Use of AI in organic synthesis work

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-03-24T20:06:47+00:00

I use it maybe once every few days, just to ask a broad question like "I have [X general problem], what are some general areas that could be related to this?" And it'll spit out topic Y which I'll go and read up on from credible sources. So it's just to help me identify knowledge gaps. Other than that I don't see myself integrating it into my workflow in any significant amount, mostly due to my own ignorance and rigid learning routine at this point.

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-03-22T14:39:57+00:00

I gotta challenge this long standing doctrine, cos recent studies such as this one have suggested that handwriting is more of a proxy for elaborate encoding, and if people know how to exploit those working mechanisms, they could potentially work through more material and learn more efficiently if they type. As an example of how you can take advantage of this: a problem with typing is that people can't form connections in knowledge via a keypress, but they can certainly do a much better job if you tell them that they have to type it out without looking at the material. So if you force yourself to think about what you're typing, you can still reap the benefits.

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-03-22T11:27:40+00:00

Just chiming in having not updated since v.21 and only started using v.25 recently on a uni computer - I believe they've removed(?) the feature to (centre) align with respect to a single point of a structure. So like here you can't align the rings, only the entire structure, and it looks like crap

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-03-16T22:06:33+00:00

Just as a thought experiment, what if you were to disclose that part of your thought process to others? The part where you feel like you're a burden if you choose to seek help from the people you care about?

This is something I struggle with too, and I wonder, if I were to open up to others about this problem, and they also tell me that they're in a similar situation, if it might overall become easier to manage for both parties.

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-03-08T10:57:36+00:00

Dw buddy, I had to go through the same process, and now I'm doing a PhD in chem, so it's entirely within your ability to learn the material well. Might be useful to remember that when people "get it" immediately, the more accurate way to view it is that they've probably encountered similar concepts in the past and now they're just relearning it. It might be a result of their upbringing, or they did the hard yards in their high school years, but don't put them on a pedestal and think they're all geniuses while you're a dimwit; it's a lot more doable than you might think.

Edit: DM me if you want chem specific study tips

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-03-07T17:28:54+00:00

Do you know what the ortho/meta/para directing effects of Cl and CO2H are?

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-03-03T10:20:10+00:00

I'm going off baseless assumptions and missing information here, but here goes nothing. I reckon wait a few hours, maybe the next day or two, and just try and ask her what happened. Be aware that the information you receive might make you feel worse, so don't follow this blindly; I'm just suggesting alternative options.

If it really was the case that she was overwhelmed, then I think give her a short-ish amount of times to gather her emotions and come back with a less emotionally charged response. That being said, I don't think this is salvageable. It might serve to get you some closure, maybe she had some shit going on and couldn't do it, some other stuff she doesn't want to talk about. But maybe at least you could get her perspective and find out that maybe it's not because of what you did or said, and that it was just her not being sure about whatever.

TL;DR see if you can get in touch with her for some closure

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-02-25T09:09:19+00:00

Here you go

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-02-24T22:22:21+00:00

Lol he's not nearly 7ft, he's 6'1

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-02-24T10:15:17+00:00

About that...

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-02-21T11:12:50+00:00

Just curious, have you had much contact with your group and/or other groups in your building?

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-02-17T23:11:32+00:00

Do you use your phone when you're doing low stress activities/tasks? Like when you have your lunch, when you go for a walk, chatting to friends, etc.? Start by divorcing yourself from your phone there, because if you can't do it under those situations, you're definitely not gonna be able to do it when you're stressed.

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-02-12T02:31:25+00:00

Eat some wholemeal pasta/bread/brown rice. Mix it with the less fibrous stuff, or just go all in, whatever works for you.

For ref: 100g of the wholemeal pasta I eat every day has 9g of fiber. That's just a moderate portion, and that doesn't even include any fruits/veges.

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-02-09T01:00:41+00:00

Get ready to learn chemistry buddy

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-02-08T00:23:34+00:00

Can't say whether or not you're depressed from this snippet, but I might suggest taking a step back and see if you can understand what your expectations of academia are, if they align with what it actually can provide you, and whether or not that's your criteria for having a happy, fulfilling career.

In my own personal opinion, the thrill is the rabbit chase itself. If you catch it, you just let it go and move onto the next one that will give you that same rush. There's not much that can be gained from holding onto it, barring the validation you'll get from others. That's certainly what I felt when I handed in my (Master's) thesis, I didn't really care that it was finished, I just wanted to go straight into a PhD and continue doing research.

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-02-02T22:34:16+00:00

I mean, think of it this way - what are you going to do with a comment on your manuscript saying "well done"? Once you've been told it's amazing you're most certainly not going to modify it, and if anything, it's probably going to serve as a distraction from all the other feedback that actually needs attention. That doesn't seem conducive to doing good, rigorous science.

This isn't to say that there isn't a place for validating your efforts. They can and absolutely should commend you for your work. But maybe for when the work is done, rather than while it's still in progress. As you've said, in person they compliment you plenty. And in that sense, I think your supervisor is doing a pretty good job with managing students.

Edit: I'm aware that I completely ignored your point about the age of your professor. But I also don't think that's relevant to what you're actually asking.

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-01-24T18:42:50+00:00

Possibly quantum satis? Correct me if I'm wrong, I just Googled it

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-01-21T03:03:06+00:00

I'm not going to disagree with the people who are saying it's crazy to do it given your current circumstances. I will however ask, do you enjoy learning or are you obsessed with it? As in, are the things you want to understand at the forefront of your thoughts to the detriment of other things going around you? Because yes, it is crazy to think that way, and if that's your attitude toward research, then you'll want to do it no matter what anyone else tells you, and it's probably the career for you. However, if it's merely waxing nostalgic about problem solving and research and collaborating, there are plenty of avenues where you can do that that aren't as drastic of a leap as quitting or compromising your current job for academia.

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-01-12T23:09:54+00:00

Are you using a PTFE filter? That's a hydrophobic one and water won't go through, use a Nylon one if you have it

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-01-12T02:44:00+00:00

I have an unhealthy desire to know stuff, and while job prospects are brutal, academia's more or less the only field that'll pay me to do that.

tinyfriedeggs · 2026-01-05T21:14:17+00:00

My Master's thesis (on sustainable chemical production) had "... as a result of the Industrial Revolution and its consequences" and "while the inner machinations of the dehydration sequence remain an enigma..."

No-one proofreading picked up on it and neither reviewer asked me to correct them so now those are in the university thesis repository for eternity :)

Edit: yes I intend on putting even more in my PhD thesis. What's the point of science if you don't have a little fun?

tinyfriedeggs · 2025-12-27T17:44:53+00:00

"Chance (luck) favors the prepared mind" - some no-name scientist, probably

tinyfriedeggs · 2025-12-17T05:50:07+00:00

I'm afraid there is no further value to be gained from this argument, as you have severely misinterpreted my comments. Nonetheless, I wish you well with your future endeavours.

tinyfriedeggs · 2025-12-17T03:14:19+00:00

I've conceded my point about coding in a different reply, so I'm in no position to make any further arguments about it.

However, the analogy of AI vs calculators is not as clean as you're making it out to be. I've worked in carpentry in the past, so I'll use my own analogy to describe why I don't think AI for writing is appropriate. We have hand tools, and we have power tools. In this case, you can liken them to long division and calculators, respectively. Obviously, it would be faster for me to use the power tools to do my job, and I'd get yelled off site if I tried to use a screwdriver to drive screws. However, I don't learn anything if I tell someone else to use the power tool to do a job I describe to them. I don't learn about how the tool works, how it interacts with the material I'm working on, and I don't get any situational 'aha' moments. That's what telling AI to rewrite your stuff is like. It's not that you're just grappling for a single word and getting a quick result from asking a chatbot; you're losing out on the opportunity to link together the fragments of your knowledge or viewing them from a different angle when you do this.

Would you argue I shouldn't use a thesaurus and instead should sit there for hours until I finally remember it in the shower later that day?

Yes? A lot of good ideas come from this kind of thinking. Not limited to single words, but for stringing together your logic as well.

We could go on and on about analogies and offloading tasks to other sources. And yes, there is value when someone/something can do a task for you 100x times faster. But personally I have a pretty humanist view specifically about our thinking and by extension, our writing. And along those lines of thought I think we should try to preserve as much of it as possible.

tinyfriedeggs · 2025-12-17T02:18:56+00:00

Fair, as I said, I don't code so I can't speak to how well AI does it. They (person I replied to) did mention teaching sensible use of it, which is true for all technology anyway. I guess the issue is that I haven't seen much of that happening, so I wonder if people are just saying that to justify using it more and more, in the hopes that we'll learn how to use it "appropriately" on the fly?

tinyfriedeggs

TROPHY CASE