So I had a lot of fun on Halloween being a mad scientist. I used the excuse to say things like "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate" and the numerous jokes about particles hanging out in bars (neutron walks into a bar..., sodium is having a drink..., hydrogen and oxygen are hanging out...). I'm pretty sure everyone found the jokes at least as funny as I do. Nearly.
This week there's been a lot of madness and a lot of science in my life. On Monday, I was using some nitric acid for a chemistry demonstration. I spilled some on my hand. I've spilled acid lots of times, and it's usually pretty minor. This time, though, it was a lot. And nitric acid is some pretty fierce stuff. It started itching a bit and then the burning set in. I would have dealt with it more urgently but I was in the classroom at the time. I felt that this justified a break in the lesson, so I ran back to the supply room and neutralized the acid. It was kinda painful and actually turned my fingers yellow. Mostly just painful when I was holding chalk. But that's not a big part of my profession.
On Tuesday, I was working with hydrochloric acid. I didn't spill any on my hands (see, I can be careful from time to time). Unfortunately, concentrated hydrochloric acid is pretty volatile. And rather unhealthy to breathe. I think it causes loss of appetite and headaches. Pretty sharp ones, too. I think there's something about lung damage in there too.
Wednesday I stayed out of the lab. It was glorious. Yesterday was a busy day in the lab since we had to prepare a lot of things for the laboratory portion of the chemistry exam (that was today). We had to clean a lot of supplies and prepare solutions and sort through a ton of equipment. Mercifully, the headmaster recruited an extra set of hands for this. Having a professional lab tech around definitely took a lot of the pressure off. The gentleman was on loan to us from a nearby school (that is much more staffed than we are). He was a bit old and it seemed like he wasn't all there (he would wander off from time to time or open gas taps for no reason). Still, having him around meant that I got to leave school before sunset. I definitely give the headmaster credit for coming through on this one (he also bought gloves after he saw what had happened to my hands).
Mercifully, the exam went off pretty well (the only snafu was when the gas started leaking out of one of the lines and burning on one of the lab benches). We were disappointed that we couldn't figure out the results that the students were supposed to get from doing the specified trials. This was a pretty harsh exam, so hopefully there will be low scores across the country (national exams are hella curved). Oh and apparently I rubbed my face absentmidedly at one point. I didn't feel it, but apparently I have a little yellow acid burn on my nose.
I really need to work on this safety thing a bit (gloves are a step in the right direction, now I just need to make a sale on goggles and breathing masks).
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