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wg48temp9
National Hazard
Posts: 784
Registered: 30-12-2018
Location: not so United Kingdom
Member Is Offline
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I don't remember when I first become interested in science, electronics and chemistry in particular. It must have been before I was ten.
I do have memories of watching and helping my father make fireworks and watching his experiments with rockets and fountains. He made a small brass
cannon for me and gave me black powder to fire it. My grandfather had a type printing business and I watch him and my father casting type using a
coal fire to melt broken type. My father also made small plates for the printing press using a photographic and etching process and by hand carving or
copper plating wax impressions. One of my uncles was a tinkerer too he would collaborate with my father on projects. I can still remember going to a
science exhibition with them when I saw an induction heating machine that levitated small blocks of steel and heated them to a bright red colour when
they would abruptly drop in to a bucket water. Both my father and grandfather had died by my mid-teens. My mother made jewellery and altered dresses
for many years. I guess you could say my fascination with science is in my blood.
My sister became a glass artist and jewellery maker and I still help her on occasions with technical stuff. Yes it must be in our blood LOL.
I do try to encourage my great nieces and nephews when I mange to distract them from the TV, computer games and soon the web.
[Edited on 11/10/2019 by wg48temp9]
I am wg48 but not on my usual pc hence the temp handle.
Thank goodness for Fleming and the fungi.
Old codger' lives matters, wear a mask and help save them.
Be aware of demagoguery, keep your frontal lobes fully engaged.
I don't know who invented mRNA vaccines but they should get a fancy medal and I hope they made a shed load of money from it.
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markx
National Hazard
Posts: 646
Registered: 7-8-2003
Location: Northern kingdom
Member Is Offline
Mood: Very Jolly
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I must admit that for the life of me I can not recall the moment or event that nudged me towards an interest in chemistry. That interest has always
been there, even way before I could have known about the concept of chemistry in any possible way.
The first encounter that I can remember very faintly was at about the age of maybe three or four when I discovered a cupboard that my father kept the
insecticides in. I found it to be the most magical and interesting place that possibly could exist....and I explored it thoroughly. Which of course
did not provoke a positive reaction in my parents. Rather an excessive panic attack and horror that culminated in a huge argument and physical
punishment. And to my great dismay the magical cupboard was relocated into a high place that I could not reach....and when I finally figured out how
to reach it, I found that it was locked! Talk about adding injury to insult 
I remember my dad acquired a set of empty chemical bottles and other interesting vessels for me to play with in an attempt to keep me from trying to
raid the insecticide "warehouse", but really without the contents the bottles were for some reason very boring.
And so it progressed, the "itch" never left and in time I learned the proper way to scratch it. But way before that my parents gave up on trying to
scare me away from my unhealthy hobby and found it is easier to just let me be.
Exact science is a figment of imagination.......
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S.C. Wack
bibliomaster
Posts: 2419
Registered: 7-5-2004
Location: Cornworld, Central USA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Enhanced
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Beaker of the Muppet Show is probably the funniest character ever played on TV (maybe tied with Mr Bill); the show did coincide with the arrival of an
unasked for IIRC chemistry set and chemicals a bit advanced for my age, and abuse of same. I had plenty of unsupervised spare time.
[Edited on 10-11-2019 by S.C. Wack]
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Tellurium
Hazard to Self
Posts: 84
Registered: 12-7-2017
Location: Group 16, Chalcogen City
Member Is Offline
Mood: smelly
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Well my passion for chemistry started when I was really young, I was in the first grade, so I was probably around 6 years old.
I already learned how to read and write when I was in kindergarten, so I was a bit bored at school and wanted to learn something new.
Chemistry in movies and television(especially documentaries) was always very interesting to me, so I convinced my parents, that I really need a small
chemistry kit and that's how it all started.
After that first chemistry kit in first class I got a whole lot of new chemistry kits for Christmas, birthday, etc.
At the age of around 8 I started to search for experiments and later also small inorganic syntheses and buying the reagents on my own from my pocket
money. By the way the first synthesis was making KCN from the Potassium ferrocyanide, I can still remember this, because I was quite afraid
However over the years both chemicals and knowledge grew, now I'm mostly into organic synthesis and also doing chemistry for a living. Currently I'm a
lab technician, but to be honest the job doesn't really challenge me and I will start to go to university next year.
What really disturbs me is, how chemophobic not only many people are, but especially how chemophobic the country I'm living in is. Now I have no
problems getting any chemicals, but under normal circumstances it is a really big trouble getting most chemicals here or at least getting them without
appearing on some kind of watchlist. A friend of mine even got a police raid at his house because he ordered beakers from a shop that also sold some
chemicals to some terrorists by accident, so all customers were "visited" by police. On one hand the many years where I did not have free access to
most chemicals told me a lot how to improvise or think "outside the box". But on the other hand I think, that we would have a lot more people, that
are passionate about chemistry and maybe even contribute something useful to society, if the hobby would be more easily accessible here 
[Edited on 12-11-2019 by Tellurium]
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Pyro_cat
Hazard to Others
Posts: 243
Registered: 30-4-2018
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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Quote: Originally posted by markx  |
I remember my dad acquired a set of empty chemical bottles and other interesting vessels for me to play with in an attempt to keep me from trying to
raid the insecticide "warehouse", but really without the contents the bottles were for some reason very boring.
And so it progressed, the "itch" never left and in time I learned the proper way to scratch it. But way before that my parents gave up on trying to
scare me away from my unhealthy hobby and found it is easier to just let me be. |
Similar story.
I had the electricity bug bad and was allowed to play with batteries but around 8 or 9 years old they just gave up on trying to keep me away from the
wall sockets as a power source for my experiments.
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VSEPR_VOID
National Hazard
Posts: 719
Registered: 1-9-2017
Member Is Offline
Mood: Fullerenes
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When I wiped the chard remnants of my eye brows off
Within cells interlinked
Within cells interlinked
Within cells interlinked
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B(a)P
International Hazard
Posts: 1139
Registered: 29-9-2019
Member Is Offline
Mood: Festive
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I grew up in a rural area and attended a small school. There was me and one other in my later years of chemistry. My teacher allowed us to make picric
acid to demonstrate a nitration. From then on I was hooked.
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