Chemistry graduate students smash their study stress away in “destructive therapy” sessions.
In-house glassblower Brian Ditchburn invites chemistry graduate students to his workshop to release tension by crushing unsalvageable glass lab equipment.
“Whether they’re behind or exams or their chemistry is not going as well as they want, it gives them a chance to release that stress by breaking something that looks expensive but is not,” said Ditchburn, who has an open door policy.
“It's difficult working on the forefront of knowledge because no one has the answers to the questions that we're asking, so we really have to go and figure it out,” Keighan Gemmell, graduate student in the NBD group says. "Seeing the glass smash into 1,000 different pieces was really satisfying, It brought me back to like childhood when we go out with my friends and smash some glass when we probably weren't supposed to, but now we're allowed to, so it's even cooler.”
Equipped with safety glasses and under strict safety protocols, the students break items ranging from chipped test tubes to specialty glassware. While some glass equipment will meet its end in these sessions, the Chemistry department, thanks to Ditchburn’s expertise, repairs and recycles more than 90 per cent of the glass used in its labs.
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