That's some really complex mess. How much do these chemists get paid?
We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir
11–20 of 236 posts
Re: We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir
#12It’s been almost two decades since I took a chemistry class, looks more foreign to me than code to a non-programmer.
To be fair organic chemistry is its own beast and far messier than normal chemistry classes.
Re: We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir
#13The writing is so good, I had to double check that it wasn't written by Derek Lowe.
Here's his most famous article on FOOF (Dioxygen Diflouride) https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/th... It seems there are multiple chemist-author hybrids out there!
At seven hundred freaking degrees, fluorine starts to dissociate into monoatomic radicals, thereby losing its gentle and forgiving nature.
Gentle and Forgiving nature...
Re: We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir
#14That's some really complex mess. How much do these chemists get paid?
In research? Usually not much and thats if you can even manage to find a job. But Chemical engineers are usually well paid and can easily get a job out of college. Though maybe that is changing since the oil industry is usually a big part of the job market. And with most of the energy sector currently on the brink of collapse...
Re: We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir
#15It’s been almost two decades since I took a chemistry class, looks more foreign to me than code to a non-programmer.
To be fair organic chemistry is its own beast and far messier than normal chemistry classes.
Yes, there's a difference between pushing electrons on paper and making compounds behave in the lab as they do on paper.
Scaleup from lab to pilot plant to production is another different beast.
Re: We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir
#16Very funny writing style while being incredibly informative. Read from top to bottom with glee. I had a feeling organic synthesis was difficult but not this difficult.
Missed a trick not titling it:
“(1OO)OMG we made one gram...” :)
Re: We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's his most famous article on FOOF (Dioxygen Diflouride) https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/th... It seems there are multiple chemist-author hybrids out there!
At seven hundred freaking degrees, fluorine starts to dissociate into monoatomic radicals, thereby losing its gentle and forgiving nature. Gentle and Forgiving nature...
The inimitable Martin Poliakoff demonstrates it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtWp45Eewtw
Re: We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir
#18That's some really complex mess. How much do these chemists get paid?
If they don't have grants, $0. If they work in a lab for someone who has a grant, $0, but with credit on the papers (that's why there's 35 authors on the paper, 1 person got paid, the rest got name credit in the hopes that they get noticed by a commercial company wanting to monetize this process, so in the future they get their own gig). If they work in a commercial lab, maybe they make a little.
Re: We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir
#19Although very interesting, this article isn't a great introduction because a critical part of the picture is missing - the availability of the inputs.
Sticking to simple stuff; mines produce iron at a rate measured in thousand-tonnes per hour with yields of potentially sub-30% compared to volume of earth moved. Ammonia and many acids are presumably measured in tonnes or kilograms produced per day. Low yields make the process-oriented sad, but what matters is absolute ability to produce; not yield.
All that doesn't take anything away from this article; it just makes it hard to interpret what 'royal pain to synthesize' means in practice. The process isn't basic chemistry; but that isn't really saying much.
Re: We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir
#20This article really reinforces my choice to drop ochem in college. It's funny how deciphering assembly code seems downright mundane compared to this jargon. Like, I get how given the process you could recreate things, or you could devise possible reactions based on electron shells and bonding tendencies, but how do researchers even figure out how to make these reactions happen? Especially when they require -100C, or +5atm of pressure.