Today, 27.07.2009

For electrical engineering and computing students, we visited the high voltage laboratory and were divided into pairs to do our own ion drives, which could fly on their own when electricity was applied. We also managed to get a close look at the library and computer facilities. The sports that we played at the end of the day was absolutely the highlight of the day. Afterwards, we cooked our dinner and celebrated the 18th birthday for one of our groupmate, Yingxiang.


Here is a chemistry joke:
Q. A bear walked into a river and disintegrated. Why?
A. It was a polar bear.

I had to tell you the joke first because what follows is a tale of woe and failure. Get your hankies/tissues now and save the rush later. I was in the chemistry programme and we had to purify an organic compound using recrystallisation. At the last stage of the experiment we had to use an apparatus called a desiccator to dry out the crystals. A vacuum is created in a chamber where the crystals are placed and there's a tap at the top to let air in. But you're supposed to open the tap slowly- I forgot to open the tap and when Dr Hinks pointed it out I panicked and opened the tap full blast and blew my crystals all over the place. I think only 1/3 of the crystals survived, the rest of the crystals I'd spent the last few hours purifying ended up all over the desiccator.

I was very traumatised after the lab accident. Moral of the story: NEVER PANIC IN THE LAB.