5 ms·

This phosphine will get you fired

86 points by antonios 13y ago

jvzr 13y ago
I want to smell that. Thanks to the OP for bringing back fond memories of my chemistry days. Color shifts and weird smells were the shit back then. :)
tehmaco 13y ago
It reminds me of this blog [1] where a chemist is essentially listing many terrifyingly explosive (One notably will "vigorously" react at 100K), corrosive, or smelly things he's read about in the literature. Well written and entertaining :) [1] pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/
ableal 13y ago
"But I never encountered anything as nauseating or alien like PhePHMe" (There are unfortunate coincidences in names ...) Other branches of science/engineering may feel olfactorily deprived, never getting in their labs past the occasional smell of ozone, overheated oil/metal/plastic, etc.
- raverbashing 13y ago
  The smell of enamelled wire going bye bye is unmistakable. And bad. Also is the smell of regular wire coating burning due to an overcurrent. (you also have the unmistakeable fumes to help you identify the problem) On the other hand, the smell of Ozone is not particularly bad
  - dhimes 13y ago
    Hence the term, "smoke test." Ahh, good times.
  - joezydeco 13y ago
    Ever work in a room full of hardware/firmware engineers? One whiff of that smell and everyone's heads instantly pop up like gophers. "Who's on fire?" It becomes instinct.
    - bstpierre 13y ago
      We used to run a load test on a piece of POTS gear that would blow a reasonably large cap. (Timing in the firmware was applying voltage to something that shouldn't have had a voltage... and the circuit didn't have good enough protection.) A (very) little bit of flame and lots of smoke. Great way to get the attention of every hw/fw eng in the building... "FIRE IN THE LAB!" thankfully it was never enough to set off the smoke detectors. We also used to have (small) gear out in the cubicles. Every once in a while I'd get a whiff of "that smell" and would take a walk around cube-ville trying to figure out whose box was overheating. Good times...
Luyt 13y ago
I'm just reading Ignition! http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf about the development of rocket propellants; a very technical and interesting chemistry book. At one time the author experimented with mercaptans and got similar reactions from his labmates ;-)
RBerenguel 13y ago
It was a good read, and reminded me of an old Asimov story (I don't remember its exact name, IIRC it is in his The Golden Age short stories)
codemonkeymike 13y ago
Reminds me of the first time I took a whiff of conc. ammonia, couldn't smell properly for a week.

86 points by antonios 13y ago

jvzr 13y ago

I want to smell that. Thanks to the OP for bringing back fond memories of my chemistry days. Color shifts and weird smells were the shit back then. :)

tehmaco 13y ago

It reminds me of this blog [1] where a chemist is essentially listing many terrifyingly explosive (One notably will "vigorously" react at 100K), corrosive, or smelly things he's read about in the literature. Well written and entertaining :) [1] pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/

ableal 13y ago

"But I never encountered anything as nauseating or alien like PhePHMe" (There are unfortunate coincidences in names ...) Other branches of science/engineering may feel olfactorily deprived, never getting in their labs past the occasional smell of ozone, overheated oil/metal/plastic, etc.

raverbashing 13y ago
The smell of enamelled wire going bye bye is unmistakable. And bad. Also is the smell of regular wire coating burning due to an overcurrent. (you also have the unmistakeable fumes to help you identify the problem) On the other hand, the smell of Ozone is not particularly bad
- dhimes 13y ago
  Hence the term, "smoke test." Ahh, good times.
- joezydeco 13y ago
  Ever work in a room full of hardware/firmware engineers? One whiff of that smell and everyone's heads instantly pop up like gophers. "Who's on fire?" It becomes instinct.
  - bstpierre 13y ago
    We used to run a load test on a piece of POTS gear that would blow a reasonably large cap. (Timing in the firmware was applying voltage to something that shouldn't have had a voltage... and the circuit didn't have good enough protection.) A (very) little bit of flame and lots of smoke. Great way to get the attention of every hw/fw eng in the building... "FIRE IN THE LAB!" thankfully it was never enough to set off the smoke detectors. We also used to have (small) gear out in the cubicles. Every once in a while I'd get a whiff of "that smell" and would take a walk around cube-ville trying to figure out whose box was overheating. Good times...

Luyt 13y ago

I'm just reading Ignition! http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf about the development of rocket propellants; a very technical and interesting chemistry book. At one time the author experimented with mercaptans and got similar reactions from his labmates ;-)

RBerenguel 13y ago

It was a good read, and reminded me of an old Asimov story (I don't remember its exact name, IIRC it is in his The Golden Age short stories)

codemonkeymike 13y ago

Reminds me of the first time I took a whiff of conc. ammonia, couldn't smell properly for a week.