Chemistry is funny

[LewisM]

I think I pooped myself laughing...yet this is entirely serious! The double meanings just jump everywhere :rofl::rofl::rofl::

http://www.helsinki.fi/~mpjohans/science/abstracts/008-abstract.html

You can access the journal article if you have the credentials.

It proves not all scientists are introverts :) (actually, the lists of compounds/chemicals with fun or funny names is long)

[Wavytone]

Seems some chemists have no idea what they've written LOL... I think it was serious...

[deanm]

"Because of its similarity to the English slang word "arsehole" (in common use outside North America), the name "arsole" has been considered a target of fun, a "silly name",[6][7] and one of several chemical compounds with an unusual name. However, this "silly name" coincidence has also stimulated detailed scientific studies.[2]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsole

[speach]

well there's lots the German Austfart for example

[LewisM]

Australian chemists created the compound PIZDA, which is a vulgar word for female genitalia in slavic languages. It apparently was that difficult to synthesise.

[Huey]

I think it is in poor taste to ridicule someones language just because some words look or sound similar, especially when you don't even get the spelling correct. Austfart should really be Ausfahrt meaning driveway.

Huey

[AstralTraveller]

I'm sure the paper was serious and it's quite likely that the authors had just as good a laugh at the title as anyone. I have a BSc with a major in chemistry and it certainly didn't go over my head! I don't know any scientists of any specialisation who wouldn't get those double meanings. The only caveat on that is if the slang is not in use in north America (as wiki suggests). I imagine we have all heard of the confusion caused by Americans not understanding that 'thong' is an item of footware in Australia, not a brief undergarment. And they name children 'Randy' with a straight face.

There is also the story about the first time a coronal mass ejection was detected on the far side of the sun. NASA was ready to run with the headline 'Scientists detect huge eruption from backside of sun' until an Australian scientist working for NASA explained how that would sound outside the US.

First year students studying biology can get a bit of a surprise from one of the technical terms they learn. They arrive at uni thinking that their lecturers are all prim and proper and that naughty words would never come from their lips. So...., in herd animals there is generally a dominant male who keeps all the females to himself. He spends his time fighting off other males and doing the other thing on his mind. However some males don't directly challenge the alpha male. Instead, they wait until he is occupied elsewhere and then sneak into the herd and mate with one of the receptive females. They are correctly termed 'sneakyf***ers'. I once overheard a young woman commenting to her friends about the lecture "OMG, I couldn't believe it when he said that."

[Camelopardalis]

That is a demonstration of mastery of the English language :D

In my experience, it’s only Aussies that wear thongs on their feet...in British English it also means skimpy underwear...

[LewisM]

My organic chem lecturer/tutor at uni was decidedly Aspergers. He could say the darndest of things with a completely straight face, and yet still had a decent sense of humour.

When we were doing identification of randomly assigned "unknown" organic compounds (that we had to synthesise in the first place from unknown precursors), when he asked me what I suspected my compound was, I said something clever sounding. He looked at me straight faced and said "Given the stink of the bloody thing, maybe it's scatole" and winked...I had to go look it up (a GENUINE compound, but it wasn't that though).

I once splashed a decent amount of DCM on my forearm. He said "Well, there goes your fertility"....

He was a funny bugger in a good way, now sadly afflicted by a nerve disorder, probably from decades of exposure to all kinds of nastiness.

His final assignment was a VERBAL dissertation of Grignard Reaction from start to end...with a bunch of questions thrown in throughout the response whenever you didn't give enough info. I doubt that is not even permissible any more, considering most uni students would stand there and stare at you like deer in headlights.

[Camelopardalis]

Back in my day, that was called the “oral examination”, not sure that’d be allowed these days either :lol:

Sad to hear about your tutor, I would speculate that if it was his career path that contributed to his condition, it wouldn’t just have been the exposure to nasties but the special concoctions ;) given the tendencies of all the chemistry teachers and lecturers I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, it’d probably be the latter :lol:

[LewisM]

Indeed.

During one class I was attending, he managed to set the alarms off in the fume hood...entire uni evacuated and out in the fire assembly area...fire brigade show up, give the all clear. We went back in. 20 minutes later we were out on the lawn again :lol: Firies said might be an idea to stop that for the day :lol: We went home.

When we did IR Spectroscopy, he warned that anyone who broke or touched (ungloved) the salt plates would be required to write a 3000 word report on something of his choosing. Well, after showing how to do it, clean it and then running a few samples, his wife (who also tutored/taught) took the plate out to clean it for the next run. She handed him the salt plate and HE dropped it... He just stared at the broken shards on the floor...then said "someone get the super glue" :lol:

[Steffen]

And only a German composer could have Air in his G-String :lol:

[AstralTraveller]

I didn't know Germans dropped their H's.

[PCH]

I think that's 'Ausfahrt' Simon, but pronounced more or less with a fart on the back end :)

[erick]

Speaking with my long-discarded chemist's hat on - that is a perfectly valid Abstract and full paper, even though it is an hilarious read :lol:

The authors do acknowledge: "The inspiration for this article arose from Paul May’s collection of ”Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names” "

Here is that reference (a site I have known for many years):

Silly Molecules (http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/sillymols.htm)

[rat156]

All I can add to this is Copper Nanotubes.

Copper nanotubes RSC (http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/copperNTs.pdf)

Published in the Royal Society of Chemistry Journal.

Cited many, many times.

Cheers
Stu

[AndrewJ]

I lived in Nth Germany for a year and one great book we found was
"Fahrting through Germany". Appealed to our sense of humour.
One good trip in hamburg is the big round trip of the harbour
"Große Hafenrundfahrt"

Andrew

[LewisM]

I love copper nano-tubes :rofl::lol::P