@tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz
Post #3256389
2026-05-25 12:44 UTC
@johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz
I seem to remember reading that James Watson got banned from organic chemistry lab work for trying to heat benzene over a naked flame.
After Watson famously started "The Double Helix" with "I have never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood", Crick thought about starting his autobiography with "Jim was always clumsy with his hands. One had only to see him peel an orange".
Replies (1)
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@tpfto@mathstodon.xyz 2026-05-25 12:53
@tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz He brought it up himself in "The Double Helix", no doubt in a self-deprecating vein: > Briefly, the Indiana biochemists encouraged me to learn organic chemistry, but after I used a Bunsen burner to warm up some benzene, I was relieved from further true chemistry. It was safer to turn out an uneducated Ph.D. than to risk another explosion. (cc. @johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz)