February » 2010 » ChemHacker

Things we won’t be talking much about

The first response most people have when I tell them I have a home chemistry lab is either “why do you have a meth lab in your basement?” or “do you make explosives?” The answer to both is “no,” and I’m a bit saddened that this is the first things people think about when they think about chemistry.

I completely understand the fascination – explosions are fun to witness, and the thought of a meth lab in an acquaintance’s basement is titillating.

But here’s something most people don’t realize: in addition to being wildly dangerous (and generally illegal without the proper permissions), they’re really boring from a chemistry standpoint.

Nearly all combustion and explosion reactions are a variant on the following theme:

Fuel + Oxygen + Spark = (lots of) Energy + Byproducts

In addition to being illegal and boring, these are unimaginative fields for a home lab to pursue. Read the rest of this entry »

Intro to ChemHacker

What’s going on here?

Over the past several decades, chemistry as a hobby has fallen from grace. Instead of a noble, interesting, healthy realm of inquiry, chemistry is now viewed with mistrust and fear by most people. In the United States, chemical hobbyists are now assumed to be only interested in drugs and explosives and face the risk of investigation by three-lettered government agencies. This environment of fear and mistrust is a terrible thing for both the science of chemistry and humanity as a whole.

The causes for this fall from grace are many, and while most of the causes of this fall are unwarranted, some of them were caused by the chemical industry and chemical hobbyists themselves. Read the rest of this entry »