Chemistree Memes

The only time you'll see chemists willingly decorate for the holidays. Nothing says "festive spirit" like hanging colorful, potentially hazardous solutions on a ring stand and calling it a Christmas tree. That "snow" is probably dry ice pellets or silica beads—definitely not something you'd want to eat with hot cocoa. The real miracle here isn't the birth of Christ but that nobody's accidentally created a new compound by mixing those flasks. Grad students will spend 80 hours a week in lab but still find time for this instead of publishing their papers. Priorities!