Life in the Lab

Internship is going well, aside from some bureaucracy that means I have to wait even longer for keys to the lab. (I picked up a set with my name on them Friday... and they turned out to be the wrong keys.) Borrowed a set from the professor in order to work late today.

I set up a reaction around 16:00, then left it alone. Came back at 20:00 to do the workup on that and increment purification of the previous batch of products. Left just before 02:00. It was quiet and peaceful, and really feels like I got a lot done. (Some deceptively okay-looking busted equipment notwithstanding.)

I'm also finding that it's not just me who thinks the professor's idea of safety is a bit skewed. He learned chemistry in a time where chloroform was a standard component in cough syrup, benzene came from the hardware store, and Coca-cola had real coca and kola extracts in it*. It seems to have left him with a rather cavalier attitude towards useful but potentially harmful substances. That aspect of his practice isn't normative, fortunately.


* Edit: It has been pointed out to me that Coke still contains natural coca and kola flavorings. Since the early 1900s, the coca leaves have been processed to remove cocaine (before being shipped to Coca-Cola Co.), while the kola component remains unchanged.

"This has been a test of the emergency fire alarm system. Thank you for your patience."

Dear maintenance,

Fuck you very much for the lack of advance warning.

I had been soundly asleep, and now I'm going to try for that ideal again. (Edit: Body tells me that it's awake now. Feh.)

No love,
- Me

On job satisfaction and the public defense.

For the past couple weeks I've been considering what kind of personal attitudes and motivations would lead a person to become a public defender*, or to stay in the job once they're there. After all, how does one find purpose in a career where one could end up thinking 'My client might have killed someone, but I got the evidence thrown out on a 4th Amendment technicality.'? It clicked today that someone deeply committed to the idea that it's better to let a guilty person walk free than to chance inflicting punishment on the innocent could probably find such a career meaningful and fulfilling.

Just my day's worth of insight.


* Note for non-Americans: a public defender is the lawyer provided to a person who's charged with a crime but can't afford to hire a private one.