Curiosity Kills a Cat

Carrying out experiments can be exceptionally fun. Where else can you find colours changing, bubbles forming, water hissing, rotten egg and even perfumery smells? A feast of the senses!

On a lighter note, most of us would agree that more often than not, once the work is done, the fun starts. After completing our task, with all the camouflaging, poisonous chemicals in front of us, it would certainly be politically incorrect to just pour liquids in the sink and throw the solids in the bin. Anyone and everyone will simply mix the ingredients of various test tubes to see if they can create a different hue, smell or even to have a shot at winning a Nobel Prize.

My personal experience in the filed of experimental endeavours was more of a lesson than a discovery….

Year : 2000

Form : 2 Fasih

Time : 3.00 – 5.00 pm (no clear idea)

Subject : Science

Topic : Chemical Test for Food Substances

Task : 1) Mix all the ingredients from all the different test tubes into a boiling tube.
2) Stop the boiling tube with a bung.
3) Shake till you drop.

By then I had a crowd of equally if not more curious friends who wanted to see the outcome of my ‘concoction’. Curiosity kills a cat, but it was me who ended up with its carcass. I opened the bug to release a unanimous ‘gasp’ and ‘white-brick-red-blue-Benedict-albumin-yellow iodine-blue-starch spray. It spurted all over me and provided a splendid colour contrast to my maroon vest and black hair.

The next half and hour was spent cleaning my uniform with damp Kleenex (courtesy of empathic-happy-for-you-with-all-the-mess friends)

4 years later, while reading the alcohol section of Organic Chemistry; a lecturer of Temasik Juniour College, Singapore, provided few words of wisdom…

“While alcohol is used in beer, wine, etc. , methanol is highly toxic. Consumption leads to blindness and death. Industrial ethanol is spiked with methanol to make it unsuitable for drinking. So should anyone steal ethanol from the lab to get high, he will be justly punished.”

Someone should have warned me about being over-zealous with my food test….