chemistry

I didn't particularly like the classes I had in this building at the time though I did learn some reasonably interesting things in it (including two correct answers' worth on this evening's University Challenge), used some horrifyingly expensive glassware (at school we never had to pay even if we cracked a condenser; here we had to pay a deposit before even touching the stuff) and worked with some pleasant people. I had been sort of soured on pure chemistry by the teacher we had at school; the only teacher who insisted on being referred to as "Doctor" though he was not the only teacher entitled to that title and a completely humourless suit to boot. You think that after a few years of teaching he would have realised that teenagers will steal all the magnesium ribbon they can lay their hands on and are obviously going to see if nitric acid is strong enough to dissolve the inside of someone's pencil case but this bloke treated every incident as an affront to the dignity of his letters. Perhaps the threat of cost (or the respect of knowing we had to pay for breakages or the use of the kit) would have made us behave a little better. Still, it's not as if we ever did anything really dangerous and as I recall it was none other than Dr. Chambers himself who exploded one of those REALLY EXPENSIVE cylindrical dishes with a slightly-too-large block of caesium.