What I miss (and don’t miss) about the synthetic chemistry lab

Since moving from synthetic chemistry to pharmaceutics, I often find myself looking back with a perplexing mix of relief and nostalgia. Some parts I would happily never experience again and others I didn’t appreciate until they were gone. 

In the synthetic lab, every bottle featured a warning about the dangers of their contents – avoid skin contact, avoid eye contact, avoid inhaling. The pharmaceutics lab, therefore, is a bit of a culture shock. Now I wear gloves to protect my fragile samples from me. The power shift is everything. 

Still, I miss the feel of being a stereotypical chemist. From rooting through the cupboards to find my reagents, to setting up the Schlenk line, to degassing everything because otherwise my expensive metal catalyst cannot cope. 

Mind you, I don’t miss the rotavap that threw weeks’ worth of work into a dusty water bath. Before you ask, I was using a Keck clip but it broke. I promise I only walked away for a minute, because it is a well-known fact that watching your product evaporate only makes it take longer. The finale: one whole afternoon spent trying to extract my product… unsuccessfully. 

Now, in the pharmaceutics lab, I just have to mix things and it works (mostly). I can pop my little tubes in the SpeedVac and wander away for the afternoon. No fear of gravity working against me. No hours spent washing up a million test tubes and having to acid bath everything to get metal residues off. And if I ever do need to run a column, there is a robot in the lab that will run them for me! It is truly one of the highlights of joining pharmaceutics. 

Another highlight is getting to use pipettes and feeling like the science influencers I see all over Instagram. I’ve even started eyeing up an Eppendorf pen as my next goal. That said, every time I use a new plastic tip, reach for a new Falcon tube or pick up a clean Eppendorf, a small part of me dies knowing I am going to throw it away in a few hours. What about the planet? 

Watching a completely new molecule emerge as a real three-dimensional structure is an unmatched scientific high

Also, grabbing a pipette off the side doesn’t compare to hunting through drawers upon drawers of round bottom flasks in the synthetic lab to find ‘the one’. The one that has no dirt or stains on it, the one that doesn’t require me asking everyone if they have a spare adapter, the one that is definitely going to make the difference to whether my reaction works. 

And thus far, there has been no moment of satisfaction in the pharmaceutical world that has rivalled the satisfaction of a clean, crisp NMR spectrum, reassuring you that the hours in the lab have all been for something. Or, if you are really lucky, the crystals – the pieces of small, shiny hope that seemingly come into existence through pure optimism. Even these do not compare to seeing your first x-ray crystallography structure. Watching a completely new molecule emerge as a real three-dimensional structure is an unmatched scientific high. I have mine on a keyring to remind me that I can do the almost impossible. 

So… would I go back to the synthetic lab? Some days, yes. But then I remember my probably increased lifespan and the fact I am writing this as my reaction is working on its own. For now, I’ll stick with it and let the robots do their work. And if you ever see me sniffing the solvent cupboard and smiling to myself, just look away.