Category Archives: Angst

“Riding Rockets”- A Review

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I just finished reading Mike Mullane’s autobiographic “Riding Rockets“.  Mullane is a retired mission specialist astronaut with 3 missions under his belt.  It turns out that Mullane and I share one discouraging life experience.  I also wanted to be an astronaut and was also disappointed to learn in college (Air Force ROTC) that my nearsightedness would prevent me from getting a pilot slot in the Air Force or Navy.  Undaunted, Mullane went on to the next best option of GIB (Guy In Back) and became a USAF weapon systems officer.  His transition to astronaut from GIB was made possible by the NASA’s decision to eliminate the requirement of pilot experience as a prerequisite for mission specialist .  No doubt his degree from West Point, 150 combat missions in Viet Nam, test pilot school at Edwards, and a masters in aeronautical engineering helped him a bit.  I realized that I was a nearsighted, pathological smartass and left ROTC and went into chemistry.  Mullane persisted and got into space. I succumbed to the enchantment of organic chemistry and explored conformational space.

Mullane writes rather well and provides a reasonably balanced narrative over the time spanning his career. I would say that the main reason to read the book would be to get some insight into life in the astronaut corps.   If you put two people in a room, you have politics.  And it is no different with astronauts. Mullane details what can only be described as a byzantine system of decision-making for mission assignments and the characters who made these decisions.

Mullane describes in considerable detail the experience of a scrubbed launch. He bid farewell to his family and strapped a fully fueled shuttle to his backside 9 times for 3 launches.  Mullane tells of his own private fears and the fear that was (is) felt among many other astronauts- a feeling quite apart from the confident and laconic persona they might show in public. Indeed, he has been outspoken in regard to the safety of the shuttle fleet and in a manner uncharacteristic of astronauts, generally.

Far from being a monolithic group of superheros, the astronaut corp consists of a surprisingly diverse group of individuals.  As a group, astronauts are super achievers and not lacking the usual spectrum of attributes you might expect.  There is no shortage of ego or swaggering bravado.   Historically, astronauts come from an aeronautical background and as such, are accustomed to the flight environment and the norms that go along with it. During Mullanes tenure at NASA, the program saw civilian and other non-traditional astronauts take increasingly important roles in the mission.  In particular, this period of time following the first trial flights saw female astronauts accumulating a considerable number flight hours on orbit.

He describes in detail how the astronauts felt after the loss of Challenger and Columbia.  Mullane is of the opinion that the shuttle should have a better crew escape system.  Evidently he logged an ejection from an F-111, so he has first hand experience with bailout systems. There are literally thousands of parts and systems whose failure could tragically end a mission and the lives of its crew.  But like everyone who wants to fly in space, you swallow your fears and strap in anyway.

In the context of books in this genre, I’d give him a A- for his courage to be critical of NASA.  He now works as a motivational speaker.

Intermission

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I’m up to my gills in really fascinating stuff at the day job, but none of it can be blogged.  Pity.  So I have to blog about silly links and make fun of POTUS.  I hope the reader will pardon this intermission.  Here is a platitude shamelessly lifted from Making Light–

“The whole point of society is to be less unforgiving than nature.”  

Amen, brother.

Bush II. Sphericated or Flaticular?

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Here along the front range of the Rocky Mountains we have a few alternative newspapers available- you know, the kind not owned by Rupert Murdoch. They tend to be a bit Bohemian and consequently are shunned by righteous Dittoheads. Other parts of the country have them as well- college towns mostly. They cater to those of us who aren’t afraid to be known as liberals.  These papers run a syndicated cartoon called This Modern World by a guy known as Tom Tomorrow. 

Because of copyright issues, I’ll have to link to the site rather than paste an image.   

Happy 100th Birthday Albert Hoffmann!!

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Albert Hoffmann, the discoverer of LSD, turned 100 years old this year on Juanary 11th.  Happy Birthday, Albert!  Scienceblogs.com relates the story of Hoffmann’s first deliberate LSD trip on April 19th, 1943.  You might recall that Hoffmann was the Sandoz chemist who stumbled upon the psychotropic activity of lysergic acid diethylamide.  

Just this last week, the medical journal The Lancet called for an end to the “demonization” of psychedelic drugs, according to Guardian Unlimited.  The motivation behind the editorial in the Lancet was to urge a loosening of taboo’s connected with the use of psychedelic compounds.  The widespread criminalization of psychedelics has made research with these interesting molecules quite problematic. 

Perhaps the day will come when such materials are decriminalized and it will be possible to visit a psychedelic spa where one could go to have a safe dosage administered by qualified staff.  But it wouldn’t be all fun and games, though.  While the euphoric experience can be prolonged and profoundly vivid, there is a dark side.  An account of the experience of the psychiatrist Werner Stoll is described in Chapter 4 of Hoffmanns book “LSD. My Problem Child”.

Hoffmann and Sandoz would watch their discovery move from a psychiatric adjunct to a full fledged inebriant adopted by a counter culture movement.  In his book, Hoffmann laments-

    This joy at having fathered LSD was tarnished after more than ten years of uninterrupted scientific research and medicinal use when LSD was swept up in the huge wave of an inebriant mania that began to spread over the Western world, above all the United States, at the end of the 1950s. It was strange how rapidly LSD adopted its new role as inebriant and, for a time, became the number-one inebriating drug, at least as far as publicity was concerned. The more its use as an inebriant was disseminated, bringing an upsurge in the number of untoward incidents caused by careless, medically unsupervised use, the more LSD became a problem child for me and for the Sandoz firm.

    It was obvious that a substance with such fantastic effects on mental perception and on the experience of the outer and inner world would also arouse interest outside medical science, but I had not expected that LSD, with its unfathomably uncanny, profound effects, so unlike the character of a recreational drug, would ever find worldwide use as an inebriant. I had expected curiosity and interest on the part of artists outside of medicine-performers, painters, and writers-but not among people in general. After the scientific publications around the turn of the century on mescaline-which, as already mentioned, evokes psychic effects quite like those of LSD-the use of this compound remained confined to medicine and to experiments within artistic and literary circles. I had expected the same fate for LSD. And indeed, the first non-medicinal self-experiments with LSD were carried out by writers, painters, musicians, and other intellectuals.

Today, psychedelic substances are considered to be drugs of abuse and their use will lead to a long stay at the Gray Bar Hotel. Our Puritanical heritage seems everlasting. But rather than wallow in pity for my unenlightened brothers and sisters, I look forward to a brighter future where one could sit in a licensed psychotropic suite and explore the deepest recesses of consciousness brought out in full non-linear display, say, while listening to music. Everybody associates acid rock with LSD. That’s too easy. I’ve often wondered what it’d be like to listen to Leon Redbone in an altered state of consciousness.  Kinda curious about what a baritone sax does to a brain on acid.  Or David Bowie- Major Tom.  I’m showing my age. 

Wear the Fox Hat

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Ever been to the Royal Burgh of Auchtermuchty? Neither have I.  It’s north of Edinburgh on the A91 on the way to St. Andrews, between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay.  According to Undiscovered Scotland, the name comes from the Scottish Gaelic phrase uachdar muc garadh, meaning “upper pig enclosure”. 

Hey, I really dig Scotland. 

Here is a grab bag of surprise links.  X  Y  Z.  

Yet another mass shooting in our USA

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The news of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech just seems to get worse as the day wears on.  There aren’t words to describe it. 

After the grisly scene in Blacksburg is cleaned up and the bodies are buried, we’ll once again switch on the TV and watch programming glamorizing gun-toting tough guys and violence. Not a night goes by on television where some plot isn’t based on the menacing of women by crazed or angry men, most with guns.  Some people will solve problems with guns and others will cause problems with guns.  The message is that guns bring satisfaction and command respect. Just look at the very title of the series The Sopranos and listen to the lyrics.  “Woke up this mornin’ and got myself a gun …”

Maybe there is no causal connection between entertainment and what this shooter did.  But I cannot help but believe that the more or less constant exposure to violence in our entertainment doesn’t dull our sensibilities and lower our threshold for what constitutes acceptable behaviour.  Regardless, we have to start somewhere and cleaning up our tastes in entertainment is relatively painless.  We need to create less demand for this crude stuff.

Obviously, the shooter is responsible for the murders, not the inanimate steel mechanism.  But the common fascination we have with the gun and it’s stylized, even mythical, application means that this mechanical device has some kind of hold on us.  Its ease of use and its ability to deliver death from a great distance makes it possible for anyone to deem themselves a “warrier” for a few minutes.

We are horrified by such violence when it is real. But we entertain ourselves with painstakingly elaborate dramatizations of it.  We are gratified to watch fictional characters engage in gunplay with bad guys.  We cheer as fictional cops rough up suspects because, as we all know, bad guys really shouldn’t have rights. 

There is no mysterious or complex phenomenon to sort out here. Our American culture has a form of fragmented personality disorder with respect to gun violence.  I don’t know if it’ll do a damned bit of good, but we need to come down from the saturation level of violence in our entertainment and recreation. The first thing we must do is to remove a bit of the glamor of gunplay. 

We don’t have to give up our guns.  But we do need to develop a new viewpoint or an advanced ethos about them. We need new icons and archetypes.  It is time to retire CSI and The Sopranos as popular iconography.  We must find better ways to fulfill our self image and need for power besides being handy with a gun.  How do other societies do it?  Any suggestions??

Here is an interesting link to a rebuttal in the Daily Kos written by someone said to be from VT.

Assorted Links

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This Wine Enthusiast link offers a small distillation unit for distilling the volatiles from wine or beer.  Your next shot of brandy is only minutes away.  Of course, the distillate may be flammable, so I’d be careful with that burner.

Check out the Museum of Lost Wonder. Pretty wild.  Then, there is the day that they foamed the fountain of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia.  If you’re keen on learning the top 10 prejudices Germans have about the USA, check out this blog.  Hard to argue with it’s accuracy.  Had a nagging urge to hop in a submarine and go for a dive?  Check out U-Boat Worx. The specs say that it is limited to 50 meters depth.  I wonder what the crush depth is- 150 meters? I’d imagine that the seals would fail first and the thing would flood before it imploded.

Chemical Blogometrics

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I see that according to Chemical Blogspace, my Gunning-Fog index has gone up a notch- from Al Gore to Thomas Pynchon.  Oh, good gawd.  Now I have to worry about that as well…?

Forty thousand years ago all you had to worry about was a sabre tooth tiger dropping out of a tree on you, or those nasty Neanderthals up the river raiding your camp, killing your women and raping the men. Today we have secretive organizations applying these odd metrics from the dark recesses of the blogosphere. Who are these people? And, what do they want? 

Actually, what they are doing is quite interesting. It provides good feedback for bloggers. Once we wipe away the tears we can improve our “product”.

All this talk coming from a guy who writes under a pseudonym \;-)

Specification Creep

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Back in grad school, when I was a younger and more innocent chemist, I never gave the matter of purity specifications much thought. Well, let me qualify that.  If my Aldrich reagent was 98 % or greater, I was usually happy.  Yeah, there is the matter of water and a few other things, but for the most part specs didn’t pop into my radar very much.  The other cats and dogs in the material usually washed out somewhere along the reaction sequence.

The issue of specifications in the fabulous world of industry, however, is a really big deal. Indeed, for a company that does custom synthesis or is otherwise agreeable to starting up production of a new product, the matter of negotiating specifications is strangely complex.  Customers have expectations of how pure their product should be and the manufacturer, that is, those who are grounded in the bitter reality of chemical processing, may be far less certain as to what constitutes a reasonable specification. This is nothing new or secret.  All other manufacturing industries have the same issue. 

I previously said that the matter was strangely complex.  Before the customer and the manufacturer can agree on a deal, they have to resolve the matter of what is needed vs what is wanted. 

Here is a case study: the customer initially specifies 99.0 % purity, white crystalline solid, and no greater than 0.2 % residual solvent. And they want it for $100/kg for a metric ton.  Fine, you say, it’s a hundred kilobucks worth of business. We’ll go in the lab and front run a process. This way we’ll be able to give the customer a qualification sample, and just as importantly, get an idea of the process economics.

The chemist does a representative front run and reports the following.  The process produces 68 % isolated yield of off-white powdered solid that has clumps, 1H-NMR shows that it is 98.3 % pure and it has 0.5 % residual solvent.  The product is a first crop and the solvent is a high boiler like toluene. Analysis of the mother liquor shows that there is an additional 21 % of product remaining with the balance of the mass as unidentified colored components. 

This is a node in the decision process for the manufacturer.  From this result, we have to make a business case to go forward or decline and offer a “No Quote”.

The customer has expressed a preference for a pricing set point of $100 per kg for a metric ton.  It is hard to know if this price and volume are just posturing or if they are firm numbers.  More often than not, the customer will decline to disclose an upper price limit.  Remember, the buyer’s job is to get the lowest price and the sellers job is to get the highest profit.  It is common for a buyer to ask for a quote on a volume higher than they intend to order just to see where the price/volume curve flattens.

The first thing to notice is that the first crop fails to meet the specifications all around. Low purity, high residual solvent, off color, and clumps of powdery material instead of free flowing crystalline product. A estimate of the cost of manufacture suggests that the raw material cost is about $38 per kg and the labor and overhead cost is $52 per kg. The first pass doesn’t look good- estimated costs are ~$90/kg for off spec stuff.  Irrespective of the product’s compliance with the spec, if your sample is truly representative it might be worth sending a sample to the customer anyway.  You never know. The customer may recoil in horror or find that it works in their process despite being “off-spec”. 

It is at this point that the sales or business development manager has to make a decision- Are there any insurmountable problems with the front run?  If not, we have to decide if we want to risk R&D time to do process development to tweak the process to give product that meets the spec.  Remember, time = money.

The good news is that the purity is only slightly low, the residual solvent can be pumped down in a vacuum oven, and the clumps can be sieved out. But remember, too much “polishing” will tend to increase labor costs per kg of product. 

The color appearance is another matter.  It might be resolvable within the customers price constraint, or not. The transition from off-white to just white can be a difficult change. Whiteness is surprisingly subjective and dependent on particle size. And, particle sizing can involve a lot of art.  If the product were a $100,000 per kg pharmaceutical, there would be much more motivation to get the color right. Remember, it is only a $100,000 sale. One could easily burn up all of the profit in an prolonged period of process development and pilot plant time before you even sell the first kilogram. 

Product appearance would be a good candidate for negotiations with the customer. Try to get them to give up white for “white to off-white”.

The price is another problem.  It is too low.  It is desirable to have 20 % profit after interest and taxes, just like the pharmaceutical folks report.  A good rule of thumb is that the total manufacturing cost should be approximately 50 % of the price or less.  This is highly variable and subject to the company’s accounting practices.  So, just for arguments sake, let’s say that we need to get the price to equal twice the cost. 

To come in with a reasonable profit, we have to get the manufacturing cost down to $50 per kg.  The raw material costs were calculated at $38 per kg. Raw material costs are the least flexible, so that leaves little room for labor costs at a targeted $50/kg mfg cost.  The good news is that the labor costs are higher than the raw material costs, so at least there is some hope for bringing the total cost in line.  Labor costs can be brought down with processing experience and innovation. The learning curve is real and good plant manager can bring labor costs down over the product lifetime. 

In this circumstance, I would vote that we go forward with the product if we can initially keep the mfg costs at 65 % of the price or lower.  I would also vote that we send a representative sample to the customer for evaluation. In the mean time, we can do a bit of R&D to find a better process. 

Finally, one of the business risks for a manufacturer is the issue of “specification creep”.  Initially, a manufacturer will agree to produce a new product with a particular set of specifications. However, if the customer is simultaneously developing their use of this chemical in their new product while you are developing this chemical process, a gap in specifications might occur.  In other words, the customer might begin to tweak the product specs while you are in the middle of process development. 

The customer will call one day and try to add a specification. They will find that a previously obscure side product will present a big problem for them and they’ll indicate that the project will require higher purity.  Well, this might be a big problem, or not.  If it requires a tighter fractional distillation, assuming you can do it, this will probably add labor costs. If it requires further decolorization or reduction of residual solvent, R&D will be required to validate the changes to your process.  It is actually a big deal.

So, why not just say “NO”?  Well, in all likelihood, you have not been paid yet.  Few customers will pay for development in advance. Those costs have to come out of future sales.  It is a lot like boiling the frog. You just ramp up the temperature imperceptably and the frog never notices that he is being cooked.  The same effect can happen with specification creep.  By being willing to work with the customer you’ll find that at some point it becomes too costly to go forward at the arranged price. 

At this point you have arrived at the hardest part of doing business- the part where you have to say NO to a customer.  Some people can’t do it. Honestly. But if you want to survive, you have to set boundaries. The customer will understand.  This is where good communication skills come in. It is always desirable to give bad new earlier than later.

Berkshire Chop with Chanterelle Sausage Stuffing

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A new restaurant opened in town and this evening we made our first visit.  It was started by a chef with actual culinary training.  It is easy to tell the difference.  The clue that this restaurant was started by someone with culinary training can be seen in how the staff were trained.  The staff understand decorum.  Decorum makes a big difference in the dining experience.

In far too many restaurants, the diner is met with a wait person who asks “What can I get for you guys”?  Now, I’m speaking to those over, say, 35 years.  Have you noticed this linguistic phenomenon? Wait staff at restaurants are only too keen on referring to adult persons as “you guys”. 

Am I the only one who bristles at this?? I do not care to be referred to as “you guys” by teenagers or 20-somethings. This is how 8th graders refer to each other.  Is it too much to ask of the adults who run these businesses to help their younger staff learn how to address people? It assumes a familiarity that hasn’t been earned.

Our town in northern Colorado is fortunate to have a 1000 ton/year trout farm within a few miles, so fresh trout is abundant.  My wife had trout and it was excellent.  I had a Minnesota Berkshire porkchop that was stuffed with a chanterelle sausage and covered with a standard sauce, all atop diced and baked sweet potato.  The chop was tasty, though slightly dry.  But I myself can only prepare a perfect porkchop perhaps 10 % of the time. 

My favorite porkchop experience was at Emeril Legasse’s Nola Restaurant in New Orleans back in 2000.  I refer to it as the “Pork Chop of the Century”.  My God, it was devine.  If you ever have the chance to visit Nola’s, do it. The service is first rate and the food is out of this world. 

Nola also has a Turtle soup that is worth trying.  I will say, though, that the flavor is a bit strong. Reptilian dishes have never been high on my list.