the return: slightly less sad_, slightly more winslow

[Undertoad]

This is good. Man I know this sounds weird but I wish I knew some organic chem. I think I would understand some of the world just a little better. Good on ya Winslow.

[sad_winslow]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

This is good. Man I know this sounds weird but I wish I knew some organic chem. I think I would understand some of the world just a little better. Good on ya Winslow.

Not nearly so weird as you think. It's a great thing to want.

Engage head in the clouds:

Though it's got a reputation, fairly rightfully deserved, as a bigtime "i think i'll change my major" career-wrecking classes, it's also been one of the biggest highlights of my academic career. Starting in Gen Chem, chemistry as a topic has been one of the most intellectually formative, mentally stimulating, and overall interesting and informational course sequences I've had to date in my academic career. Admittedly a big part of it is likely due to having an absolutely incredible set of professors at a small community college with close personal interactions. Even so, the material is as eye-opening as you let it be about the way *everything* works, from a quantum level to the way your body works to the paint on your car to the food that you eat, to the ocean and the air and the rocks and trees to the sun, stars, and planets.

In a real sense, chemistry isn't just vials and potions, it's an utterly fundamental way of viewing all of creation, from nature to man's own handiwork to mankind itself. It's a bit much to take in over just two semesters Four if you include General.

Throw in some essentials of physics for a real mind-blowing experience: if you can manage to see the relationships between the two disciplines, suddenly Science. You start to see things in a very special context that is both analytical and enlightening. You know when the news is making shit up and what the difference between propylene glycol in your twinkies and benzaldehyde in your cookies is and you can make a more informed decision when your local government asks you if it can start (or stop) fluoridating the water supply, and you learn down to an atomic level why it is that we breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Learn how soap works. We made biodiesel in one lab, even. It's shockingly easy. We also learned how to make TNT and a few other nasty things, though we of course didn't make anything like that in lab. You can read that bible-paper insert that's in with your pill bottles. Make sense of the back of a shampoo bottle when you're, uh, needing reading material in the bathroom.

Chemistry is marvelous.

I already got sad today that I won't have another class with the professor who has been a mentor and father figure for two and a half years of chem. But at least there is more chemistry to be had: I'll probably end up in biochem soon though, which is a whole different complicated ball game of seemingly never-ending reaction pathways in the body.

[glatt]

sad, you sound happy.

Congratulations!

[classicman]

Good for you!

[sad_winslow]

thanks

now i just have to remember what it's like to breathe for a minute.

and i am so sore from bowling today!

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by sad_winslow

Throw in some essentials of physics for a real mind-blowing experience: if you can manage to see the relationships between the two disciplines, suddenly Science.

A professor once told us, "All biology is really just chemistry. And all chemistry is really just physics." (He was, of course, a physics professor.)

[morethanpretty]

Life is like a giant octopus, there is always another tentacle full of suckers ready to drag you down. They grow back too.

[ZenGum]

Winslow, it is great that you have "got" the vision of modern science.

In case you missed it, check this link
http://htwins.net/scale2/
which is a zoomable depiction of the universe, from the tiniest scales (quantum foam) to the known (and indeed, estimated) universe.

In high school, they thought they would make chemistry fun by having us pour stuff from one test tube to another and see what happened, but not bothering us with any explanation of why. As a hard-core nerd, I'd been doing that since I was eight, and it had become boring, so I dropped chemistry.
I have come to regret that, especially when in the final year my friends who were doing chem all finally were given the explanation and everything they had done for the last two years finally made coherent sense.
Meanwhile, I was at Thermopylae with Leonidas, valuing honour more than life itself, giving those Persians what for.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by sad_winslow

But at least there is more chemistry to be had: I'll probably end up in biochem soon though, which is a whole different complicated ball game of seemingly never-ending reaction pathways in the body.

Hmmm, biochem and moving to California. So you're going to be a meth cook.

[sad_winslow]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

A professor once told us, "All biology is really just chemistry. And all chemistry is really just physics." (He was, of course, a physics professor.)

Haha, you get that a lot from physicists But really, I think the whole argument is silly: they're both just slightly different perspectives on the same thing. The way you look is determined by what you're looking for, I suppose you could say. For anybody in one field to be derisive of the other says to me that they don't get the big picture overall, and that's probably the biggest shame of all.

[sad_winslow]

Well, I try to keep a broad view of it, anyways, thanks

Yeah, you know, without context for chemistry, it's like, so what? I can buy a packet of color-changing koolaid powder and do that in the kitchen and have some delicious diabetes beverage to boot. I'll learn just about as much from the world as pouring crap from one vial to another without know what's in there or what's happening. It has to be both show AND tell, else it's meaningless.

The payoff for all of that stuff doesn't seem to happen at the basic general chemistry level too much. Organic was where it was at for me, although I did love my Gen Chem sequence. I got it a lot easier than Organic. Ochem's Molecular Orbital Theory stuff in particular is amazing, though. Suddenly, why do magnets work? Well, I can tell you. Things about energy and colors and reactivity, photons and electrons and woo, all sorts of junk. Great stuff

But no education is complete without liberal arts, either. I took a small pile of history and english courses. The art history courses I took were also some of my favorite lessons. The teacher liked to tease me for being "the science guy" amongst the art majors at first - until I started busting out my own acquired knowledge of history and art, both classical and modern, and did a sort of painting/sculpture for my final project. It wasn't earth-shatteringly good, but I think it was more than was expected from "that science guy". It's deadly important to understand history, as it tells us where we're coming from and can guide us in where to go (or not to go) next; art too, as it lets us express ourselves as we move along the way. I like that dumb bumper sticker that says "EARTH: Without art it's just eh". Too true.

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Winslow, it is great that you have "got" the vision of modern science.

In case you missed it, check this link
http://htwins.net/scale2/
which is a zoomable depiction of the universe, from the tiniest scales (quantum foam) to the known (and indeed, estimated) universe.

In high school, they thought they would make chemistry fun by having us pour stuff from one test tube to another and see what happened, but not bothering us with any explanation of why. As a hard-core nerd, I'd been doing that since I was eight, and it had become boring, so I dropped chemistry.
I have come to regret that, especially when in the final year my friends who were doing chem all finally were given the explanation and everything they had done for the last two years finally made coherent sense.
Meanwhile, I was at Thermopylae with Leonidas, valuing honour more than life itself, giving those Persians what for.

[limey]

Good for you, Winslow! Post a pic of your "sort of painting/sculpture" in the creative expression thread, please, I'd like to see it!

[sad_winslow]

Originally Posted by limey

Good for you, Winslow! Post a pic of your "sort of painting/sculpture" in the creative expression thread, please, I'd like to see it!

Unfortunately I don't have it anymore, I don't think. Or at least, I haven't got a foggy clue where it's at or if it'd be in any condition to show. And honestly it wasn't that great. But it was "art".

Briefly, it was a midsized canvas with a black background; branching up from a common point at the bottom, on one side came red branches and on the other side blue, mingling together towards the middle of the painting much like arteries and veins. From the top center of the canvas was a thick stripe of bare/unpainted canvas going down maybe 1/3. At the base of this, I mounted a paint brush to look as though it was swiping down, wiping away the paint. I used a bit of stiff wire hidden in the bristles, puncturing the canvas and attached to the wood frame behind.

I don't remember the precise theme of the assignment or why I made what I did, but I do remember one interpretation I offered as "unmaking". Perhaps of spirit, or of body. It was fairly dark, but I had a lot of fun doing it.

[limey]

Originally Posted by sad_winslow

Unfortunately I don't have it anymore, I don't think. Or at least, I haven't got a foggy clue where it's at or if it'd be in any condition to show. And honestly it wasn't that great. But it was "art".

Briefly, it was a midsized canvas with a black background; branching up from a common point at the bottom, on one side came red branches and on the other side blue, mingling together towards the middle of the painting much like arteries and veins. From the top center of the canvas was a thick stripe of bare/unpainted canvas going down maybe 1/3. At the base of this, I mounted a paint brush to look as though it was swiping down, wiping away the paint. I used a bit of stiff wire hidden in the bristles, puncturing the canvas and attached to the wood frame behind.

I don't remember the precise theme of the assignment or why I made what I did, but I do remember one interpretation I offered as "unmaking". Perhaps of spirit, or of body. It was fairly dark, but I had a lot of fun doing it.

What a pity it's disappeared. I hope you'll continue to dabble. Everyone should make some art now and again, I think.

[sad_winslow]

Originally Posted by limey

What a pity it's disappeared. I hope you'll continue to dabble. Everyone should make some art now and again, I think.

Oh yeah. Well, I do other things too. I like to write, and to make things in the garage, and generally plot and scheme for many different things, few of which really see daylight. And I play instruments; mostly guitar, though I've got a banjo mouldering in the corner that I'm slowly working on understanding.

I recently engaged in a thouroughly amusing papercraft project that is as yet uncomplete; I hope to finish it before september as it's rather... ambitious in scope. And if I get it right, well... I'll get to live with the knowledge of a job well done.

I don't get to painting very much. It really takes a particular sort of inspiration that's a bit rare for me. It's great when it strikes and is a load of fun, though.

I try to keep the ol' brain not entirely in science mode 100% of the time, anyways.