ANTC

Finally! Back home where I have a wifi connection… Thanksgiving with the ladyfriend was lovely, except her grandparents house did not have wireless. It’s weird how a (broadband) internet connection is a completely integral part of modern day computing. It’s a brave new world we’re living in… Anyway, hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving, too. If you don’t live in the US and don’t do the whole Thanksgiving thing,well, I hope you had a lovely November 26th.

Regardless, Thanksgiving in suburbia, and away from the internet led to a fair amount of TV watching, which in turn, led to this. Because we have reality shows for Ev–ry–thi–ng, and I have yet to see the idea elsewhere, I call dibs on the idea: Chemistry Reality Show. America’s Next Top Chemist? Iron Chemist? Real Chemists of Boston/Chicago/Berkeley/San Diego/etc? Whatever you call it, I’m sure it will eventually make its way to the airwaves, and when it does, I expect royalty checks to start rolling in.

There’d be the obligatory challenges: the severly time limited challenge, best use of a reagent challenge, the limited equipment challenge, discipline specific challenges, chromatograpy deul. Historical challenges – recreating classic experiments with classic reagents/apparatus. It’d be great! Kyle Finchsigmate and Dylan Stiles would totally be called in to guest judge.

And if that doesn’t wet your whistle, I’m also proposing MTV: Labs. Similar to Cribs, a member of the lab would welcome the camera at the door, give the full tour, include a little bit of product placement and mandatory “inside the fridge” shot (maybe inside the hood?), show off any ghetto-fabulous or fabulously ghetto equipment and instruments, and finally kick the camera crew out when the tour is over. If you and any co-workers are the right kind of geeky, and have a little spare time and a video camera, I invite you to give it a try, and to post your results!