5 replies to this topic

[Athanasios]

Video at : http://www.pbs.org/k...us_science.html

[niner]

Video at : http://www.pbs.org/k...us_science.html

Good article. When I was a kid, I could get all kinds of dangerous substances, like all the ingredients I needed to make gunpowder from a local drugstore, aluminum powder for making fireworks from a paint store, or concentrated ammonium hydroxide for making contact explosive from a swimming pool chemical shop. Kind of hard to believe that someone sold that to a 12 year old kid on a Stingray bike, but they did. I think there probably is a relationship between today's safety paranoia and the falling number of chemistry majors. I really worry that we're turning into a country that doesn't know how to do stuff any more. I have a friend who's a robot designer, and when he needs to get a part made, there's no longer a machine shop in every town like there was 35 years ago. Instead, he usually winds up having to get things made in China.

[Neurosail]

I remember ther first time I got a chemistry set for Christmas. During the blizzard of 1967 in Chicago, I mixed some chemicals together and got green foam that was stinky (probably the sulphur) so I threw it in a 55-gallon drum that we use to burn garage in (that used to be legal back then). The trash burned with a high orange flame for three or four days (phosphorus) in the heavy snow. Also there was some acid that I pour on a model car and it melted the plastic into weird shapes. Cool! Why can't kids have fun like that today?

[Live Forever]

Great video. I remember mixing lots of different chemicals together from chemistry sets when I was little just to see what they would do.

[Mind]

Lucky dogs, I never had a chemistry set, but I always wanted one. Still, I found enough chemicals lying around on our farm to create a little mischief once in a while.

One part of me feels it is bad that there are no longer chemistry sets and that - as niner pointed out - the younger generations might not know how to do stuff anymore - they don't know how to tinker.

Then again, the last generation generally says "the next generation is worthless and they don't have any concept of work...". The newest generation has new things to tinker with, primarily digital toys. Their knowledge of the social/virtual web scene will help them adapt to future changes in the open source world.

Really, this is the way it is supposed to be. We are supposed to make things better for the next generation. That is the way it has been for the whole of human history. So the grumbling about "young people don't know what it means to work" should really be a pat on the back for the current generation.

The "safety paranoia" works in our favor. Since the world is so much less violent and we have so much health care, each time a person falls ill or experiences pain, it is more of a tragedy than in the past. The past was full of pain and death was ever present. Today, people expect to live to 70 or 80 and future generations will expect to live past 100.

[Brainbox]

Ha, humanity (and the youth of coarse) did evolve. The chemical kits of today are purchased at the street corners in certain suburban area's. Including the supporting tools like needles and stuff. Proof of similar developments can be found in our nootropics forum.... to my dislike, but that's already common knowledge I think uhm hope....

Edited by SubZero, 12 July 2008 - 01:50 PM.