There was a brief period of time my junior year of undergrad when I wanted to be an organic chemist, so I took the graduate level organic synthesis class.
This wasn’t even the advanced ochem class, it was specifically synthesis for actual organic chemists, and it was just me and two other undergrads surrounded by first year grad students.
Anyways, the exams were these hellish two hour affairs which probably stand as the most difficult exams I’ve ever taken, and we all knew they were going to be bad going into the first midterm but not how bad.
So about forty minutes into the first two hour midterm one of the grad students gets up and turns in his test. The rest of us were like still on the first page so we were all kind of impressed that he was done already.
He leaves the room, and then from the hallway we hear him yell “fucking fuck,” and I think that was the purest expression of how midterms and finals feel that I have ever encountered.
I just knew that my inherent mistrust of AI would save me someday
Researchers from Georgia Tech, backed by money from the Air Force, ran a test to see if people trying to escape from a high-rise building would trust a robot to lead them. Overwhelmingly, the sheeple followed the little droid to their simulated deaths. In the video, the researchers theorize why people obliged.
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If there was a sitcom based on my lab it would be a comedy of errors and near catastrophe featuring the Lab Weirdo™, the Confused Undergrad™, the Done With This Shit Fifth Year™, the Fourth Year Who Is The Only Person Who Knows How The Instruments Work But Is Impossible To Find™, the Ever Present Third Year™, and the Exhausted Second Year™
It would be called “Don’t Quench the Magnet”
When Given Colored Construction Paper, Wasps Build Rainbow Colored Nests
Locality:
Clara Mine, Rankach valley, Oberwolfach, Wolfach, Black Forest, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Cuprite is commonly found as an oxidation product of copper sulphides in the upper zones of veins, often associated with Native Copper, Malachite,Azurite, Limonite and Chalcocite. A fibrous form of Cuprite is known as Chalcotrichite
Photo: Michael Förch
Congratulations on adopting a scientist! Regardless of their field they will require much coffee, free food, and love. Here are some field specific tips for keeping your scientist happy and healthy!
Biology: make sure they don't get overly invested in their model organism by reminding them about the flaws inherent in their system on a regular basis, but also make sure to join in when they criticize other models in favor of their own
Chemistry: don't let them do that 'just one more reaction' at 10 pm. make sure they get out of the lab and see the sun on a regular basis. try to keep them from partying too hard when they do leave the lab
Geology: humor their rock puns but don't let the lick the rocks (they will tell you they need to lick the rocks to identify them, but don't fall for it)
Astronomy: try not to let them become completely nocturnal. point out nice stars to them and look suitably impressed by their "pictures" of planets that don't look like anything to you
Physics: take them to the park on a regular basis to remind them that things larger than subatomic particles exist. bring a frisbee or a ball to play catch with and be impressed by their ability to calculate trajectories
Math: always make sure to have free batteries for their calculators and a mathmatica user guide on hand. Humor them when they tell you why space without angles is important
Ecology: make sure they remember to wear sunscreen and keep an eye on them in the field. Remind them to come inside and analyze their data occasionally
Psychology: don't mention Freud or ever call them a soft or social science, but make sure you gently remind them that social factors can impact reproducibility and try to keep them from drawing sweeping conclusions about the inherent nature of humanity
Neuroscience: be suitably impressed by their newest experiment and then remind them that people are not mice as often as possible
Computer Science: make sure they take breaks while debugging by limiting their supply of coffee. Nod and smile when they go off on indexing and arrays. Make sure they always have a rubber duck.
Make sure to keep your scientist away from engineers unless they have been properly socialized to interact in a translational household. The most important thing is to remember to hug your scientist on a regular basis and remind them that there is life outside the lab
Obtain High School level Chemistry textbook.
Open the book to chapter one, section one.
Locate and identify the goals of chapter one: basic definition of chemistry.
Discover that EVERYTHING IS MADE OF CHEMICALS.
Whew. That was pretty scary, wasn’t it? Education is hard. Learning about scary chemicals is a big adventure. But aren’t you glad you pulled through? I’m glad we had this talk.