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Last night before heading off to bed, I glanced at my Twitter feed to see what the other side of the world was chatting about when it came to science. After all, it was Valentine’s Day and a myriad of science news stories about the reproduction habits of animals other than humans were making headlines. I even found an economical analysis on the production of single stem roses.
I found @Chemjobber, @SeeArrOh, and @DrRubidium chatting about the five most dangerous English words. Their examples were ones that I had heard while working as a scientist. Chaos ensued after five words were carelessly strung together. -
.@Chemjobber “what’s the worst that’ll happen?” #dangerous5
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I added my own tweet.
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.@Chemjobber That wasn’t supposed to happen. #dangerous5
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Then things just grew…
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I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had this exchange in the lab
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@Chemjobber “This look right to you?” #dangerous5
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@alex_brovvn “Doesn’t look right to me…” #dangerous5
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Then I made this innocent tweet.
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If you liked #overlyhonestmethods, check out #dangerous5. Five most dreaded words strung together in a lab.
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Scientists were chiming in from all over the place with their own #dangerous5 and I thought it would be great to commiserate. My #dangerous5 tweets were things that really did set off a chain of events. Some of them frightening.
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.@Chemjobber I know what I’m doing. #dangerous5
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Unfortunately they didn’t know what they were doing. They were also winging it. Just 30 seconds after that declaration I experienced my first lab accident in my third year undergraduate lab session. It was serious. I copped a lungful of concentrated sulphuric acid fumes. It was awful.
The person had placed a stopper on the end of his reflux column during a digest. You NEVER do this. Ever. Expanding gases need somewhere to go otherwise pressure builds up. -
Is this supposed to bubble? #dangerous5
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If you have to ask this, you really shouldn’t be doing chemistry. Or cook.
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.@Chemjobber “Is this the right colour?” Especially worrying when there isn’t supposed to be a colour. #dangerous5
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I left a trainee to make up a standard solution of 0.05M hydrochloric acid. They had a degree in chemistry. Next thing I knew they were coming to me with a volumetric flask that was lurid yellow. I have no idea what happened. I do know that I ended up making the standard solution and put in a formal request that the trainee be sent to another department because their basics weren’t up to scratch.
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Just add a little more. #dangerous5
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Never add a little more of anything especially to a superheated liquid. Ever. Hot liquid and gas goes everywhere and it burns. A lot. And that’s just water. When it’s a chemical, burns are much much worse.
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Which beaker had the acid? #dangerous5
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The bane of my existence. I label every beaker with permanent marker before use. Unfortunately not everyone labels glassware and some people think that while I’m focussed on my tasks, I know exactly what they’re doing as well. Well I don’t.
Just as I was about to suggest using a bit of litmus paper to check, this bright spark decided to sniff their beakers. You don’t sniff in chemistry. You waft. Always waft. They got a noseful of acid fume and promptly dropped the beaker of acid onto the bench where some fairly expensive electronics were sitting. -
This introduction
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Meet your new lab member. #dangerous5
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followed by this description of me
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She is an experienced chemist. #dangerous5 #goingtohell
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has always negatively impacted my productivity and positively impacted on blood pressure, stress, and worst of all, levels of paperwork.
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That protocol step isn’t important. #dangerous5
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This was said to me by someone who had taken it upon themselves to delete a method, (program to tell instruments what to do and when), from an analytical instrument without consulting anyone. Turn around time increased significantly and it was the first time I heard my then mild mannered supervisor swear.
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In a lab you get used to a certain level of smell. You live with it just so long as extraction hoods are working and there isn’t a catastrophe in progress. So when someone asks,
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Does anyone else smell that? #dangerous5
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Pay attention especially if they’ve been around longer than you in the lab because the next question could turn into,
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Can I smell something burning? #dangerous5
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What had happened was that the hose carrying water in a distillation set up was touching the same spot providing heat. It had melted and water was being diverted to live electrical cables. It shorted. Spectacularly. The building was evacuated.
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Can anyone else smell almonds? #dangerous5
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There’s this thing about cyanide gas. It smells of almonds or at least that’s what I’ve been told. I’ve never been able to verify it even though I’ve worked extensively in gold analysis. Through a quirk of genetics, I can’t smell it. I need to rely on gas monitors, working fumehoods, and people not to pour acid waste into cyanide waste.
I continued working in away until my supervisor who had forgotten his sunglasses came in. He swung into action and barked at me, -
We NEED to evacuate NOW. #dangerous5
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Thankfully no damage done. I was made to sit outside in fresh air and given the rest of the day off after a medical check up. I was shaken for weeks after the incident because all the failsafes hadn’t triggered.
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“Did anyone else feel that?” (in reference to unexpected tremors & earthquakes) #dangerous5
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I worked in one lab that was literally down the road from the minesite. It remains as one of the favourite labs I’ve ever had the privilege to be part of. I didn’t believe that the working mine was just over there until I was knocked off my feet by a particularly large blast.
Who would place a working laboratory with chemicals and expensive instrumentation so close? It doesn’t make sense, that is unless it’s decided to mine closer to the lab. The lab has since been moved. -
You won’t need safety glasses. #dangerous5
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The person who said this received urgent first aid from me 5 minutes after. They got concentrated nitric acid in their eye. They cried like a baby. I got the task of filing paperwork.
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You only need latex gloves. #dangerous5
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Wrong. There are a myriad of gloves made of different materials because they react and behave differently to various chemicals in the lab. That’s why there’s also often a glove safety chart to help out with choosing the right glove. Not everything is catered for sensitive skin and allergies.
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Isn’t that the side project? #dangerous5
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The funding is being reviewed. #dangerous5
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Said in the same lab to me. I became unemployed soon after. In retrospect, I should have taken the first statement as a warning. Lesson learned. I also promised to never work in academia again.
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Is there anymore duct tape? #dangerous5
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Always, and I mean always ask to see what duct tape is being applied to. It could be to substitute glassware joins which is not a good idea. Some improvisations are never meant to be.
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This doesn’t need looking after. #dangerous5
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Every experiment needs looking after. Every. Single. One.
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There’s a lab tour today. #dangerous5
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Journalists will be coming through. #dangerous5
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No other phrases can send chill the lab so efficiently. Think of your very worst rental inspection and then multiply it by a million. That comes close to the dread I felt every time I heard that there would be visitors.
Every single one of them would expect an immaculate shiny lab with the latest gadgets as seen the previous night on CSI. I would have to be dressed in a lab coat even though uniform dictates that I wear other apparel in place of a lab coat. The problem was that I essentially worked with dirt. Ok, mineral samples for various metals but essentially they look like powdered dirt. The machines used for analysis don’t need to be the latest shiny instrument on the market so often they weren’t the top model.Total let down. Even worse was when they didn’t see an explosion. What am I? A magician? -
I’m not good with numbers. #dangerous5
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Unfortunately science has a lot of measuring. That in itself involves numbers. This is well before any statistical analysis needs doing.
If you’ve never sat through the night and greeted dawn by the light of a monitor rectifying incorrect data analysis before a deadline that can’t be missed, consider yourself lucky. There is nothing more stressful and rage inducing. -
Look it up on Wikipedia. #dangerous5
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No. You’re in a lab. You do not head to Wikipedia. You know eight year olds can be editors right? You need to head to a science journal where scientists in your field are publishing their work. You know, the people who know stuff.
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This journal article looks familiar. #dangerous5
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This could lead to you spending hours (re)organising your reference library or it could mean you found a plagiarised journal article. The latter is less likely but it does happen resulting in headaches and embarrassing retractions.
Category Archives: Awesomeness
WA Science Awards 2012
On Thursday night, I attended the 2012 Western Australia Science Awards Gala Dinner where the top scientists, science educators and science communicators are recognised. I was lucky to receive an invitation from the WA Department of Commerce to attend as a science blogger and also as the President of the WA Branch of the Australian Science Communicators.
The dinner was held in the Astral Ballroom at Crown Perth and it was beautifully decorated. There was even a red carpet leading to the stage to walk on. It was clear from the onset that the science community of Western Australia was the star attraction.
The Red Carpet – Photo: The Scene Team
And there was even a little jazz throughout the night.
Live Band – Photo: The Scene Team
To complete the celebratory occasion, there was also a WA Science Awards wall to stand in front of to have photos taken. It was quite possibly my most favourite discovery of the night. I delighted in the opportunity to be in front of it.
WA Chief Scientist Prof Lyn Beazley and I – Photo: The Scene Team
The MC of the events was Ruben Meerman, The Surfing Scientist. He was affable, funny, and knew his audience. There is talent in eliciting genuine laughter for science jokes from a room of scientists.
Ruben Meerman, Photo: The Scene Team
What I did like this year at the WA Science Awards was the emphasis on science engagement and science communication and that was where the awards of the night began.
Educator of the Year: Mrs Mady (Marion) Colquhoun (Armadale) – Science Specialist Teacher, Armadale Primary School with Science and Innovation Minister John Day Photo: The Scene Team
Science Ambassador of the Year: Professor Steven Tingay – Director, Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy and Deputy Director, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research with Science and Innovation Minister John Day, Photo: The Scene Team
I especially liked the comment made during the awarding of these awards, “What is the point of doing fantastic science if we tell no one about it?”. I have yet to hear strong arguments for staying silent about science. This is the stuff that can change lives. It rankles me when science news is left out of mainstream news unless there are centimetres to fill on a page of the newspaper or a sudden silence to fill on air. We can have nightly finance and sport news presented with aplomb, enthusiasm and jargon but we can’t have nightly science news but yet we tell ourselves that science is important for the future and we should encourage a new generation of scientists.
Engineers without Borders High School Outreach Program won the next award, Science Engagement Initiative of the Year. This program has been developed by the WA Chapter of Engineers without Borders. It aims to improve students’ understanding of climate change, sustainability and technology. In addition to this, the program is used as an assessment tool for university engineering students and allows working engineers to become involved and use it as a professional development opportunity. Any engineers reading this should really look this up and break the stereotype of the socially awkward engineer.
Science Engagement Initiative of the Year: Engineers without Borders High School Outreach Program with Science and Innovation Minister John Day, Photo: The Scene Team
Western Australia’s Student Scientist of the Year went to UWA PhD student Mr David Erceg-Hurn whose research is evaluating strategies used to reduce stigma surrounding seeking professional help and treatment for clinical depression. He has also evaluated programs designed to reduce drug and alcohol misuse. The announcement of this award was beautifully and coincidentally timed with Australia’s national Mental Health Week.
Student Scientist of the Year: Mr David Erceg-Hurn – Master of Clinical Psychology / PhD Student, UWA with Science and Innovation Minister John Day, Photo: The Scene Team
Australian Research Fellow, UWA Associate Professor Ajmal Mian was awarded Early Career Scientist of the Year for his pioneering research on 3D face and object recognition for a wide range of multidisciplinary applications.
Early Career Scientist of the Year: Associate Professor Ajmal Mian – Australian Research Fellow, UWA with Science and Innovation Minister John Day, Photo: The Scene Team
Professor Stephen Hopper AC FLS FTSE who recently served as the Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew was inducted into the Science Hall of Fame. Prof Hopper is a plant conservation biologist who has contributed significantly to preserving biodiversity in Western Australia as well as improving conservation programs and infrastructure within the state. He has also been named a Companion of Order of Australia for his service as a global science leader.
Science Hall of Fame Inductee: Professor Stephen Hopper AC FLS FTSE with WA Premier Colin Barnett, Photo: The Scene Team
The Scientist of the Year award went to the Director for International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Professor Peter Quinn. Prof Quinn is an astrophysicist whose area of specialty is galaxy formation and dark matter. He does this using large astronomical facilities and supercomputers. In recent times, his efforts in developing WA’s radio astronomy capabilities have been central in the success of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Telescope campaign.
Unfortunately Prof Quinn had to be in Germany on the night of the WA Science Awards but he was able to Skype in his acceptance speech. It was such a lovely and warm touch to the evening.
- Scientist of the Year: Professor Peter Quinn – Director, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research on Skype at the 2012 WA Science Awards, Photo: The Scene Team
It was a great night out celebrating the very best science in Western Australia. There is an incredible depth and breadth of scientific research happening in the state. In a state dominated by the mining industry, I noted that not one award was mining related. I am constantly stating that there is much more to science in Western Australia than mining technologies and the 2012 WA Science Awards has epitomised that this year.
For more photos of the gorgeous night, I have created an album on my Facebook page that is publicly available so no account needed.
Filed under Awesomeness, Science, Science Communication in Action
Social Media for Science
Last I facilitated a seminar titled, Social Media for Science. It was a joint event between the Western Australian Branches of Australian Science Communicators, (ASC), and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, (RACI). I am on both state committees, (President of the WA Branch of ASC). I was asked to present a talk on science communication to RACI members in the same month ASC in WA was running a social media event. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and combined the two.
Social Media for Science had a Western Australian focus. There are lots of different approaches from different sectors in science in social media in WA. It is quite an exciting time and if anything I wanted to show people that social media networks do not define how an individual or organisation interacts with their audience but rather that social media networks allow the interaction to occur.
I invited three panelists to showcase their uses of social media. I have provided links to their organisations’ web pages and where they can also be found in social media networks.
Jason Boudville
Editor of ScienceNetwork WA
ScienceNetwork WA is a website with science news, events and information from around Western Australia. Social media use employed by ScienceNetwork WA includes Facebook and Twitter.
Ebony Frost
Digital Communications Specialist at Telethon Institute for Child Health Research
The Telethon Institute for Child Health Research is one of the largest, and most successful medical research institutes in Australia, comprising a dedicated and diverse team of more than 500 staff and students.
Established in 1990 by Founding Director Professor Fiona Stanley, the Telethon Institute was among the first to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to major health issues: clinical research, laboratory sciences and epidemiologists all under the one roof, to tackle complex diseases and issues in a number of ways.
Social media use includes Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.
http://www.childhealthresearch.org.au
Kirsten Gottschalk
Outreach and Education Officer at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, (ICRAR), is a collaborative centre that is international in scope and that achieves research excellence in astronomical science and engineering.
As a coherent and unified part of Australia’s national effort, ICRAR makes a fundamental contribution to the realisation and scientific success of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
ICRAR is an equal joint venture between Curtin University of Technology and The University of Western Australia. The Centre’s headquarters are located at UWA, with research nodes at both UWA and the Curtin Institute for Radio Astronomy (CIRA).
Social media use includes several Facebook, Twitter, flickr accounts as well as a vimeo account.
http://www.facebook.com/icrar
http://www.facebook.com/theskynet.org
Science is Amazing: http://www.facebook.com/scienceweek
http://raspberryastro.wordpress.com
http://petewheeler.wordpress.com
http://www.flickr.com/icrar
http://www.vimeo.com/icrar
Each of the speakers were generous and frank about their experiences with social media with the audience. Some of the nuances tweeted during the seminar has been captured in a Storify by Kylie Sturgess. A theme developed during the presentations by the speakers. Social media is great for creating discussion and interacting with your audience. It is not a broadcast medium. The communication is two way.
This can be the sticking point that organisations worry about when considering social media activity but the presenters agreed that if and when someone says something unsavoury or unwelcome that their community is self-policing. Also mentioned that there is also a time when the best thing to do in social media networks is to not respond at all in the case of trolls. Do not feed the trolls!
What was especially stressed was that social media activities are not for replacing traditional methods of disseminating information and connecting with your audience. They are an add-on and part of your existing communication strategy. One question from the floor asked whether social media meant the death of websites.
All presenters agreed that a website is still necessary. It is the “home base” that tells people who you are, where you started and what you are about. A website takes time to develop and it shows people that you have a dedication to your online audience.
As someone who facilitated the seminar, I could not have asked for better speakers. Thank you again Jason Boudville, Ebony Frost and Kirsten Gottschalk for giving your time for being on the panel. People stayed back until 8:30PM talking to one another and it was warming to see chemists mingling with science communicators.
Thank you to everyone who came last night.
To everyone who missed it or have asked whether there will be another Social Media for Science event. There will most likely be another in 2013 so watch this space.
Filed under Awesomeness, Science Communication in Action
NeverSeconds – Please VEG, I Want Some More.
Dear VEG,
I found your blog last month just as afternoon tea time hit. Someone on Twitter mentioned that a 9 year old girl was starting a blog about her school dinners. Having survived boarding school lunches and dinners, I decided to have a look. I laughed and fell in love with your blog and looked forward to reading your updates and your adventures.
This afternoon as I loaded up your blog hoping to see photos of what you and Nick Nairn had cooked up, I was reading a goodbye message instead. I didn’t understand what was going on or what newspaper had caused problems. I am sad that you feel that you can no longer update your blog. It does make things hard. I hope the rest of your day at school wasn’t ruined by such bad news.
Before you do disappear I would like you to know why I love NeverSeconds so much.
- You brought back so many memories from boarding school that I had forgotten and the food that I was served and had to choose from.
- I learned things from you and the people who shared their lunches with you. I grew up in Australia and I never knew those food trays that you get your school dinner on existed outside of American TV shows. There’s so many schools all over the world with them. I never knew that Coronation Chicken was a dish invented to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II becoming Queen.
- You did something that adults find difficult to do. You got kids talking about healthy food choices without mentioning eating disorders or exercise. It was just about eating healthy. That’s amazing and something that should be applauded.
- You have spoken to so many other children and adults about different cultures from many parts of the world and even had a few recipe swaps. Your blog became so much more than posts about your school dinners.
- And when you realised you were getting a lot of attention, (though now you’re getting so much more), you let us know of Mary’s Meals, a charity that raises money to feed children in the poorest nations at their place of learning. Then you went one step further and started to raise money for a kitchen for Mary’s Meals so that they could feed a new school. I know you were rather sad about your blog ending and not being able to finish raising funds for a kitchen. I’ve just checked the total, there is now enough funds for two kitchens.
VEG, I do hope that you don’t walk away from this project feeling so awful you that you don’t try similar projects in the future. I found your blog informative and fun to read. Your updates were something that I looked forward to. I didn’t mind if they weren’t posted by a particular time. Just knowing that there would be an update just kept me visiting to read. I think you are an amazing young person and if you choose to continue with NeverSeconds or start something new, I hope to find you again. I think you will do some incredibly fantastical things.
With Sincere Thanks for the Past Month,
Magdeline Lum
PS. Good luck with the clarinet. I started learning to play when I was 13. Sometimes I put my clarinet together and just play after a long day working.
[UPDATE]: NeverSeconds blogger Martha Payne school dinner photo ban overturned
Related articles
- Editor’s Choice: Government-backed school dinners menu proving to be real recipe for success (dailyrecord.co.uk)
- Let them eat cake, but no cameras: British council gags 9 year old school lunch blogger (thenextweb.com)
- Taiwan school lunches praised by young Scottish blogger (wantchinatimes.com)
- Grated and sliced everything: salad-based food memories (edinburghfoody.com)
- Meet the 9-Year-Old Food Blogger Who Took on School Lunch (healthland.time.com)
Filed under Awesomeness
Returning to Science Outreach
It’s been a while since I have blogged properly. I have been busy with work lately and organising myself to get back into science outreach again. Science outreach is something that is close to my heart because I think that there is immeasurable value for people to see scientists enthusiastic about their work and science. The job of showing the benefits of science is a task that has fallen largely to teachers, journalists and science shows and museums. They don’t do a bad job but it makes me wonder, “Where have all the scientists gone?”.
I have signed up for two volunteer science outreach programmes and will be based in Perth, Murdoch University’s STAR Peer Tutoring Programme and CSIRO’s Scientist in Schools Programme. They are flexible enough to fit in nicely with my FIFO roster which has been at times a barrier in getting involved with volunteer programmes. Dates of meetings or events aren’t quite right or the lack of flexibility for someone like me to come and go. It’s been frustrating and feel very lucky that something has been worked out.
Between the two programs I will be working with students in primary school and high school across different classes in two schools. One is in the southern suburbs of Perth and the other one in the northern suburbs. The exact details are yet to be ironed out as I am being flexible with the teaching teams in both of the schools. I’m looking forward to it because the teachers sound terrific. They’re even running things I’ve never heard of and one of the schools has a science fair!
I have never been involved in a school science fair. They just didn’t exist when I went through school. There were various science events outside of school but nothing that was part of school. And definitely nothing like a fair where everyone showed off their projects in a large gymnasium. To say that I am looking forward to the science fair would be putting it mildly. I have also been told by Twitter sources that some schools in Australia do have science fairs. Perhaps one day there will be enough to have a national science school fair.
I’m getting ahead of myself and dreaming. I’m looking forward to showing the students just some of the things that a science degree can lead to. I also want to show students that science isn’t something that happens in a laboratory or something that adults argue about. More importantly, I want to be able to demonstrate that science can be fun even when it isn’t being looked at by the Mythbusters team.
Filed under Awesomeness, Science, Science Communication in Action
