The Mark of the Chemist - Periodic Table of Videos

[TheRealGeriBoss]

It is extra-unfortunate if the glass has some poisonous residue when it wounds the chemist...

OUCH

[persistentaura]

@TheRealGeriBoss normally when setting up experiments you would use clean glass. and wear protection when handling dangerous chemicals.

[persistentaura]

I've got the mark! never heard about this before

[renamorcen]

@persistentaura You're a chemist, harry

[persistentaura]

@renamorcen actually I'm a physicist (or trying to become one at least) :D I did study chemistry before that.though :)

[wowrazzor]

Why is he shaking so much? ><

[akashashen]

Had "Every Star, Every Planet" running with a great return to theme during the description of chemists being like the Free Masons. I recommend it to friends and family alike.

[Fermonos1]

1:54

What the fuck is going on with his fingers?

[MrSuednym]

I thought that the real mark was nitric acid burns...

[beharon2]

just like the mark of the gamer is a brown patch on your mouse hands wrist :)

[Way2Stylish4U]

do you have the mark?

[danx033]

I'm also left handed! High five!

[pmckeown40]

wooooaaah afro

[BuickDoc]

In the US, jokes that start "You may be a redneck if..." are popular. To honor that tradition, I propose a similar format for chemists. I submit: "You may be a chemist if your favorite recreational reading is the "International Critical Tables." To honor the Professor: "You may be a chemist if your left hand has multiple small scars."

[xInfected27x]

Why Is He So Dam Shaky? 

[BuickDoc]

@xInfected27x Didn't your mother teach you that it is impolite to point out people's afflictions? Whatever the cause of his tremors, it is not your business.

[spotlightman1234]

@xInfected27x he's old.

[garrysmod102]

@spotlightman1234 or he drank too much coffee

[themaskedcrusader]

I have the mark of the chemist, but it wasn't made by slipping glass into my hand... my scar is from running a drill bit through the center of my hand :D

[theeAlphaOne]

Professor: With respect I must say you tremor worse than myself after a weekend of binging on the sauce, we will never be surgeons thats for sure.

I think you make a cool Professor sir , with that hair and all , you fit the image of someone who would be called a professor . Thanks for posting

[ElMostroBloggeante]

Well, I have another mark of the chemist, a beautiful pair of scars in my face. Those scars were made with sulfuric acid some idiot woman splashed to my face. Tiny enough to look like beauty marks.

[techhungry1]

stop shaking!

[BuGBurnout]

We had a couple of accidents during the analytical chemistry lab when we were handling volumetric flasks and we had to seal them and because of the low quality stoppers we tended to push them to seal it better. I personally had the experience of breaking the neck with this maneuver and only nicking the palm of my hand with the broken neck, but enough to start some bleeding. Another colleague wasn't so lucky because he drove the neck in her hand and had to go to hospital for treatment.

[IWishIwasAScreamer]

Darn, worst ive ever done in chemistry is spill AgNo3 on my hand and stain it for a couple of weeks....i'll have to keep trying i guess

[Jenzen123456]

why does the professor's hands shake ? :(

i realy like videos with him

[AnomalousDataPoint]

I have a nice scar on my left hand where I quirted some bromine, does that count?

[kcluri]

A friend of mine in the chem lab actually had that happen to him, but instead of trying to shove it into a cork, it was a burette pump. Had to get stitches, but easily avoidable if you hold a burette or any glass object with similar radius nearer to where you're pushing it in. If you hold it at the opposite end..well you get the Mark of the Chemist. Lol

[drokles]

I thought it had something to do with how the chemist has leathery hands.

[shelteringshade]

@drokles leathery? Why?

[NoPegs]

See, I was thinking the mark was a complete lack of hair on the backs of our fingers/hands... (occasionally the eyebrows go missing for those of us in the more exciting chemistry disciplines!)

[glenwoofit]

I have a mark on my hand but mine is were something went wrong and i lost the top of my finger, the same finger your on about. My finger is OK now as they replaced it with the top of the other finger then skin grafted that one from my hip....

[FmMan33]

@glenwoofit experimenting with acid, and it ate up your finger?

[glenwoofit]

@FmMan33 LOL, No I mixed some Red P with Chlorate and boom, Bye Bye Finger.. I won't be doing that again....

[SocCapAth]

After seeing the phosphorus video and seeing the title of this video I was expecting some kind of small chemical burns hah

[autom4]

i think he is either very nervous, or he has parkinson?

[CrusaderGundam]

"like free masons"...um that's not a good thing

[johnmciann]

haha - I majored in chemistry, didn't finish (much to my regret), but I do indeed have the mark.

[n4oliver]

You have to admit that we have some of the most unique occupational hazards. I have two marks: one from a shard of glass that was lodged in my thumb when the neck of a volumetric flask broke in my hands, and the other from wayward drop of sulfuric acid on my forearm, that went unnoticed for about a minute before it really hit some nerve endings.

[iuzarneim]

@n4oliver LMAO!!! sorry, but the last sentence got me lol "b3 it really hit some nerve endings" =]

god forbid.

[gnomaz15]

@iuzarneim he's just old, dude... He's not nervous

[iuzarneim]

@gnomaz15 i think u meant to reply to autom4.. lol

i simply expressed the humor i found in the last sentence. =]

atta boy. now, go away and click on the right name ;)

[BrutalDeluxe80]

Primo Levi and Martyn Poliakoff in the same video! Respect.

[anonysquirrel]

In the old days, people would laugh when someone got injured. Thankfully, most of us have evolved.

[blackwidowmollie]

I cannot wait to get my mark.

[CalvinHobbes71]

Wow, I have it and I did not know that this mark was so common, I felt like a fool when I got it, now I am proud of it, I guess.

[Revelde20]

cool! I'm relief ! I thought this video will tell me if my persuit to be a chemist was on of a fool trying to understand what is not for his undertanding! maybe the mark of a chemist is a remainder that to be a chemist one most endure the pain of failure!

[CanDriveSoon]

My chemistry related mark would be all the holes left in my shirts due to acid residue left on lab benches.

[Demonboy121]

lol we still use the old cork

[zbret]

I got a molten KNO3 burn (OW!) about 20 years ago from early experimenting, leaving a mark like a branding iron. The scar became heart shaped - probably since I love chemistry! :) Thanks for the story, I knew early on not to mess with glass near your fingers though I did plenty of work with tubing - at least THAT mistake I avoided.

[chemieisoveral]

Fascinating! I wrote a short blog entry about it on chemieisoveral.nl / weblog

[aruzman]

can't stop noticing the tie

[Lontr3x]

i have mine in the thumb eheh

[melekhthechanger88]

lol i have a mark for being in the lab but its from an acid burn, its not that bad at all but still like to think I have the mark of the chemist =p well i am a chemist so like to think i pass that test =p

[Muscleduck]

Haha, as soon as I saw the ground glass I knew you were going to talk about that. it happened to me too once, although we learned to use a towel to protect our hands.

[melis256]

If you dont cough at fresh air, you are not a real chemist :P

[moosey333]

I did that, but i was bending the glass tube and it snapped and it was more near my thumb then in my finger.

[TheFaustianMan]

Or ... perhaps you aren't a chemist at all....

Kidding! I love your vids this was very insightful! Keep them up! Cheers!

[singlespies]

I read Levi's "Survival at Auschwitz" - an amazing narrative.

[samn100]

Great, people will be sticking glass into their hands now......

[ProfWithTheHair]

@tech33012 The book is called Other Peoples' Trades by Primo Levi. hope you enjoy it.

[Miffmoffmaff]

The closest thing to a scar I have is the emotionally scarring after inhaling concentrated ammonia, that is an experience I never want to witness again

[denisfilming]

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

[Balomega]

did you get to see the shroud of Turin?

[periodicvideos]

@Balomega Shroud of Turin video coming soon!

[Balomega]

@periodicvideos thanks a lot for your reply

[Heartbreakhotel112]

He reminds me of my dear grandfather.

[imaball]

i cant wait to go to seatlle to study chemistry

[tech33012]

hey @periodictable what is the name of the book that contains the essay? i would like to take a look at the book.

[HeroinMethod]

i LOVE YOU, NO HOMOOO

[anonimoculto]

His hands are shaking? he is always shivering? Why?

[UKNMajor]

@anonimoculto His age,

[JaksProductions]

im left handed too!

[Renmusxd]

@JaksProductions Same here! (my entire family actually)

[JaksProductions]

@Renmusxd entire family? For real? wow never heard of a left-handed family before! cool ;)

[BasherCoon]

Hehe, perhaps it's dangerous in a chemist's eye-- When I clicked on a video I was assuming the sucked-down, hollowed out flesh of the hands that happens when fat leaches through the skin thanks to strong solvents making direct contact with the skin. I've been elbow-deep (without ppe) in acetone for extended periods, and have worn, weathered hands to prove it :) So wrinkled, leathery-looking , fat-leached hands would be another good sign of a (admittedly careless) chemist!

[murphyld66]

Every time I see one of your videos I wish that I could take your classes. Great teachers make learning fun and interesting.

[30LayersOfKevlar]

Periodic table tie strikes back !

[ZingerJr]

hey is the professor okay? his hands are trembling...i doubt his nervous

[culwin]

I'm not a chemist but we still had to shove those glass tubes into rubber stoppers in chemistry class. I was very careful but it is very easy for them to break and cut someone.

[immy7866]

hooray for awesome chemistry stories :)

[CarnalDiafragma]

Will you ever come to the Netherlands? There were some good chemists and quantum physisists.

[fugehdehyou]

i stabbed myself with a pippete at school :( i didnt get the mark tho lol

[SlappytheNinja]

Left-handed people rule.

[sajibaby1]

That is sooooo true.....LOL!!!!! just like a chef, his hands has cuts and burns from cooking.......

[rabbitsib]

You don't need to be a Chemist to have those marks be a chef and you get oil burns and cuts all over your hands

[buzzausa]

As an Italian it always makes me happy when my countrymen are given their dues. Especially one such as Primo Levi.

[lewiesgirl94]

ouch that would hurt if sulfuric acid got in there

[FraserGLParlane]

YEAH for lefties!

[do0me0nice]

i love you guys!

[AgtBauer24]

Haha, I remember in gem chem lab, on the first day we watched a video about chemistry lab safety and one clip was do not do that and they showed a clip of a guy forcing a glass tube into his hand and making it bleed, whoever it was doing it was so bad of an actor that we all laughed because it looked so intentional instead of an accident.

[kazl1m]

I can imagine how each science, each trade would have its own identifying scar. I have a burn scar that could only come from the soldering iron I used on the repair bench I worked at in a radio repair shop.

[Brothergeorge]

Cool.

[shelltune]

Would it not be easier just to grease the end of the glassware with vaseline? I assume that has not been done for contamination reasons rather than no one having though of it beforehand.

[JumpStop1]

i remember having to do that in high school chemistry and watching some ridiculous video about it and lab safety

[rehnai]

it's probably silly but I wonder why nearly every chemistry accesories are made out of glass... does the glass have something special so no chemicals interact with it? I mean chemicals like aqua regia can even melt gold etc.

[dtrainxc]

@rehnai Glass (silicon oxide) is overall unreactive toward acids, bases, or corrosive chemical. Metals typically corrode when exposed to certain chemicals, and many plastics can be solubilized by organic solvents. Glass is cheap, heat resistant, and largely unaffected my chemicals. The only bad thing is that it breaks easily. :(

[rehnai]

@dtrainxc Thank you very much for the answer.

[JimPrower]

Eeeeowch. Suppose I can't complain, though. As a machinist, I have plenty of marks on my hands from handling metal and chips...

[brainstorm90]

you should have come in Palermo! It's the major capital of chemistry in Italy, plus it's where Cannizzaro made his researches!

[Arvak777]

interesting story, plus didnt know the professor was left, so am I !!!

[johnjaksic61]

If I am not mistaken we (chemists) resorted to putting glycerol onto rubber stoppers and (occasionally corks) to faciiltate easy handling . . .but that is another story to be told.

[Reqrezentin]

Unbelievable, I could have had that mark 50 times over this past year.

[DerEchteSenf]

I ruined two lab coats (stained them with acid) because of faulty rubber parts during pratical. Rubber parts=evil. Never trust them.

[CoolMinty]

Excellent and interesting as always. Please keep on telling us informative and wonderful stories ;) Love the lab as it is at the moment, all ye olde world. I was worried for a second as I don't have the 'mark' but feel happier knowing I'm not the only one ;p

[erichill13]

If you leave the rubber coring tool in place after cutting through the rubber, it holds open the hole in the rubber to allow you to insert the piece of glass tubing. Then, when you remove the tool from the rubber stopper, the glass is already in the proper position. I didn't realize that my technique was that inovative, but maybe I should post a video showing how to do it. :)

[Flachzange1337]

These problems exists nowdays mainly by using Peleusballs (i dont know if this is the right translation to english...) which are use to pipet a liquid. My wormade told me that during his job training a person tried to stick a volumetric pipet into such a Peleusball and then the glass broke and it cuts into his arteries on his arm.

[Idtelos]

I have the mark.... cleaning a beaker that broke from the inside... :P :P

[TheStoicAgnostic]

I thought the mark is unemployment

the modern day story of the chemistry student

false hopes believing the time and money they invest might be of value

[madjimms]

I don't think I've ever disliked a periodicvideo's video.

Maybe someone could produce a DVD series & send it to classrooms world wide as a learning tool?

[Dracopol]

Hahaha, an accident like that happened to me, and I had such a mark through my left middle finger, but now it's gone.

[Dracopol]

Oh, wait, there it is, on my RIGHT hand yet I am right-handed.

[RentTheSpokeMan]

lol

[Blinkwing]

korkbohrer - german word :D

[P00P0STER0US]

Ouch, that's one painful initiation. You'd think these guys would have created a small apparatus to do the pushing along the line of insertion so they wouldn't even have to touch the glass or the cork to do it.

[patrickdashthomson]

I absolutely love primo levi, he's my absolute favourite author, and while I can't really say I enjoyed his holocaust books, they helped me become more ... enlightened. From a chemist's pov, he's a gateway to the humanities.

[Roddyoneeye]

Hey ! That means that I'm A Chemist ! (Actually my scar is from when the beer bottle was crushed by my grip, Flippin' lid wouldn't come off)

[Ayerea]

no one thought to use a little lubrication to help that? Saved my hands from the mark!

[BenjaminFranklin2u]

@Ayerea lubrication could react with your experiment.

[odysseus9672]

I thought that the mark of the chemist was that they're the people who wash their hands before they use the toilet. :)

[gulllars]

@odysseus9672 That certainly is true, but there are more professions where it's standard practice too, like biology and medicine, especially microbiology.

BTW, on the topic of washing hands, most people use too much soap, and thereby make themselves more susceptible to infection of the hands because they degrade the skin. I worked as a lab assistant in a microbiology lab, and our lab chief gave us a lecture on proper washing of hands, and why alcohol isn't always best for cleaning hands.

[2szymi]

i thought you would tell about yellow stains from nitric acid :P

[BYMYSYD]

i remember talking about this in chem class.

[narutostarfire]

i hope i can see the professor one day. since he is a gentle and awesome person. now only if i had him as a teacher what would life be ?

[engelteir]

thats one downfall of being such a safety conscious modern community. Lose out on all the initiations that help people bond, and give fun stories.

[hendrixphish420]

cool story, bro.

[IWantLandingSnow]

Do you feel left out that you don't have a 'Chemists Mark'? :)

[GronTheMighty]

I would really cherish an opportunity to see the professor and associates giving a lecture or two in my city, Copenhagen, perhaps with a few elaborating videos on the history of chemistry discoveries that Denmark is famous for.. some sort of tour could even be appropriate, of chemistry around the globe :D

[clearmenser]

@hmster33 this happens to many older people, just the cost of living in the world with a fragile human body. Maybe he was a roadie for Judas Priest and just partied too hard for too long?

[xKevTiffx]

The professor's left handed? I am too. Haha.

[edrianquintos]

omg! is he in turin righht now?? i live here. :) 

[periodicvideos]

@edrianquintos we were there for a few days and gave a free public lecture... we tried to tell you all on Twitter, Facebook ,etc....

[edrianjosequintos]

@periodicvideos dont tell me you were in ESOF? i was there but i never saw you guys. :(

[leungclj]

@periodicvideos facebook page?? give me link, link!

[OyVeey]

@leungclj Just search for it with the search bar.

[leungclj]

@OyVeey search for what? Periodic video? I cant find it -_-

[periodicvideos]

@leungclj if you visit our main website (periodicvideos com) we have links to our Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc, on the right-hand side of the page, half way down.

[leungclj]

@periodicvideos thank you thank you!

[astrojunkey]

Ah, I thought there will be something about acids^^ After just 1 semester, I have a scar on my right hand made by a nice mix of Nitric and Hydrochloric acid xD

At least now I'm warned...xD

[insanic1]

Primo Levi was a good fictional writer, but not much of a chemist imo

[kanjitard]

I've rammed a capillary tube, the ones you use for TLC, in to my left thumb (I'm right handed). It went through all the way to the bone.

[exibitions]

I love the professor :) He just makes me laugh, he is so smart.

[Films4You]

Just what I was thinking the masonic symbols.

I remember cork borer.

[RazielKain]

I think the new "Mark of the chemist" are burn marks

my hands have lots of little white spots where hot liquids etc burned off my skin.

I have two marks on my left forearm where I poured a hole test tube full of concentrated H2SO4 over it

[TeoTheAwesome]

Yay! The Professor is left handed, just like me!

[magicicle]

I bet Neil has a lot of manly chemistry scars =)

[evando2006]

Biologists get something very similar from assembling pipettes

[hornetpalooza]

As usual Periodic Videos gets an A. :)

[peart]

I was thinking it would of been burns on their hands chemical or otherwise.

[azurehydra]

Cool.

[WillyTung]

Professor's hands shake a lot :O

[Blacky2000x]

@WillyTung also a sign of a great chemist :)

[Cickarn]

one week is too long for a big fan like me..!

[StarcrossedPacific]

my mark is a scar on my left thumb from 99% HNO3

[Lostfaith1980]

@StarcrossedPacific Mines is on my right hand ring finger. (Or Apollo Finger, doesn't feel right calling it a ring finger to me.) from a piece of glass ripping the flesh. So now its puckered and white ^_^

[Peterditaa]

strong muscular tremor

[Nyckname]

That's too funny. I have that. From the chemistry set I got when I was in the 5th grade.

[x86freak]

My mark of a chemist was constant yellow spots on hands from nitric acid, lol :d

[anubis2814]

Mark of the microbiologist! Gram stain, haha.

[roakfurt]

I'm taking Chemistry in HS next year. This channel will probably help.

[HOD0R]

I rammed a broken glass pipette into my hand because it wouldn't go into a peleus ball.

[thewiseowl]

I spilt some 100 volume hydrogen peroxide on my converse during first year labs, does that count?

[Lostfaith1980]

@thewiseowl Only if you don't have any toes left.

[thewiseowl]

@Lostfaith1980 Shame it was only a drop then, I'll have to try harder to have an 'accident' next year ;)

[Lostfaith1980]

@thewiseowl We can only hope ^_^

[fLowKnows]

I'm coming to nottingham tomorrow to do chemistry :)

[yargh92]

Extremely interesting. I love your videos exploring chemistry, but this one exploring the world around chemistry is just as interesting. Would love to see more on the history of chemisty.

[TempusFugitive]

I have the mark, but it's in the palm of my left hand, rather than the finger. Fun times.

[chemiealex]

Very interesting!

Primo Levi wrote several books about chemistry topics :)