Welcome to real-world lab.

Yes!

That's right.

Chemistry addict is going to real-world lab. My first, unpaid, 3-weeks-long internship in one of German universities. And guess what - I am trully terryfied. It is perhaps, I have never ever done anything serious in chemistry lab. And now what? I will spend 3 weeks in this completely foreign environment and try not to distroy anything and wish I don't end up covered in some kind of toxic substance. Not so funny after all. But this is what I wanted. And I will manage this - hopefully.

Stay tuned for adventures of beginning chemistry addict in a lab.

Say hello to chemistry!

Past two day were incredible, when it comes to chemistry adventures.

Thanks to my teacher and my  relentless stubbornness, I took part in laboratory classes at The University of Poznań. Never before was I able to do so interesting experiments and I must say, I had a ton of fun. So… perhaps  isolating Eugenol from Dianthus herbs or synthesizing acetanilide doesn’t sound like something one would like to do during holidays, but for me, as a beginning chemistry addict, it was (to put it simply) AWESOME.

This was also the time, during which I became acquainted with organic chemistry apparatus. Acquainted is a bit of exaggeration, since I had not much time to get to know every piece of equipment, but I certainly realized that I have so much to learn.  

(I got to work with a thing called Rotary evaporator, which sounds much better than polish “wyparka” – really silly name for such a nice piece of equipment. Still I don’t entirely get how it works, so this will be a task for today.)

Maybe I will cover some of the things I have done on the blog.

As for now, I will leave you (or better said – myself) with some quote, which perhaps is not inspirational or very deep. But this quote motivates to try to acquire knowledge through understanding, not remembering. It was sad by, in my opinion, one of the wisest man in the history. (which is a belief I held since Sunday, when I ended reading “Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!”) Now you all know, who I am talking (writing) about. Ladies and gentlemen – Richard Phillips Feynman.

“I don't know what's the matter with people: they don't learn by understanding, they learn by some other way — by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!”

I hope neither mine nor yours knowledge is fragile. Or, at least it won’t be. Someday.   

Do something!

Everyone is doing something. 
I am doing something as well. Writting a blog to be more specific. 
The polish chemistry addict's blog.