Kos•mo•ŝi•po

smilesandvials:

annamargaret98:

Nice little note I found in my chem book this morning

Ugh.
I hate stuff like this. 

Now, I don’t think the argument of “It is very important for people to be scientifically literate” will work here because the kind of person who wrote that clearly doesn’t care about that.

This isn’t radical. This isn’t a shout against unjust school systems. This is petty pseudo-rebellion.

So, why might you bother to learn chemistry (or physics for that matter) even if you find science the most boring crap in the world? List format time!

1) If you can balance a redox equation, you can balance a checkbook.
2) Have you ever tried to buy lightbulbs? Have you lived on your own? What does wattage mean to you? Volts? What kind of lights? 
3) Having a home always involves chemistry.  You cannot clean without it and better, you can clean more efficiently if you understand it.
4) Chemistry keeps you from getting yourself into trouble. Understanding chemistry prevents you from doing things like, say, mixing bleach and ammonia.
5) Baking is science for hungry people!
6) Learning about making cookies?
7) Do you want to understand drugs? I’m talking prescription drugs here or things commonly used such as caffeine. Understanding these makes you safer, happier, more efficient. Understand what drugs you shouldn’t mix (and why) is important.
8) Heartburn. Cured by chemistry.
9) Wanna make sodium acetate?
10) A large percentage of survival skills are based off chemistry and physics.
11) Learn to not boil the vodka out of jello shots!
12) Came for the chemistry, stayed for the wealth of puns.
13) You learn a lot of prefixes and suffixes that come from other languages. You learn word origins. And words! (entgegen, zusammen).
14) You understand why moonshine can be dangerous.
15) Understand the proper treatment for minor methanol poisoning.
16) Impress your friends with chemistry magic tricks.
17) Become a better mixologist (true)
18) Become a better chef (See: Alton Brown and the chemistry he relies on to make his awesome recipes!)
19) Fight Chemophobia. 
20) Learn about why there is such a hype over anti-oxidants
21) Know your carcinogens and avoid them!
22) Understand how soap works.
23) See past ~100,000 scams/lies in advertising using your knowledge of science!
24) Get past your first sip of wine. Silly tannins! 
25) Think critically. Try to figure out how and why things work.

Not everybody has to like chemistry. Not everybody should devote their lives to chemistry. Not everybody has to like it.
But it is not useless and it is not a waste of time to be taught. We understand the universe better but on a practical level we have things that are incredible — we have makeup that is safe, we have drinks that keep you awake, we have glue that can be used on wounds instead of always using stitches. We have Mars rovers and cancer treatments and drugs that cure things people used to think were lost causes.

Better living through chemistry, better living with chemistry.

Also, remember the episode of King of the Hill where Peggy has a cleaning and housekeeping advice column in the newspaper, and she accidentally tells everyone to make Mustard Gas? She could have avoided that with some chemistry knowledge.