5 ms·

I think this is my favorite of the series: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pip

by sampo 10y ago

I think this is my favorite of the series: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/san...

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
pavel_lishin 10y ago
I'm a big fan of http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/things_i_wont_work_with_dioxygen_difluoride http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/thi..., if only for the call-out of a chemical supplier that claims to sell the stuff by the buttload. Second favorite goes to http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2006/05/30/things_i_wont_work_with_frisky_perchlorates http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2006/05/30/thi..., if only for the phrase "I’d like to shake the hand of whoever determined that property, assuming he has one left."
- yk 10y ago
  That one has my favorite chemistry quote: At seven hundred freaking degrees, fluorine starts to dissociate into monoatomic radicals, thereby losing its gentle and forgiving nature.
  - gozur88 10y ago
    Fluorine is in almost every chemistry joke. That's not a good sign if you need to handle it.
- jhou2 10y ago
  My favorite line, "FOOF is Satan's kimchi."
- walrus01 10y ago
  interesting fact: a butt is an actual unit of measurement, so there really is such a thing as a buttload. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butt_(unit) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butt_(unit)
- flyinghamster 10y ago
  My favorite: "I’d call for all the chemists who’ve ever worked with a hexanitro compound to raise their hands, but that might be assuming too much about the limb-to-chemist ratio." from: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/things_i_wont_work_with_hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/thi...
- bonzini 10y ago
  The same guy also prepared O4F2 (FOOOOF) and made it react with ozone (http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/v66-221 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/v66-221): > At 116 K (melting point of Freon-12), tetraoxygen difluoride decomposes and, if there is contact with concentrated ozone, both explode. No shit Sherlock. :) Strangely enough, I cannot find any paper about Streng doing explosive reactions with O3F2.
- LeifCarrotson 10y ago
  Another candidate for best quote is in his article on ozone products: > In general, we chemists shy away from compounds with lots of single bonds between the elements on the right-hand side of the periodic table. Those guys tend to have a lot of electron density on them, and bonding between them is a careful, arm’s-length affair, sort of like porcupines mating.
js2 10y ago
I was hoping it was Sand Won't Save You This Time and was not dissappointed.
- mjevans 10y ago
  Yup, that's how I found this guy's blog the first time. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/san...
pmiller2 10y ago
You've got to respect something that will burn stuff that's already burnt.
- themartorana 10y ago
  That's a line I will use in the future. Well done.
kbenson 10y ago
This comment is awesome: Ah, the old sand bucket. Was out in the hall outside the undergraduate labs. Might have been there since benzene was linear. Top was decorated with cigarette butts, dried gum, bits of paper. Then one day down the hall the THF still is being cleaned out – long over due. Thick clumps of whatever ketyl becomes. Inside, a bright shiny prize of sodium metal that disagrees with the optimistic and impatient grad student’s use of straight ethanol as cleaning aid. Fire erupts. Extinguished by CO2. Humid day, icy glass, beads of water form and follow gravity down. Into and onto sodium metal. Fire erupts. Extinguished by CO2. Repeat several times until it dawns that CO2 will eventually run out. Send terrified lab mate down the hall to fetch savior: sand bucket! Weight of bucket: about 200 lbs. Skinny grad student risks hernia rushing it back to lab, arrives exhausted, collapses in victory like Pheidippides. Firefighting grad student drops damned CO2 tank, plunges bare hand into sand bucket. Screams in pain – sand has been accreted by age into protoconcrete, impermeable to human flesh, spatulae, metal rulers, etc. Fire meanwhile burns itself out. Sand bucket replaced for next sucker.
MaysonL 10y ago
much more difficult to handle than fluorine gas

by sampo 10y ago

I think this is my favorite of the series: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/san...

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

pavel_lishin 10y ago

I'm a big fan of http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/things_i_wont_work_with_dioxygen_difluoride http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/thi..., if only for the call-out of a chemical supplier that claims to sell the stuff by the buttload. Second favorite goes to http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2006/05/30/things_i_wont_work_with_frisky_perchlorates http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2006/05/30/thi..., if only for the phrase "I’d like to shake the hand of whoever determined that property, assuming he has one left."

yk 10y ago
That one has my favorite chemistry quote: At seven hundred freaking degrees, fluorine starts to dissociate into monoatomic radicals, thereby losing its gentle and forgiving nature.
- gozur88 10y ago
  Fluorine is in almost every chemistry joke. That's not a good sign if you need to handle it.
jhou2 10y ago
My favorite line, "FOOF is Satan's kimchi."
walrus01 10y ago
interesting fact: a butt is an actual unit of measurement, so there really is such a thing as a buttload. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butt_(unit) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butt_(unit)
flyinghamster 10y ago
My favorite: "I’d call for all the chemists who’ve ever worked with a hexanitro compound to raise their hands, but that might be assuming too much about the limb-to-chemist ratio." from: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/things_i_wont_work_with_hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/thi...
bonzini 10y ago
The same guy also prepared O4F2 (FOOOOF) and made it react with ozone (http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/v66-221 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/v66-221): > At 116 K (melting point of Freon-12), tetraoxygen difluoride decomposes and, if there is contact with concentrated ozone, both explode. No shit Sherlock. :) Strangely enough, I cannot find any paper about Streng doing explosive reactions with O3F2.
LeifCarrotson 10y ago
Another candidate for best quote is in his article on ozone products: > In general, we chemists shy away from compounds with lots of single bonds between the elements on the right-hand side of the periodic table. Those guys tend to have a lot of electron density on them, and bonding between them is a careful, arm’s-length affair, sort of like porcupines mating.

js2 10y ago

I was hoping it was Sand Won't Save You This Time and was not dissappointed.

mjevans 10y ago
Yup, that's how I found this guy's blog the first time. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/san...

pmiller2 10y ago

You've got to respect something that will burn stuff that's already burnt.

themartorana 10y ago
That's a line I will use in the future. Well done.

kbenson 10y ago

This comment is awesome: Ah, the old sand bucket. Was out in the hall outside the undergraduate labs. Might have been there since benzene was linear. Top was decorated with cigarette butts, dried gum, bits of paper. Then one day down the hall the THF still is being cleaned out – long over due. Thick clumps of whatever ketyl becomes. Inside, a bright shiny prize of sodium metal that disagrees with the optimistic and impatient grad student’s use of straight ethanol as cleaning aid. Fire erupts. Extinguished by CO2. Humid day, icy glass, beads of water form and follow gravity down. Into and onto sodium metal. Fire erupts. Extinguished by CO2. Repeat several times until it dawns that CO2 will eventually run out. Send terrified lab mate down the hall to fetch savior: sand bucket! Weight of bucket: about 200 lbs. Skinny grad student risks hernia rushing it back to lab, arrives exhausted, collapses in victory like Pheidippides. Firefighting grad student drops damned CO2 tank, plunges bare hand into sand bucket. Screams in pain – sand has been accreted by age into protoconcrete, impermeable to human flesh, spatulae, metal rulers, etc. Fire meanwhile burns itself out. Sand bucket replaced for next sucker.

MaysonL 10y ago

much more difficult to handle than fluorine gas