Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

I don’t get why graduate students are so high strung. I mean, you get to do what you want, write/research stuff you care about, and go to/throw dinner parties with wine and conversation with smart people like you. Right? Totally chill. Not so much at the chemistry lab at the University of New South Wales. This week two Chinese chemistry students at the university got into a fight in the lab and things got nasty. Things escalated and one guy got sulfuric acid thrown in his face AND took a hammer to his head. He’s in critical condition now, in a medically induced coma, while police are trying to figure out what the deal is with his attacker. The media is reporting the aggressor is likely to be “mentally ill”. The story sadly reminds me of the true tale of Gang Lu, another Chinese graduate student who lost it and lashed out. They made an award winning movie about his rise and fall in Iowa, Dark Matter. Now that I think of it, those Chinese graduate students didn’t have too many dinner parties – more like hot pot on a hot plate.  Sad news in New South Wales though. Hoping that the student who was attacked recovers, and that the student who did the attacking gets sorted out.
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