• LordTrychon@startrek.websiteEnglish
    24·
    9 months ago

    In his essay “To Tell a Chemist” (1965), Asimov proposed a simple shibboleth for distinguishing chemists from non-chemists: ask the person to read the word “unionized”. Chemists, he noted, will read un-ionized (electrically neutral), while non-chemists will read union-ized (belonging to a trade union).

  • rockSlayerEnglish
    20·
    9 months ago

    If you don’t think about it very hard, solidarity is basically macro ionization

    • wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      9 months ago

      As a leftist chemistry teacher, I read it as “having attained union”, rather than “not ionized”, so YMMV with this heuristic

      ETA: (also, yeah, I have excellent job security until all public schools are abolished in the US)

  • Vanth@reddthat.comEnglish
    12·
    9 months ago

    My initial thought was “would chemists theoretically be less into labor protections than plumbers”?

    I guess that puts me in a third bucket.

  • ornery_chemist@mander.xyzEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    What about ChemE then? They’re both. Sort of. Okay maybe they’re not chemists, but… chemistry-adjacent.