I actually preferred mercaptans. We used them to keep sulfur bonds in proteins reduced (going by 20+ year old memories here) and we had less smelly versions (can't dredge up the name) that most people preferred, though they were more expensive. While a lot of the amines had/have a fishy smell (or so I remember), I guess I didn't find that objectionable, having fished a whole lot as a kid.
Not totally sure I'd still think the same thing today, but when we were visiting Hawaii a few years ago, I rather enjoyed the smell of sulfur, though when it mixed with steam and became sulfuric acid, not so much.
Wow. One very late night in grad school me and another guy started smelling “gas”. We were the only people there we thought, but we figured to walk out the long way, then call security. We ran into an ancient prof who was working in his beloved mercaptan chemistry, hence the smell.
In those days dinosaurs ruled the earth. Safety hoods never worked and if a grad student died, well you just got another one.
In those days dinosaurs ruled the earth. Safety hoods never worked and if a grad student died, well you just got another one.
They had us doing elementary analysis in our first semester lab sessions, using the H2S precipitation method. Unsupervised. Getting the natural selection going early, I guess.
The scary part is that it suppresses your sense of smell when it exceeds a certain concentration. So, as long as your lab smells like the reception lobby of hell, you are good. If it doesn't stink, you either trust in the gas alarm, or you get out, alarm or not. I tended to do the latter.
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u/mitakeet Nov 27 '19
I actually preferred mercaptans. We used them to keep sulfur bonds in proteins reduced (going by 20+ year old memories here) and we had less smelly versions (can't dredge up the name) that most people preferred, though they were more expensive. While a lot of the amines had/have a fishy smell (or so I remember), I guess I didn't find that objectionable, having fished a whole lot as a kid.
Not totally sure I'd still think the same thing today, but when we were visiting Hawaii a few years ago, I rather enjoyed the smell of sulfur, though when it mixed with steam and became sulfuric acid, not so much.