Andrew Boa
@anboa4.bsky.social
Ex-academic, Chemist 🧪⚗️, Unemployed.
Then like my dreams,
they fade and die.
🇬🇧 🇮🇪 + 🇫🇷 🇪🇺
Posts about everything and nothing.
Then like my dreams,
they fade and die.
🇬🇧 🇮🇪 + 🇫🇷 🇪🇺
Posts about everything and nothing.
I made Nanaimo bars once using a Canadian tourist board recipe, and half a bar was still too much for me. I think they should be restyled as nano-aimo bars
December 7, 2025 at 5:32 PM
I made Nanaimo bars once using a Canadian tourist board recipe, and half a bar was still too much for me. I think they should be restyled as nano-aimo bars
Time to dust off (again!) the old saying "It's the hope that kills."
December 7, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Time to dust off (again!) the old saying "It's the hope that kills."
Is this a Wordle, where I've got six guesses to find the same word you're thinking of?
December 6, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Is this a Wordle, where I've got six guesses to find the same word you're thinking of?
I should have added that dicyclopentadiene (with a "ONLY DISPENSE AND USE IN THE FUMEHOOD" instruction posted everywhere) was being used in one of the experiments that day. So there was the odd whiff of it around anyway. It's use was banned in the teaching labs thereafter.
December 6, 2025 at 4:02 PM
I should have added that dicyclopentadiene (with a "ONLY DISPENSE AND USE IN THE FUMEHOOD" instruction posted everywhere) was being used in one of the experiments that day. So there was the odd whiff of it around anyway. It's use was banned in the teaching labs thereafter.
This did not prevent him from mistaking the bottle of dicyclopentadiene for dichloromethane and doing a liquid-liquid extraction on the open bench. This came to light quickly when a number of students working near him asked to be excused because of thumping headaches.
December 6, 2025 at 2:47 PM
This did not prevent him from mistaking the bottle of dicyclopentadiene for dichloromethane and doing a liquid-liquid extraction on the open bench. This came to light quickly when a number of students working near him asked to be excused because of thumping headaches.
Once I had a year 2 direct entry student from overseas in my lab. They'd not done the intro labs and their English was not good. In week 1, their lab manual was however annotated with tiny characters almost to the level of a parallel translation in the line spacings........ (cont)
December 6, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Once I had a year 2 direct entry student from overseas in my lab. They'd not done the intro labs and their English was not good. In week 1, their lab manual was however annotated with tiny characters almost to the level of a parallel translation in the line spacings........ (cont)
As a follow up, we had mix ups with dimethyl malonate methoxide used on the same days as diethyl malonate/ethoxide. And students using ethyl acetate for their Claisen instead of the instructed ethyl phenylacetate.
Fortunately none of these led to accidents but one final case was more worrying.
Fortunately none of these led to accidents but one final case was more worrying.
December 6, 2025 at 2:25 PM
As a follow up, we had mix ups with dimethyl malonate methoxide used on the same days as diethyl malonate/ethoxide. And students using ethyl acetate for their Claisen instead of the instructed ethyl phenylacetate.
Fortunately none of these led to accidents but one final case was more worrying.
Fortunately none of these led to accidents but one final case was more worrying.
And he shows me the methanol bottle......!
So half the class had made acetic acid instead of menthol, and lost it in the work up.
Lesson to future students: don't be a sheep and follow without thinking, looking and reading labels.
So half the class had made acetic acid instead of menthol, and lost it in the work up.
Lesson to future students: don't be a sheep and follow without thinking, looking and reading labels.
December 6, 2025 at 2:20 PM
And he shows me the methanol bottle......!
So half the class had made acetic acid instead of menthol, and lost it in the work up.
Lesson to future students: don't be a sheep and follow without thinking, looking and reading labels.
So half the class had made acetic acid instead of menthol, and lost it in the work up.
Lesson to future students: don't be a sheep and follow without thinking, looking and reading labels.
Has the something gone off, I thought? The call of "I used the same menthol as him/her went down the line". Panicking I wondered what to do when Dave (the technician) sidled up and whispered "no one has checked out any menthol from the store yet".
"Where's the menthol you used?" I asked student 1.
"Where's the menthol you used?" I asked student 1.
December 6, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Has the something gone off, I thought? The call of "I used the same menthol as him/her went down the line". Panicking I wondered what to do when Dave (the technician) sidled up and whispered "no one has checked out any menthol from the store yet".
"Where's the menthol you used?" I asked student 1.
"Where's the menthol you used?" I asked student 1.
"Hey" an indignant student said, "I got no solid, this experiment sucks" (or words to that effect). "I got no solid" another one shouts, "and me", a third, as I see a *long* line behind student 1, all with empty flasks.
Cripes what's happened here I think. It's supposed to be a reliable experiment.
Cripes what's happened here I think. It's supposed to be a reliable experiment.
December 6, 2025 at 2:13 PM
"Hey" an indignant student said, "I got no solid, this experiment sucks" (or words to that effect). "I got no solid" another one shouts, "and me", a third, as I see a *long* line behind student 1, all with empty flasks.
Cripes what's happened here I think. It's supposed to be a reliable experiment.
Cripes what's happened here I think. It's supposed to be a reliable experiment.
When I was a newly fledged faculty member I was in charge (on my own) of a lab full of about 40 first year undergraduates. On paper the experiment was simple, oxidation of menthol, but I'd never actually done it myself. After work up and evaporation of solvent a solid, menthone, was expected.
December 6, 2025 at 2:07 PM
When I was a newly fledged faculty member I was in charge (on my own) of a lab full of about 40 first year undergraduates. On paper the experiment was simple, oxidation of menthol, but I'd never actually done it myself. After work up and evaporation of solvent a solid, menthone, was expected.
Hate FIFA, not football.
December 6, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Hate FIFA, not football.
It's the "you have to pay top dollar to get an authorised repairer to replace the whole light assembly instead of a 50 cent part" scenario.
December 4, 2025 at 8:57 PM
It's the "you have to pay top dollar to get an authorised repairer to replace the whole light assembly instead of a 50 cent part" scenario.
Reference to 2-ethylhexanoic acid made me think of 2-ethylhexanol, and then dioctylphthalate and the plasticizer contamination nightmares (😱) most synthetic chemists have endured at one point in their chemical lives.
December 4, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reference to 2-ethylhexanoic acid made me think of 2-ethylhexanol, and then dioctylphthalate and the plasticizer contamination nightmares (😱) most synthetic chemists have endured at one point in their chemical lives.
Not biotech or pharma, but I asked a friend working in the industrial chemistry consultancy sector about this and he said you need to first decide what you want / can offer expertly. One person is unlikely to have enough knowledge in all areas for someone to actually want to pay them.
December 2, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Not biotech or pharma, but I asked a friend working in the industrial chemistry consultancy sector about this and he said you need to first decide what you want / can offer expertly. One person is unlikely to have enough knowledge in all areas for someone to actually want to pay them.
RFK's piles seem to be bothering him in that clip.
December 2, 2025 at 8:22 PM
RFK's piles seem to be bothering him in that clip.
...and regular ground beef (hormone free!) is probably a shade over half that price.
December 1, 2025 at 9:16 PM
...and regular ground beef (hormone free!) is probably a shade over half that price.
Better quality (i.e. lower intensity farming) supermarket ground beef in the UK is the equivalent of $7.50 a pound.
December 1, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Better quality (i.e. lower intensity farming) supermarket ground beef in the UK is the equivalent of $7.50 a pound.
Other than your book, of course, the chemistry offering was really crap for such a large shop in a major university town. Physics had *many* metres of shelving, but chemistry had hardly anything. Took me ages to find what little was on offer.
December 1, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Other than your book, of course, the chemistry offering was really crap for such a large shop in a major university town. Physics had *many* metres of shelving, but chemistry had hardly anything. Took me ages to find what little was on offer.