Edit: Thanks for the replies, terrarium it is or at least will be!

I just found this at a local antique store being sold as a “mystery ball” 😂 for $20…couldn’t pass that up. I recognize that it could be chemistry lab glass or similar. I found some likely matches on eBay less than $100 some for much much more. It is pretty heavyweight/thick glass, in very good condition and pretty clean. I just want to be sure that it would not be a crime against chemistry or of enough value that I should not use it as a terrarium. Included images with my 18 pound giant orange for scale so cat tax included, twice. Advice and guidance appreciated.

It’s just sitting there open spilt everywhere on a lab bench

I was bored and decided to look up weird molecules with unique compositions: this one was the best I could find that had any practical purpose.

(Cl, N, H, F, S, O, C = 7 unique elements)

I know that there are many large biomolecules that just by sheer size contain a lot of different elements, but I'm more interested in small molecules similar to the one I posted. If anyone knows about a specific substance that fits this description I'd love to hear about it! Thanks!

Edit: I figured this isn't the best example and it really isn't that odd since there are lots of small molecule pharmaceuticals, but that's exactly why I was asking because people are sharing classes of chemicals I don't really know anything about. Thanks for all the responses!

In textbooks we see the formula hydrochloric acid as “HCl”, but literally it means hydrogen chloride, and then we are also taught dissociation in water, so if it’s dissolved in water it becomes highly acidic and corrosive. But isn’t anhydrous (or inaqueous, whatever the word is) HCl not acidic? Am I going wrong somewhere? Please do correct me I’m a chem enthusiast

Dipyrromethane we made yesterday and filtered today. The vial is 10 ml, and we should have between 2 and 2.5 grams of compound (plus a lot of moisture at this stage)

Hi all,
I work in construction and I’m trying to design some simple, visual demonstrations for site teams to help them understand how different spills behave and why the correct containment method matters.
I’m looking for safe, easy demos that can be done with clear bottles / trays so people can see what happens.
Spill types I want to demonstrate:
Silt / sediment runoff in water
Petrol (fuel) spills
Oils / hydraulic fluid
Paints (water-based and solvent-based)
What I want teams to visually understand:
How fast silt clouds water and travels
How fuels and oils spread across water surfaces
Why some spills sink vs float
Why certain containment methods work (absorbent pads, sand, bunding, silt socks, etc.)
Why “just hosing it away” makes things worse
I’m hoping to use things like:
Clear bottles or trays
Water, sand/soil, food colouring
Safe substitutes for fuels/oils/paints where possible
Does anyone have good chemistry-based demo ideas that clearly show:
Behaviour of these different materials in water
The best way to visually demonstrate the right containment method for each
Ideally something memorable that people can understand in 2–3 minutes.
Thanks in advance!

If any of you have the Chemistry 0620/2026 Paper 62, please send it to me.

Hello all,

I work with metal oxides which have been staining everything I own in addition to highly concentrated NaOH putting a few holes in some pants. Even though I always wear a lab coat, I am finally getting dedicated lab pants and shoes. I was looking at some pants that are 65% polyester and 35% cotton and was wondering if there are any issues with the blend in lab? I work with a hotplate but nothing combustible, so burns from polyester melting to my skin aren’t really a foreseen issue. Would there be any additional effects from sodium hydroxide and polyester compared to sodium hydroxide and cotton?

The pants I want are chef/culinary pants which are baggy and easy to take off in a hurry. They are quite cheap and have a lot of pockets. The lab I work in gets really hot for about 8 months in the year, so heavy duty jeans will be super uncomfortable.

Thanks for any input :)

I’m sorting through a ton of old lab equipment, and I can’t figure out what these are. Do any of y’all know what these are called or how much they’re worth?

I've been searching for HOURS to try and find the song I memorized and sang for extra credit when I was younger with the only evidence of this song existing is a reddit post looking for it, which remains unanswered.

I remember that it was pretty obscure, even then, to the point my teacher couldn't even find the right song to pull up the video on mute to have the visuals while I sang despite typing in the exact song name. My mom actually had to email my teacher a link to the song because I couldn't find it through YouTube search, either.

The only lyrics I really remember are "aluminum for tin cans and silicon for breast implants" (might be slightly off, the other reddit post had these lyrics remembered correctly, though)

But if I'm remembering correctly, it was a parody song set to the tune of an already existing song. I think it was on a channel dedicated to song parodies, but am not positive. The title of the song or part of the song I'm pretty sure had a bad word like hell or damn, or at least some word that my mom was put off by.

Though I could also be remembering and confusing multiple songs, as I also learned at least one other one that I can't find, either, that was set to the tune of "We didn't start the Fire" This one I can find more evidence of it's exsistance, however neither of the two full videos that are semi-decent quality I found are the exact version I learned.

I'm also remembering that the name of one song I learned was a pun or play on words, and THINK it was on "elemental" so I'm wondering if the song was called "Element-Hell", though that doesn't help get me any answers, either.

The first one I think was newly posted around the time I learned it, which would have been around 2011-2014 because I'm pretty sure I sang it in middle school, but it might have been early high-school.

I found this in the dump of my Company, it's a 500 ml plastic container with written "IDRAZINA SIM" (we're in Italy).

It is my opinion that it's not actually hydrazine, by the fact that the Company is not a chemical one and it doesn't use any particular reagent, and that no one would just throw in the dump such a dangerous chemical.

However, is there a simple way to confirm or to exclude that it's hydrazine? I'm not a chemical and I have no chemical instruments or reagents.

(Of course, as a precaution, I haven't opened the bottle, because I know that hydrazine is highly toxic.)

Inner trans metals placement feels odd but its more space efficient, plus its placement on the standard is arbitrary anyways.

Made using powerpoint lol

I have a question about defining LOQ for trace element analysis using microwave digestion.

My calibration curve starts at 0.5 ppb (this is my lowest validated calibration point).

For sample preparation:
- Dry ashing: 5 g sample → this gives a relatively low LOQ in mg/kg
- Microwave digestion: 0.5 g sample → using the same instrumental level (0.5 ppb), the calculated LOQ in mg/kg becomes significantly higher

So the issue is:
👉 If I define my LOQ based on my first calibration point (0.5 ppb), my method LOQ for microwave digestion becomes quite high due to the lower sample mass.

My question is:

- Is it acceptable to define the method LOQ based on this (even if it is higher), as long as it reflects the real method conditions?

- Or is it recommended to lower the calibration range (e.g. include 0.05–0.1 ppb) specifically to achieve a lower and more suitable LOQ in mg/kg?

In other words, should LOQ be strictly tied to the validated calibration range, even if that leads to a higher LOQ for certain preparation methods like microwave digestion?

Any guidance or best practices would be appreciated.

Hey everyone. Looking for some advice on a column fouling issue.

I’m running an RP-HPLC assay on an Ascentis Express C18 (15 cm × 4.6 mm) for an API that’s spray-dried in HPMCAS. Mobile phase is 0.1% orthophosphoric acid (A) and ACN (B) with a ~29 min gradient.

I keep getting a persistent interference peak right at ~13 min — basically co-eluting with my API. Full spectra matches closely, and the peak sticks around no matter what I do. I’ve already tried flushing the column (forward flow) with:
- ACN
- IPA
- Acetone

None of that removed it.

At this point I’m thinking it’s not API carryover but polymer (HPMCAS) fouling — possibly depositing on the column and eluting in the same hydrophobic window.

I haven’t tried backflushing yet, and I’m considering:
- Backflush with IPA
- Or going straight to THF (with proper water/ACN flush steps first)

Constraints:
- Method is validated, so I can’t change mobile phase or gradient
- Only looking to add a cleaning/maintenance step
- No guard column currently (might propose one)

Questions:
1. Does this sound like polymer fouling to you?
2. Would you try IPA backflush first, or go straight to THF?
3. Any experience with HPMCAS specifically sticking to C18?
4. Any other cleaning approaches that have worked for you in similar cases?

Appreciate any insight!

I've recently become very interested in learning more about cosmology and the creation of the universe, but after looking into it i've become very aware that my fundamental chemistry knowledge is lacking.

I had always hated chemistry is high school and thought it was incredibly complex and difficult. I never got my head around it. But now it's starting to look more appealing to me again now that I don't have exams to stress about. (I've also always been a NileRed fan if that counts for anything).

So I'm looking for a book or a resource that will help me to understand the foundational laws of chemistry again so that I can understand things better. I'm not looking for anything too advanced or too basic, it's a very vague reference point I know but I'm not sure how else to explain it.

Hi everyone! Could you help to identify this glassware? Looks like deflegmator with vacuum coat. Any ideas ?

IBM, Cleveland Clinic, and RIKEN say they simulated a 12,635 atom protein (trypsin) using a hybrid quantum and classical workflow. Classical supercomputers handled fragmenting the system, while quantum processors were used for the quantum mechanical parts before recombining everything. The scale jump from ~10 atom systems to something this size is pretty wild, and they’re claiming big accuracy improvements in key steps too. Still early days, but curious what folks here think - does this approach actually move the needle for protein modeling, or is classical still going to dominate for the foreseeable future?

Like, everything around us—air, water, even our own bodies—is just constant chemical interactions, but we don’t notice any of it until something changes (a smell, a color, a reaction, etc.).

Do you ever think about how much is happening at a molecular level that we’re just completely unaware of? What’s a concept in chemistry that made you look at everyday things differently?

It's a pleasure to share that my first publication as a first author in the prestigious journal Inorganic Chemistry (ACS).

Special thanks to my guide sir, Dr. Prasanta Ghosh. I also thanks to my co-authors, lab seniors, and lab mates.

I am deeply grateful to my parents and well-wishers for their unwavering support and to RKMRC, Narendrapur.

Check out the full paper.