paul 1

And Gordon Brown wonders why less people and going into science based occupations? School just isn't the advert to get kids hooked anymore. Hopefully he will follow through and increase funding, however I think the health and safety is a downward spiral for all aspects of life, not just science

Fully agree.

The health and safety guys make every ones job more difficult. In my experience most are incompetent and spend most of their time dreaming up new nonsense to justify fat salaries. Don’t get me wrong health and safety in the workplace is welcome so long as commonsense is applied, but sadly, many of these pen-pushers lack this basic quality. I have been in jobs where you are expected to work with materials and in conditions I would consider dangerous and they are never around. They are usually sending emails about the dangers of not adopting the correct posture when working at the computer or hassling someone for not filling in a risk assessment when using 10 ml of ethanol.

One occasion I recall is when a friend got into an argument over pouring aqueous sodium chloride solution down the sink. The health and safety man said this contained chloride and should have been emptied into halogenated waste along with the chloroform and methylene chloride. The same man thought it a good idea to store all the pyrophoric laboratory chemicals with the hundreds of litres of general purpose laboratory solvents because “their all flammable”. Another case included storing 70% perchloric acid in the same cupboard as acetic and propionic acids.

I also find that many companies are more concerned with emission targets than the safety of their staff. Many of these fill in risk assessments after the experiment is conducted. In short I think the whole situation is a farce. I don’t need to be told to wear safety specs when using dangerous chemicals, its commonsense and should be drummed into every school kid at an early age. Also, only a fool starts handling and mixing chemicals without knowing the associated dangers of each component and the likely reaction. Given that, why should you have to fill in a booklet of paper work each time you do a simple experiment?

The decline of the chemical and other industries in this country is partly down to these pen-pushers by making every simple task require a mountain of paper work. The environmentalists also have a part to play by making it so costly to manufacture in this country. So what’s the answer? I know, let’s all buy from China where it’s cheaper and they pour all their chemical waste in a local river and kill everyone! Surely it would be better to manufacture in this country under the much higher standards we adopt.

Sorry for ranting but this topic hits a sore point.

Paul

I'm not quite at the stage to be applying just yet, but I know what you mean, I don't think I'd to well in normal forensics, and somehow come to have the illusion that other labs send them a case and they work out what impact explosives (could have) had.
Most things science interest me, especially explosives, pyrotechnics etc, and I too certainly don't think this is bad, and while I'd love a career based around something like this, I'm sure most of the people here would, and as such they're in very short supply. What do you mean by RMCS?

Hi Asteroid,

Sorry, RMCS is the royal military college of science (part of Cranfield University) in Shrivenham - http://www.dcmt.cranfield.ac.uk/ - same link as before. They conduct research such as the synthesis of new explosives, testing (friction, impact, electrostatic discharge etc), theory of explosives and detonation, use in munitions etc. Research is conducted by both chemists and physicists. This is the only university in the UK which conducts this type of research.

Forensic science is not all it is made out to be. Current television series like CSI tend to glamorize the subject and this is why it is such a popular degree subject to take at university. However, jobs are few (thousands of applicants for roughly 20 jobs per year) and most of these are for technicians.

Paul

I was looking at http://www.dstl.gov.uk/ perhaps the Forensic explosives laboratory, or other military research

Hi Asteroid,

If your a recent graduate you can fill in the DSTL speculative application form. DSTL advertised last month about five positions for technicians/researchers in the forensic science laboratory at Fort Halstead, Kent, but the closing date was 23-29th June. You could still contact them if your interested in this route. I don't know how interesting this work would be and it is likely to involve much tedious method development and spending your life working with GC and HPLC rather than directly handling explosives. I considered going into energetic materials synthesis a while back but as a country we don't spend much money on such research and so jobs are pretty rare. Other countries take this area of research must more serious but have restrictions on employing foreign nationals. I've always been interested in explosives and I don't think this is a bad thing, however, other areas of chemistry/science also interest me and seem to have more employment positions offered. Don't let me put you off, if your interested in military research go for it. RMCS do quite a bit of research into pyrotechnics/explosives and their application in weapon systems.

Paul

Thanks for posting that, really helpful, I never managed to hunt down a course like that, have you taken any of the courses?

Hi Asteroid,

Your very welcome. I went down the career path of taking a BSc and PhD in classical organic synthesis. However, establishments like the rmcs are more interested if you take your initial degree with them. If you decide to make a career in military explosives/pyrotechnics science I must warn you that this is a very select area and jobs are not plentiful. However, I would imagine that some of the short courses could make interesting study. I forgot to mention some other potential employers:

1. Chemring group plc is a specialist manufacturer of decoy countermeasures and energetic materials for the global defence, security and safety markets - http://www.chemring.co.uk/ - they have sites around the globe including the UK.

2. Roxel UK rocket moters - http://www.roxelgroup.com/ - manufacture tactical missiles for the military - sites in both UK and France.

I hope this is helpful and good look.

Paul

Hello, my name is Jacob and I’m now coming to the end of my college course after studying Maths, Chemistry and Physics. I am interested in Pyrotechnics as a carer (possibly movie special effects or fireworks, possibly even demolition) but I am wondering what course would be best to take to get me into the industry. I am very interested in pyrotechnics and explosions and very good at mechanics, however i have only seen stage pyrotechnic courses which require art and computer qualifications which I do not have. I was wandering whether a course in Physics/Chemistry could be taken to lead on to a job in pyrotechnics. Any advice would be much appreciated and well received.

Many Thanks,
Jacob

PS ive only just noticed the training forum, if anyone could please move this post to the correct forum it would be much appreciated

Hi Jacob,

You have taken the correct subjects for a career in energetic materials. If you are interested in explosive and pyrotechnics I would suggest looking at the following sites.

1. Only one university in the UK now teaches courses and degrees in pyrotechnic/ explosive and weapon related subject. The royal military college of science (part of Cranfield University) in Shrivenham - http://www.dcmt.cranfield.ac.uk/ - ask for a prospectus if you find interest in this field.

2. DERA no longer exists, it is divided in to DSTL - http://www.dstl.gov.uk/ and Qinetiq - http://www.qinetiq.com/. These organisations may employ you directly or sponser you to go through university study.

I hope this helps and is it time,

Paul