• N&PD Moderators: Skorpio | thegreenhand

2 Great (free) books about life as a chemist

clubcard

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 12, 2013
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'Ignition!' by John D. Clark who spent the majority of his career developing rocket propellant - lots of good laughs like spilling 1 tonne of HF.

'Excuse Me Sir, Would you like to buy A Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide' by Max G. Gergel - How he and 1 other guy started Columbia Organic Chemical Company in 1944. It's quite breathtaking that they were prepared to produce the boranes that John D. Clark wanted to use as a propellant.

The 2 books overlap with Clark asking Columbia for all manner of oxidizer and fuels and how John D. Clarke made 100% nitric acid by blowing cold air over a container full of the 90% stuff and collecting (vapor pressure48 mmHg ). Wasteful, yes, but I love those funky insights; to know even the professionals jury rig solutions.

And I have to finish with the 'In The Pipeline' by derek Lowe's monthly piece on modern medicinal chemistry - try seeing if YOU have worked with anything in his 'Things I Won't Work With'
[url]http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/[/url]

I can sincerely promise that these will be the best books you read in a year and the monthly Derek Lowe has links to all previous pieces.

ROFL or your money back
 
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I got both of those books after seeing them recced in pipeline. The stuff I would never work with column is so good on pipeline.
 
Heh I'm just reading that blog at the moment, I often do.

And when I saw this thread, I was actually going to reccommend Gergel's book.Great stuff, he seems like just the guy I'd have said 'fuck yes, now come in and lets fix you up a cup of tea from my collection of exotic and unusual teas then invite him to tour the lab, and go have some fun in there (no not that way. I don't swing that way, and besides, I don't swing the neurotypical way either..although that said, anyone who starts out with 'excuse me, would you like to buy a kilo of isopropyl bromide' might just have a touch of the spazz in his blood=D)

But..they DO have to be female. Female, autie (Kanner's ideally) and hot as fuck. So he wouldn't fit. But I've a distinct hunch he'd make for great laughs in the lab. and I do have a spare gas mask. He's one of the historical chemists I'd really have loved to have met, along with the Shulgins, Nichols, Mechoulam, Faraday, Mendeleev, and Humphry Davy.

Come to think of it, I've often thought Sasha Shulgin writes like a he is was...(I still can't fucking believe he is gone :(truly, a rotten loss to the world, and I feel awful for his loved one, they seemed so SO close, so made for each othe, makes me think of how me and my former fiancee (younger of the two, the one I've not since she was 14, were together, so tightly bound and deeply in love.) sometimes people just seem to be two halves of one shared soul. So I feel greatly for Ann's loss, I know how much it hurts to lose someone one loves so deeply and passionately, I can really, REALLY feel my spazzdar tinging and the dial needle spinning round out of control reading Sasha's writing style.

Definitely has a spesh feel to his work. Not that I'm anything like as talented as he i..was..fuck..but the way he just cut loose and blasted out his hypergolic enthusiasm for chemistry
biology, it has special ed written all over it, and him. Like his climbing into and stashing himself away in his own private space in the honeysuckle bushes=D thats got speshul written all over it :)
 
Clubcard mate, I just read your edit, I'm really sorry for your loss, and of course, your sister's loss.

You are one of the posters here I like/appreciate the most. I feel that by the by we have somewhat similar philosophy as to how recreational drugs should be designed and quite likely, similar ethical and philosophical standards to my own, a little different, but still, quite similar. You are one of the few active posters in NSPD who does, who has a good intellect, and who's thinking is closely along mine own lines, the kind of person I'd love as a lab partner.

I've a lot of respect for you. and you seem like a really decent guy, the kind of person this is awful news, and I'm real sorry to hear it, esp. from the likes if you mate,
 
Linpet_Chicken,

Why can't we just be friends? I realize that not every drug blueprint I upload leads to anything good or useful or in some cases even possible, but I have cast a wide net and the fruits of the spirit, if you will, have been coming down the pipeline for years now. So, no, my batting average is not 1.000, but it's the highest game in town, and my target compound number counts are PAF (Prolific As Fuck).

In Short, Do You Really Want To Hate Me? AMP
 
Clubcard mate, I just read your edit, I'm really sorry for your loss, and of course, your sister's loss.

You are one of the posters here I like/appreciate the most. I feel that by the by we have somewhat similar philosophy as to how recreational drugs should be designed and quite likely, similar ethical and philosophical standards to my own, a little different, but still, quite similar. You are one of the few active posters in NSPD who does, who has a good intellect, and who's thinking is closely along mine own lines, the kind of person I'd love as a lab partner.

I've a lot of respect for you. and you seem like a really decent guy, the kind of person this is awful news, and I'm real sorry to hear it, esp. from the likes if you mate,

get a room :|
 
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