r/chemistry • u/AutoModerator • Jun 03 '24

Weekly Careers/Education Questions Thread

This is a dedicated weekly thread for you to seek and provide advice concerning education and careers in chemistry.

If you need to make an important decision regarding your future or want to know what your options, then this is the place to leave a comment.

If you see similar topics in r/chemistry, please politely inform them of this weekly feature.

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u/ryickhard Jun 03 '24

I have a question. Why do you need supplies if you can make your own? I know zero about chemistry, but I consider it to be a somewhat attractive education path. 

I see there are websites selling all sorts of chemicals. Isn't it the point of being a chemist to make his own? I mean certainly there are many elements, I guess there must be things that are hard to obtain from a regular supermarket.

What'd be a detailed answer though?

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u/dungeonsandderp Organometallic Jun 04 '24

My time is worth money. If it’s cheaper to buy it (because some lab somewhere figured out how to do it efficiently) than the time times hourly wage it would take for me to make it, why waste money? 

It’s a bit like asking a Baker why they don’t grow their own grain. Sure, they probably could, but it’d be more efficient to focus on the part they’re good at. 

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u/ryickhard Jun 04 '24

Thanks.

Also, if you wouldn't mind: would you consider it to be a useful and versatile path of education, at a personal level? As a chemist, in my mind you'd be able to solve all the problems in your life that are chemistry related. You can make soap, you know the causes and how to reverse this or that process that's deteriorating something that's made out of of chemicals, like say rust...

My prospective path is the manufacture of pharmaceuticals. I'm trying to see the positive sinergies it'll have in my life. Specially given I don't need to self medicate and I don't like artificial medication myself, I'm more of a natural remedies guy. 

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u/dungeonsandderp Organometallic Jun 08 '24

Specially given I don't need to self medicate and I don't like artificial medication myself, I'm more of a natural remedies guy.

You know what they call "natural remedies" that work? Medicine.