what happened to 4pyros?

[large_ghostman]

Anyone heard or seen him about?

 

[ronsimpson]

Anyone heard or seen 4pyros?

Maybe an explosion. LOL
Have not seen you in a while.

 

[JimB]

4pyros was last here on the 15h February.

Long time see young scamp!

JimB

 

[large_ghostman]

Well got me shed back now

 

[large_ghostman]

4pyros was last here on the 15h February.

Long time see young scamp!

JimB

Good to see you Jim.

 

[Ian Rogers]

14!!! Studying hard??? Good to see you back LG!

 

[large_ghostman]

15!! :O and yes studying really hard, top sets in all subjects and taking the Scottish national 5's next year. I even have a shiny new shed

 

[Ian Rogers]

Free uni places aswell!!!

 

[large_ghostman]

I doubt it! By the time I get to uni it will cost a kidney to post the application form! I am looking at Reading OR Nottingham , both tops in chemistry. Nothing decided but the old man would be chuffed if I made Oxford or Warrick as he went to both (if he still remembers me by then).
Nottingham has the edge but reading has some new toys I wouldnt mind messing with. Or I go the engineering path but China is making it hard for the UK to invest.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I doubt it! By the time I get to uni it will cost a kidney to post the application form! I am looking at Reading OR Nottingham , both tops in chemistry.

Have you considered York?, which is one of the top for Chemistry - my daughter did her MChem Msc there, and is currently at Durham (another top Uni) doing her Phd.

Of the two she says York is far superior. Incidentally, Nottingham was one she visited, and dismissed - partly because it was too close (same with Sheffield).

York also has the big advantage that they do their 'Year in Industry' in the 4th year, where all others do it in the 3rd - assuming you wanted the 'Year in Industry' route? (which I would recommend) - Melissa did hers in the Netherlands, and got paid for it as well.

 

[large_ghostman]

I would Love York but its a tough one to get in . I have a while to think about it but if my grades stay as they are I might be in with a chance. Nottingham appealed because of the energetic s connection, I have been messing with some but its getting risky legal wise . Its a shame you cant have a decent chemistry set now without being seen as a terrorist!
Lucky are we a registered company at home, but even with that the new rules make it tough. I have no near neighbors so as long as I keep things test tube size...........

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I would Love York but its a tough one to get in . I have a while to think about it but if my grades stay as they are I might be in with a chance.

What A levels (or equivalent) are you taking?.

The standard offer from York is AAB - but science subjects drop the requirement from A's to B's.

I know this because I asked, as Melissa got an offer of BBB - one A was dropped because she did A level Chemistry, the other because she did A level Maths (which is considered a science) - she also did Further Maths, which gave her three sciences.

So as long as you're doing Chemistry and Maths, you should only need BBB - and you REALLY need to do A level Maths, and Further Maths if you can manage that. Chemistry is VERY, VERY Maths intensive, and requires Maths of 1st and 2nd year Degree standard. If you're good at Maths, then it takes a hell of a lot of the pressure off, most Chemistry students struggle with the Maths load.

As a Further Maths student Melissa breezed the Maths side, and in fact scored the only 100% exam result ever at York in a Maths exam in the Chemistry department.

Nottingham appealed because of the energetic s connection, I have been messing with some but its getting risky legal wise . Its a shame you cant have a decent chemistry set now without being seen as a terrorist!
Lucky are we a registered company at home, but even with that the new rules make it tough. I have no near neighbors so as long as I keep things test tube size...........

Chemistry sets have pretty well nothing to do with Chemistry at Uni, so it doesn't really matter.

Once you start A level Chemistry there should be considerably more practical, and playing with test tubes

 

[large_ghostman]

The system up here has just changed again for exams, technically the higher 4 is meant to = A level, Higher 5's are supposed to be a bit above (please dont ask me!!!) So working on that I am doing all level 5's in the following. Maths (I struggle but I am getting there) Biology (dead easy), Chemistry (love it), English but will fail it (Obviously), Design and Technology (waste of time as I have a geography teacher for it), Citizenship (still working out what we are actually supposed to learn in that!), Engineering Form and Structure (apparently used to be called metal work) and finally History (it was that or art and the history teacher is fit).
Maths is a mare but I am having help from a maths forum, Chemistry IS maths with fun thrown in!
I wanted to do Organic Chemistry but the School dropped it as an option . I wanted Physics but the time tables are not set up for 3 pure science subjects, I wasnt allowed to drop the be nice class (Citizenship studies) in favor of Physics, Oh well no playing with things with a half life . I will get some pics of my chemistry set , Its erm pretty impressive lol, I got loads of lab stuff off a couple of closed schools and some from a Uni. I Have a HP Gas Chromatograph system but no gas as yet. Technically I am doing A level now but the school does little practical (cut backs), so I do the theory at school then come home and cause havoc.
Can you ask your why the Haloform reaction with IPA only seems to work if I add Sodium Hydroxide and a bit of Sodium Chloride? It works fine using Acetone but I like using IPA, The hypochlorite is around 12% free Chlorine (according to MSD sheet).

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Well this is what the York website has to say about the Scottish requirements for MChem (4 year masters degree):

Scottish Highers / Advanced Highers
Two Advanced Higher levels are preferred, which must include Chemistry and also a second science/mathematics, plus a suitable range of Highers. Typical grades expected from Advanced Higher levels are AA/AB (A Chemistry) and AAAAA/AAAAB at Higher level.

Hopefully you will understand it better than me

But as you're doing Chemistry and Biology, that's two sciences - plus the Maths, which I can't stress enough is VERY important.

As you struggle at Maths, then I would suggest you're likely to find a pure Chemistry degree hard work?.

Interestingly, a friends daughter is doing a medical degree (something like 7 or 8 years), and we thought this was probably one of the toughest degrees. But according to her, Chemistry is far harder - she says whatever time of day or night you go to the library, there's always Chemistry students there

Melissa had the huge advantage of been a Mathematician (she was originally going to take a Maths degree, but then decided Chemistry was more interesting), so skipped all the Maths lessons at Uni (so saved a couple of hours most days) - but even so she was usually looking at five 8 hours days a week, and extensive weekend work - it's common to be given 20 hours work to do Friday night, that has be in for Monday morning.

In comparison, two of her house mates were doing Historical Archaeology, they never did more than two days a week - and not usually full days even then

As she told them, they were subsidising her degree - they paid exactly the same fees, she got five days plus, they got barely two days for the same money. Even worse, they even had to buy their own trowels, Chemistry students get given a lab coat, safety googles, glassware, a years membership to the RCS, and all chemicals they need.

 

[large_ghostman]

Thanks for the link, York is out of date!! The highers and advanced highers were changed this year, so students who sat this years exams sat something called national 4 or national 5 (no idea dont ask). But I should be covered . My maths isnt great but I am good at chemistry and find maths in chemistry easier than normal maths (its more logical to me), Also I would rather knuckle down and nail the maths rather than take an easy route.
My dad did his Doctorate in Bio Chemistry and funny enough he said the same about other courses, apparently you can tell a real degree by the number of students in the student bar. The one area of chemistry I am having real problems with is Valence theory and quantum mechanics, at school they use a simplified version that say electrons basically have a stable orbit etc, in real life chemistry this is the same as a 3 mile wire having zero resistance! it just aint so.
I am currently on Hilbert space, but when I ask our head of chemistry he looks at me blankly. I am getting loads of help from tech support at Fischer Scientific who supply schools with lab stuff, I call them up with questions and a really nice women takes me through it slowly. My last exams (last year) that decided which exam range I was taking I got 92% in Chemistry and 88% Biology (I missed 2 questions hidden on a page in full view). I want to improve on those scores but they would give me A* at the current rate.

Some people study politics, archaeology and fine art because they want to boast about a degree, ask them what they have a degree in and most go deaf. I like Biology alot but Chemistry is more fun, Organic Chemistry is really cool. I love the fact you can take Butyric Acid (smells like sick and is contained in sick) and cleave with an alcohol and you get the ester! So Butyric Acid and a methyl group will give you Methyl Butarate and you get something that smells like apples! (some say pineapple but nah its apples to me).
Organic Chemistry is alot like electronics, its very kind of structured. For example I see long carbon chain molecules with different groups on a bit like a long string of resistors, where you cut it decides what you get. Making Chloroform is cool, but I like the energetics most of all. I am currently making a ball mill for the chlorates I make, its taking ages because they are a bit sensitive to ball milling so i want a remote controlled one (IR preferably).
I made the Chlorate cell and its worked really well, obviously I had to have full voltage and current control with a LCD read out and auto shut off, I also added temp monitoring. I got the MMO electrodes from America but mine are wearing out and proving hard and expensive to find!

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Does your GC require a small radioactive detector? Some do. The Agilent plant that makes em is down the street. I spent some time in 1972 at an Explorer's post at HP (They produced gas Chromatographs) building a clock. Second one built. 1st to work and it still works. They were further away before they moved.

It was fun being inside of a camera. Yep inside. The PCB's were made at 4x (the tape method) to load the film.

 

[large_ghostman]

This one is almost identical to mine **broken link removed**
The main difference is mine is the series II plus model and is run from a dedicated pc using Elmer perkins total chrom soft ware. Mine has two detectors ports but only one has a detector fitted at the moment. My detector is a FID (Flame Ionization Detector), the detector uses a Hydrogen flame. I dont know for sure but the ones with the radioactive dectors are normally run with a mass spectrometer, but I could be wrong as these GC's have so many options and configurations you can use. I have three coils for mine, a Polar, non polar, and a wax column.
I know the carrier gas it can use is Nitrogen (the one I want) Helium (too expensive) and Hydrogen (the best but the risk of a leak in the oven or coil isnt worth the risk for what I need). It also needs clean dry air, you can get cylinders but most use a dentist type compressor which is cheaper long term and easier. I have had the full system around 9 months, but apart from when I went to get it I havnt run it. I had to buy the gas gauges and coils etc and the machine and controller box with pc, so now to complete the system I need another £400-£500. Most the cost apart from £150 for the compressor is for the initial bottle deposit, the rental isnt bad per month for the bottles and the refills are pretty cheap. I estimate a I would get through around 2 bottles of Nitrogen a year and 1 Hydrogen, I could afford that as it would mean my business would be up and running.
But being summer most of my money has been spent extracting oils etc and solvents as well as other bits and pieces I needed for a analytical lab. Now winter is coming I might be able to save up more, it was a tough choice but while I had access to plant etc I thought it better to extract them while they were in season, once I get the machine running I can check purity etc and test the soaps. I have sales lined up but wanted to be 100% legal as most of my soaps and detergents fall into the cosmetics definition or border it, so the rules on things like 'natural' and organic are stringent and the cost of sending samples off is mad (£200-£300 per sample). So I washed tractors and any did any job I could find that no one wanted to do and saved up the £4000 over a year to get my lab this far.
I have most the reagents I need and most of the major ingredients, is mainly the gas holding me back at the moment.
I also got a decent vacuum pump and casting system so i can make my own molds for custom soap bars for hotels etc. I isolated a compound from a certain seaweed that grows local and its a great natural detergent, very very good at removing dirt and is mild on the skin. BUT unless I can test each batch I am wide open on the legal side, also for peace of mind I want to test each batch and KNOW its high quality and safe. I nearly did what most do and just by in melt and pour soap base and add the fragrance and oils etc.The problem with that is just about all hobby soap makers and proctor and gamble do that!
I wanted a high quality traditional product made from scratch but with high quality control. Some of the top Scottish hotels are really interested in the samples I had done, but seeing as i have somehow got this far I dont want to destroy all the work by messing up with a bad batch!

It takes almost 7 weeks to cure a real soap and 24 hours for melt and pour, but I can charge way more for mine and the quality stands out. Mine also dosnt contain ANY man made detergents like SLS! So most are suitable for even the most sensitive skins (depending on essential oil required etc). I also make a kick ass detergent that the local museum has used to restore some really old fabrics in a castle, I used an extract of the soap plant which is very very mild, to this I added a hydrophobic molecule so when they use it the fabric dosnt get too wet.
Sorry I have made it sound like a sales brochure lol.
The answer to the question is no mine dosnt have the radioactive detector .
Funny enough I got into it by accident when someone got me a small kit, I decided I could do better. I did sell for a while at a local market and trade was getting good, but after looking into the rules and regs I decided not to risk selling until I could do it properly and cover myself legally (well my mum is the company as I am too young). Its a great feeling making something and have people come back time after time raving about it, its sort of why I have gone the chemistry and Biology route, the electronics has allowed me to make alot of the equipment I needed to refine my process.

My essential oils are all extracted by me I dont by any in so I know exactly whats in them and where they come from. Purest say an essential oil is steam extracted and solvent extracted oils are known as concretes, but I use both processes and the solvent one is better if you use the right solvents and distill etc correctly, that way i can use say tomato extract (from the stem and leaves) and just extract the compounds that give the smell, that way most people who are allergic to tomato can use my product without a reaction and yet its a natural product. Tomato and basil is one of my top sellers smell wise.

ERM
Sorry mods I went way off topic

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I like Biology alot but Chemistry is more fun, Organic Chemistry is really cool.

Biology is generally considered the 'poorest' of the sciences, anything ending in 'ology' can't be good (I did Physics, Chemistry and Biology at O level - something difficult to do these days).

Sorry to hear your dad did bio-chemistry , they are commonly very poorly treated by the 'full' chemists - which is bad because they have to attend some of the same lectures. Even the professors seem to consider them 'second class' students.

 

[large_ghostman]

I think from what he says nobody took bio chemistry seriously until they started to make bacteria glow with jelly fish cells lol. A long time ago he worked alot with Chemists doing embryo work (chickens) testing new drugs etc and making vaccines. Now its more the physics people no one talks too, >100 sub particles and dark matter you cant see or feel but everything works on the sim................
Applied Biologist's (the guys with beards) are the lowest in the food chain, then probably ecologists as they vaguely cross biology and chemistry. Bio chemistry intrigues me as its all to do with how cells make and use chemicals, I also like pharmacology but its a bit of a strange one. I will stick to making soap for now and wait and see where I can get in. I would do the Industry year as its one of the things that goes in your favor applying for jobs, only thing I wont do is go into farming!!!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I would do the Industry year as its one of the things that goes in your favor applying for jobs, only thing I wont do is go into farming!!!

I would highly recommend it, and as I said York do it in the 4th year - so there's more hope of a job at the end, as you don't have to go back for another year at Uni.

One or two in Melissa's year were taken on, but Melissa wasn't even interested in trying - however she had a happy year playing with practical Chemistry, conducting dozens of runs per day.

She gained a (funded) Phd place almost 'by default'

She applied for two, Warwick and Durham - but when the Durham info came through she decided it wasn't something she was interested in - so let them know she wasn't interested any further.

However, she was flying over for an Interview at Warwick, and was given an itemised itinerary for the entire day - it was very regimented.

A few days before she came over she had a further email from Durham, saying they had gone out and found funding for her on a project they thought she might find interesting, and would she like her to 'pop and see them'. She emailed them back explaining that she was coming over for an interview, and while she was flying back the next day she could call at Durham in the morning, then go direct from Durham to Manchester to catch her flight - so this was agreed. Notice there was no itinerary, or arranged interview process or anything like it

At Durham an existing Phd student was showing her round, and said "so you're the girl with THE CV", so I've no idea what was in it - but it seemed to work (she's good at writing CV's)

The professor at Durham already knew both her professor from York (same Uni group), and her industry boss from the Netherlands (who was also a Uni professor at Eindhoven), and Melissa recognised some of the equipment there as she'd used it in an outreach program at York (like I said, same group) - both York and Durham are big on outreach.

So the day went well, she liked the place, and liked the people - and while she was on the train back to Manchester airport she received a text offering her a funded position at Durham, and requesting a swift answer, as she was currently their only choice and if she didn't want it they would like to start looking for someone else. Next day she accepted their offer, and contacted Warwick to let them know she was no longer interested - obviously she never found out if they were considering her or not.

Bit of a long rambling story, but the point was that a 4th year in Industry (and particularly at the right place) can be very helpful in furthering your career.

One extra point, while she got paid (and accommodation provided) during her year in industry this isn't always the case - one of her friends (doing Physics) did a year in Germany, no pay, he had to continue his student loans for the year, and they worked him 10-12 hours a day