Oh, I want to ask folks here a question, in connection with a project I've been thinking about off and on the last few months. the question is...what do you think, in general, about the subject of #chemistry?
and I mean, _any_ thoughts at all. I want all the answer. think chemistry is the worst subject you had in school? let me know about it! do you think it's a dismal, second-rate science? that's cool too. if you think it's interesting chiefly because you get to set things on fire, I want to hear that as well :p
@kara_dreamer
I find chemistry super-interesting, I'm just sad I never was properly taught how it all interacts with physics (“quantum chemistry”) and with biology and AAAAAAAAAAAH.
Instead, I ended up finding it boring at school, and self-teaching myself a hodgepodge of things.
I think my next “project” will be reading “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” by Sean Caroll, which is a book on evolutionary development biology (“evo-devo”).
Speaking of which: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydqReeTV_vk&list=UUTev4RNBiu6lqtx8z1e87fQ
@kellerfuchs it's my firm belief that chemistry is one of the worst taught major subjects in school, with a scrambled mess of a curriculum that seems almost a holdover from the turn of last century when chemistry wasn't even fully organized as a discipline yet. Organic chemistry is especially badly taught, top-heavy with nomenclature that hardly anyone needs to know, even chemists (like, they've got computer programs that handle that shit now) and memorizing reactions that nobody uses any more
@kara_dreamer
Yeah, that's definitely very true.
In prep school, I think the one science subject I disliked more than organic chem was... chemical thermodynamics :-/
To be fair, the whole way I was taught physics and chem was pretty heavy on being able to solve the problem on the exam fast, and I had lots of problems with that since I couldn't wrap my head around the “fast and loose” math one was supposed to use, so while I was still interested in the domain, I lost interest in the lectures.
@kara_dreamer
It was a bit better during (under)grad studies: I was in a CS curricullum but we had a couple of mandatory physics classes, and some of them were /amazing/.
No chemistry anymore, though :(
@kellerfuchs like, if I taught organic chemistry, I'd put it into a biological context right away, because 9/10th of the students who are compelled to take O-chem are probably doing it because they're going into a biological or medical field, not because they're going to become organic chemists (who can't get jobs any more anyway)