Blog post: hypervalent_iodine: Crap that Peter Says - Part I

In the lab next door to us, there is a PhD student. Let’s call him Peter. Over the last year, the first of his three year PhD, he has been guilty of a wealth of stupidity. Distilling thionyl chloride one of our communal rot evaps (our poor vacuum pump was never the same), throwing thiol soaked gloves in the general waste (those weeks smelt wonderful) – you get the picture.

My favorite part about Peter is the questions he asks. They range from the outright bizarre to the outright daft. Sometimes they are annoying, say after the hundredth question on top of a question, but more often than not they’re just hilarious. I feel almost selfish for keeping these wonderful moments to myself, so I thought I might share.

I’ll start with one from today and add more as they come. Peter is from overseas. In January, he returned to his home country to get married. Although Peter has returned, his wife remains abroad. Today myself, a former PhD student and one of the other post-docs were talking to him and asked what it is that she did and what she would do for work here in Australia. He told us that she would be working with families or with children, but that she would need to get a blue card*.

Peter

“How long does it take to get a bluecard? Do you know how long it takes?â€

Me

“No idea.â€

Peter

“But you’re a woman.â€

Me

“…Excuse me?â€

Peter

“You’re a woman, you should know how to work with children.â€

Today was the day I was nearly a feminist.

The first day of my PhD:

Peter

“How many pages are you writing for the introduction for your thesis?’

My thesis isn’t due until some time in 2016.

These types of moments are plenty, so I’ll be sure to share more of them when they come.

* For the non-Australian readers, a blue card is card dispensed by the government to say that is okay for you to work with children. Read and comment on the full post