The Chemportal

Radioisotope Investigation of the Effect of Sunlight on Beer

The number of daily site visitations has increased more than four fold , the daily count is in the hundreds .

At my previous job as an entry level process chemist there were times where people who were "high" on the corporate ladder would visit the pilot lab to assess its development and make certain that the site was properly situated for what would be future visitations from the FDA.  There were several sectors of one which was the mixer room the others were essentially related to engineering processes.  These people from corporate would not enter the mixer room while they would be very critical of these other sectors ; evidently none of them wanted to enter a room which stocked various toxic chemicals. 

We chemists are exposed to different chemicals each day and are going to be for the time being that one is a chemist.  Does this have any influence on our mortality as compared to people of the general population?

Some links related to this matter

Chemists may have higher suicide rates than dentists

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010420.html

Women in chemistry have higher suicide rates

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5DD1031F937A3575BC0A961948260

Possible problems with the research applied contemporarily

http://yarchive.net/chem/chemist_death_rate.html

There's a lot of stress and anxiety that comes from being in school along with the fact that one has to dedicate oneself to a schedule for the first half of the day while being preoccupied with the studies for the remaining half of the day.  Now that I'm working, each day is a lot more "simpler".  I am definitely appreciative of the simpler schedule.  Face it, any excitement about school is delusional .  While excitement about research is understandable. 

I enjoy having a regular schedule each day and not being frantically transported from classroom to classroom, in fact I really would prefer not to go into a classroom and take notes again for as long as I live; although I enjoy the learning and am definitely respectful of the institution as well as all of the people who maintain it.  It seems that school was some sort of a non realistic realm and now that I realized myself out of it there is much more of a sense of where I am.  Perhaps "Simpler" means that while the aura of purpose and destiny is no longer present with any part of my schedule there's a sense of definite peace that arises from the realization of the transition from this illusion to a reality.

P.S. My supervisor has found my blog and some of the chemistry posts on this blog have been hidden since they contained material relevant to company research.

This guy at my workplace is going to grad school in New York while working here in Georgia , the company pays for his tuition and he gets video lecture material all through the net , his major is in chemical engineering , and it seems that this mode of education is becoming a lot more common these days.  He takes his tests through a local center and is proctored by someone who is certified for the matter.  His degree is going to be standard, there's not going to be any indication of whether he had actually attended the university itself from which he is getting his degree.

But what a life, he goes to work during the day and studies at night.  One is earning money and on a way to getting a degree at the same time ; there's always the good aspect of learning and furthering the prospect of a higher income. 

Life is certainly good, however, going to work during the day and studying during the evening and perhaps even to the night pretty much means the exclusion of happy hour unless one is content with chugging a couple of beers alone at night right before bedtime.  It also means less time for a social life , but this is the sacrifice for the alternative situation of earning an actual graduate student salary which is virtually minimum wage.

Regardless, could there be such a degree for those who wish to obtain a Masters in Chemistry, if so .... count me in! 

Part of an extraction procedure that's employed requires phosphate buffer as the solvent for one of the steps (extraction procedure is confidential).  Now, I never had problems with it before , and had been making it for several months until one day some clear crystals became prominent within the solution ; as in whole chunks of it.  The crystals resemble ice and appear about a day after the phosphate buffer is prepared in a large scale V shaped container.  Again, this had not occured during the first several months (~5 months).

The crystal may be a hydrate of the tribasic component, anhydrous phosphate is the white brittle substance that appears once it's solid form is placed in water, however the hydrate's solubility may be drastically altered with temperature as it is with sulfate.

Thus it may be the case that even a 1 to 2 degrees change in temperature over time would have precipitated out the hydrates.

A few days ago, I took the trip back to the University to have that special talk with the professor once more, so that I could finally obtain the grade for the last of the courses that I took for an ACS certified Bachelors Degree in Chemistry.  Well, after a few more revisions, and hours of sitting in his office while he edited the report, the report was edited to his content and a few days later I revised it and gave it back to him.  Eventually, I got a letter of apology from him with details that I prefer not to mention here and two 'As' towards my G.P.A.

For those of you that don't know what I'm referring to, the issue entailed a period during which my professor would not grade my paper so as to give me a grade for the course, which was an independent study session.  The course took place during the fall semester of 2006, and he had edited the paper during the last few official days of the spring semester of 2007.

Now, I can go on to receive a real chemist's wage.  Although I'm actually an entry level chemist at the time due to my company's understanding of my situation.

I went downtown to investigate how things were at the University.  People, mostly students, were socializing at the restaurant patios in a European type of atmosphere.  I got a glimpse of a couple of nervous students walking around previewing the University, and am reminded of my freshman year during which a lot of things were uncertain.  Although my undergraduate years has been completed in a non-standard and prolonged fashion, I am now more aware of the fact that it has for real.