Soon to be outlawed in the U.S.
When chemistry is outlawed, only outlaws will do chemistry: In an attempt to curb the production of crystal meth, more than 30 states have now outlawed or require registration for common lab equipment. In Texas, you need to register the purchase of Erlenmeyer flasks or three-necked beakers. The same state where I do not have to register a handgun, forces me to register a glass beaker. When a current company tried re releasing a kit based on the one marketed by Mr. Wizard himself back in the 1950s, they found that they could only include five of the original chemicals in the set. The rest of the items were replaced with inane things like super balls and balloons. Even a non neutered modern chemistry set like the C3000 from Thames and Kosmos is forced to ship without many key chemicals, suggesting to their customers that they acquire the missing ingredients elsewhere.
This is what it is coming down to: you need to break the law to do science. We’re criminalizing nerds.
At least making science dangerous and illicit and illegal ought to make us romantic outlaws look cool.
Well, you have to make it easier to buy a gun, how else would you be able to stop a beaker wielding nerd? I knew that precipitating a solution could be a dangerous operation.
#16,
Chemistry is just a theory anyway …
And an unproven theory too. Much too complicated to happen by random chance.
Gee, lets outlaw chemistry sets to stop meth production, what a novel idea… closing the border with mexico didnt occur to them?
build a fence, and build it high
electrify it, its do or die
#19
Sure, regulating sales is one thing. Banning sales is another. There are usually laws limiting how much Tylenol can be bought at any one time to prevent meth production, but nobody’s talking about banning it altogether. Though admittedly another factor is that Big Pharma would scream bloody murder if Tylenol was banned. Nobody gives a rats ass about science in this country.
Anyway, I would be fine if they said you can’t buy more than 10 chem sets at one time ’cause you start getting significant quantities of those chemicals at that point. Unless you have a dozen super genius kids that are in desparate need of mental stimulation, I think that’s perfectly unobtrusive.
Banning miniscule amounts of mostly harmless chemicals and requiring the registration of glassware is…well…Texas. On second thought, I’m not terribly concerned.
No child left behind, unless they want to study science
>i think we should strip the all the amendments off the constitution from the last say, 30-40yrs and start over.
So no vote for 18 year olds, no line of succession, no vote for DC in presidential elections, and congress’ pay raises take effect right away rather than after the next election.
#25 – I’d agree mostly except raising the voting age to 30 (or maybe even 40) wouldn’t be all bad. Kids today are mostly a bunch of clueless yahoos. (and I’m an old crank…
)
#26 – raise it to age 40… no one but old people vote anyway
#16 & 21 nice one
#26 & 27,
As another cantankerous old coot, it almost (but not quite) makes sense. Sespecailly #27, if only old people vote, no need for a law. #26 Aren’t we all really just a bunch of clueless yahoos?
Voluntary human extinction is the way to go.
I don’t know how we did it but as kids we were able to easily get hold of Hydrochloric Acid and Sulphuric Acid for making Hydrogen. (Note: don’t ever ask your mom to smell Hydrochloric Acid.)
We built real bombs out of common drugstore stuff. Then there was our lead “professor” who managed to make something that didn’t require a fuse to ignite and he messed himself up a little. Kids.
RBG
For the sake of the children, a prudent government bureaucrat should immediately ban vomiting in school under the threat of expulsion!!!!!!!!!!
This heinous act and disregard for student health needs to be criminalize.
There is a very real risk that vomited hydrochloric acid, or stomach acid and formaldehyde mixing and forming a known carcinogen
chloromethoxychloromethane. This is especially possible during fetal pig dissection in lab, because of the noxious formaldehyde fumes and the horrid sight of a dissected specimen.
This is why Leonardo da Vinci’s dissection was condemned by the church. The church was all wise and knew this. Bush and his Bushie cronies are only illuminating us to the wisdom of old.
Again hydrochloric acid (HCl) is a source of Chlorine gas. Exposure to the gas irritates mucous membranes of the eyes and respiratory tract. Concentrations over 35 ppm cause irritation of the throat after short exposure; >100 ppm results in pulmonary edema, and often laryngeal spasm. It may also causes other evils like acid rain downwind. HCl is extremely soluble in condensing water droplets and it is a very “strong acid” (it dissociates extensively to give H+ ions in the droplets).
Stop this evil NOW. BAN ALL BIOLOGY, BAN ALL CHEMISTRY. If God wants us to know the Priestly truths. All other truths should be banned.
We are failing in our IRAQ Crusade because of our over reliance on Science. This country needs to return to the days of the Inquisition. I nominate Karl Rove as the Grand Inquisitor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only then can our IRAQ Crusade be successful. be successful.
#25….MikeN…..I could live with D.C. not having the vote, and delaying congressional pay raises dosen’t make any difference, since the incumbant return rate is like 95%.
#26…TheGlobalWarmer……Look, I’m not going to apologise anymore for voting for Bush in my very first election….so stop with the no vote until 30 talk.
I still fondly recall a day in high school chem lab. Kid dropped a container on the floor and white fumes rose in abundance. Teacher walked over and stood next to the puddle and said “What are you going to do?” Kid said nothing.
Teacher walked over to a lab table, and poured the contents onto the puddle stopping the fumes. “What Johnny just demonstrated was the acid reacting to the base in the concrete. Adding more base material will stop that chemical reaction.”
All just as cool as a cucumber. That was a pretty exciting day in school that I guess kids wont get anymore. Maybe exercising with how to put on a condum would come pretty close though.
#29 – Many here will disagree
however I feel I have a clue. I freely admit to being just another yahoo though.
I had a thought this morning – in early printings of Farnham’s Freehold by Heinlein, he described in detail how to make nitroglycerin. Does anyone know if that’s passage has been removed in recent printings?
I had a huge chemistry set when I was 11 years old. I never caused any explosions.
#34- it would not matter, check out Wikipedia.
This is great news.
Rabinow’s Law VIII states that “Things that are done illegally are done most efficiently” So if kids do science illegally then they will do it well.
Rabinow formulated a number of laws on invention possibly the best known is “To promote inventions (or any art form) just love inventions (or the art form).”
If kids are told they cant do science then perhaps we will have better science. Education has failed why not try something else?
This is what happens when uneducated Rednecks make laws. Glass vessels are necessary for EXPERIMENTAL science only: to easily see whats going on in various parts of a reaction. When the reaction is well understood, its not necessary to use glass. The Legal drug industry cooks up their products in Stainless Steel reaction vessels. These ignorant hick lawmakers are insisting that certain “science-ritual glass vessels” are totally necessary to create illegal drugs LMAO. (I am a Canadian medical Lab tech and think I can speak on this issue)
What such laws WILL DO is seriously damage America’s technical-product leadership in world markets. ALL physical materials-processing involves chemistry.