Things I'm glad I'll never have to work with (though it's fun to read about)

[cowtsign]

I'm glad my computer doesn't blow up when I forget a semicolon, however some chemists don't have the same guarantee. So I'm glad I don't work with the stuff mentioned in the following link however reading about people that do is fascinating! So your turn:

pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/

Comments

[pink_sky_]

Luckily none of my chemicals seem to be likely to blow up in my face, at least as far as I know (I haven't really caught up with the OH&S stuff I'm meant to do. Oops...) Just lots of carcinogens and I need to remember to turn off the UV light on the geldoc before I open the door or it will 'burn out [my] retinas'.

And as for the first post on that page, about thioacetone smelling terrible, the worst I have come across in my lab is some sort of nutrient mix for bacteria - it's a horrible, somewhat-sulfur-y smell that is bloody awful.

[cowtsign]

Well at least you don't have to clear the building any time it escapes!

On the topic of incredibly dangerous chemicals that are actually used in labs I came across an article about this one a couple of months back:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethylmercury

It's ability to go through latex gloves is quite scary...

Apparently it's used in calibrating MRI machines (or something like that).

It was linked from this hyperthetical:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/04/announcing_seco.html#c162272
which was a semifinalist in a competition to get ridiculous things banned by the TSA, the other entries are quite interesting too ( http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/06/second_annual_m.html ).

[cowtsign]

I should have checked before posting. I mean Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) which is a tincy bit different to MRI...

[tomasm]

I should think so :P