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Nile Red never ceases to amaze with his technical competence. If I tried to do something with beryllium I'd be dead. And the trampoline would fail.

wizardforhire 2y ago
Yeah, it’s nice he’s taking safety seriously finally!
- astrange 2y ago
  There's a trend in his videos where he can barely smell things that everyone else notices, so I always wondered if he burned his nose out on an experiment. (The other thing I wonder is, does he just keep all that equipment around that gets used like once a year?)
  - rowanG077 2y ago
    He has a pretty large lab you can see in some of his videos. It's not like any of his equipment is massive. I expect he can keep everything around.
  - j_bum 2y ago
    It’s also possible that it’s COVID-19 related. I lost a large swath of my olfactory palette in 2021 when I contracted COVID, but recovered some after a few months. Still to this day, I struggle to taste different foods, which is a bit painful because of how excellent my partner is at cooking.
- raverbashing 2y ago
  Nah I think it's like (a more mild) Electroboom, he only plays it dangerous but knows how to control the risks
  - tambourine_man 2y ago
    Hopefully
jona-f 2y ago
Well, he's come a long way from being a horrible chemist to being an average chemist. Took him a few years to realize that chemistry is tedious work and you can't take shortcuts or it doesn't work, unless you spent a lot of time on the new procedure. It's nice to see that he now follows through with his work. His literature research skills are still pretty mediocre. In this video I would have liked some info what influences the bounciness of the amorphous metal. Maybe there's an even bouncier one, that doesn't even need beryllium. He just copied the one he got from Steve Mould. Of course doing somewhat dangerous stuff (and then exaggerating the danger) is kind of the theme of his channel and works very well on youtube. He surely is very talented at playing the youtube game and has a very pleasant voice. But really, if you're amazed by his technical competence you've never worked with a truly competent chemist.
- gcanyon 2y ago
  You are absolutely correct, I've never worked with a truly competent chemist -- my previous instructors are now complaining from the grave, so I'll give them a retroactive pass. As someone who aced chem but nearly failed the labs, he seems remarkably skilled to me, so you saying "horrible" and "average" really surprises me -- but obviously I have nothing to judge by, never having been exposed to anything near that level of chem work except for his videos. As you allude to, I wonder how much of the "it didn't work, so I had to try something different" is for YouTube -- if every project worked the first time it would be boring.
  - JKCalhoun 2y ago
    > my previous instructors are now complaining from the grave Ha ha, did you mean to give the impression that they were in fact not that competent after all?
    - gcanyon 2y ago
      HA! I didn't think how that might come across, but no: it's just been a long time since I last took a chemistry class, and the instructors were old back then. I'm sure they've all since passed of old age, not from beryllium inhalation or organic mercury exposure or etc. etc.

wizardforhire 2y ago

Yeah, it’s nice he’s taking safety seriously finally!

astrange 2y ago
There's a trend in his videos where he can barely smell things that everyone else notices, so I always wondered if he burned his nose out on an experiment. (The other thing I wonder is, does he just keep all that equipment around that gets used like once a year?)
- rowanG077 2y ago
  He has a pretty large lab you can see in some of his videos. It's not like any of his equipment is massive. I expect he can keep everything around.
- j_bum 2y ago
  It’s also possible that it’s COVID-19 related. I lost a large swath of my olfactory palette in 2021 when I contracted COVID, but recovered some after a few months. Still to this day, I struggle to taste different foods, which is a bit painful because of how excellent my partner is at cooking.
raverbashing 2y ago
Nah I think it's like (a more mild) Electroboom, he only plays it dangerous but knows how to control the risks
- tambourine_man 2y ago
  Hopefully

jona-f 2y ago

Well, he's come a long way from being a horrible chemist to being an average chemist. Took him a few years to realize that chemistry is tedious work and you can't take shortcuts or it doesn't work, unless you spent a lot of time on the new procedure. It's nice to see that he now follows through with his work. His literature research skills are still pretty mediocre. In this video I would have liked some info what influences the bounciness of the amorphous metal. Maybe there's an even bouncier one, that doesn't even need beryllium. He just copied the one he got from Steve Mould. Of course doing somewhat dangerous stuff (and then exaggerating the danger) is kind of the theme of his channel and works very well on youtube. He surely is very talented at playing the youtube game and has a very pleasant voice. But really, if you're amazed by his technical competence you've never worked with a truly competent chemist.

gcanyon 2y ago
You are absolutely correct, I've never worked with a truly competent chemist -- my previous instructors are now complaining from the grave, so I'll give them a retroactive pass. As someone who aced chem but nearly failed the labs, he seems remarkably skilled to me, so you saying "horrible" and "average" really surprises me -- but obviously I have nothing to judge by, never having been exposed to anything near that level of chem work except for his videos. As you allude to, I wonder how much of the "it didn't work, so I had to try something different" is for YouTube -- if every project worked the first time it would be boring.
- JKCalhoun 2y ago
  > my previous instructors are now complaining from the grave Ha ha, did you mean to give the impression that they were in fact not that competent after all?
  - gcanyon 2y ago
    HA! I didn't think how that might come across, but no: it's just been a long time since I last took a chemistry class, and the instructors were old back then. I'm sure they've all since passed of old age, not from beryllium inhalation or organic mercury exposure or etc. etc.