Editing 2648: Chemicals
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | + | {{incomplete|Created by BIG ISOMER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | |
− | + | In this comic, [[Megan]] mentions to [[Cueball]] that their company spends a lot on chemicals for which you can find formulas online. She suggests assembling chemicals from atoms "bought in bulk," holding a sheet of paper with the {{w|empirical formula}} C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>5</sub>NO<sub>2</sub>, which designates [https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/#query=C6H5NO2 hundreds of compounds] including {{w|nitrobenzene}}, {{w|niacin}}, {{w|isonicotinic acid}}, and {{w|picolinic acid}}, followed by their component elements listed with prices. The ambiguity of chemical formulae is one of the jokes in the comic. | |
− | " | + | While many expensive chemicals are composed entirely of inexpensive and commonly available elements, "assembling" those elements into specific molecules is rarely as simple as Megan is depicting it, especially considering the complexity and specificity required. That work is the primary purpose of the global chemical industry. In-house {{w|chemical synthesis}} is usually not cost effective, because end users have limited time and are generally unable to leverage the {{w|economies of scale}} inherent in bulk manufacturing by specialist industrial firms.[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2880393/] However, we don't know whether Megan and Cueball work in a laboratory, factory, or some other industrial setting. If they need chemicals in bulk, or only very small quantities, synthesizing them might be cost effective. |
− | + | In any case, producing chemicals from their constituent elements or {{w|Precursor (chemistry)|precursor compound}}s is difficult and time-consuming, usually requires expensive equipment, and is often fraught with peril.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QwW2owNWgc] {{w|Nitrobenzene}}, one of the C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>5</sub>NO<sub>2</sub> compounds, is an excellent example because it is explosive and extremely toxic, and its synthesis is highly exothermic, making it one of the most dangerous syntheses in the chemical industry.[https://www.icheme.org/media/10339/xiii-paper-36.pdf] Such issues answer Cueball's question as to why more places don't manufacture their own compounds from atoms. Usually chemicals are derived from precursor chemicals instead of constituent elements. Megan seems to be envisioning 'assembling' chemicals as a much simpler process without reactivity, energy release, or hazardous intermediate substances. Similar to the makerspace movement, community chemical labs have been cropping up, where people work together to perform chemical synthesis and other chemistry acts by sharing community resources.{{citation needed}} The characters' naivety also gives rise to the humor of the comic, which could also be seen as relating to DIY lifehacks where the immediate cost savings only make sense if their time and learning investment is ignored. | |
− | The title text refers to the fact that older people often complain that "kids these days" don't know how to do things that seemed fundamental to past generations. Randall may have expressed that he dislikes other statements like these in [[2165: Millennials|previous comics]]. It may also refer to the decline of home {{w|chemistry set}}s popular from the late 1700s through the early 1980s that encouraged kids to experiment with basic chemical reactions like generating esters or polymers, or the even older decline in home manufacture of gunpowder as was common in the 1800s. Chemical engineering was more widely practiced during the development of plastics, but far fewer people understand how they are made today. Similarly with automobiles, domesticated crops, and many other technologies that progressed through a period of popular attention but became siloed into industries, corporations, governments, or branches of academia. This is happening now with some software, circuitry, and other technologies, where fewer people know how to build and | + | "Big Molecule" is an [[2130: Industry Nicknames|industry nickname like Big Oil or Big Pharma]], amusing in its own right, and conceivably implying that the chemical industry is conspiring to prevent end users from synthesizing their own compounds. |
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+ | The title text refers to the fact that older people often complain that "kids these days" don't know how to do things that seemed fundamental to past generations. Randall may have expressed that he dislikes other statements like these in [[2165: Millennials|previous comics]]. It may also refer to the decline of home {{w|chemistry set}}s popular from the late 1700s through the early 1980s that encouraged kids to experiment with basic chemical reactions like generating esters or polymers, or the even older decline in home manufacture of gunpowder as was common in the 1800s. Chemical engineering was more widely practiced during the development of plastics, but far fewer people understand how they are made today. Similarly with automobiles, domesticated crops, and many other technologies that progressed through a period of popular attention but became siloed into industries, corporations, governments, or branches of academia. This is happening now with some software, circuitry, and other technologies, where fewer people know how to build and assemble complex devices and systems. Technology users thus lose their ability to build machines themselves, as well as repair machines and modify their tools, having instead to rely on paid services. | ||
This comic may have been prompted by recent news that [https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-07-15/for-the-first-time-in-history-we-can-modify-atomic-bonds-in-a-single-molecule.html scientists have found a way to assemble and change atoms in individual molecules] by modifying their bonds. | This comic may have been prompted by recent news that [https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-07-15/for-the-first-time-in-history-we-can-modify-atomic-bonds-in-a-single-molecule.html scientists have found a way to assemble and change atoms in individual molecules] by modifying their bonds. | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
[[Category:Chemistry]] | [[Category:Chemistry]] | ||
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