An unusual thing happened when I returned home late last night after working in the lab till 10pm. I was taking the feeder bus back home and I was examining the NMR spectrum of a classmate, who asked me to help her check whether her compound matches the spectrum. While I was comparing the integration ratios, the guy (I believed he's from Middle East or South America) sitting next to me started asking me why I was comparing the ratios curiously and whether what I am doing were chemistry related stuff. Sensing his curiosity, I started telling him about NMR and why synthetic chemists perform NMR after their synthetic work. Off I continue with all the structures, chemical shifts etc. He was bewildered and appeared to understand what I have said. When I realized that I have gone too far, I stopped and he asked me some Q related to his biomedical research. He was wondering whether NMR can help determine the extent of cross-linking in the curing process etc. After another 5mins of talk, it's time for me to alight and we bidded farewell.

When I think back, I thought it was pretty funny; explaining NMR to someone who doesn't know it and I started sketching spectrums. He must have gone o_O. Hmm but I realized I love to explain things and that's the reason why I am gonna be a teacher in the future.

I hope the reaction I did was successful and the column chromatography I ran earlier on got the product I want. The success of this new reactions that I tried is important as it cuts down the synthetic step by 2 steps. It'll help me get my target molecules at a faster rate.