Everyone needs a list of ‘things I won’t work with’
Many readers will share experience of telling someone you work in a chemistry research lab, and getting the response: ‘Isn’t that dangerous?’ My own mother had similar concerns when I started my graduate work – I told her that the most dangerous thing I did all year was the 10-hour drive back to see her and my father during the holidays, but I’m not sure that she was convinced.
There’s a persistent belief that you’re taking your life in your hands when you do chemical research, what with the reputation for being surrounded by poisons and explosives. Of course, you can easily be surrounded by such things at home as well, but most people find that line of argument about as convincing as my mother did.