A conference deadline’s taking over my life at the moment, so what little blogging you get is obvious Portal references.
Derek Lowe is also doing science, and also still alive. This is a more impressive feat for him than it is for me because he’s an organic chemist, and works with things that scare me, like hydrogen fluoride. But he has a list of things with which he won’t work:
Devastatingly good writing, deadpan humour out the jacksey, and compounds that will cheerfully set sand on fire. What more could you want? Go read.
That was hilarious. I’ve worked with a lot of ‘dangerous’ stuff in my career, but nothing like his has the potential to be.
Thanks for the post!
I don’t know whether to kiss you for finding that “stuff I will not work with” series, which I found once and then spent a miserable and totally fruitless evening trying to re-find, or kick you in the stomach for infecting me with that goddamn song again.
…
I think I’ll watch the video.
That was wonderful.
Crikey – I thought it was scary back in the day when my boss made me bid on investigating a site where radioactive waste and unexploded ordinance had been disposed along with the more generic chemically hazardous waste.
After reading about “stuff I will not work with” I’m humbled. Ordinance and radioactive waste is just embarassingly wimpy.
This places my home conversations starting with “how was your day honey…” in a much larger contextual field. Tonight I will happily be able to say “I was no where near hydrogen fluoride today.” Which is nice.