(no subject)

[wolffyluna]

It's happened. Despite my best efforts, I have made a popular tumblr post.

I guess there are worse posts of mine that could have gotten popular?

(Below the cut is a copy of the post, which is an amusing story of science related accidents.)

Two weeks ago, the manager of the lab I am in was showing me how to do something.

“Now, make sure the catalyst doesn’t get exposed to air too long,” she said.

“I guess exposing it to air will make it less good as a catalyst, or make it do the wrong reactions,” I thought. “She’d tell me if it was something more dramatic.”

Flash forward to today. I’m doing the thing, and I’m doing my best to make sure the catalyst doesn’t get exposed to too much air, but the fact I’m trying to be fast is slowing me down. I dump the catalyst off the spatula and into my sample, and screw on my sample lid. I’m just holding the spatula now, and then–

– it bursts into flames.

“Ah, so that’s why I should keep it away from air,” I think, holding a spatula that is on fire. “–now what do I do with this?”

Comments

[yvannairie]

I love this on the caveat that you got out of your flaming spatula situation unharmed :'DD What a fantastically mundane scenario. I'd imagine if I was working with a catalyst like that and hand't accidentally set it on fire in a while, I might forget as well.

[wolffyluna]

I wouldn't want people to worry!

And here's the thing, even though I now know it can catch fire-- I'm probably going to accidentally set it on fire again, because all it takes is leaving it out a couple extra seconds...