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Chemical Citizen of 2006: Wikipedia User “V8rik”

Wednesday, December 27th, 2006

The Chemmy Award for Citizen of Year goes to:

User “V8rik” for his contributions to the chemical content of Wikipedia

I have no idea who this guy is, but he spends an insane amount of time adding chemistry articles to everyone’s favorite online encyclopedia. Just look at his contributions list. Chances are that if you’ve searched for anything chemical on Wikipedia, he’s had something to do with the article.

Cycloadditions? Yup. Ylides? Yup. The Ugi Reaction? That too. The guy is amazing.

This year, I finally made the leap and starting editing Wikipedia. It takes a while to get a hang of the Wiki code, and the style guidelines are even less fun to deal with. Finally, after you’ve learned the code and the style, what you write is forever subject to being changed by any random person on the Internet. So not only are Wikipedia users not paid for their contributions, they have zero editorial control over what they’ve written.

That’s what makes V8rik’s contributions all the more amazing. Sadly, he’ll probably never find out that he’s been awarded a Chemmy, but if he does, he has my sincere appreciation for his hard work. The world of chemistry could use more people like V8rik.

Next post: Top Chemical News Story of 2006

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The Laws of the Universe

Friday, December 15th, 2006

I’ve recently discovered the fantastic Web site of Ken Suslick, a Professor of Chemistry at UIUC. His stories about serving as an expert witness during a patent lawsuit and as a consultant for a Hollywood movie are good reads, and his seminar on seminars is right on the mark. Some money advice:

“Your job is to convince and inform, NOT to archive.”

“Don’t get cute [with formatting and animations].”

“Don’t go more than 50 minutes”

Finally, his collection of “Laws of the Universe” is pretty good. My favorites:

Ninety Rules of Project Schedules: The first ninety percent of the take takes ten percent of the time, and the last ten percent takes the other ninety percent.

The Roman Rule: The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing.

Westheimer’s Rule: To estimate the time it takes to do a task: estimate the time you think it should take, multiply by 2, and change the unit of measure to the next highest unit. Thus we allocate 2 days for a one-hour task.

So true. Westheimer still roams the halls around here and often attends seminars, including the annual lecture for the Westheimer Medal. In an introduction to the last such lecture, a second Westheimer’s Rule was mentioned: “Two weeks in the lab will save you two hours in the library.”