Going back to stereotypes

I saw this on twitter earlier today, and thought I'd post it here, as I have already sort of talked about it.  Joanne Manaster ‏@sciencegoddess

Worth another mention: Why the Scientist Stereotype is Bad for Everyone, Especially Kids, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/, it's by@DrMichaelBrooks

I do think that a fear of science and scientists hurts everyone, not just scientists like me.   I find it interesting that in this article, the suggestion that scientists need show humanity is made again.  I've heard that before-if you admit your biases people will be more likely to believe you.   And maybe that's true.   Anyone tried it?

Using dr.

I had a discussion at work about titles.  A friend just graduated with her PhD, and made a big point that this was the only time she was going to let us call her Dr.   And that brought up a much larger discussion-when do you use the title?
I generally find it to be "a PhD bomb" at work.  Sometimes that's a good thing-I can't count the number of difficult people that I've had to make understand that yes, I do know what I'm talking about, and yes, you do have to listen.  And other times I just want to say, "no, I'm not secretly judging you.  I don't think I'm smarter than you about your job.  I do want to hear what you have to say."   But I'm interested in hearing other perspectives.

Short nifty thing

Nifty thing, and I actually taught this lab!
C&E News article  about quantum dots.   Specifically this time using as a laser, which our dots were not monochromatic enough to pull off.   But never let anyone tell you that nobody learns anything useful in college.

How willing are you to experiment on yourself?

This is not going to be a detailed scientific post, but it does have something that I wanted to ask.   How willing are you to be your own guinea pig?  I make a lot of my own bath products-mostly so I can make them smell exactly the way I want to.  And I'm willing to experiment on myself by trying differing amounts of shea butter vs. coconut oil.  But I'm working on branching out-I want one single face moisturizer that will have all the effects I want, something I think is illegal to sell.   If anyone knows how to make anti-acne with sunscreen wants to chat, I'm interested.  But this is becoming a lot more of an issue for me-how do I safely test this.   I'm willing to risk dry skin, but skin cancer, less so.   So what are good options to get over this?

Was going to post about laws, got distracted

No, this isn't actually as bad as it sounds.  I've been doing research for my previously mentioned post(probably posts) on legally defensible science.  It's interesting, and I still do intend to do that writing, probably at this point as a series of posts.  Too much to go into in one single post-what to do, different standards under different laws, etc.   For example, the EPA can and does have two different sets of good lab practices, under two different laws.   And then I checked my personal e-mail when I got home from work (no, I don't violate the internet policies at work.  I'm no fun, I know) and found a very interestingly titled e-mail in my box-"Nation's Chemical Law Not Broken".   Now, I'm a member of the American Chemical Society, which is blatantly and by definition a group for industry-chemical manufacturers, even if they have to deal with academic chemists as well.  I do believe that industry is important.   I was honestly stunned by this blatant advertisement by the Competitive Enterprise Institute-I am not going to link them-claiming to be "a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest group that studies the intersection of regulation, risk, and markets" in my e-mail when their website on the very front page, second level title claims "Free Markets and Limited Government".  I'm not so sold on this impartiality.  They claim that modernization of the Toxic Substances Control Act-an act that I know from working in the chemical industry that it's easy enough to find exemptions to for everything other than PCBs, dioxins-claimed to be some of the most toxic compounds known to man, asbestos and lead paint(this you can still get away with, by the way, just generally not in places children are expected to be) if you work at it-is going to endanger safety by requiring more demonstration of safety.   I couldn't wrap my head around the level of . . . intellectual dishonesty and cognitive dissonance between the e-mail I had been sent and the actual article.  And now I wonder who sold them my name and e-mail address.   I always worry that I will find out it's the ACS.  I hold on to my identity as a chemist, and believe it's important to be a member of professional organizations.  Every time I hear something from them, however, they skirt the line between science and ignoring science for outright industry advocacy a little too closely.   Have they finally overstepped:?   Did any other ACS members get this e-mail?

Gold and Mercury

A cool article on the C&E news website. Gold nanoparticles cleaning mercury.  I worked a lot trying to clean water in graduate school.   Also did a lot of ICP for metals.   One problem that I frequently came up against was vaporization, and contamination of the instrument.   Interestingly, adding gold helps this problem.   A simple google search will yield lots of papers about this effect.  Amalgams with mercury are popular for mining, dental fillings
Some mining examples mining questions and more mining
Dental amalgams are falling out of favor though it's hard to prove any link to specific health problems epa website on dental amalgams
So it makes sense that gold can be used to clean mercury.    However, I enjoy reading about it and hope you do too.

Yet again it's been a long time

You can tell when I have a 40/hr a week job, can't you?   I need to work on that.   Well, here I am.  blogging.   I do still have a job, so I guess that's something-both a blog and a job.  And a super spiffy apartment.  Well, I think so.  
I have a post in mind that I deeply want to get into-regulatory chemistry and defensible data.   Both from the sense that sometimes the regulations are really really important-sign your chain of custody if you're doing anything legal, people.  And sometimes the regulations do have to be followed because that's what you do to be consistent, even if no, that compound might not break down much in three days.
It's what I've been doing, and it is something that I am actually loving. But it's something that makes me get up in the morning, and so I don't really have time to draw out my thoughts tonight.
Also, I missed the local section here ACS meeting last week.   I'm unhappy.

Stereotypes about scientists

I said on Saturday that I was planning to write a full post about scientific stereotypes.   Here it is.   Lots of people have written lots of good ground here, and I'm not going to try to recover everything.  Here are just a couple of links http://www.labmanager.com/  http://www.sciencebase.com.
I could go into a whole lot of questions about the gender politics of the stereotypes, but that's not where I'm trying to go.
I'm pretty sure everyone has heard a lot of the stories about people in many techincal fields.   We're incapable of communicating, we loose interest as soon as anything has to actually deal with people, we can't manage to bathe/attract significant others or friends, etc.  I'm sure there are people to whom that applies.  You can see current examples on the TV show Big Bang Theory, among others.  And there are people who have different opinions about these stereotypes.  I have had guys in a bar in grad school say "Ooh, science majors are hot"  That wasn't the only reason this particular guy didn't end up as boyfriend, but it was reacting to stereotypes instead of learning the reality-not a good relationship foundation.
I recently got the comment that I'm an "atypical PhD-you are actually functional and can talk to people."   I do try for that, and I like(at least some) people. I definitely want to get to decide if I like them, not the other way around.  I worry that I'm not as socially polished as I'd like to be, but I'm pretty sure that's more a function of me having high standards for myself.   Science majors that I just went to school with include a salsa dancing singer with an amazing voice, a model-got pad, mothers of mulitple children, a sailor, a marathoner, and now I'm starting to feel like I don't do much.  All of them very functional people.
There are also many people trying to work on these stereotypes.   The University of Minnesota has a program UMN Gemini program site, that is designed to be a couple of lectures every month to help.   But why do we need to do that in 2011?   Why do I care?   Well, I do feel that there is a big anti science bias in my country, and that stereotypes like this play into it.  Okay, maybe we will do a little bit of stereotype politics.   How many politicians are willing and proud to go on tv and talk about not trusting science?   too many.  How many make cracks about eggheads?   Too many.   and so we get people who mistakenly believe that there is legitimate scientific controversy about global warming, evolution, the safety of vaccines.  because they don't want to be eggheads, and learn about science for themselves.   Now, this is one of many reasons that people have for many different beliefs.  It can't explain everything.  And doesn't happen in a vacuum.  But it's related.

It has been a long time, I know

I have been moving, and starting a new job.   So, that's what's taking most of my time, though I will try and get more up here soon.  
This job is a move out of doing chemistry, and doing research, into looking at other people's results, and verifying that all the QC is within range and that the change of custody has been done properly.  All sorts of things.
I'm kind of enjoying that.    I actually thinking about writing a longer post about some of that-there was an interesting conversation yesterday about stereotypes about scientists.  I've got a lot to say, but I'm taking my time about that because I am trying to keep this blog separate from my work.  I will not be posting on here what the job is, or telling any kind of details-since I know people can put two and two together.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.   More posting tomorrow.

SWRM highlights.

I promised updates about the Southwest Regional ACS meeting.   I unfortunately missed a lot of sessions that I wish I could have made it to, due to being lost, and a resume review session, but I did get to see some.
My favorite research by far was looking at air mixing by radioactive isotopes, coming out of Arkansas.   They found troposphere and stratosphere mixing, and looked at things like time to see results from Fukishima.  Interesting stuff.   Also, some good green chemistry overview, but much of it seemed like just that-an overview, not new knowledge.   An interesting model of toxicity studies-preliminary at any rate-to be done on the computer.  
I did a lot of career events, because in part I was there looking for a job.  I heard excellent panelists talk about things that you can do with a chemistry degree other than labwork, which I'm looking hard at right now.  And about people's individual stories.   I heard about being the only woman at a water treatment plant.   I still hope to hang out with that speaker-she sounded very interesting.
I love getting to hang out in Austin, especially now, because I love warm weather.  It's cold outside.  

The Austin SWRM for the ACS

I am still here.  I didn't get anything up yesterday, because I was at this regional ACS meeting.   I will be here through the end of the week.   There will be posts about this, because I have already heard many interesting things, but I'd rather be listening than writing.   So until then, have fun listening to chemistry songs from the last post.   Or share some of your favorite chemistry jokes.  

Because everyone deserves chemistry fun

Okay, I enjoy fighting zombies as much as the next young person apparently does.   And I enjoy chemistry.   So what could possibly be better than an online game that combines the two?   Well, okay, there are things.   But this looks pretty fun.   zombie fighter.    It's all organic chemistry, which I'm more inclined to forget than just about anything else, because I haven't had to use it.   So play games!
Also, a comic just to add to the "older nerdy teacher" jokes that I love, even if I rarely use, like the Ferrous wheel.
H2O?

And songs.  chemistry songs
Enjoy!

Being a chemist without someone else's lab

People used to do this all the time. The chemist who had their home laboratories, and made discoveries in their spare time. Is that still possible today? I have to admit, I can't try much, because my husband and I rent, and I don't want to make permanent changes to the house, and am pretty risk adverse when dealing with someone else's property. But I try to collect resources, to make myself feel connected to chemistry, and that I am still doing productive things. I am still in the process of working on cosmetics, which, at least at the level I'm doing, are pretty low risk. I'm also looking at things/ways online to get chemicals/resources. I found a decent thread on about.com here . I wrote earlier about free full pdf resources. I can sometimes get friends still associated with schools to look up papers for me, particularly if I have a quick reference. Have I missed anything? What are other suggestions?

short new cool thing.

Three new elements named by IUPAC. I love this stuff. Check it out.  NY times link

Edited to add the link.

Now what?

So, I worked through much of my backlog. I am sure you're all blown over by the amount of posting that has happened in the last few days. Now what am I going to write about, you ask? well, I have a couple of plans coming up 1. A new book-The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean. Has anyone read this? 2. a big new ACS meeting-the Southwest Regional meeting. I'm looking at relocating down here and looking to make contacts. If you're around here, say hi. 3. Then, later, a local section ACS meeting. At the Science Museum of Minnesota, which is a wonderful place. I'm excited.

Another meeting. Minnesota Chromatography Forum

On October 19th, I attended the meeting of the Minnesota Chromatography Forum(MCF). I had heard of this group-I know the secretary, and a past secretary-but never made it before. Part of why I felt I had to quit doing roller derby was not having time to do this sort of networking much. Which was fine, until I got laid off. The meeting schedule is still available online. Dr. Stevens was a very dynamic and interesting speaker, and I always like learning new widely applicable techniques. QuEChERS, Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe methodology does sound like a very widely applicable dream come true for a lot of industrial scientists. I won't go into the details of the chemistry here as I didn't get a chance to ask exactly what I can and can't put out in public. The method is relatively new-this millenium-but seemed to be very widely applicable, and very accurate. You can use a variety of types of analysis, mostly GC, LC or mass spec. There were some different formulations for different specific instrumental or sample conditions. The environmentalist in me always gets a little nervous when I see packs recommended with disposable reactionware, but I know that is an easy way to make things cleaner and to have less variation in cleanup and sample prep, so I can see why that was done. I have to admit, overall, I felt a little like I had come for a talk, and gotten a commercial, in a way that I usually don't even at other mostly industrial meetings, like the Society for Cosmetic Chemists. I am still very interested in the MCF though, and looking forward to taking a class from them in early December about HPLC.

American Chemical Society meeting

On October 11th I attended the Minnesota Local Section meeting of the American Chemical Society at Normandale College. The speaker was Dr. Sumita Mitra speaking about "The Essential Habits of Effective Innovators". I promised her I wouldn't put the list online, so everyone should get her to come and speak with you. She worked for 3M for 35 years, and has since formed a consulting business. I very much enjoyed her talk, even if I was less able to put a lot of it into practice right now. Much of my work wasn't synthetic, so there are some differences of focus as well. The link to the description still works . I felt that many of her points involved approaching research in a slightly more systematic way, with the idea that effective means getting what you wanted. So she seemed not to encourage the "happy accident" mode of discovery. I would suspect this is important in larger corporate settings like 3M, where meeting targets is important and can't wait for a happy accident. I very much embrace a lot of her organization ideas. Unfortunately, this will have to be a short overview, to make sure I'm not stepping on any toes. I always love attending these meetings and hearing what other people have done with chemistry.

Starting up the backlog

It has been a while since I published much here. A variety of job searching issues have come up. However, I do have a slight backlog of posts, so I will be a bit more prolific the next few days. Starting with the book I was reading. Very slowly. I was reading The Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager. Here is a link to the book on Amazon if you're curious. The book is supposed to be the story of the discovery and use of the Haber-Bosch process for making ammonia. I have used this example in class many times to talk about why catalysts are useful and important. And to explain Lechatlier's principle. It's a good example. The process is also, frankly, hugely important in terms of feeding the world's population. As we recently passed 7 billion in population, feeding everyone requires finding ways to stretch our natural resources. I loved the historical bits and story. I find it sad to really get inside Fritz Haber's head, and imagine the disappointment he must have felt at the constant barriers of racism towards being a real German, before and after Nazi's came to power. I still want to know why historians don't consider his second wife a reliable source. I also hadn't realized how much of a story of the development of chemical engineering this book would be. So much had to be made from scratch for this process to work on the scale it needed to. That was an incredible achievement. What I didn't think this book would teach is much chemistry. That wasn't the point; I'm aware. The goal is history, not chemistry. And we can find descriptions of the chemistry elsewhere. But I felt that it was a bit of a lack, somehow.

Really, C&E News?

As you can see from the name of my blog, I'm a member and pretty big fan of the American Chemical Society. So I was pretty disappointed when I read what is apparently a locked article, entitled "When Scientists Betray Employers" in the October 10th issue. Because I think it doesn't happen? No, not at all. I know intellectual property theft happens. And whatever I may think of specific patents(and my objection to some things being patentable is the biggest reason I am pretty immune to all the calls of "We need patent examiners" but that's generally not chemical discoveries) I do think that chemists and companies need ways to protect their ideas. So I read the article, I was interested. And the article was dripping racism. They only talked about cases involving people of Asian descent or citizenship. They talked little about motivations beyond money. As far as I can tell, their only other argument was that everyone from China(US citizen or not) is operating as a Communist? Talking about laws in China vs. the U.S., sadly relegated to about 1 final paragraph, would have been interesting. Talking about solutions would have been interesting. But blanket Asian distrust? Put me off the entire argument.