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Chemjobber on
Thu 2nd Feb 12With the news of 2,200 R&D people from AstraZeneca being let go (and an overall layoff of 7,300 AZ employees) overall and two site closures, I'm sorry to say that The Layoff Project is still relevant.Below is a summary of all the stories of laid-off chemists...

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In the Pipeline on
Wed 1st Feb 12Noted chem-blogger Milkshake seems to have had a close call with a fire started by a tiny potassium hydride residue. It looks like he made it through without serious injury, but that sort of thing will definitely shake a person......

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Org Prep Daily on
Mon 30th Jan 12I had a rather bad fire last Friday, probably the most serious lab mishap in 15+ years. I was washing a large jacketed glass reaction vessel used for polymer scale-ups, after pouring the reaction mixture out, and a tiny particle of potassium hydride (from this...

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Chemjobber on
Fri 27th Jan 12What's the best way to talk to a peer about how they're performing a particular chemical operation and its safety components? What if they're doing something really unsafe? I dunno, but here's one mostly ineffective way:Hey! What you're doing there is...

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Lamentations on Chemistry on
Fri 3rd Feb 12I just had a conversation with a colleague who is somewhat mainstream in his/her thinking. The question came up as to what can’t we be energy independent. What is taking so long with the electric cars and natural gas powered … everything? When can...