Disappointments

The eternal struggle between IT security and nerdy chemists continues! This brilliant password uses the atomic numbers of elements to spell "PaNcaKEs" (91-7-20-19-99). Of course, any self-respecting chemist would immediately recognize that Einsteinium (99) and Protactinium (91) are not exactly your everyday elements—one's radioactive and the other was named after Einstein. Security experts recommend complex passwords; chemists deliver with style. Just don't be surprised when your chemistry department colleagues crack your "unbreakable" code faster than a catalyzed reaction.

A water polo player drinking water while swimming in water with the chemical formula H₂O(aq) above him. That's just water drinking water while surrounded by water. Hydration inception. The (aq) subscript indicates it's in aqueous solution, which is scientist-speak for "water dissolved in... more water." Next week: breathing oxygen while surrounded by oxygen.

Oh how the mighty have fallen! The 1925 chemist casually mouth-pipetting concentrated sulfuric acid—you know, just the stuff that can dissolve your organs—while today's lab coat warriors have existential crises over microscopic acetic acid splashes (basically fancy vinegar) on their gloves. Back in my day, we didn't just flirt with danger—we took it to dinner, never called it back, and still expected lab results the next morning. Now we have three safety briefings before you're allowed to look at a beaker sideways. Progress? Perhaps. But something tells me Marie Curie is rolling in her (likely still radioactive) grave.

When someone tells an atom to "be more positive," they're not offering self-help advice—they're triggering nuclear fission! The comic brilliantly plays on the dual meaning of "positive" in everyday language versus physics, where a positive charge happens when an atom loses electrons. Our mushroom-shaped friend in the final panel demonstrates what happens when atoms take that advice too literally—they shed their negative electrons, become unstable ions, and... BOOM! Nuclear chain reaction! The universe's most explosive interpretation of a motivational poster.

Parents just don't understand that those "useless zigzags" are literally the backbone of organic chemistry. Every carbon-carbon bond in alkenes, every benzene ring, every reaction mechanism... it's all zigzags! That confused Mike Wazowski face perfectly captures the existential crisis of every o-chem student whose family thinks they're just doodling nonsense instead of learning the very language of life. Next time mom complains, just hand her a structural formula for caffeine and watch her try to "stop drawing zigzags."

That electron is running for its life! Just like Tom and Jerry, but with quantum physics calling the shots! The electron desperately wants to escape the nucleus, but it's trapped by the ultimate double-whammy: Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (can't know both where you are AND how fast you're going) and Pauli's Exclusion Principle (no two electrons can occupy the same quantum state). Basically, the poor electron is like "I want to leave!" but physics is like "Sorry buddy, we've got RULES here!" Even at the subatomic level, there's no escaping the fine print! 😂