/sci/ - Science & Math

>>9697263
>You're gonna have to know everything for your career.

This is simply not true.
Often entrance exam swill require you to have a well rounded undergraduate understanding, but if you don't do organic chemistry for example, you won't have to know it later in your career.

People specialize for a reason.

>>9697246
Difficult to say anon.

You should first gather as much information about the entrance exams and what is required of you to gain admission to each school before you decide what to study.

Get to know profs, and find one that wants you to work for them. This is the more important thing you can do.

I don't know where you are applying but consider smaller departments. Most grants are competitive and in a smaller department you can be the big fish in a small pond. It is far better than being the average fish in a huge pond.

Second, a smaller department will force you to learn more (not bottom of the barrel). You want equipment? You will have to learn how to build and fix it. If you go to top tier, you run the danger of becoming a button pusher who gets an output you don't fundamentally understand. Also technicians will do most of the real work for you and you'll never learn anything.

>>9697171
I don't know what to tell you anon except that most highly intelligent people I know typically deal with addiction and depression problems.
I was incredibly depressed in high-school because I was very aware of the state of the world and the folly of unbridled consumerism coupled with our exponentially increasing population. Being depressed doesn't help anything or anybody.


Being smarter doesn't fix your life. My biggest hurdle is and always has been motivation. I can do anything, but I still have to do it.

If you are sub 100 IQ then you should seek a simpler life, but otherwise the most valuable attributes you can have are motivation and a good work ethic, and if you want to be a good person; empathy.

>>9697148
No

I'm smarter, but I am still a flawed human being, a single person who will eventually die.

I'm happy that I am so intelligent, but being 'better' is a subjective concept.

I have my own problems and imperfections, I just happen to be more aware of them and their intricacies than most.

Also stupid people often seem happier to me.

>>9697133
Honestly, I used to think so.

When I was 12, I decided that people should only be able to use technology they understood on a fundamental level (I was really into how the electron gun in a CRT TV worked at the time). Which basically meant only me and my dad were allowed the use the TV. Not surprisingly, I was outvoted by the rest of the family and learned the power of politics.


These days, I don't know. Intelligence is not correlated with being a good person so I don't hate dumb people. I hate shitty people, and many of those people are very intelligent. The problem is, shitty smart people are just more effective at causing damage.


however, I am still surprised at how unbelievably stupid the masses can be.

>>9697122
Feels good bro,

but really I came here to answer questions.... no matter how dumb or misguided.

Additionally, I recently started giving career talks to chem grad students. Turns out, most universities don't give two fucks about preparing students for how to find jobs or start their career. (this includes my own university)

Maybe some lurkers will learn something valuable.

>>9697095
I get what you are saying but there are few things you have not considered.

1. When I go to work ~30% of the people around me also have a PhD and another 40% are PhD candidates. So I only stand out because of reasons that I mentioned earlier (especially emotional and social intelligence)

2. Never underestimate how powerful the bureaucracy is. Ever.

3. I am not exaggerating when I say collaboration is extremely important. I may be smart but I am only 1 person. I simply cannot do everything and I do not have the time to learn everything. I need experts in other fields and people to do high quality work with me (me ordering undergrads around does not get quality work done). Again, emotional intelligence is a valuable tool when dealing with other people.

The higher you go the less it is about science. This is an unfortunate reality, but it is the world we live in.

>>9697063
You still have to work with real people when you're a scientist anon. Collaboration is very important to a successful career, so yes emotional intelligence is valuable.

To clarify I don't mean Trump MAGA politics. I mean the politics of publishing, getting funding, and understanding what is happening in the scientific community and within your sub-field. Editors and reviewers are other scientists, they have their own agendas and they often have big ego's. Funding agencies have mandates and they are more often than not politically driven. Understanding these relationships is invaluable.

>>9696500
I'm not here to do your homework
read this
https://www.chem.purdue.edu/gchelp/howtosolveit/Equilibrium/Calculating_pHandpOH.htm

>>9697043
Only do it if you are passionate about it anon.

Bachelor programs are tedious and full of bullshit. I hated undergrad until 3rd year when I took experimental nanoscience.

>>9697035
Chemistry is the study of atoms and molecules while physics is the study of fundamental forces of nature. They are obviously related, but not identical.

For example, if you study how a laser interacts with molecules to learn more about the behaviour, structure and properties of the molecules you are probably a chemist. If you do it to learn more about how photons behave in certain situations you are probably a physicist.

I think of physical chemistry and chemical physics as two different view points of the same system. That one gets me, because concepts such as molecular motion and mean free path are all chemistry to me, but could easily fall into chemical physics.

>>9697032
Undergrad or grad?

>>9696469
The best way to increase your chances of getting into grad school is to find a professor who wants you in their lab.

They can put pressure on the department to accept you, provided you meet the minimum requirements.

Even still, most schools offer a 'qualifying year or term' if you do not meet minimum requirements which you can only get into if a professor wants you

>>9696229
The types of fusion processes that occur in stars depends on the age of the star, when the star was formed and how large it is.

However, Neon then Oxygen doesn't make much sense.

Perhaps he was referring to the CNO cycle and meant to say Nitrogen
see here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNO_cycle

>>9696738
Yes

>>9697002
Yes, in the same sense that physics is just applied math.

This line of thinking is called reductionism and is not very useful.

>>9697004
145

I'm doing well because I also am emotionally intelligent, I understand how the bureaucracy works, I know how to write successful grants, and I am excellent in identifying and dealing with political landscapes. The last two points are far more important than being good at experiments.

>>9696984
My article impacts range from low (ChemPhysChem, Appl. Phys. A.) some mid range stuff (Phys Chem C, Nanoscale, J. Mater. Chem. A) and some ~10 impacts like J. Phys Chem Lett, and Angewandte Chemie.

I did end up with a fairly diverse set of journals I have published in.

Always aim high. If it gets rejected then drop down a tier.
I almost got one in ACS Nano, but it was rejected on the grounds of being too specialized.

>>9695740
It depends.

If you are taking polymer composites and properties then no

if you are taking polymer synthesis then yes.

>>9691857
>Inorganic and Physical are meme-tier,

You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about

>>9690989
If I could do it over again I would have finished my math degree first then done chem.

I'm not sure about bachelor jobs, i was offered really shitty jobs with my BSc Hons. It seems most people don't even use their bachelor degrees in science.,


However, environmental science would be cool because of the flexibility in where you can live and how stupidly easy it is.

>>9689844
The way I did organic was to have all the moieties, compounds and reactions I needed on two lists.
One the names, the other the structures.

I would only look at one and try to write out the other one. Then I would repeat that over and over. It worked I got an A+

I don't like organic much personally.

Just make sure you also fundamentally understand elimination and substitution reactions (E1 E2, SN1, SN2) and all the effects resonance has on reactivity and properties (such as electron withdrawing/donating, and interaction with photons)

>>9688719
Yes, the control of crystal facets for metal particles works by a competitive adsorption of metal ions and a capping agent (polymer or small molecule) By tuning these you can control what face is dominant.

>>9688678
The shape of the molecule and the relative energy of the d-orbitals depends on the metal center, the strength of the ligands and even the solvent they are in. Look up the electrochemical series.

The separation between the two levels determines if it will be high spin or low spin (i.e. fill the low energy orbitals first or all of them evenly).

Tetrahedral configurations typically go high spin, and octahedral typically go low spin, but there are many exceptions.