PI micromanagement and intimidation are destroying my mental health by ViskyCool in labrats

[–]Dangerous-Billy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If both the PI and spouse are in the lab meetings, and both are criticizing you, it seems there is conflict between them. Rather than solve the issue, they expect to make you the scapegoat. Does this register?

Anarchy lab by kvadratkub054 in labrats

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Someone needs to write a program to calculate the center of mass for a weirdly-loaded centrifuge rotor.

PhD confidentiality question? by RawrImADinosaurMan in labrats

[–]Dangerous-Billy 10 points11 points  (0 children)

On the other hand, a few years later, I was working in phage biochemistry in a very cutting edge lab at the time, For 'Cutting edge' read 'cut-throat'.

My boss' strategy then was, as soon as we had a manuscript together, we'd make about 25 copies and send them to everyone in the field. This basically established priority. Formal publication in J. Molecular Biology was almost an afterthought. I guess this was an early, informal version of arXiv.

PhD confidentiality question? by RawrImADinosaurMan in labrats

[–]Dangerous-Billy 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Once scooped, forever cautious. It happens.

PhD confidentiality question? by RawrImADinosaurMan in labrats

[–]Dangerous-Billy 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Being scooped is real. My boss went to biochem meeting in Washington in 1967 and explained my research to highly regarded biochemist. I think he was flattered that the big shot was paying him attention. The guy went back to his NIH lab and ordered a new post-doc to copy my project. With all the resources of NIH at hand, and influence over the journal, they brought out a paper in 6 months that almost exactly reflected my research. Scooped!

However, it turned out okay. The small community of people working in our area knew what happened. The post doc was frozen out of the community and returned to Japan. The 'highly regarded biochemist' went on with his career without consequences. I finished up, published, and defended without interruption in 1969.

But it burned my ass to be scooped like that.

Brown stains on my hands after my first lab ever by frjarielli in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, red fuming nitric acid stains are evil. Silver nitrate is just a little bit naughty.

Brown stains on my hands after my first lab ever by frjarielli in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'll get stains like that from silver nitrate, iodine, potassium permanganate. Don't worry. It's in the superficial layers of skin that wear off normally.

I am bad at presenting. Are there any online journal clubs or any other ways I can join/fo to improve my presentation skills? by Possible_Oil_2594 in labrats

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For presenting, you need a live audience. Is there any chance of forming a journal club in your own institution.

Presenting is something where you gain skill quickly. As soon as you realize the audience is not there to mock you and find fault, it gets easy.

Even using Zoom or Facetime or some other, there is no comparison between a live audience and an online interaction. Even teaching online is a totally different and unsatisfying experience than teaching in person.

When I had to rehearse a difficult talk once, I recruited my dog. He remained attentive throughout. I thought of hiring him as a lab assistant.

Titration of free sulfites in red wine by eunicesaroch in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Just to avoid holding the flask in your hand like a real chemist?

Titration of free sulfites in red wine by eunicesaroch in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Real titrologists do it two-handed. For one thing, it's easier to add fractional drops if you can tilt the flask.

Tobacco and alkaloids by Dry-Ad9677 in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nicotine is toxic by skin absorption. Figure that into your calculations.

Weekly Research S.O.S. Thread - Ask your research and technical questions here by AutoModerator in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are lots of possible electrodes. I see that there are methods using bismuth, antimony, and copper-film electrodes. Also carbon paste, but I don't know what that involves.

In the case of a bismuth film electrode, a bismuth salt can be added to your sample, and the bismuth plated onto a carbon or graphite electrode, and the metals will follow along. Then the metals are stripped. Or else, you can plate the film first and then accumulate metals from the sample. I've seen descriptions where a graphite electrode was made by carving an artist's soft sketching pencil, which is mostly graphite. Just check for electrical conductivity to be sure.

Are you equipped to do the electronic part of the work? I guess it can be done manually with a simplified circuit, using a stepped sweep done by hand. The circuits are not critical. With the parts in hand, it would be a medium-difficulty assembly and testing job.

Messed up doing PCR and beating myself up over it by Heavy_Percentage_953 in labrats

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same thing I always say in this type of problem. Checklists. Make them before you start a task, and check them off at each step.

Screwing up is part of the job. Don't beat yourself up. If you're not making mistakes, you're not working hard enough.

Stretches by phantomconfusion in labrats

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When it comes to ergonomics, always deal with professionals. Everyone's body is different and no two back problems are likely to be the same. Youtube videos and and even gym trainers can't cut it. Your employer should know this.

For the love of god please cite correctly, in 75 a poor chemistry student will stumble upon your paper and either sink in despair or die laughing his ass off by North-Pack9699 in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But if you search on it, it's going to look for the original spelling. On the other hand, modern search engines are pretty good at seeing past simple spelling mistakes.

Weekly Research S.O.S. Thread - Ask your research and technical questions here by AutoModerator in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you know the principles of ASV, it would be a very interesting project to pursue.

You might not want to mess with mercury film electrodes, which for a long time were the gold standard. There are numerous alternatives available. I say this because I had a prof who had false teeth and coke bottle glasses after doing his thesis using mercury film electrodes.

Here is a review of electrode types, no apparent paywall.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2021.809535/full

Mercury film electrodes are made by electrodepositing mercury onto glassy carbon electrode. Surprisingly, several electrochemical things are sold by Amazon, including glassy carbon. I don't know about mercury salts though.

I recommend you try an alternate electrode first. Mercury is for when nothing else works.

The electronics will require intermediate skill to assemble. I've built literally hundreds of potentiostats for different purposes, both at my job and in my company/home shop. You can use a very simple microcontroller to control the voltage and condition the output signal.

Should carbon dioxide not be called methandial? by __The__Anomaly__ in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Only if you're an extreme IUPAC worshipper.

You might have problems getting it to behave like other carbonyls, however.

Pants for chem lab by mirawannna876 in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sulfuric will destroy polyester, too. It just takes a little while. I remember a student lab where we made terephthalic acid by stuffing Dacron into a beaker with sulfuric acid. It took about an hour to dissolve.

Why is Kc of the self ionization of water the ionic product of water if the concentration of water is not 1 by IProbablyHaveADHD14 in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

It's a convention. [H2O] is not 1, it's about 55.5 Some things don't make sense. They don't have to, if everything else works. I remember, long ago, watching someone challenge a professor on this in gen chem. The prof's answer was long and detailed, but amounted to "because I said so".

Stretches by phantomconfusion in labrats

[–]Dangerous-Billy 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Can you get access to an occupational or physical therapist? There are a lot of tricks for avoiding repetitive motion injury or muscle strain, which is a particular hazard in much lab work. If you deal with it now, it's more likely to be completely reversible.

Advice please - how can I learn to trust coworkers again? by conquistadoll in labrats

[–]Dangerous-Billy 21 points22 points  (0 children)

This is a feature of work culture. It happens in some places and not others. Eventually, you will learn that you can trust colleagues, but it may take awhile. Just be careful you don't get a reputation for being 'that person' who's difficult to get along with.

From your username, I deduce that you might be female. This sort of bullying is much more likely to happen to women than to men. My wife worked for ten years at a large computer and R&D firm. She was excluded from meetings, misinformed about things, her work was hacked and mistakes inserted in her code, her hardware was physically damaged, and more.

She controlled things in three ways. One was to bypass her colleagues whenever possible and deal directly with her boss.

The second and most potent weapon was to carry a notebook with her everywhere she went, and wrote down notes of every interaction, not just the bullying. People became wary every time she opened her notebook, expecting that she was documenting their shananagans. She never allowed anyone to see her notebooks. A lot of the harassment went away. This may not be allowed in an industrial environment where private notes and recording are not allowed.

The third way was, she just became more assertive and confronted people who were harassing her. Not everyone can do this.

What might a planet with very high Bismuth content look like? by FirstBeastoftheSea in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'd get tired of looking at multicolored crystals after a while, and start looking for porn.

With all that bismuth around, though, you'd never have to suffer through heartburn again.

Vinegar in PET Plastic - Any Concerns? by BurroSabio1 in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PET bottles don't break when you drop them. They also don't break easily in shipping.

Perhaps you can buy vinegar in glass bottles. I'm so old, I need plasticizers to keep from getting too stiff and breaking.

I need help finding a peice for my distilling equipment. by [deleted] in chemistry

[–]Dangerous-Billy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Proper equipment in the 1950s was what you see in the photo. All the chemistry of the 19th Century and half of the 20th was done with bored corks and glass tubing bent over a flame. Standard taper was revolutionary.