Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Chemist's Nightmare

Fantasma4500 - 12-12-2013 at 08:48

List up a few scenarios or actual stories you have heard or even experienced about chemistry, as in bad cases.

2 things i wouldnt be happy about as a start

spilling a large bottle of superfine MnO2 powder

having the bottom of a glass H2SO4 98% container dropping out, out of nowhere.

bfesser - 12-12-2013 at 09:01

<strong><a href="viewthread.php?tid=24908">Bad days in the lab or with glassware?</a></strong>

DraconicAcid - 12-12-2013 at 09:18

The only chemistry-related nightmare I've had was the one where I was about to do my candidacy exam (at my university, there were three big exams in your PhD work- the 502 seminar, the candidacy exam, and the thesis defense, and many people considered the candidacy exam the hardest). The chief examiner was sitting in the audience wearing a long blonde wig (not very fitting for the masculine Hungarian that he was), and I started to talk about justice for the third world. Even in my dream, I knew that this was the wrong way to introduce the topic of organorhodium phosphine complexes.

I do still occasionally have bad dreams in which I realize I haven't done any research towards my thesis in years, and my supervisor's gonna kill me. It usually takes me a few minutes after I've woken up to remember that my thesis was finished and defended many years ago, and I no longer need to any research towards it.

Random - 12-12-2013 at 10:32

Is manganese dioxide really so bad? I frequently had it on my fingers when I experimented, I hope I don't have manganism because I noticed some symptoms lately

elementcollector1 - 12-12-2013 at 10:35

I thought manganism was only by ingestion.

mayko - 12-12-2013 at 10:35

Quote: Originally posted by Antiswat  


having the bottom of a glass H2SO4 98% container dropping out, out of nowhere.


This happened to my dad in grad school. He was hefting a jug into the hood, tinked the bottom against the edge, and it all dropped out. He jumped into the hood before it hit the floor.

Galinstan - 12-12-2013 at 12:08

The worst chemistry related insedent iv had happen was when i was refluxing a mixture of KMNo4 solution with some organic upper phase ( i can't remember what it was any-more) and the flask broke and spilled the contents in to the oil bath which on contact with the contents instantly began to boil and spray hot oil and KMNO4 solution every were it took ours to clean up and luckily no one was injured.

Pyro - 12-12-2013 at 12:21

Having the bottom of my big bottle of Br2 fall off

bismuthate - 12-12-2013 at 12:41

F2 need I say more?

hyfalcon - 12-12-2013 at 12:54

Mercury spill in the bedroom.

Pyro - 12-12-2013 at 13:05

hehe, you shouldn't even have Hg in the bedroom

elementcollector1 - 12-12-2013 at 13:19

Quote: Originally posted by Pyro  
hehe, you shouldn't even have Hg in the bedroom


Well, where else am I to keep my hat-making machinery?

On a more on-topic note, how about when my camp burner exploded while bromine was distilling right on top of it?

bfesser - 12-12-2013 at 13:37

Quote: Originally posted by hyfalcon  
Mercury spill in the bedroom.
Been there; done that.

phlogiston - 12-12-2013 at 14:11

A large beaker in which I was dissolving lead metal in boiling nitric acid broke, spilling 2 liters of hot, corrosive, toxic saturated lead nitrate solution. Fortunately, most of it was contained by preventive measures, but I still couldn't rest before cleaning the fumehood/nearby lab space meticulously several times over to assure there were no small drops/particles remaining.

[Edited on 12-12-2013 by phlogiston]

Fenir - 12-12-2013 at 16:11

I once saw an individual try to heat a buret with a bunsen burner. By the time I warned him the buret had already cracked.

Jmap science - 13-12-2013 at 05:54

I had a small lab fire and destroid part of my desk. still cleaning up, My friend spilled a bottle of KMnO4 on carpet.

I had a hand in a thermite reaction once. Im all better but I still remember...

dontasker - 13-12-2013 at 10:53

Not really what I would consider as "cemistry", but I had the bottom of a 5 gallon carboy of young wine give out. Red wine. House smelled great, but ruined carpet in a nearby room and did a number on the drywall.

Other than that, H2SO4 burns and dropping a large box of glassware.

[Edited on 14-12-2013 by dontasker]

DraconicAcid - 13-12-2013 at 11:50

Quote: Originally posted by dontasker  
Not really what I would consider as "cemistry", but I had the bottom of a 5 gallon cardboy of young wine give out. Red wine. House smelled great, but ruined carpet in a nearby room and did a number on the drywall.


My mother had a bottle explode while she was out of town...it broke a huge chunk out of one of her full carboys.

subsecret - 14-12-2013 at 09:09

I had a CO2 generator spray HCl all over the lab. Luckily I stepped aside quickly enough to avoid the shower. The good thing about HCl is that it doesn't leave residue.

BlackDragon2712 - 14-12-2013 at 10:23

Quote: Originally posted by hyfalcon  
Mercury spill in the bedroom.

hahahaha I know that feel bro!

Fantasma4500 - 14-12-2013 at 13:53

interesting as you can never find what you need when you need it..
came across video of some french scientists of some kind, where they pour some weird fluoride compound onto gloves and all
the video is of some corny quality, when they pour it on the glove i recall it as being a very loud bang
didnt expect anybody to having heard of a person experiencing the H2SO4 thing.. very lucky ..

speaking of H2SO4.. i know a guy who has around 4L 65% H2O2 standing in his garage in a glass jar right next to 165% H2SO4 / 65% oleum, also a 4L jar, not sure how much is in there
if i just mention piranha mix, do i need to add anything else to get you guys imagining the same things i do??
he worked at a factory where they used it - it closed down - he was a really good worked - 'take what you want' and he did..

TheChemiKid - 14-12-2013 at 14:11

Quote: Originally posted by Pyro  
Having the bottom of my big bottle of Br2 fall off

This happened to me once, it was terrible. Luckily it was on a concrete floor.

Pyro - 14-12-2013 at 14:12

how big was the bottle?

TheChemiKid - 14-12-2013 at 14:33

It was a 125 mL bottle. There was about 50mL of bromine. It was a huge cleanup. Luckily I had 5 pounds of sodium thiosulfate on hand.

Pyro - 14-12-2013 at 16:48

well consider yourself lucky! I was referring to my 500ml bottle (450ml Br2)

Nitrovolt - 19-12-2013 at 11:49

a cloud of phosgene in the laboratory, of that you do not go : (

smaerd - 20-12-2013 at 07:19

My night-mares usually consist of: Peroxides in my ether's, Spilling reaction mixtures containing DMSO on my skin, etc.

Random - 22-12-2013 at 17:50

I am infact scared of toxic gases a lot. Now if I had a distant location outside with nothing around it I would be scared a lot less.

Arthur Dent - 27-12-2013 at 16:45

My modest extra-light nightmare was a moment of dumb inattention. Had been drying Copper Carbonate sludge for a few minutes in my big pyrex drying pan. As the sludge was nearly completely dry, I took the drying pan off the heat plate and put it on a big cinder block to cool down. Ugh.

The thermal difference between the cinder block and the drying pan was just too great and I almost immediately heard a loud "CLINK" and the pan was split in half. It was my favorite drying pan. :(

I've never had "nightmare scenarios" with strong mineral acids or flammable solvents, but when I use these, I am extra extra careful, bordering on paranoid, with many contingency plans at hand so that I don't end up with a catastrophe on my hands or that I get badly hurt by my experiments.

The only "incident" with an acid that I recall was when I was finished with an experiment using concentrated HCl, I neutralised the remaining acid / FeCl3 with sodium bicarbonate solution, poured a bit too much at one moment and it overbubbled and spilled on the concrete, making a nice permanent dark brown circular stain on my balcony.

Robert

hyfalcon - 27-12-2013 at 18:13

Then you just mix up a bigger batch of FeCl3 and stain and seal the whole balcony. I prefer the green of the copper salts myself but that's just me.

sargent1015 - 28-12-2013 at 11:09

How about a butyl lithium fire?
http://www.chemistry-blog.com/2009/01/20/tert-butyllithium-c...

Random - 29-12-2013 at 17:32

Quote: Originally posted by sargent1015  
How about a butyl lithium fire?
http://www.chemistry-blog.com/2009/01/20/tert-butyllithium-c...


Very scary, I always think that pyrophoric doesn't seem so bad like nickel used for hydrogenation but now it gave me the whole different meaning.

khlor - 4-1-2014 at 20:17

Quote: Originally posted by Antiswat  
List up a few scenarios or actual stories you have heard or even experienced about chemistry, as in bad cases.

2 things i wouldnt be happy about as a start

spilling a large bottle of superfine MnO2 powder

having the bottom of a glass H2SO4 98% container dropping out, out of nowhere.


sorry, I'm a beginner, what could MnO2 powder do?

confused - 5-1-2014 at 09:38

it gets everywhere, and is hell to cleanup, also, reacts with hydrogen peroxide somewhat vigerously

Zyklon-A - 11-1-2014 at 08:02

Just bought 65 ft of fuse the other day, 20 minutes after it came I used a few inches of it to ignight a 20 gram smoke bomb, after it caught, a blob of burning smoke mix flew through the air and landed 8 ft away right on my new coil of fuse. Huge fire ball, and all 65 ft of it was gone. :mad: Waist of 20 bucks and 6-8 days of shipping.
Also that day I was going to put on a fireworks show for my family.
Guess how that turned out without any fuse.

[Edited on 11-1-2014 by Zyklonb]

TheChemiKid - 11-1-2014 at 08:08

Nickel Tetracarbonyl is a very scary chemical, if I spilled that, I think I would just sell my house.:P

Paddywhacker - 12-1-2014 at 13:18

My nightmare involves trying to concentrate a plutonium solution and having it go critical.

I manage to get some spent fuel rods on TradeMe or eBay and dissolve them up in mixed acid, and then start separating the components by solubility. First the sulfate insolubles, then the heavy metals, etc etc. The volume keeps increasing with wash liquid etc. so I have to boil it down every now and again. Suddenly, during a concentration phase the reaction mix starts boiling uncontrollably, even when I remove the heating. I'm spraying the vessel with water full force but it is slowly but inexorably becoming more violent. Time to wake up.

DraconicAcid - 12-1-2014 at 16:07

Quote: Originally posted by TheChemiKid  
Nickel Tetracarbonyl is a very scary chemical, if I spilled that, I think I would just sell my house.:P


If I spilled that stuff in my house I'd burn it down for the insurance.

Brain&Force - 12-1-2014 at 16:47

Here are a couple:
Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid  
Quote: Originally posted by TheChemiKid  
Nickel Tetracarbonyl is a very scary chemical, if I spilled that, I think I would just sell my house.:P


If I spilled that stuff in my house I'd burn it down for the insurance.


If I spilled that stuff in my house I'd make sure to update my will and testament. I don't think I'd care about the house anymore.

Fantasma4500 - 15-3-2014 at 08:05

pouring H2SO4 into a beaker, and just nanometres before the H2SO4 splash with great joy into the beaker i realise ''hey... wasnt that the beaker i used for recrystallizing NH4ClO4 without cleaning it up?''

thesmug - 15-3-2014 at 10:42

Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force  
Here are a couple:

  • Unintentionally generating... HCN


I've done that before. Not very fun at all!

Zyklon-A - 15-3-2014 at 11:33

Nice....
A couple days ago, when pouring 950mL 98% sulfuric acid from one container to another, some spilled down the container onto my glove, and down on my forearm. Because I was holding a glass bottle full of an acid, I couldn't just "drop everything I was holding", so it took at least 15 seconds to wash the acid off. I put my hand into a solution of NaHCO3 and some NH3(aq), (which exists for that exact reason.) Immediately the liquid surrounding my hand started to boil (heat generated from acid-base reaction,) and dense white fumes floated out of the jar. Now two days later, the scars are all ready almost gone, but my skin is dehydrated and even it cracked in a few places, despite my efforts to keep it moist.

[Edited on 15-3-2014 by Zyklonb]

bahamuth - 15-3-2014 at 15:47

1. - Well, once I was demonstrating the "proper" way to nitrate cellulose with a great deal of attention on the washing steps. While I was doing the first washes of the nitrated cellulose in water from the faucet in the sink all the students crowded around me (and thus trapping me from moving) and then the nitrating solution started gassing a lot because of the heat generated (mind you, this was more than half a liter nitrating batch with ~50 grams of cotton) and I almost choked but couldn't move away fast, to avoid splattering acids around, and couldn't speak due to the fumes choking me. That was really scary...keeping calm while slowly choking on toxic fumes...

2. - Same semester, I was nitrating ethanol to see if I could isolate it properly, caught a whiff, and thought my brain was damaged permanently due to the worst headache ever..

3. - Another time I had been exposed to chloroform at work for days while extracting lipids from algae, multiple samples with triplicates. And the last day I painted my living room with an oil based paint..., at that time I was really sure my brain had been destroyed because the insane headaches lasted for days... never again.

4. - Distilling hydroiodic acid from KI and phosphoric acid, and just noticing the flask smolder and crack while washing it a couple of days afterwards wasn't fun either...

5. - When I was 18, defusing a dud in a lead block, causing it to go off in my face with about 40 cm open passage to my eyes and face was very painful and traumatic. I still have lead pieces encased in my face but my eyesight somehow survived... that was the day I left energetics for life...

6. - Getting caught by ammonia fumes from a 32% solution in a 1 liter bottle, with my only wish was to drop it and run, but that could have killed me and my classmates. Chronic bleeding and infections ensued.... Now, even 10 years after, my mucus membranes in my sinuses and nostrils are severely fucked up and one nostril is scarred to have about 50% flow area


Have more horror stories but I think I need to reconsider my hobby after I've read my own post right now.....

thesmug - 15-3-2014 at 15:53

Quote: Originally posted by bahamuth  

6. - Getting caught by ammonia fumes from a 32% solution in a 1 liter bottle, with my only wish was to drop it and run, but that could have killed me and my classmates. Chronic bleeding and infections ensued.... Now, even 10 years after, my mucus membranes in my sinuses and nostrils are severely fucked up and one nostril is scarred to have about 50% flow area

I've done that before, though not with as strong effects as you describe.

HgDinis25 - 15-3-2014 at 16:19

Quote: Originally posted by thesmug  
Quote: Originally posted by bahamuth  

6. - Getting caught by ammonia fumes from a 32% solution in a 1 liter bottle, with my only wish was to drop it and run, but that could have killed me and my classmates. Chronic bleeding and infections ensued.... Now, even 10 years after, my mucus membranes in my sinuses and nostrils are severely fucked up and one nostril is scarred to have about 50% flow area

I've done that before, though not with as strong effects as you describe.


Been there, done that but not even close to end up like that.

bahamuth - 16-3-2014 at 02:30

Quote: Originally posted by HgDinis25  
Quote: Originally posted by thesmug  
Quote: Originally posted by bahamuth  

6. - Getting caught by ammonia fumes from a 32% solution in a 1 liter bottle, with my only wish was to drop it and run, but that could have killed me and my classmates. Chronic bleeding and infections ensued.... Now, even 10 years after, my mucus membranes in my sinuses and nostrils are severely fucked up and one nostril is scarred to have about 50% flow area

I've done that before, though not with as strong effects as you describe.


Been there, done that but not even close to end up like that.


I guess the flask was pressurized, the cabinet it was in was not temp. regulated. I remember that I got "blinded", saw only white for a few seconds due to sensory overload or something.

unionised - 16-3-2014 at 12:59

Quote: Originally posted by thesmug  
Quote: Originally posted by Brain&Force  
Here are a couple:

  • Unintentionally generating... HCN


I've done that before. Not very fun at all!


I did that once, from something like 5g of KCN.
Since I was working in a fume cupboard it didn't matter at all.

My nightmare is discovering that I live near to some of the people posting in this thread

IrC - 16-3-2014 at 19:01

Quote: Originally posted by Paddywhacker  
My nightmare involves trying to concentrate a plutonium solution and having it go critical.

I manage to get some spent fuel rods on TradeMe or eBay and dissolve them up in mixed acid, and then start separating the components by solubility. First the sulfate insolubles, then the heavy metals, etc etc. The volume keeps increasing with wash liquid etc. so I have to boil it down every now and again. Suddenly, during a concentration phase the reaction mix starts boiling uncontrollably, even when I remove the heating. I'm spraying the vessel with water full force but it is slowly but inexorably becoming more violent. Time to wake up.


I don't see this as a realistic nightmare since the 240 would make it fizzle before it could go critical. The boiling part of the dream does make sense.

OK two of mine:

In 1969 in chem lab clearing a grand worth of glass and equipment off the bench, all becoming shrapnel combined with mind numbing sound when my attempt at making 100 gm of NI3 vaporized. No idea how much of the expected 100 gm had been created when this happened but I am still here. Was such a shock it took awhile before I realized my lab coat was soaked with NH4OH, among other chemicals.

Second was trying to create my own scintillator material in 1987. I was heating a test tube of Thallium salts and suddenly it instantly went up in a fireball. Nowhere had I read data on this chemical which warned of this possibility. Not so easy to find out these things in the days before the internet came into it's own.

Took a few years before the illness that caused tapered off. Many times a month I would wake up soaked in sweat, for years. A chronic illness and general malaise that would not go away. Somewhere around 1994 I started noticing my health was improving. Thallium I learned is an element never to be experimented with unless it is completely contained, I doubt I would even trust a fume hood that metal is so insidious in it's ability to destroy your health.

woelen - 17-3-2014 at 00:37

IrC, I have 50 grams of TlNO3 and up to now I only did one experiment with that. What I read from your experiences is quite disturbing. How well did you take care of not being exposed to it (e.g. tiny droplets from bubbling solutions which can get into the air, having drops of liquids containing Tl-ions smeared on your workbench). I am inclined to treat it in the same way as lead salts or mercury salts.

IrC - 17-3-2014 at 05:10

Back then the only information available to an amateur working at home on inventions was going to the public library. My profession was in electronics and lead has been constantly in my environment for decades. Mercury salts not so much but I believe Hg salts would be more of an acute poison, lead an accumulation over years (soldering fumes, handling solder, etc.). I was unaware of the toxicity of Tl as there just was not much information readily available. I was heating 10 gm in a test tube trying to find a temperature where it would liquify. I had no data on the salt, not even it's exact composition but I thought at the time a nitrate.

A friend who ran a cyanide gold recovery business gave me about a quarter pound of what on the container merely said 'Thallium salts', which he used in the bath. No idea how it was used in that industry I was leery enough of using NaCN in solution I never studied nor stayed around to watch him work. Every so often he would call me to come by and pick up some unique electronic device as he knew my love of experimenting. The day I picked up that chemical was a trip to grab a couple Klystrons. I had wanted to experiment making my own NaI/Tl crystals (in a kiln from molten salts).

Needing Tl for the project but not finding it locally (remember, outside of a phone book in those days you could not find things such as this), I mentioned to him my quest for a source of Tl which he provided. On the cyanide subject - in the break room of the plant was a Crystal water chiller/dispenser, the kind with the large upside down bottle. Over a few years searching for surplus electronics there I had noticed the water in the big bottle would turn a honey yellow color by the time a third of the bottle was gone. Meaning within 4 or 5 days.

I knew enough chemistry to theorize Prussic acid was the reason for the color change. If you watched one of those office dispensers you would see air gurgle up into the bottle as you filled one of those cone shaped cups with cold water. My assumption was HCN vapors in the air from the plating bath room on the other side of the wall was the source. The cooler was directly against that wall. That room was sealed, air intake from outside, air drawn out through special filters vented back outside.

My observations of the cooler over years led me to believe the system did not work so well as they believed. I was certain only cyanide vapors could be causing the effect with the cooler. So much so I mentioned it but my fears were cavalierly blown off by them. However I started limiting my time there, running in for surplus and getting out quickly. One side note was they made coffee from that water and oddly it was the best tasting coffee, a Colombian/Almond blend is the only way I can describe the taste. It actually was very good tasting coffee.

Anyway, I had no protection, no respirator, the chemical reached a certain high temperature and blasted flaming out the test tube violently like ignited flash powder. I had not read any data which warned of this possibility. I checked at the library beforehand studying various Tl salts that I could find information on. I am merely guessing but I think the Tl burned to an oxide as I can see no other reason for the violent flash powder effect. It was burning at an almost explosive rate. You are the chemical guru maybe you can figure this out as I still do not know. The source was a proprietary mix from a major chemical supplier of the plating industry. Nowhere did they list the chemical composition, it was supposed to enhance the life of cyanide gold recovery baths. My friend there and I both guessed that it was Thallium Nitrate but we did not know for sure. Based upon the label 'Thallium salts', and his observation of so rapidly dissolving in the bath.

As to effect, severe harm for years of my immune system, I was sick all the time from everything around me. Viral infections and weird non specific symptoms that doctors were clueless over. Quite literally a confusing jumble of symptoms which left doctors totally in the dark as to my illness. This illness began slowly, enough weeks after the Tl incident, I did not connect the two nor did I mention Tl to doctors. It was not until the late 1990's and many hours online studying before I started making the connection. During those years I was clueless of the cause but I do remember about halfway through that time starting to get a nagging thought about the Tl incident being the cause. Nothing else I worked with answered the question, everything else I worked with I have been around most of my life with few effects. Certainly nothing like this hell.

Information was hard to find and events were far enough apart in time that an A to B conclusion was not readily apparent. I worked long hours in that location for 4 more years so was constantly exposed to low levels of Tl contamination of the room which was unknown to me at the time. I can say that over years I carefully thought about every chemical I used during those years and nothing else answers the question based upon the knowledge I now have. It was over half a decade later before one could even search online to learn about the subject. I can only say lead from handling solder and soldering hours daily for decades answers many questions about gastro/intestinal problems which I have suffered (and still do). Maybe nervous system effects although I am unaware of any myself - I just mention it from study of Pb accumulation toxicity data I have read.

Also I know how acutely poison Hg salts are but I have next to zero exposure to such during any of my years. As to Tl, all I can say is if you had endured the roughly 6 years I did, you would become hyper aware of just how damn dangerous the element is. There is no comparison from my personal suffering between Tl and any other heavy metal no matter what data sheets have to say. Tl is insidious, dangerous, just plain near evil in what it does to your health if you were to ever become highly exposed to it. Be very careful is my advice. To the point of full respirator gear, gloves, work outside so that nothing in even microscopic traces can reside in the building if you spend many hours a day there. In fact even if only a few hours a week in the room if there is Tl contamination. In other words work outside with Tl is my best advice.

sasan - 17-3-2014 at 10:58

In a gold bracelet and ring production complex,a workman was melting gold in a crucible to make gold solder,it needs cadmium metal to decrease the m.p of the solder,when the gold completely melted,he drops the cadmium chunk to the melt and the fume hood wasnt working!!!as you know the b.p of cadmium in near 765 c,and the gold m.p is near 1100 c!!a lot of reddish yellow cloud of very toxic cadmium oxide releases from the melt and unfortunately I breathed it,it had a bitter smell!!!
Cadmium salts are enough toxic and cariconogen!

woelen - 18-3-2014 at 06:35

@IrC: Thanks for your long elaboration. I will take what you write very seriously and will do my best to avoid exposure to thallium. I am amazed that I could buy this material without any hassle. It sounds nastier than cyanides and the latter are very very hard to obtain where I live. Probably this has to do with the media "knowledge" about cyanide, while thallium is an unknown thing.

IrC - 18-3-2014 at 07:31

I do not know if Tl is comparable to Cyanide in acute terms but I doubt it. However Tl in my experience is systemic, slow, immune system damaging. That was so long ago I have not studied Tl in light of today's easy information access. Would be a good idea for anyone using it in experiments however. My exposure was likely very much greater than anything you are going to see unless some kind of lab accident were to occur.

Pyrovus - 18-3-2014 at 08:01

Thallium sulphate used to be used as a rat poison. I don't know about the rest of the world, but it was banned in Australia, around about the 1950s because of it's popularity as a murder weapon; just about everyone was using it to kill people they didn't like. It's popularity of a murder weapon comes from the fact that it is, like arsenic, colourless, odorless and tasteless. Notable serial killers who used thallium include Caroline Grills (aka "Aunty Thally"), who made tea and baked cakes laced with thallium which she used to poison members of her family, and Graham Frederick Young, who poisoned about 70 of his colleagues with thallium laced tea. His life story is depicted in the movie "The Young Poisoner's Handbook".

[Edited on 18-3-2014 by Pyrovus]

ElizabethGreene - 1-4-2014 at 18:27

My chemistry nightmare is a 3 a.m. flashbang explosion and black clad ATF agents smashing through my door. A heartbeat later a half dozens armed men have automatic rifles pointed at my head. If I'm lucky enough not to be shot outright then I face arrest and the prospect of police and prison abuse, gang-rape, and spending my life savings attempting to prove innocence to the news media and a jury of my peers*.

* - Most of which who would be terrified of dihydrogen monoxide.

I'm afraid to practice science because of my government.

thesmug - 1-4-2014 at 18:36

Quote: Originally posted by ElizabethGreene  
My chemistry nightmare is a 3 a.m. flashbang explosion and black clad ATF agents smashing through my door. A heartbeat later a half dozens armed men have automatic rifles pointed at my head. If I'm lucky enough not to be shot outright then I face arrest and the prospect of police and prison abuse, gang-rape, and spending my life savings attempting to prove innocence to the news media and a jury of my peers*.

* - Most of which who would be terrified of dihydrogen monoxide.

I'm afraid to practice science because of my government.

Wow, pretty specific. Do you have actual worries of this happening?

BobD1001 - 1-4-2014 at 18:39

Quote: Originally posted by ElizabethGreene  
My chemistry nightmare is a 3 a.m. flashbang explosion and black clad ATF agents smashing through my door. A heartbeat later a half dozens armed men have automatic rifles pointed at my head. If I'm lucky enough not to be shot outright then I face arrest and the prospect of police and prison abuse, gang-rape, and spending my life savings attempting to prove innocence to the news media and a jury of my peers*.
* - Most of which who would be terrified of dihydrogen monoxide.
I'm afraid to practice science because of my government.


I couldn't agree with that 'nightmare' enough. That really is my biggest concern; I cant say I'd really care much if they aim firearms at me, but my goodness do I worry about them shooting my dog, or hurting another family member, something of that nature would truly destroy me.

plante1999 - 1-4-2014 at 18:41

I often have a nightmare in which something I bought online as been shipped with UPS instead of USPS and I got to pay 70% of the item price as "customs" fee, but the item happens to be expensive...

violet sin - 2-4-2014 at 03:28

every time I see this thread bob back up to the daily posts, it reminds me of a dream I had as a teenager. oddly this was well before I had any aspiration of being a chemist( loved science and chem was fun, but I was 14 ).

any how I remember the nightmare well. I was all decked out in my lab coat, goggles and gloves working in this very impressive lab. I mean it was awesome,.. great lighting, tons of experiments going on, clean as a bell, this space was all my own and I had an assistant! racks and racks of glassware, tubes all woven through and about, flame and percolating sounds all working in concert.

now that the picture is painted; my assistant and I were fresh in that morning, just getting started. attending to long running projects and making sure nothing had deviated overnight. all was well. I think I turned to the assistant and inquired what he had planned for his snack break coming up as I was hungry. in the midst of this polite banter, I was working with a 1L erlenmeyer containing some beautiful blue clear liquid. I turned to say something as I put it back, its corner caught an edge of the large rack system. the 3-hole stopper came loose as it shifted, dumping the blue liquid all over my left arm above the gloves. it ran all down me and sank into my lab coat.
(an odd sensation came on. as an awake person I had not the faintest idea what was in the bottle, it was just blue, but through the magic of dreams I had instant inside knowledge that it was incredibly, horribly toxic. still didn't know the name of it, but the dream lab version of me did. and he was terrified!!)
I turned towards the wash station, but I didn't make it 3 feet before I started to pass out. coming in waves of odd intoxication and then clarity. it brought me to a leaned over tripod stance by the time I was 5 feet away, then down to one knee shortly there after. I turned to my assistant and said something like "tell my wife I love her..." as I crumpled, then I was on my face on the white tile. fading, grey to black. with each heartbeat I would get a little vision back, and then fade darker. I heard him scrambling to get help and panicking, a partially muted frantic phone call ... and life left me. I think there was a couple flashes of medical personnel trying resuscitation but I never came back.

any how forgive me for taking the title "chemists nightmare" literally, but this just kept popping into my head. it's odd how some dreams have *ALL* the details of real life. the extra reflections in glass of distant objects, detectable faint smells, background noises; lab coat rustle, the chirp of soft shoe rubber on clean tile floor, people across the hall working, it had it all.
-Violet Sin-
ohhh ya, about a year ago I spilled ~20-30ml of strong cobalt chloride I was concentrating, on my bare leg. had a nice flash back to my nightmare. obviously no damage from the spill, just washed it quickly, but a clear reminder of the blue mystery liquid death dream.

Zyklon-A - 2-4-2014 at 05:46

When you said " clear blue liquid", I first thought of liquid oxygen.
So you don't know what the liquid was in your dream?

Praxichys - 2-4-2014 at 07:11

There are many things that could go wrong in the laboratory but I feel like I am safety-conscious enough to avoid most of those potential disasters.

My worst nightmare would be if someone broke into my house, and while rifling through the lab (breaking all sorts of expensive glass!) managed to either seriously hurt themselves with a corrosive spill or irreversibly contaminate the place (with Hg for example), and the ensuing lawsuit/cleanup...

HgDinis25 - 2-4-2014 at 11:53

Has anyone mentioned an earthquake? Seriously, think about it: all your precious exotic ultra-expensive hitting the floor, rooling over benchs and desks, or simply hitting one another in their shelfs; your storage flask liberating their chemicals, flooding your entire lab with all sort of reactions; toxic gases, explosives, or corrosive substances, all at once inside your lab; and the list goes on and on.
I hope that never happens to anyone...

thesmug - 2-4-2014 at 16:07

Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb  
When you said " clear blue liquid", I first thought of liquid oxygen.
So you don't know what the liquid was in your dream?

Blue-dyed dimethylmercury would fit the description well.
Quote:

Has anyone mentioned an earthquake? Seriously, think about it: all your precious exotic ultra-expensive hitting the floor, rooling over benchs and desks, or simply hitting one another in their shelfs; your storage flask liberating their chemicals, flooding your entire lab with all sort of reactions; toxic gases, explosives, or corrosive substances, all at once inside your lab; and the list goes on and on.
I hope that never happens to anyone...

There are places in California which have safety procedures for exactly this. I live in Chicago so I don't really have to worry. We do, however, get some bad ones since Chicago is right in the middle of the North American tectonic plate. I also, unfortunately, live pretty far north, near Rogers Park (if you don't know much about Chicago this is going to get confusing), and fairly close to the Ridge street microfault. The geological makeup of that area changes almost instantly from granite to soft sand, and I happen to be on the sand side of things.

Zyklon-A - 2-4-2014 at 16:13

I live right in tornado ally, so the possibility of damages happening are quite scary. But, I also live on a hill, so tornados have never been reported to get all the way to the top.

thesmug - 2-4-2014 at 16:14

Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb  
I live right in tornado ally, so the possibility of damages happening are quite scary. But, I also live on a hill, so tornados have never been reported to get all the way to the top.

Unrelated but one time in Michigan there was a waterspout right about 100 ft. from the shore (our house is about 25 ft. from shore).

DrAldehyde - 27-6-2014 at 17:17

Here is a follow-up to the t-butyl-lithium fire at UCLA a few years back. Professor was convicted on safety violations. Tough call on liability, I thought she was a PhD candidate, but I guess she was just an employee with a bachelor's in chemistry. Seemed she was either in way over her head or was left hopelessly unsupervised. Either way, horrible way to go.


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=736_1403912064

http://documents.latimes.com/calosha-report-faults-professor...