Worse Living Through Chemistry

As some people have noticed, I'm not much of a chemist. I would go so far as to say that it's one of my weak points. But this list of "Things I Won't Work With" has to be some of the most interesting and funny reading I've seen in a while. People in my lab tend to freak out about things like acrylamide, ethidium bromide, and beryllium fluoride. I tend to think that as long as you don't ingest anything or get it in your eye, you're probably okay, and shouldn't freak out too much. And, this list really gives you a sense of perspective, e.g.:

You start off by making absolutely pure anhydrous hydrogen azide, which is a proposal that you don't hear very often around the lab, and is the sort of thing that leads to thoughts of career changes...The next step is introduction of the fluorine, and when elemental fluorine is the most easily handled reagent in your scheme, let me tell you, you're in pretty deep