It's the last day of January, 2012, and I figured I'd start to blog about a few things. Mainly because I like to rant (my wife, brother, parents, co-workers, etc can all back me up on that!) but also because I'd like to get stuff down in case I forget it later. I contribute to a few forums, mainly science and rational thinking based, and sometimes think of something that I'd like to mention, but doesn't fit into the post being made. Throwing it here would mean I still get to be an egotist and think people want to read it but I don't go disturbing a whole thread because of it.
Anyway, I'm an analytical chemist by profession and I'm heading towards the last year of a 4-year long part-time degree course in chemistry. Given that I'll be entering into my final year project and writing about research is an important thing these days, I'll be talking about that. In addition, a recent assignment written by myself on actinide/lanthanide separation has brought up the prospects of doing some collaborative work between my employers and the university I'm studying at, so that'll be mentioned too. Finally, on the research front, the department I currently work in is supposed to be developing new methods. Whilst I'm not currently involved majorly in any of that, I will be over the coming months and years.
None of the stuff is really cutting edge research (hence the blog title!) but it might be interesting to people who aren't qualified research scientists and would like to read a little about the processes involved, the aggro and the elation, but this is mainly to feed my own ego and it beats having a diary.
Finally, just to satisfy my ranting side, I'll also cover a few aspects of the culture war between rationality and the ignorant, science in popular culture and/or the media and anything else that takes my fancy (I have very wide-spread interests).
So bear with me and we'll see how it goes. I might get bored of the whole thing and give up, it might be another victim of my notorious apathy and lack of motivation, but who knows? It might actually inspire someone to do science and that can only be a good thing.
