sci.research.careers

- Russell < @ > - wrote in
news: @ :


> Last night on "Wired Science" on PBS they did a
> segment about how you can't get real chemistry
> sets today like we could when I was gowing up. Too
> much product liability. What is available says in
> large letters on the box "No chemicals!" One guy
> who sells real chemicals to science teachers and
> amateur scientists was arrested by the Feds and
> fined $30,000. The piece showed a bar chart of the
> decline of American students majoring in chemistry,
> and implied the reason was chemistry courses with
> no even slight element of danger (=fun?) any more.
> They didn't mention the job market or foreign students,
> but I think they have a point, at least partly. The
> other thing was the old chemistry sets had drawings
> of serious looking people in lab coats on the front,
> looking like they were fighting back ignorance on the
> frontiers of knowledge with nothing but their minds
> and a test tube, while today's boxes have wacky
> looking cartoon figures that could be on Sponge Bob.



Caught most of the program as well. The high school (?) teach having to
jump through hoops to demonstrate veg. oil diesel production.

A lot of PBS, anymore, is tinged with political content. And a great
deal of the Discovery Channel offerings are such pathetic puff pieces.
I enjoyed the Wired program.