance my equations, but I want to scale all the way to phase diagrams before I start any actual procedures.

>>9598532
Did the government show up? That's a pretty serious accident.

I'm a freshman biochem major at a Christian music school. I just got the opportunity to participate in a paid physics internship over the summer.

>>9593369
>Chemistry
not science or math

>>9595829 >>9593369
analytical chemistry = anal chem = anal sex

>>9599653
Lol

>>9599629
No need to report as it was not a release to the environment. Additionally, I was on the first floor when the secondary vent line became dislodged. Was able to pacify the belching and call for more experienced hands to remediate the situation.

>>9596048
Was she the cute young professor?

>>9595829
Good luck with spatially visualizing the steroselectivity of allylated aldehydes using E & Z crotylboron reagents, without using Zimmerman-Traxler Transition State Theory on paper with pen

Can anyone redpill me on analytical chemistry and food science? Are those meme subjects?

>>9600386
If you want a job then you're good. Every place that makes anything edible has a guy doing quality control on samples from batch processes at all stages of production. Have to make sure they don't send out 5 million cans of tomato soup full of bacteria.

Food science is figuring out what food-grade chemicals can be added to this product to make it do what the business people want it to do.

The problem is you're going to be doing the same thing forever, but you'll always have a job. For some people this is hell and for some this is making it.

>>9599653
Analytical chemistry is really the worst field of chemistry. Wow so you have a billion goddamn ways to discriminate incredibly trace amounts of ruthenium, big fucking deal.

>>9602161
Thanks mate, however is analytical chem as bad as >>9602168 said?

>>9603266
I don't think so, discriminating trace amounts of an atom has an application somewhere in which those trace amounts can either be extremely harmful or need to be kept at minute concentrations to function. Here are some papers:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003267005014364
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165993612001987
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cr5005524

>>9603266
I'm about to graduate in chemistry and from what I've heard, yes, analytical chemistry jobs are universally hated. I don't mind doing repetitive work so I'll probably be fine, but for people who do, anal chem can be suicide-inducing.

Mech E student here. Can I join u guys? I agree physicists r dumb

>>9593369
Anyone got any experience with tr-2D SFG IR spectroscopy?

>>9603286
>>9603288
Thanks anon, that kinda cleared out my doubts in what degrees I would choose to study. But what can you do with the anal chem degrees besides doing environmental stuff?

>>9598537
Sorry to hear buddy

>>9603308
Inject potassium into your heart, cunt.

>>9598746
I think what you will find is that deeper study will provide deeper appreciation of the problems each field grapples with today.

Also, lab classes are just vehicles to make you aware of how conducting science actually works. Lab reports are kind of garbage, but they will give you the skill to write for peer review.

>>9600386
I just had to decide between starting a Master in Biological Chemistry or Food Chemistry and Toxicology. Both things I am interested in, but in the end I went for biochem.
According to my research, what >>9602161 said is true. You will get a job with food chem. But it probably will be a repetetive/boring.
I chose Biochem because the Degree simply has a much wider appeal. You'll be able to get into Medicine/Pharma/Molecular Biology/Analytical Chem/... AND Food Chem. So in my opinion I'd just be limiting myself with the latter.

Also I have no idea why people hate on Analytical Chem. There isn't much memorisation and it is pretty logical. Personally never had problems with it.

What's chem bio like?

18 year old fag in high school here.

I'm a perfect student in chemistry (especially quantum chemistry and organic) and I'm giving national exams this year to enter university where my two main options are Chem and Biochem.

Anyone care to line up the pros/cons of each one? I've done my own research but I'm not experienced enough to come to a conclusion. Also, how important are mathematics in chemistry in general? (as in, someone who was ignorant in maths during his childhood could start from the bottom if need be).

>>9595400
Why are non chem students allowed in your labs? In my shithole in order to participate in lab lessons if you're not a student there is to have some sort of relationship with a professor, even though you can attend lectures at will

>>9606439
I don't really mind doing the repetitive jobs anyways so thats okay.
I guess biochem is kinda alright but I think it would only touch only the surface of everything.
You've finished that degree already? How was it?