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/sci/ - Science & Math

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2099604 No.2099604 [Reply] [Original]

>not knowing what to do
>weighing directly onto balances
>setting up retort stands wrong
>not wearing gloves
>throwing solvents down the general drain
>receiving dirty glassware
>trying to remove organic compounds with soap and water for 30 minutes
>getting nervous when running out of time
>putting acetone washed glassware on the air-drier
>fucking around with dry ice
>using chlorine outside the fume cupboard
>stealing other people's glassware
>writing illegible lab notes
>spilling everything on lab notes
>forgetting to weigh bag/flask/bottle
>using acetone to get sample into a plastic sample bag (what the fuck, seriously?)
>demonstrators losing hope in humanity

>> No.2099610

oh fuck I lol'd. I remember I clueless I felt on my first lab.

>> No.2099617
File: 504 KB, 776x509, ss13postcard[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2099617

>>2099604
Sounds like a space station 13 story.

>> No.2099621

>spill acyl chloride in fume cupboard
>mop up with tissue paper
>throw away in general bin
>room starts stinking
>Keep quiet while demonstrators discuss what's wrong and put all fume cupboards onto emergency exhaust mode.

>> No.2099625

>leftover sodium in conical flask
>decide to dispose of it by dissolving it
>in water

Fuck, I wish I was making this up.

>> No.2099653

>foreign demonstrator
>comes over to ask what you're doing
>panic
>she barely understands what you tell her
>you barely understand the response
>demonstrator just does that step for you
>she wants to fuck

>> No.2099666

>hose not properly secured onto Liebig condenser
>turns the tap on a little too far
>hose starts flailing around and filling the fume cupboard with water
>always, always without fail, they turn the tap the wrong way and increase the stream of water to a torrent that floods the entire fume hood

>> No.2099678

>>2099666

This exact thing happened today.

Completely wrecked their sample.

>> No.2099694

>lecturer entering lab without safety gear
>no one gives a fuck

>> No.2099715

I'm in sixth form (American equivalent would be grade 11 and 12) and pretty much no one makes any mistakes like this. So those must be some stupid undergrad's.
BTW i go to a crappy public school that just got out of special measures.

>>2099625
Your facial expression then must have been priceless.

>> No.2099738

>Carry out experiments like a boss
>Guy is working across the bench from me
>His bunsen detaches from its hose at the burner end (so it's still attached to the open tap)
>Gas flows freely from the tube and ignites
>Tube proces to flail about like a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man
>Dangerous flamethrower situation is created
>lols are had

>> No.2099739

>>2099715

Sixth form practicals take like 50 minutes.

In university you're in the lab for 6-8 hours, you're never told what to do and all you have is a basic script which is usually unclear.

Stuff like weighing onto the balance is pretty stupid, but a practical in school is in a different league to this.

>> No.2099749

Once in 11th grade a girl picked up an unlabeled bottle and sprayed me with its contents (I'm hoping she assumed it was water). Luckily it was only vinegar.

>> No.2099747

>every lab assignment becomes a collaborative assignment with everyone else within 10 yrds
>which sample is DIW and which is acetone? how the fuck do you not remember?
>hairy jamaican male lab TA always feels my back as he passes. holds my hand in a handshake for 15 seconds. wat

>chlorine and bromine liquid are stored openly in those plastic squeeze containers
>thick gas spills out everywhere whenever we need chlorine
>still not sure if i should have been worried

>> No.2099756

>have to use pyridine for a reaction
>some of them measure out the liquid outside of the fume hood (wtf)
>pyridine spills all over the bench
>entire lab starts smelling like cum

This is even better in bio lab, when people are doing DNA electrophoresis and working with β-mercaptoethanol.

>> No.2099758

>>2099749
If it was fucking 11th grade, what did you expect; dimethylmercury?

>> No.2099764

>>2099758
HCl, NaOH, H2SO4, ect.

>> No.2099771

>need to perform vacuum filteration
>sample is in DCM and ether
>fucking reeks
>no one is doing it in the fume cupboard
>ask Russian demonstrator if we're meant to do it on the bench
>receive unintelligible response and shrugging motion
>proceed to do it on bench
>wasn't too bad after all
>clearing up
>well, I'll just throw this flask down the sink
>oh fuck
>leave the sink
>watch from a distance as demonstrators are crowding around it

>> No.2099772

>>2099758
My chem teacher was a retard. We had bottles of hydrochloric acid just sitting around for anyone to pick up if they took the notion.

>> No.2099792

>>2099764

Yeah like 0.2mol/litre or similar. It would have done fuck all to you. Even though they make you wear goggles and shit you're never in any danger whatsoever in school.

>> No.2099796
File: 28 KB, 331x311, 1287544688913.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2099796

> gel set; agarose, TAE, Ethidium Bromide
>electrophoresed in TBE
>mfw not my group

>> No.2099825

>>2099792
We had 16 Molar H2SO4 in yr 12 chemistry.

>> No.2099844

>>2099825

That's nice we had the large hadron collider in year 10 physics.

>> No.2099851

>>2099844
We had Charles Darwin's man-ape skeleton in year 7 biology.

>> No.2099852

>>2099844
In year 10 physics class we had a 3 M chuck norris

>> No.2099854

>>2099825

>16 Molar H2SO4
>yr 12 chemistry

Nope.

>> No.2099855

>>2099854

Why not?

>> No.2099860

>>2099854
Maybe it's Social Darwinism

>> No.2099866

>>2099855

>ridiculously concentrated
>not commercially available in that concentration
>the fumes would be hazardous
>no practical need for this concentration in a school

1.6M is a common concentration. It was likely that.

>> No.2099871

>girl reads instructions for practical
>takes note of "seal the apparatus from the the air using teflon tape"
>wraps tape around the joints where the water hoses connect to the condenser

OK, so it's not *dangerously* stupid, but I asked her why she would do such a thing and her response was basically "lol, I dunno". One of the technicians asked her about it but just left shaking his head.

>> No.2099882

>>2099871
Stupidity is generally dangerous in a chemistry lab.

>> No.2099892

>not knowing what to do
Nope
>weighing directly onto balances
Nope
>setting up retort stands wrong
Nope
>not wearing gloves
Sometimes
>throwing solvents down the general drain
ERRDAY
>receiving dirty glassware
ERRDAY
>trying to remove organic compounds with soap and water for 30 minutes
2 minutes
>getting nervous when running out of time
Sometimes
>putting acetone washed glassware on the air-drier
Nope
>fucking around with dry ice
ERRDAY
>using chlorine outside the fume cupboard
ERRDAY
>stealing other people's glassware
ERRDAY
>writing illegible lab notes
ERRDAY
>spilling everything on lab notes
ERRDAY
>forgetting to weigh bag/flask/bottle
ERRDAY
>using acetone to get sample into a plastic sample bag (what the fuck, seriously?)
Don't understand...
>demonstrators losing hope in humanity
ERRDAY

>> No.2099906

>using acetone to get sample into a plastic sample bag (what the fuck, seriously?)
Though these are all great, this is my favourite. I also like when undergrads try to wash plastic weigh boats with acetone.

When I was an undergrad, I had a lab partner who really liked cleaning up, so much so that she would frequently discard our products before we'd weighed them. Sometimes I'd even tell her, "I haven't weighed that yet," and as soon as I turned away she'd happily take it and dump it into the waste bottle.

>> No.2099921

>>2099866

>ridiculously concentrated

It's not that ridiculous.

>not commercially available in that concentration

100% sulfuric acid is commercially available. I do believe 16M sulfuric acid is indeed commercially available, although it's usually marketed as a percentage of sulfuric acid rather than molar.

>the fumes would be hazardous

That's what hoods are for.

>no practical need for this concentration in a school

Stock solution

>1.6M is a common concentration. It was likely that.

1.6M is commonly made by diluting 16M ten fold.

>> No.2099924

>>2099747
>chlorine and bromine liquid are stored openly in those plastic squeeze containers
>thick gas spills out everywhere whenever we need chlorine
>still not sure if i should have been worried
Someone working in the chemical storage room at my old school left several large containers of bromine sealed with rubber stoppers over the summer. The building was closed for renos that year, so no one went in and out... there weren't even any grad students around. When someone finally opened the building in mid-July, they found that everything--everything--had been bleached white.

>> No.2099925

>>2099866
>>2099854
>>2099844
It was indeed 16M, our school used to make their own acid solutions, I remember it distinctly, the stuff was like syrup - we used it to burn holes in the desks.

Of course we were not 'supposed' to use it, but our teacher was a bro.

>> No.2099934

>>2099854
Coming from someone who's in AP Chem at the moment, I can say that there is indeed 16M H2SO4. We have to dilute our own acid for most of our labs from the concentrated form.

>> No.2099938

>>2099854

[ ] told
[X] fucking told

>> No.2099939

>>2099892

>>using acetone to get sample into a plastic sample bag (what the fuck, seriously?)
>Don't understand...

He had a RBF full of sample.

He asked the demonstrator how to get it out.

Demonstrator assumed it he meant to clean it, says "use acetone."

Guy squirts acetone into RBF, crystals dissolve, he pours it into a sample bag, hilarity ensues. 6 hours down the drain.

>> No.2099946

>>2099924
Lies, I have seen the results of unstopped bromine exposure in a flammable cupboard, everything turned a deep red / brown. Br doesn't bleach shit white, it stains shit shit-color.

>> No.2099956

>>2099946
Yeah, this is what I thought.

>>2099939
Oh I understand haha

>> No.2099972

i'm terrible at setting up circuits.

i think i'm intelligent but something about fucking oscilloscopes throws me.

>> No.2100039

>demonstrators not looking
>pour chlorinated waste down drain

>> No.2100053

>>2099972
Spend some time messing with scopes outside labtime.

Their interfaces make a degree of sense, but it's not easy to see how until you're a bit experienced with them. Once you're comfortable, though, you'll find that they are something you can't live without, and you blow a few hundred on your own.

>> No.2100057

>do something wrong
>lecturer isn't looking
>frantically run through steps to get the sample out of sight/to a condition where fuck-up isn't clear
>contradicted the script multiple times
>get best sample at the end
>wait, what

>> No.2100060

>>2099738
Some guy did this 4 feet from me when we were cracking some alkanes. I carried on working, until I realised other people were panicking.

>> No.2100069

This thread concludes that throwing chlorinated solvents down the drain is a common theme.

>> No.2100070

>>2099938
I've used 20 mol acid (not sure which either sulphuric or nitric) before and I'm in year 12.

>> No.2100073
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2100073

We have those big boxes filled with argon to keep samples away from the air.

>mfw I replaced the Ar bottle by an Air bottle ...

Fuck, the bottle had the same colours and that little "i" was the only difference.

>> No.2100079

>synthesise some bromine-containing compound
>it becomes brown/dark-reddish
>need to heat it in test tube
>start heating in a fume cupboard
>bubbles, bubbles everywhere
>whole sample blows out of the test tube onto the white fume cupboard wall
>all wall is brown
>walk away, never tell anyone

>> No.2100080

>undergrads working with chlorine for first time
>explicitly told not to inhale it
>one sticks head in fume cupboard
>coughing fit, nothing more than irritation
>"I was seeing if it smelled like swimming pools"

>> No.2100087

>do something wrong
>don't tell anyone
>my lab marks are more valuable than these 100 people's lives

>> No.2100089

>>2100087
Feels bad but so fucking true

>> No.2100090
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2100090

A classic faux-pas.

>> No.2100106
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2100106

Also a classic

>> No.2100111

>>2099854
>>2099866
Often the people in charge of the chemistry department at schools have stuff stored away that they'd never use in experiments.

Our head of chemistry was telling us about how his predecessor was given a series of Lanthanides and actinides by this company "as a gift" because disposing of htem according to regulations would cost money, so he just accepted these highly radioactive lumps of metal and kept them in the school science building's basement for years until he retired.

Then he told us about this other school he worked at where there was a jar of highly toxic, highly volatile organic solvent kept in a large jar on the top shelf of a lab for no ucking reason whatsoever, and if it had been knocked over at any point every person in the room would have died.

So I don't find it too hard to believe that there was a bottle of 16M H2SO4 in one of their labs.

>> No.2100114

>>2100106
Lmao fucking hated titrations

>> No.2100126

>>2100111

>Our head of chemistry was telling us about how his predecessor was given a series of Lanthanides and actinides by this company "as a gift"

Oh lawd.

Someone I know accidentally synthesised Ricin and had no idea what to do with it so they just left it in the basement until they left that job.

That was a scientific/medical facility though, not a school. It's probably still in the basement.

>> No.2100139

Did I set up this suction filtration correctly?
Yes
Next week:
Did I set up this suction filtration correctly?
Yes...
Next week:
Did I set up this suction filtration correctly?
Yes..................

>> No.2100143

>>2100126
>accidently synthesised rycin
>accidently synthesised complex globular protein
Im going to call bullshit

>> No.2100146

>>2100126
>synthesized a >500aa protein
>accidentally

>> No.2100147

>>2100139

>suction filtration
>get a weird funnel
>filter paper barely fits
>can't use deionised water to stick it down
>pour a small amount of solvent in
>barely sticks
>proceed
>seems fine
>look at the flask
>half the sample is at the bottom

>> No.2100151

>schlenk line
>paranoid about liquid oxygen being generated

>> No.2100152

>using bunsen burners, watch as someone attaches burner hose to vac instead of gas
>dropped glass, dropped glass everywhere
>somehow managed to drop the sand bin containing broken glass one day
>placing sodium metal in test tube that was freshly washed and still wet
>confusing bromothymol blue with copper (II) sulfate because "they were both blue"

>> No.2100159

>making KBr disks for solid sample IR
>breaks in hand on way to machine

>> No.2100166

>washing up
>ACETONE FOR EVERYTHING
>TIP WASTE DOWN GENERAL DRAIN
>LEAVE GLASSWARE UPSIDE ON A TISSUE
>THROW TISSUE IN PAPER BIN
>finish in record time every week

>> No.2100164

>>2100147
Why couldn't you use deionized water?

>> No.2100162

>>2100111
>>2100111
>>2100111
you have no idea.


pretty much every single "old school" biochemistry lab in the entire western world...

you know, brick building, outdated architecture, but up to date research gear...


those labs with lots of old shit from professors from like 1920?
ether. ether forms a PRIMARY (read: extremely) explosive peroxide polymer upon exposure to oxygen.


ether is sold with a stabilizer like TEMPO or BHT to prevent this radical polymerization.
eventually, however, it all gets used up and you have an ether bottle that contains a small layer of white precipitate at the bottom.


if you bump that bottle, the whole fucking building is going to explode.

>> No.2100174

>>2100164

Reusing the solvent from the flask, didn't want it diluted.

>> No.2100181

>>2100159


>on the way to machine

there is your problem right there.

bring the motar, pestel, KBr, press, wrench/screwdriver, and your sample TO the FTIR.

>> No.2100187

it is ok to pour MeOH, EthOH, AcOH, EtAc, and even Acetone down the drain.


all of those chemicals, while toxic/dangerous, can be degraded by biological organisms.


we are not talking about a chemical plant that is pouring hundreds of thousands of gallons of the stuff into a marsh or something.


the chemistry building at your school vents more toxic FUMES from its roof than you could ever poor into the water.

(no. there are no catalytic converters or machines designed to "Scrub" the air, Dimethyl sulfide goes in your hood, and goes out the roof unchanged)

>> No.2100189

>>2099666
cool triples, satan

>> No.2100191

>used filter papers
>paper bin

>> No.2100205

>spend almost an hour setting up air-free reaction
>about to heat
>forgot stirrer bar

>> No.2100217

>>2100187

For some reason I was always under the impression that once it left the fumehood it was gone.

I never actually thought about the fact all that shit has to go somewhere.

>> No.2100228

JIBUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN WO