HCl Tastes Like Pop Rocks!
Originally published at Kitta.net. Please leave any comments there.
Today was my first day back in class in for the semester. It was fun and interesting, in a brain melty kind of way. The units I’m studying this semester are a mix of chemistry, OH&S, testing procedures and various lab techniques. I’ve set the Periodic Table as my desktop wallpaper in hopes it might sink in.
The units seem spilt into two categories of students; older people who are retraining and school leavers. I’m stuck in the middle. I spent lunch with two older ladies, they chatted about bad sex and their multiple boyfriends, I nodded at various points while eating my fruit salad and thinking about Protons.
Things I learnt in lab today…
- Sucking up Hydrochloric Acid from a pipette with your mouth, instead on using a valve, will cause your teeth to fizz. My lecturer did this back when he was a student.
- That the emergency eye wash station isn’t adequate and to use the one in the lab down the hall in an eye emergency.
- That we get to play with awesome acidic chemicals soon.
- That my bad hard writing and poor memory are traits of a good scientist.
Things I didn’t learn in lab today…
- The weird name of the woman who sat next to me, even though she told me it five times. Sounded like Rohypnol.
- How we’re meant to find the lab down the hall that contains the proper emergency eye wash station if our eyes are being burnt by chemicals and we’re screaming “fuck, my eyes, they burnnnn!” I’ve never had dangerous lab chemicals come into close proximity with my eyes, but I assume it would be hard to see in that instance.
- Why we were forced to endure a lab safety video that was filmed in the 80’s and clearly targeted at high school level or really stupid adults who should never set foot in a lab.
- Why Michael Jackson is white.