The Fuck-It Chemist Makes Her Debut

Anyone who has worked in an industry for an amount of time quickly learns about all of the fucked up things that happen behind the scenes. This is a blog from a pissed off chemist who is sick of all of your shit and isn't afraid to use harsh language to get her point across. I would also love to offer my support for every worker in my industry who has ever been confronted with sexism, racism, or inexcusable corruption. 

As a young person it is still easy for me to look at the world with an idealist's eyes. Viewing every new thing through rose-colored glasses means red flags look like any other flag. New is exciting. New is an opportunity to finally find a place you can move up through merit. New is a challenge that other people have not yet tried to tackle.

"New" is festering with individuals trying to screw other people over and get their money because regulations aren't established enough to enforce anything. And they get away with it.

I know there's a lot of people out there who are not scientifically literate. I want to let you in on a secret: science is something you can start to learn and understand at any age. Perfecting that cake recipe until you achieve the perfect result? Science. Observing stars on a clear night? Science. Tending a garden? Science. Do not let people dupe you into thinking they have a talent that you can't eventually learn to possess given the time. Do not let someone tell you that a concept is too difficult to understand. Force them to use simpler and simpler terminology until you can grasp an understanding.

And what I mean by this is not that you shouldn't trust experts in their field. It's going to sound contradictory, but there ARE MANY people who know things no one else does and there are concepts that would take way too much time to reasonably explain to someone with no scientific background accurately. But if you're curious about the way something works and someone tells you it's already been done or studied, don't let your curiosity die and don't let anyone tell you you'll never understand it. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you're too stupid to learn or to understand something with time. Those people are not worth your time and energy. But also, don't assume that people think you're stupid either, and don't get offended when others are surprised that you don't know something. There is so much in this world that we do not know and there is way too much information in existence for any one person to know all of it.

With all of that introductory tangential stuff out of the way, let me tell you a bit about my background.

I grew up in the Midwest USA near a city that rounds up to a million people in population. My grandpa was born there. My dad lived in the same city for 90% of his life. I grew up and spent 26 years of my life less than 30 miles away from the school they both attended. My whole life I have wanted to get out of that state, and I did. I'm not sure how to explain the stigma that is endured when you're an intelligent person growing up in a religious culture if you have not had that experience yourself. Knowing that I spent so much of my life brainwashed into a culture that has historically hated scientific progress baffles me. Being a woman in a congregation of people who shame women for so much as thinking the word abortion while at the same time no one condemns the man who decided his comfort was worth more to him than helping a woman maintain her freedom is just ridiculous to me. How can you witness a culture do this and not call it sexist? But I was so wrapped up in securing my post-earth afterlife that I blinded myself to all of the fucked up lessons and biases the church promotes. If you honestly believe that you're going to spend an eternity of suffering worse than anything you could experience on earth, and some earthly experiences are pretty fucking shitty, then it's a small thing to pretend that you believe in an invisible being to avoid that kind of pain.

My point in telling you that is not to say that religion is always bad and that atheism is the only way to live. My point is that no one should let fear dictate what they believe and do. I have high expectations for you: acknowledge and face your fears and be willing to admit you're wrong. Any scientist that doesn't do these two things is not being a very good scientist. I'm not saying that Galileo was a bad scientist for denying his belief in Copernican views so that they wouldn't kill him either. You can't be a good scientist if you're dead. But if you are going through your life believing your actions are not being influenced by fear of loss of a paycheck, fear of ostracism, or fear of wasting time, then you're living in denial. My other point in bringing up Galileo and my religious background is that it is important to me that you realize the very real impact that politics has on the life of every individual and on scientific progress. I value your freedom to practice whatever religion you want because I don't want you to have to carry around any kind of stress that would prevent you from being a better person or from contributing positively to the world around you. I need you to want me to be able to study without hindrance from the government. I need you to understand that loose regulations lead to people cheating the system and potentially leaving you with unsafe products with empty testing claims. I need you to understand that the way you as an individual think is important and that your fears are valid and the way you think and act and vote affects the people around you. You are part of a larger picture, regardless of your education level. My industry tends to praise people who devoted their lives to textbooks and rigorous logical exercise and calculations and theory, and rightly so. Yet it tends to do so while ignoring the guy in the buffer prep lab that stopped school after an associates degree and the team of people that spends 50 hours a week scanning RFID's into an electronic system to help expedite phase III clinical trials. It's work, it's not glorious or mentally taxing, but it requires energy and those people were necessary components in getting us to the technological advancements we have today.

You are all important.

In summary, I have unpleasant things to tell you. I have let you know what kind of perspective I'd like you to have while reading my blog. And I hope that you stick around to hear my experiences out.

Hoping you stay happy, healthy, and independent,

-The fuck-it chemist