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The discovery of artificial sweeteners is rife with this, Saccharin: Chemist working on coal tar derivatives noticed a sweet taste on his hand from contaminati

by jboy55 7y ago

The discovery of artificial sweeteners is rife with this, Saccharin: Chemist working on coal tar derivatives noticed a sweet taste on his hand from contamination. Aspartame: Chemist working on anti-ulcer drugs discovers his finger's taste sweet when he licked them to turn a page. Sucralose: Chemist working on novel uses of sucrose and synthetic derivatives asked a coworker to 'test' a compound. Coworker thought he said, 'Taste'.

zeristor 7y ago
Is the mortality rate for Chemists higher than average? Tasting unknown chemicals can't always end so well can it?
- tempguy9999 7y ago
  It's a good question. Reminded me of these entertaining columns: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/things_i_wont_work_with_hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/th... "Say what? 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" They're all educational and very entertaining, even to a non-chemist like myself. Recommended for a chuckle, there are some really awful compounds he covers with wit. Edit 1: original link de-borked. Edit 2: full list of his 'things I won't work with' columns https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-with https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/thin...
  - lifeisstillgood 7y ago
    Just to give you an idea of why that series of articles was so darn entertaining: a method to make a more stable form of it, by mixing it with TNT. Yes, this is an example of something that becomes less explosive as a one-to-one cocrystal with TNT. Although, as the authors point out, if you heat those crystals up the two components separate out, and you’re left with crystals of pure CL-20 soaking in liquid TNT, a situation that will heighten your awareness of the fleeting nature of life.
    - tempguy9999 7y ago
      In a similar vein, https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/things_i_wont_work_with_dioxygen_difluoride https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/th... "At seven hundred freaking degrees, fluorine starts to dissociate into monoatomic radicals, thereby losing its gentle and forgiving nature." further on "The paper goes on to react FOOF [dioxygen difluoride] with everything else you wouldn’t react it with: ammonia (“vigorous”, this at 100K), water ice (explosion, natch), chlorine (“violent explosion”, so he added it more slowly the second time), red phosphorus (not good), bromine fluoride, chlorine trifluoride (say what?), perchloryl fluoride (!), tetrafluorohydrazine (how on Earth...), and on, and on. If the paper weren’t laid out in complete grammatical sentences and published in JACS, you’d swear it was the work of a violent lunatic."
      - EdwardCoffin 7y ago
        And who could forget: "But I have to admit, I’d never thought much about the next analog of hydrogen peroxide. Instead of having two oxygens in there, why not three: HOOOH? Indeed, why not? This is a general principle that can be extended to many other similar situations. Instead of being locked in a self-storage unit with two rabid wolverines, why not three?" [1] [1] https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2014/10/10/things_i_wont_work_with_peroxide_peroxides https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2014/10/10/th...
        ethbro 7y ago
        A lot of the articles make me wonder if the labs that do highly reactive work are staffed by people who thought EOD jobs were too quiet.
- ethanpil 7y ago
  How about the dangers of electronics repair? https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/05/21/1960s-rock-music-san-francisco-lsd-buchla-100-synthesizer-grateful-dead/ https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/05/21/1960s-rock-musi...
- vondur 7y ago
  If I remember correctly, chemists back in the day didn’t live too long. Chemists used to use copious amounts of chemicals that today are considered carcinogenic and tetragenic. College chem labs today tend to use far less toxic chemicals then they used too, in addition to using much smaller amounts.
  - JetSpiegel 7y ago
    Even Newton was half-poisoned by the time Principia was published.
hammock 7y ago
I mean...there are SO many sweet-tasting chemicals. But most of them are toxic.
- piadodjanho 7y ago
  Such the yummy lead white paint that kids peel from the walls
  - myself248 7y ago
    You mean wall candy? https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/10/18/boob-raider https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/10/18/boob-raider

by jboy55 7y ago

zeristor 7y ago

Is the mortality rate for Chemists higher than average? Tasting unknown chemicals can't always end so well can it?

tempguy9999 7y ago
It's a good question. Reminded me of these entertaining columns: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/things_i_wont_work_with_hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2011/11/11/th... "Say what? 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" They're all educational and very entertaining, even to a non-chemist like myself. Recommended for a chuckle, there are some really awful compounds he covers with wit. Edit 1: original link de-borked. Edit 2: full list of his 'things I won't work with' columns https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-with https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/thin...
- lifeisstillgood 7y ago
  Just to give you an idea of why that series of articles was so darn entertaining: a method to make a more stable form of it, by mixing it with TNT. Yes, this is an example of something that becomes less explosive as a one-to-one cocrystal with TNT. Although, as the authors point out, if you heat those crystals up the two components separate out, and you’re left with crystals of pure CL-20 soaking in liquid TNT, a situation that will heighten your awareness of the fleeting nature of life.
  - tempguy9999 7y ago
    In a similar vein, https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/things_i_wont_work_with_dioxygen_difluoride https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/th... "At seven hundred freaking degrees, fluorine starts to dissociate into monoatomic radicals, thereby losing its gentle and forgiving nature." further on "The paper goes on to react FOOF [dioxygen difluoride] with everything else you wouldn’t react it with: ammonia (“vigorous”, this at 100K), water ice (explosion, natch), chlorine (“violent explosion”, so he added it more slowly the second time), red phosphorus (not good), bromine fluoride, chlorine trifluoride (say what?), perchloryl fluoride (!), tetrafluorohydrazine (how on Earth...), and on, and on. If the paper weren’t laid out in complete grammatical sentences and published in JACS, you’d swear it was the work of a violent lunatic."
    - EdwardCoffin 7y ago
      And who could forget: "But I have to admit, I’d never thought much about the next analog of hydrogen peroxide. Instead of having two oxygens in there, why not three: HOOOH? Indeed, why not? This is a general principle that can be extended to many other similar situations. Instead of being locked in a self-storage unit with two rabid wolverines, why not three?" [1] [1] https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2014/10/10/things_i_wont_work_with_peroxide_peroxides https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2014/10/10/th...
      - ethbro 7y ago
        A lot of the articles make me wonder if the labs that do highly reactive work are staffed by people who thought EOD jobs were too quiet.
ethanpil 7y ago
How about the dangers of electronics repair? https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/05/21/1960s-rock-music-san-francisco-lsd-buchla-100-synthesizer-grateful-dead/ https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/05/21/1960s-rock-musi...
vondur 7y ago
If I remember correctly, chemists back in the day didn’t live too long. Chemists used to use copious amounts of chemicals that today are considered carcinogenic and tetragenic. College chem labs today tend to use far less toxic chemicals then they used too, in addition to using much smaller amounts.
- JetSpiegel 7y ago
  Even Newton was half-poisoned by the time Principia was published.

hammock 7y ago

I mean...there are SO many sweet-tasting chemicals. But most of them are toxic.

piadodjanho 7y ago
Such the yummy lead white paint that kids peel from the walls
- myself248 7y ago
  You mean wall candy? https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/10/18/boob-raider https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/10/18/boob-raider