Social networking fun for the scientific community

Happy Tax Day! Hope everyone's done their taxes and committed to a graduate school. Most of my friends got by alright, but a couple in particular struggled with making a decision (paritcular when it has something to do with turning down a certain pretigeous institution in Massachusetts). A close friend of mine decided that it's a good idea to put all the cards back on the table (i.e. reconsidering EVERY SCHOOL he had eliminated, probably half a dozen) with T minus 12 hours to commit. I think he is suffering a panic attack.

Anyway, Sam at Everyday Scientist recently talked about Epernicus, the science-y version of Linkedin. It's a pretty cool idea. The professional-social-networking website with a science twist offers many features tailored to our needs. If it gains a substantial membership base, it would be able to map out an up-to-date and accurate academic genealogy, which is really cool. I know the mathematicians have a sophisticated genealogy database, but not one that's input and updated by the scientists themselves. So check it out and let me know what you think!

Noel

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Finally... sequel to the PCR song

Jes posted this over at CBC, but I just can't help it. I was getting ready to go to bed after a hard day's work, but the adrenaline rush from watching this video is quite a beast. Finally, what I can only assume is returning due to popular demand, the Bio-Rad is at it again. The sequel to the PCR song: the GTCA song...

This stuff is legit.

On a side note, in exactly one week is the fateful day of grad school commitment. I have friends who are actually breaking out the coin for this one. Personal congratulations to Jes on UCSB. And for anyone who is heading out to the Mid-west, drop me a line!

Noel

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On the day of your very first organic chemistry midterm...

Every graduate student has a fair share of funny TA moments, but hearing these tales is nothing compared to actually experiencing them first hand. This past Friday was the very first midterm of our first semester organic chemistry course for non-chemistry majors. The TAs celebrated this historical event by spending 10.5 hours in lock-down mode, grading. True to the optimistic spirit of our department, a friend shared with us some of the highlight of her day:

"Texas carbon to the max"

"The elusive Canadian Nitrogen- it has almost TWO full octets"

"Yes, nitrogen has 4 2p orbitals"

"Where did H come from?"

And my personal favorite:

"[Professor] Frechet's quote after he saw this: "This person is going to go far in life""

On the topic of funny undergraduate responses, my post-doc mentor shared his most unforgettable memory from the good ol' days of graduate school at yet another very prestigious public institution.

Q: "Which solvent would be more likely to facilitate an SN2 reaction, H2O or DMSO? Explain."
A: "H2o. Because clearly, DMSO is not a real molecule."

What's your best TA story?

Noel

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Yo dawg, I heard you like grad school...

It's right around the time of year when a particular group of students gets extra antsy and touchy about school. Graduate school, that is. For the class of 2009 and the returning students, the next 4 weeks is the ultimate showdown: are we in?

To make matters worse, there is always that one friend with the perfect grades and the perfect references and the perfect research job with the perfect publication list. It is definitely a lousy feeling to learn that your best friend is getting all the first round draft pick while you are left in the "maybe" pile. But hey, as long as you get in, right?

So here's the waiting game. The no-call-until-three-days-after-date game. This is a game that none of us was ready to play. Ever since the new year arrived, each and every one of us checks our e-mail, online application, and snail mail obsessively. Our hearts stop at the sign of a phone call from a restricted or unknown number. Every "I got into grad school!" Facebook status and text messages from each other pulls on our heartstrings. A two-month window is too long for an emotionally vulnerable, high strung, exhausted student with sernioitis.

And what's with the schools that don't send out rejection letters? If we pay $150 for an application (app, transcript, letters, scores, etc.), the least you can do is to send us an official piece of paper to tell us that we should have tried harder in physical organic chemistry.

Now that I have received my first admission offer, I can finally take a breath and joke about it. I will never forget where exactly I was and how relieved I felt. I had just gotten back to work from an extended lunch break with my post-doc mentor. When I casually (and compulsively) checked my e-mail out of the corner of my eye, there it was: a precious little e-mail. I couldn't read through the 3rd line when my eyes started watering up.

My mentor came to my cubicle since I had called him. I pointed at the letter, speechless. When he realized what had happened, he gave me the only thing I desperately needed: a big hug. There I was, crying my eyes out in the middle of a corporate office inside a national lab. I left work that day with a new sense of certainty that I haven't felt for months and months. I am going to grad school, and nothing is going to stop that.

Cheers, congrulations, and hang in there,

Noel

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Mitch on TV on the internetz

Sorry to cut you short, Maz, but I have to make this post. Mitch's TV interview (you know, the one about spreading some chemical love to the youth) is finally available online! You can find the video clip on this page, as of today it is on the top of the page.

Alright people. Watch and discuss!

Noel

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Prepare for the big day: enviromental inspection in lab!

"The real reason that I need a laptop is so that I can take my ES&H trainings at a location where booze is allowed." - wisdom from a colleague

For some reason, Berkeley is one of the two UC's on a semester system (the other one is Merced). Because we suffer extra long academic terms, we also get out of summer early. As everyone else struggles to finish all the finals, this is my third week interning with a synthetic group. Tomorrow is somewhat a big day. It's auditing day. I want to pose this question to y'all experienced lab-goers: what's with the unspeakable fear with the EHS people?

Yesterday, I returned to the lab after some fun with Raman. I was greeted by several unfamiliar faces, poking their heads into the cabinet, drawers, refrigerators and scanning every bar code they could find (to this moment I still don't understand--all the chemicals are properly labeled and cataloged!). A colleague explained to me that the lab is getting audited by the corporate people on Wednesday. Then asked me to hold on to the trash can while he pull the extra-large hefty bag out and stick a waste tag on it.

As a former clean room and currently managed by fun, friendly, energetic PhDs who are slightly OCD about cleaning, I really think the excessive cleaning is quite an overkill. What was originally a clean and organized lab now looks spotless and eerily uninhabited. Everything is perfectly placed. Every bottle has the label facing forward. Every glassware is washed (by me) and sorted. The fume hood is now completely vacant. This place looks like some kind of model lab you can build in a conference exposition for people to visit.

Why does this happen every time the authority needs to inspect our workspace? Why is it necessary to pause and put away your active work because someone is coming in to see if you are following all the safety and environmental protocols? It's not only natural, but necessary that there are reaction running, vacuum pumping, dirty dishes waiting to be washed, spatula and wash bottles left on the bench because YOU ARE DOING YOUR JOB!

Since we finished cleaning yesterday, I went through the whole day today, working 3 projects simultaneously without disturbing the perfect details of the lab. I'm not sure if this whole deal is something EHS mandates, or it's just a thing that we as scientists do because we are embarrassed by the mess--like how I make effort to clean my room before my parents visit (kind of). Either way, I guess it's not enough to just abide to the rules on a daily basis and exercise the common sense of a good chemist, but some last minute cramming is also required.

Noel

P.S. I was unsuccessful in scanning bar codes for bottle disposal--it turned out that they don't like to be bent when you scan them. I guess retail isn't my calling, after all.

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Mitch on TV (again!)

As mentioned in the previous entry, Mitch was recently featured on TV for his contribution to research, awareness and chemical education. Because of his awesomeness (and the nature of network TV), American Latino TV plans to rerun the interview this weekend! Woot! Again, for local listing, check out this page.

When this was first aired, we had a pizza party at Mitch's place with a bunch of friends. There was never a dull moment in the short but entertaining segment. Let me assure you that this is totally worth watching. This is such an embarrassment for Mitch, complete with goggles, lab coat, baby pictures, and obviously his awesome undergraduate minions. But obviously, it's the baby pictures that made it all worthwhile.

Hopefully the clip will be available online soon for our friends and readers worldwide.

Noel

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Scientists Killed or Injured by Their Experiments

Here is another find on Reddit. This is obviously an incomplete list but definitely a good read.

Top 10 Scientists Killed or Injured by Their Experiments

As a nuclear chemist in training, I was obviously biased and went straight to look for Madame Curie. Lo and behold, she was number two on the list (boo)!

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Here's a personal addition inspired by Mitch: Antoine Lavoisier

Not quite the most scientific experiment, but a captivating story. A version was found on Ingenious Ireland: "During the French Revolution Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector, was branded a traitor and tried, sentenced and guillotined, all in one day. One story relates that Lavoisier’s final experiment was to see if a severed head remained conscious after death. He told his assistant that he would continue to blink for as long as possible after he was decapitated; the assistant apparently counted some 15 blinks."

It's very likely to be a myth, but the idea of it is still fascinating.

Does anyone have a sacrifice for science story?

Noel

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Creative gen. chem exam

It's summer, hooray! I am currently interning/vacationing in Livermore, so it'd be great if some of you guys can stop by to check on Mitch & Maz every once in a while, make sure they bathe and stuff. They would probably prefer that you bring some brownies, if possible.

Most of you Reddit addicts have probably already seen it, but I thought I would share anyway. This is one disgruntled chemistry student.

If my professor (or even TA) actually reads what we write on the exam, instead of just selectively scanning for answers, I would probably do something similar. My last creative masterpiece was a half page filled with happy faces on a lab final. The very kind and patient TA that graded the problem is probably reading this blog.

Noel

P.S. Chmist cant' spel?

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Look who I found at ACS [pic]

There's probably going to be a lack of posts from the poor undergrades (me and Maz) over the next couple of weeks due to finals. To occupy this vacancy, I will post a picture of Mitch looking lost at ACS last month. Hopefully this is entertaining enough to last for a few days. Good luck on the last sprint before summer, everyone!

"Stand here? Wait, but why....??? I'm confused!!"

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Autocorrelation Fail

Sorry to interrupt the intense discussions!

I've been sitting in the same position and working on this lab report since 2PM (I just finished a couple minutes ago, at 11PM), it was fun for a while until I realized that I have six spreadsheets open and my poor antique computer refused to run Excel any longer. I had to give up either FireFox or iTunes, so I wrote the rest of my report in silence. I could've sworn that the last time I turned around to look out the window, it was still bright outside...

And you know what Noel likes to do when she's in the middle of working on stuff... she blogs!

After a series of very serious topics, I figured I'd bright something humorous to the blog. Since there hasn't been any most of those puppehs-that-look-like-giant-Asian-skunks around, I thought I'd share something from my personal stash. I'm not sure how many of our dear readers are familiar with The Fail Blog. Take a swing at it, it's the latest graduate student time waster. Anyway, I present my latest failure...

That was not (supposed to be) noise!!!!!!! Ah chemistry... I'd still like to congratulate myself for finishing the report like a champ.

Noel

P.S. Dear pchem GSI's, if you're reading this, my data turned out perfectly. Please give me an A.

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Why does it matter? (Women in Undergraduate Chemistry)

Background: I wrote this post with intention to publish on my personal blog. When I was done, I found it pretty relevant to the atmosphere of the Chemistry Blog. Also, I thought it would be unfortunate to leave this topic unattended.

As the end of the semester approaches, I find that there is a direct correlation between the closeness to finals and the deterioration of my physical appearance. Although I consider myself lucky for being pretty decent looking, I unfortunately repay this gift by livin' it up like a real chemist-in-training.

My GRE is in two days. I've been hiding out in my cave and studying all day. I need a shower. My hair is oily and tangly. My glasses are dirty and I haven't changed out of these clothes since Friday. Last night, I was intrigued by this train wreck in my bathroom mirror when I realized something that I should have brought up long ago: it wasn't very long after I started college when I realize looking a little sloppy actually gives me an edge in school.

My mother always nags at me for wearing the same darn thing everyday: hooded sweater, t-shirt, acid-burned jeans and flip flops (sneakers if attempting synthetic methods). I wasn't like this in high school. I was put-together, moderately sociable, generally happy, and was presented with several prom date candidates as situation arose. Those days are long gone now. Now I look more like an emo little boy getting lost in a fancy college.

My first day in freshman chemistry lab wasn't what I imagined it to be. It gave me some sad preview on breaking into this community as a female student: the condescending way my male classmates talked to me, the way they hogged all the work in a collaborative procedure because "you don't know what you're doing," the way they bossed me around for the trivial chores... Even my (male) graduate instructors treats me differently.

Sometime I wondered if there was anything I could do, anyone I could talk to. But no. Instead, I put my long hair in a ponytail and put on my oversized t-shirt. Somehow when you look like one of the guys, everything is OK.

I wondered if any other girl in class felt the same way.

The situation did get a bit better as I move up the food chain. I started to know quite a few graduate students and departmental staff. I even began to mentor my own little group of 1st/2nd-year minions. But even now, walking into my final year as an undergraduate, I get odd stares if I run errands around the lab facility with a fitted shirt and my long hair flowing on a sunny afternoon.

Hello, am I the only girl in this whole freaken building?

The answer is obviously no. But the few female staff that manage to get by without getting funny looks all strangely managed to morph themselves into the stereotype of a successful female scientist: unrefined, quiet, and invisible.

Now don't even get me started on the number of times I get hit on by my graduate instructors during class and the many "hey, my face is UP HERE" moments during academic discussions. Do you know that you are whistling at a girl who is too young for you to buy a drink for? It's so not fair. I work as hard as you are, I do just as well in everything that you do, why can't you show some respect?

So please, stop acting like a sleazy pig. Because of the things you say and do, I feel obligated to look frumpy and completely covered up. I feel self-conscious for looking and acting feminine. I feel embarrassed to participate in an academic discussion or show any signs of comparable intelligence. I even feel a little inadequate on performing tasks that I am perfectly capable of doing. It's the type of workplace discrimination that nobody would ever acknowledge or address.

Also, one day, I would like my dignity back. I'm just a 20-year-old who's trying to make something out of herself.

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