Scientists, blowing things up, losing fingers, eyes? Does it happen? I mean with serious scientists, I mean the most serious? Hmm????? Try http://library.sc

Scientists, blowing things up, losing fingers, eyes? Does it happen? I mean with serious scientists, I mean the most serious? Hmm????? Try http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf From chemistry lab, remember the Bunsen burner? Yup, there was a Bunsen, a chemist. He was blind in one eye, from some chemistry experiment gone wrong. They called him 'fingers' because on one hand he didn't have any -- one of his science experiments blew off his fingers. The PDF above, it's a total, thigh slapping, laugh yourself dizzy riot! It's about the chemistry research for liquid rocket fuels, not really for the huge US Saturn moon rocket (just kerosene and liquid oxygen) but for smaller rockets such as anti-aircraft missiles. It's a riot: The stories of "red fuming nitric acid" mixed with all kinds of stuff they could dream up, using mostly just the TIFO method -- try it and find out -- blowing holes in the roofs of labs, creating stinks that make a skunk smell like roses, doing things in cities that should only be done in deserts 100 miles from anyone, doing things in deserts, e.g., creating a column of smoke two miles high, that maybe shouldn't be done this side of Pluto, is a total SCREAM. Then there were the 'mono-propellents' -- no mixing or ignition required. Some were weak, say, for just gentle orientation of a spacecraft. Others were attempted for lots of thrust. Alas, once the reaction starts, might it just quickly move to the whole supply of mono-propellent? Yup, darned right. And, then, right -- kaBOOM. It's standard: Have much curiosity about chemistry, and some things will likely go BOOM. It's true at 14, 40, with a chemistry Ph.D. or not. I was never injured, but not for lack of a lot of chances. For one, apparently I didn't use enough KNO3 with my C and S! Dad had a 100 pound bag of NH4NO3 to make the lawn green. It REALLY made the lawn green. Put that stuff on and get some rain and have to mow the lawn every other day, and it's a DARK green. AMAZING stuff. It was readily available because the surrounding areas were full of cotton farms, and it did great things for cotton. I only worked with about a 1/2 cup of NH4NO3 at a time and got nothing out of it. Good thing: I might have lost a hand. Once actually learn some real chemistry, then see (1) even if know a lot of chemistry, messing with such energetic reactions, where the reactions or some unintended byproducts might be wildly unstable, and, as of the time of the PDF above, even good chemistry can't predict what will/will not be unstable, can be dangerous and (2) if its not dangerous, then just do the energy calculations on paper and f'get about mixing up the actual ingredients. Still, Al and NaOH drain cleaner, just gather the whole school together and tell them -- just do NOT do such things because you or someone else might lose a hand, eye, etc. Then DROP it. For the DA, hmm, add him to the list with the person in Boston who went after Aaron.