Chemistry Geeking

[marcusmarcusrc]

Last night I had a dream where I was back in junior year of undergrad talking with my UROP supervisor. I was trying to convince him to switch from the borabenzene project which never worked to this cool ferrocene based stereospecific catalyst. So there I was on the blackboard sketching out molecular diagrams. The only problem is that it is really hard to do arrow pushing when you are dreaming. Sort of like reading text. Which I can do, but it takes effort for the words not to fly away. Or the nitrogens that are supposed to be the active part of the catalyst not to shift around in the molecule. (on a related note, where does the apparently false meme that it is impossible to read in dreams come from?)

In other news, two friends of mine from chemistry grad school are having a kid. They've decided to name him "Dalton". This is going to cause all their chemistry friends no end of amusement...

Comments

[astra-nomer.livejournal.com]

An astronomer friend of mine recently had a child named Stella, if I recall correctly...

[fanw.livejournal.com]

His middle name could be Atom (pronounced "Adam")!

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

I've definately read text in a dream. I was reading Isaac Bashevis Singer's autobiography and fell asleep. I didn't realize this however because the dream was just that I kept reading. I was quite surprised when I picked up the book the next day to find the story line had changed a lot from what I "remembered".

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

I think lots of people read in dreams, but it is difficult to re-read the same passage without it changing. One of the "tests" that lucid dreaming people use is that each time they look at their watch or read something, they look away and then see if it changed. If so, they know they are dreaming.

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Stella is a good name too.

I think MattR once threatened to name his kids "Flask" and "Beaker" or something like that. That I think would be going overboard. =)

[astra-nomer.livejournal.com]

No no, he was going to change his last name to Flask, and name his kids Florence, Erlenmeyer, and Volumetric. Get the story right!

[arcanology.livejournal.com]

If your watch has a second hand, that protocol seems to fail very badly.

"I have no pants on, but it's okay because my watch changes so I'M DREAMING!"

"No... no you aren't."

"Oh."

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I totally picture this being said by the Penny Arcade people.

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Oh, right! That makes more sense.

Um, to the extent that anything MattR does makes sense.

[arcanology.livejournal.com]

I want them to get off their butts and churn out some more collections.