Another Reason to Wear Safety Glasses

Safety Glasses, Source: Wikipedia

Something that is overlooked in the importance of wearing safety glasses in lab is that they provide UV protection to the eyes. A report in Harvard Crimson from two weeks ago is a timely reminder:

“On Tuesday afternoon, Adeyemi, [a student] whose eyesight has now recovered fully, had walked into Science Center 117 for her last three-hour LPSA lab of the semester.

The roughly 60 students in the lab would be completing the second half of a two-week lab that used polymerase chain reaction analysis to identify genetically modified foods.

Among their tasks for the day would be an electrophoresis procedure in which they would inject a sample of DNA into gel and then run an electric current across the gel. That process would separate DNA strands of different length. And when viewed under a blue light transilluminator, the strands’ differing lengths would become apparent.”

Some of the students didn’t wear safety glasses resulting in irritations to their eyes and blurry vision.  Several students were sent to the hospital and luckily no one is expected to suffer permanent damage. Just because there might not be a beaker of chemicals on the bench, it doesn’t mean that you can be complacent about PPE. It is also why lab safety inductions/manuals/regulations always stress that safety glasses need to be worn. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean that it won’t hurt you.

Accidental UV exposure isn’t limited to the lab. Last night it was reported in the news that a broken floodlight cover exposed people at a basketball game in Katanning to UV light. People started presenting themselves to the town’s hospital from 8:30AM with stinging eyes, ulcerations to the eyes and even skin burn. At one stage the finger was pointed at a possible chemical or gas leak but has since been ruled out.

Chemistry Gift Ideas

There are endless lists of recommended presents for all sorts of people, fathers, mothers, children, grandparents and even the family cat or dog. When it comes to chemists, we get grouped with Christmas gifts for science geeks or worse still, educational toys are sneaked into the recommendations. Some chemists teach so these toys may just be a reminder of work and possibly the last thing someone wants to think about when on holiday or pretending to be on holiday.

So what do you get? If you know the chemist in your life personally, what could work is to get them a gift that relates to who they are and something they do other than chemistry. Chemists do have interests outside of chemistry but if you’re really determined to buy a chemistry related gift here is a little help.

Drinking Mugs Made From Heavy Duty Lab Flasks

Science Steins

These mugs began as a side project of a UC Berkley physicist. They are made from dewar flasks. Dewar flasks are specially designed flasks that are really well insulated, more so than the thermos in your kitchen. Cold things stay cold and hot things stay hot.

The maker states: “This is, for all intents and purposes, the very best thermos you’re ever going to find. It is quite common to fill these with liquid nitrogen, let it sit on the lab bench, and when you come back three days later there will still be liquid nitrogen in it.”

These would be good for the person that never manages to finish a cup of coffee or tea within the hour. The mugs’ asking price starts at $US250, (not exactly cheap), and are available here. I don’t have one of these but every working day I come one mug of cold coffee closer to buying one of these. In the mean time, I’ll stick to using a good thermal travel mug.

Molecular Jewellery
Raven Hanna, a molecular biophysicist turned artist at Made With Molecules creates jewellery from molecules that are found coursing throughout the body. Each packaged piece comes with an information card on the molecule inspired piece. The range of molecules has expanded over the years, and yes there are pieces that cater for the caffeine addict or barista in your life.

Non-Chemistry Periodic Table
I did not ever think that I would ever be recommending a non-chemistry Periodic Table as a gift suggestion for a chemist but here I am about to do it. There is a database on what is available and a diverse range of topics are covered. Sports, food, drink and even swearing. Some are quite cleverly done and worthy of being printed out and laminated as a gift. A combination of chemistry and the chemist’s other love is always appreciated.

Beaker Mugs

Beaker Mug, Source: Thinkgeek

Yes indeed. Mugs made from what looks to be laboratory beakers. These are also much less expensive than the previously mentioned Science Steins.

From personal experience, they do attract the attention of the nearest OHS officer. It’s a HUGE no no to ingest anything from lab glassware. Though if it’s a specially designed mug that has not gotten anywhere near the lab bench it’s okay.

You can get these from a range of places including Thinkgeek, Advance Healthcare Shop, (who also sell Erlenmeyer flask mugs if you feel that beaker mugs are so 2005), and over at Home Science Tools, there is a 600mL beaker mug on offer.

Periodic Table Magnets

Periodic Table Magnets, Source: Thinkgeek

I have seen a few Periodic Table magnets. All of them don’t allow you to move the individual elements around except for this one. It is available at Thinkgeek.

What I love about it most is that for every time I have disrupted the order and moved things around, someone else has come along to put every element back in its rightful place and provided me with more magnets.

Books

There are some gorgeous books out there that are about chemistry. I’m not talking textbooks but ones that are narratives. They tell of the stories and histories of the chemistry and chemists. Some I like include:

• Radioactive by Lauren Redniss – Beautifully presented book on the love story between Marie and Pierre Curie as well as thoughtful discussion on radioactivity. The cover glows in the dark.
• Oxygen: the molecule that made the world by Nick Lane – Explains why if oxygen had a facebook account its relationship status with life on Earth would be “It’s complicated”. Wonderfully written and at times like a detective novel.
• Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of Elements by Hugh Aldersey-Williams – The elements are taken out from the Periodic Table and examined not just for their properties but their cultural significance. It also covers the author’s personal quest to collect samples of the elements from various sources including his own urine.
• The Periodic Table by Primo Levi – Levi was a chemist and a writer. His work is exquisite. This book is a journey of his life and his profession as a chemist. It is a lesson in patience and precision, two things that chemists ought to have.

I have to stress that this is not my wishlist for presents this Christmas for the benefit of friends and family who may read this. I am as always, difficult to buy for. Good luck to those needing to join in the last minute frenzy of Christmas shopping.

You might be good at Science but you’re lousy at English

Even after the years an English teacher who saw fit to dole out that criticism to me, I cannot shake it from my memory. It came after I expressed my frustration at not being able to work out the symbolism of a Shakespeare play. I didn’t burst into tears and nor did I reply back. I met the unfriendly gaze from my English teacher and glared. A silent challenge daring them to send me to the principal’s office. I didn’t get sent out of class. I had to endure 30 minutes of sniggering from other students and that was resulted in me fighting back tears despite assurances from my friends that the teacher was being unfair.

Take a look at me now. I’m not just blogging. I am also a writer for Science Network WA and Australasian Science. I also blog over at Nature Scitable.

This year has been an incredible journey. I have to thank people for believing in me more than I believed in myself for pushing me gently into the world of professional science writing and getting my work published. I want to first acknowledge Marisa Wikramanayake who started to badger me in early 2010 to start writing. Every time I saw her the topic of me writing came up.

I spent early 2011 at the Australian Science Media Centre as a student intern for a month where I saw firsthand what the media cycle was like. Whatever you think it is, multiply that by 100 and you might be close. There were some intense moments where I juggled transcribing statements from scientists, keeping up with live news crosses and getting journalists in touch with scientists all to get a science related news out there. It was a buzz to see news stories which I had a hand in helping being broadcast or being published in print and online.

This year I started blogging on chemistry and putting the links out there on Twitter and the next thing I knew, Michael Gosney, Manager of Multimedia and IT at Scitech, pushed me towards writing for Science Network WA and gave me a number to call. I held off calling the number for a week. I made the call after my boyfriend pointed out that I do write well and my blog posts on chemistry get attention from non-chemists and said that I should take the opportunity.

The best discovery this year is that I’ve come in contact with other chemists who also write articles. I read their work regularly and not just study the chemistry news but also writing styles and better ways of explaining concepts. I have also found that there is a vast number of sources of chemistry news out there. I have finally stopped letting what an English teacher said years preventing me from becoming a writer.

I do not think I would be able to write about science without my science training. I definitely would not be able to at times explode in frustration at poorly written articles on chemistry and then right the wrongs. I never thought that I would find a job that I would enjoy without wearing a lab coat where I am able to call upon my chemistry skills.

That English teacher was wrong about me. I am good at science and I am good at English. I also understand Shakespeare now and even like it. So there.

Related articles

• My hero: Primo Levi by Siddhartha Mukherjee (guardian.co.uk)

Four Elements? Really. It’s 2011.

Elements

This is what happens in my mind when I hear that the Earth has four elements. I don’t mind it when it happens in the realm of fantasy or even in a period piece of science fiction but when it is done in reality in 2011, I do. Sorry, there are more than four elements. This has been no more obviously clear since 1869 when Dimitriv Mendeleev unveiled his version of the Periodic Table which served as the foundation as the modern version that we know today.

If you really want to push the case for classical elements it would be of benefit to know that in ancient Greece and India introduced a fifth element, aether or quintessence. They weren’t the only ancient communities to do so with evidence of the fifth element from ancient China and Japan.

I get especially annoyed when claims that the four elements of air, water, fire and wood have the mystical abilities to determine life events or medical conditions. Codswallop.

You won’t hear these claims from the scientific community but you will hear it from the confines of rock crystal stores that smell of incense. Why do I step into these stores? It isn’t to stir the pot. It is because sometimes they do have a wonderfully presented mineral specimens and I can’t help but take a look. I do however take great pains to ignore the pseudoscience spewing forth from the labels.

I am saddened that people believe this unsubstantiated nonsense. Mineral samples and crystals do not resonate frequencies that help with healing. If they did then why doesn’t the display shelf that they sit on not fall apart from all the vibrations? And how is that store even standing? Inertia dampeners?

I have yet to buy a mineral sample from these stores because I cannot resolve providing the funds for the perpetuation of pseudoscience. Still, I go in and have a look insisting that I need no help from the store assistant or owner.

Chemical Defences in Kimberley Waters

I have been following the blog where WA Museum’s scientists are updating a blog with videos daily on their annual trip into the Kimberleys in Western Australia to conduct a survey on the flora and fauna in the area. It is something they do yearly. My interest in this comes from having spent my childhood in the Kimberleys.

It is the video for Day 9 that has caught my interest. It is a video of nudibranch molluscs. These are the most colourful creatures I have ever seen in the ocean, (if you disagree, please let me know, I love exploring the ocean). Nudibranch stand out where ever they are. The bright striking colours are brilliant against the blue waters and they appear to frightened of nothing. Although there are species of nudibranch Why would anything with a chemical defence system be?

The colouration is the first warning to would-be predators something along the lines of “I taste awful.” or “I’m downright poisonous.” and it generally works. Other nudibranchs will munch on nematocysts, stinging cells that can be found on the tentacles of jellyfish and instead of eating them will pass them through their gut and into the body wall ready to sting others on contact. Some species of nudibranch obtain their chemical defences from their diet and others still create their own store of toxins independent of diet. And there are also species of nudibranch that release acid from the skin when annoyed.