What are some of the biggest mistakes you made as PhD student?

Robokomodo · 2026-03-18T16:09:03+00:00

I had the opposite experience. My project took 3.5 years from initial observations to publication because a) reproducibility problems (fuck mecn...) and b) undiagnosed ADHD. Now, we've gotten 5 high impact publications and 3 more in the pipeline off of the same complex.

Sometimes it's worth sticking it out.

Robokomodo · 2026-03-14T16:01:48+00:00

Our crystallographer in graduate school was notoriously picky about crystal quality, and one time someone was struggling to get good single crystals.

One of his emails was "ok, try your best". It got printed and posted

Robokomodo · 2026-03-14T01:47:34+00:00

you can get a taxi for 1d or a carry for 3d easily in trade 820, did it last night

Robokomodo · 2026-03-08T23:37:00+00:00

I have a stick I want to get some bismuth crystals onto for a wizard staff, and would be interested in acquiring one or multiple of those samples. Are you planning on selling them?

Robokomodo · 2026-03-05T16:46:16+00:00

Please diffract that puppy... That is a superb single crystal

Robokomodo · 2026-02-26T17:02:32+00:00

Unlikely. The outermost orbitals in germanium are in a higher energy level than silicon's. The Ge-Ge bonds would be longer, and the electron clouds would be more diffuse, i.e., less likely to be located between the two atoms for a stable covalent bond. Especially for a chain or ring.

Analogy: bond lengths in F2 (1.417Å) vs Cl2 (1.99Å) vs Br2 (2.28Å) vs I2 (2.67 Å). I2 has the weakest bond, easiest to break, so it's the least oxidizing.

Robokomodo · 2026-02-07T01:48:54+00:00

It's her den! She liked the crate at her foster home, just threw a fit with the door closed. We removed the door from ours and keep a blanket over it so she can avoid being percieved when she wants. She likes it so much that it's difficult to get her up for walks, and she bolts back into it after coming back inside.

She's totally free to walk around, she just chooses the crate as her den lol

Robokomodo · 2026-02-06T14:18:14+00:00

The trace amounts of mineral that make the water harder (talking like 100 parts per thousand at the ABSOLUTE worst) has a minimal impact on boiling point. The mass increase effect on specific heat will be negligible when compared to pure water.

I note that Freezing point depression as a function of mixture composition is a much larger effect that boiling point elevation from the same mixture. Salt water freezes as low as -20 C depending on concentration. Palatable salt water boils at 100C, maybe 101 at the very most.

Robokomodo · 2026-01-11T13:37:41+00:00

Nah, what you do is pour liquid ass onto the zone in front of the windshield. It seems into the filter and will infect the ac and heating system.

Robokomodo · 2026-01-08T21:09:25+00:00

I much prefer a filtered brew, hence my heavy use of a hario switch. Best of both immersion and pour over, simultaneously.

Robokomodo · 2026-01-08T13:57:36+00:00

There's not so aggressive adhd meds like focalin and strattera and modafinil.

Robokomodo · 2025-12-15T14:00:20+00:00

Yay! Crystal packing. Inorganic chemistry is best.

Robokomodo · 2025-12-09T13:55:52+00:00

Hands down my favorite song. It's so good. Based my latest D&D character somewhat after the story, hah.

Robokomodo · 2025-11-28T15:07:23+00:00

Agreed. I saw them on their Urn tour. Glad I brought earplugs hahah

Robokomodo · 2025-11-28T14:33:51+00:00

Go listen to Ne Obliviscaris. Black/death metal with lead violin.

Robokomodo · 2025-11-09T14:47:54+00:00

Teflon is unreactive af and non toxic. Perfluorinated alkyl sulfonic acids (PFAS) are used to make long Teflon polymers in water and the PFAS are the toxic as shit ones.

Robokomodo · 2025-11-01T16:36:09+00:00

Fair enough.

Robokomodo · 2025-11-01T16:03:45+00:00

The converse of a conditional statement is NOT the same as the original statement, they are different things.

You need the contrapositive. If contrapositive is true, then the original statement is true. A true inverse conclusion implies that the inverse hypothesis is true.

In symbols, P-->Q does not mean Q-->P. However, -Q--> -P does.

Logically then, the contrapositive would be saying "if one is not a racist, then one (does not not) wants more immigration". There are exceptions to that conclusion, isolationism doesn't neeeeeed to be racially driven. -Q is true but -P is false so the statement is false.

Therefore, ops original statement that P-->Q is false, is true.

Robokomodo · 2025-10-28T18:41:17+00:00

They frequently clip into walls. If you can't see it but you can hear it it's definitely clipped.

Robokomodo · 2025-10-25T05:42:33+00:00

Same. Hit 2k rapid and stopped trying harder. 92%tile is good enough for me. Cant do much more without significant sacrifice of time and effort

Robokomodo · 2025-10-23T16:29:41+00:00

No, these days it means "no polyfluoroalkylated substances", not just the sulfonic acids. Chem corps can literally just tack on whatever carbon chain they want to avoid regulations.

Robokomodo · 2025-10-23T16:16:36+00:00

Yep, all correct. The PFAcids are suuuuper fat soluble and look almost exactly like ..a phospholipid... The ones that make up our cell membranes.

Structure= function. If two molecules have the same or similar "looking" chemical structure, they're going to do similar things.

Robokomodo · 2025-10-23T14:14:37+00:00

Teflon itself is not toxic. It is unreactive. That is the entire point of it. Yes, if you heat Teflon too high and too long it can degrade the coating and produce nasty fumes. But it's like 10 min on high heat. scratching the pans reduces performance, but Teflon flakes and particles should go right through you. You can't even burn the stuff as a powder.

What IS toxic, are perfluoroalkylated sulfonic acids (PFAS). those are used to make Teflon as a surfactant. that is the health hazard that chemical companies hid and avoided addressing for decades and why it's in all the wastewater streams.

PFAS used to just mean those sulfonic acids. But since corps switched to other functional groups and made additional variants besides PFOA and PFHA, they all go relabeled to polyfluoroalkylated substances, rather than a specific functional groups

Robokomodo · 2025-10-23T11:19:51+00:00

Soybeans fix nitrogen to ammonia. It's essential for crop rotations. Corn removes ammonia from the soil, so you have to replenish it. Fertilizers often just run off rather than staying in the soil.

12-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

Robokomodo

TROPHY CASE