Happy new year 2026!

I was cleaning out my Google Drive recently, and found a list of links that I salvaged from my old Evernote account a few years ago. Back in 2018, in the middle of my toxic workplace mental crisis, I spent my work downtime reading chemistry blogs about ridiculous lab accidents and chemical explosions. (I think it says a lot about my mental state back then that I found reading about lab accidents amusing...)

The blog I read the most back then was Derek Lowe's chemistry/pharmacy blog, In The Pipeline. He writes about dangerous chemicals, what not to do in lab, and the consequences of general laboratory stupidity. I particularly recommend reading these sections of the blog:

Another fun blog is Org Prep Daily, especially everything under the Lab Destruction tag.

And a couple of links to individual blog entries and Reddit posts:

Also a book recommendation! "Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants" by John D. Clark. It's an interesting look at how military and space rockets were developed in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, both what worked and what failed horribly. There's a terrifying passage about what happened when chlorine trifluoride (ClF3) was tested as a rocket fuel:

It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively... For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.

And I would be remiss if I didn't also recommend the entire r/cursed_chemistry subreddit!

Have fun with the combustible reagents, but stay safe as well!

Current Mood: weird