Chemistry

A word of warning: Chemists often seem to have different ideas about what "nontoxic" means than the rest of us. A lot of chemistry experiments can pollute the air, result in water pollution, or have long term negative health effects on the chemist due to vapors. I'm working on finding a good sourcebook for both toxicology and ecological ramifications of certain chemicals but it will take me some time to find. For now, I would recommend Home Safe Home by Debra Lynn Dadd. Also, Superman's Not Coming by Erin Brockovich. It honestly seems that after swimming around in Chemistry long enough you get past the "holy shit everything in this discipline is poisonous!" hangup and go a little too hard in the other direction. Probably why they don't teach the real deal in school, 'cause they don't want the students to blow themselves up or grow new limbs or something.

  • Another warning: Chemistry seems to be plagued with a lot of really complicated, boring textbooks that don't really teach enough of the "why" or the technical aspects of how things work. It's mostly rote memorization. "Fluffy" books written for the layman also abound but no one seems to have created a good mix of scientific rigor as well as interest in these books. I am searching for this holy grail.
  • DHMO The ramifications of DHMO in our day-to-day lives have not been fully researched and it is a highly dangerous substance under many common conditions. Please protest to ban it. Contact your politicians.

    Books

    A couple disappointments: Must Know High School Chemistry by Moore and Langley, and Chemistry: The Central Science. They're bad. Just bad! If you have to read them as part of your course load I am sorry.

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