the most important material in science

Comments · 2K

• ST

  @stevenp8195 · 3 years ago · pinned

  Ah, darn. I thought you were going to say the gauge block. Also, not to be pedantic, but those are bi-convex and bi-concave lenses. not that, that distinction matters within the scope of this video...

  900

• TA

  @tailbonetailbone9380 · 3 years ago

  In terms of your archetypes, the med school I went to had:<br>1. The Pharmacology teacher who barely spoke Portuguese and was utterly incomprehensible, even when explaining the most basic concepts.<br>2. The Geriatrics teacher who would say &quot;Clinical is King&quot; as if you could clinic your way out of a fractured pelvis. He&apos;d always find a way to insert himself into any kind of case.<br>3. And the Neurophysiology teacher who barely spoke Portuguese and everybody loved. He made his super complicated field actually seem fun and possible to understand. He did kick-ups during his lectures to teach about integration between neural pathways.

  79

• PE

  @petevance422 · 3 years ago

  RIP Scootie gone but not forgotten

  41

• SL

  @slowerpicker · 3 years ago (edited)

  As a chemist, I’d add that glass is chemically tough. Very little damages glassware chemically or contaminates whatever you’re cooking up. Also the same vessel can be used over a huge temperature and pressure range. A careful person can repair minor fractures with just a torch. I had a lucky flask when I was a grad student. I loved that little 100-mL round-bottom flask.

  832

• KA

  @kayloiio · 3 years ago

  From joyfully binging all these videos, I have concluded that Dr. Collier vastly overestimates the kinds of books I pick up at the airport 😂

  39

• TH

  @thermidorienne · 3 years ago

  I didn&apos;t think I&apos;d watch the whole video in one go but here I am wishing my parents were glassblowers.

  473

• RP

  @rpraza4 · 3 years ago

  I also attended the University of Kentucky for grad school and just finished my PhD (in engineering). I&apos;ve had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Babbitt in the chemistry glass shop and it made me so happy to hear you mention him!

  41

• JU

  @justintroyka8855 · 3 years ago

  As SOON as you said the thing about putting a fact in a truth pocket and forgetting about it for a decade, I was like &quot;oh this is going to be about glass being a liquid isn&apos;t it&quot;, and then I realized that of course glass isn&apos;t a liquid!!! I had that in a truth pocket and forgot about it too!

  330

• SE

  @Self_Proppelled · 2 years ago (edited)

  This is one of your more relatable videos for me. As a machinist when &nbsp;I hear you talk about the transition of glass I associate that with heating and cooling of metals at different rates to produce different hardness levels. As a designer when I hear you talk about art vs science I think of the work I do. I help design and manufacture microwave comunication equipment. Juno, Maven, and Osiris Rex are some well known projects I have made components for. I often wonder if we&apos;re making art or simply doing high tech plumbing.

  29

• TH

  @thephilguy1 · 3 years ago

  With the clickbait title, I was totally expecting a cop-out answer like &quot;the most important material is actually your intuition!&quot; or &quot;hard work&quot; or &quot;it&apos;s the scientists themselves persevering through adversity!&quot;, but this was actually really informative. I enjoyed all the meandering twists and turns talking about very relatable instances like overpriced restaurants with the wine glass cups.

  91

• JE

  @JenniferSmolinske · 2 years ago

  I really like one. The scientific glassblowers you described are likely old souls and artisans. Old soul artisans. You also talked a little bit about the war on creativity. How creativity has been under siege in many fields such as science and engineering for a hundred years or more. How creative people create many wonderful things but rarely profit from them. How mostly non-creative people have come to control the fields of science, engineering, art, film, theatre, literature, publishing, dance, architecture, food production, etc. The people who control these fields tend to be motived by money rather than making beautiful and useful things or knowledge that help people. How if a project or endeavor in one of these fields isn&apos;t likely to lead to large profits, it often just doesn&apos;t happen. How most creative people have little choice but to work in mindless, repetitive, low paying jobs that are soul crushing to a creative person. When the weather allows, I go to weekend art shows and street fairs and often find the most amazing and inspiring things made by so many brilliant and creative people. I work in engineering, in both research and in product development, and it truly is a creative field, but talk of creativity is discouraged except when discussing the filing of patents.

  24

• NA

  @narvuntien · 3 years ago

  We had a glassblower right up until 2011 at which point the university fired them at that moment, I broke a very important piece of glassware and set my PhD back half a year since I couldn&apos;t get a replacement. I am definitely the second type of scientist and I know a third type, the issue was you get distracted for hours talking about things instead of working. He was co-author on my most successful paper though.

  133