Breaking Bad

I just finished watching the final season of Breaking Bad yesterday. Wow! The descent into madness brings the story to fitting end.

How I am like Walter White:

·      Went to chemistry grad school at Caltech. Check.

·      Did not pursue startup company with classmates. Check.

·      Went into teaching instead. Check.

·      Experienced hair loss in midlife. Check.

·      Has an iconic black “hat”. Check.

·      Progressed into position involving managing chemicals and money. Check.

Okay, maybe that’s stretching things a little. Although some of my labmates in graduate school started a company, I don’t remember its name any longer so I’m guessing it did not make billions of dollars.  I almost went into high school chemistry teaching after my postdoc but through an interesting turn of events ended up teaching at the college level. I have only a little hair loss but am convinced my bald patch is widening. My black “hat” is really a cap, but it is indeed  iconic. Students recognize me very easily and when they can’t remember my name (not Heisenberg, and thankfully no student has called me that yet), they simply refer to me as the professor with the backwards cap. I suspect staff and administrators do the same. Last but not least, since I am department chair, I am in a position managing a fairly large budget that goes to personnel, instrumentation and chemicals.

Unlike Walter White however, I am very unskilled and have “poor hands in lab”. This probably explains why I am a computational chemist. Using a computer I can actually build NC₁₀H₁₅ with 100% purity. I can even calculate its molecular properties although these are an approximation partly thanks to the principle formulated by the real Heisenberg. I can color all my molecules blue in any hue, although by default only nitrogen is blue. Carbons are grey and hydrogens are white. I do wear a lab coat when I teach chemistry lab or when my office gets too cold. I should probably also have a proper full medical check-up done at some point, maybe when I reach the age of 50 just in case. Unlike Walter White though, I don’t have enough skills to do any good lab synthesis. So I can't resort to a Breaking Bad fallback plan (at least not in the same way).

It was my students who first told me about Breaking Bad. (I don’t own a TV and therefore don’t watch.) I had started watching a few TV series on DVD but after a season or two, I typically found that the show no longer holds my interest. The storytelling feels contrived and I no longer feel immersed in it, so much so that I start “being a scientist” and picking apart the show. Then it’s no longer fun. My brother is an aficionado in military hardware from both world wars. On the occasions we would watch an old war movie growing up, he would annoyingly point that out the German tank was actually an American tank with a German insignia. Or that the heavy machine gun used by the Russians was actually British. We would have to keep telling him to keep quiet and just enjoy the movie. (He also enjoys pointing out where newer movies do a better job in terms of authencity.) I happen to enjoy movies with sci-fi, technology, superpowers or magic, particularly if they are coupled with lots of action and pyrotechnics. However to enjoy these movies I have learned to “suspend disbelief” and just go along for the ride.

In his book Don’t be such a Scientist, Randy Olson says that sometimes accuracy is NOT the most important thing in communication. Instead, one really needs to think carefully about the message, the audience, and the medium used. Not having accuracy as the top priority is anathema to most scientists. We are trained to be nitpicky and critical. However you don’t have to be a scientist to complain when the movie adaptation of your favorite book (possibly the Harry Potter series) is butchered by not adhering to the true or accurate story as told in the original writings. More on that in a later post when I analyze some of the Harry Potter movies.

There isn’t actually much chemistry in Breaking Bad, at least in terms of the central science. (There is other great chemistry in the show!) I admit that my critical radar would automatically perk up whenever science was discussed. This was most often in the first season when the scene would cut briefly to Mr. White teaching his class. The show also isn’t high-octane action all the time. Instead it slowly and surely builds the story while keeping the viewer engaged and immersed. There are times where I get completely immersed in my class prep or in my research project when working through a complex idea. There are even some admin tasks (usually involving a puzzle like course scheduling) that can be immersive. (I also get immersed in the act of teaching, but that's a different story.)

Chemistry is complex, non-intuitive, and perceived as a “hard subject” (to which I don’t disagree). How do I create an immersive environment in the classroom? How can I help my students see the value of and enjoy engaging and immersing themselves in the material? These are questions I will continue to wrestle with as a teacher and a scientist.