
This phosphine will get you fired - antonios
http://orgprepdaily.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/a-phosphine-that-will-get-you-fired/
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tehmaco
It reminds me of this blog [1] where a chemist is essentially listing many
terrifyingly explosive (One notably will "vigorously" react at 100K),
corrosive, or smelly things he's read about in the literature. Well written
and entertaining :)

[1] pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/

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Luyt
I'm just reading Ignition!
<http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf> about the
development of rocket propellants; a very technical and interesting chemistry
book.

At one time the author experimented with mercaptans and got similar reactions
from his labmates ;-)

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ableal
_"But I never encountered anything as nauseating or alien like PhePHMe"_

(There are unfortunate coincidences in names ...)

Other branches of science/engineering may feel olfactorily deprived, never
getting in their labs past the occasional smell of ozone, overheated
oil/metal/plastic, etc.

~~~
raverbashing
The smell of enamelled wire going bye bye is unmistakable. And bad.

Also is the smell of regular wire coating burning due to an overcurrent. (you
also have the unmistakeable fumes to help you identify the problem)

On the other hand, the smell of Ozone is not particularly bad

~~~
joezydeco
Ever work in a room full of hardware/firmware engineers?

One whiff of that smell and everyone's heads instantly pop up like gophers.
"Who's on fire?" It becomes instinct.

~~~
bstpierre
We used to run a load test on a piece of POTS gear that would blow a
reasonably large cap. (Timing in the firmware was applying voltage to
something that shouldn't have had a voltage... and the circuit didn't have
good enough protection.)

A (very) little bit of flame and lots of smoke. Great way to get the attention
of every hw/fw eng in the building... "FIRE IN THE LAB!" thankfully it was
never enough to set off the smoke detectors.

We also used to have (small) gear out in the cubicles. Every once in a while
I'd get a whiff of "that smell" and would take a walk around cube-ville trying
to figure out whose box was overheating.

Good times...

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jvzr
I want to smell that.

Thanks to the OP for bringing back fond memories of my chemistry days. Color
shifts and weird smells were _the shit_ back then. :)

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RBerenguel
It was a good read, and reminded me of an old Asimov story (I don't remember
its exact name, IIRC it is in his The Golden Age short stories)

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codemonkeymike
Reminds me of the first time I took a whiff of conc. ammonia, couldn't smell
properly for a week.

