[lemonoman]

Today, it's all about money and science is just a blip along the way.

That's pretty much the way I'm looking at it now.

To everyone else, i.e. constant thinker, who are in it for other reasons (stupid stuff like saving lives...who needs that? ) ... refer to what I said to geodome.  Noble stuff.

[Ψ×Ψ]

Don't get me wrong.  I'm SO not in it for the money.  But I'm also not terribly interested in saving lives.  (I know this makes me a bad person.)  It's challenging work.  I can't stand to be bored.  That's my motivation

[pantone159]

the typical partial differential equation (PDE) used in bond pricing.

Is that for bonds, or for options?  It looks a lot like a form of the Black-Scholes equation for options.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-Scholes

[FeLiXe]

I am in it for the women :-) but they seem to only go after doctors and lawyers ...

seriously I just like chemistry. I still remember the first time my brother had a chemistry lesson and he asked my mom something about sulfate. I was amazed by that.

actually I sometimes like math and physics too. sometimes I am wondering if I would have become a mathematician or physicist if my high school teachers in those subjects had been better. I had only a really good chemistry teacher. but that's a different question

I am not in it for the money either. To prove my point: I didn't apply for a summer job at Borealis again even though they pay almost twice as much as the other companies. I did not do anything cool there. I would rather do something productive.

as far as it comes to helping people: I don't need to directly help them. I think it's also productive to produce some weird thiophenes (as I am now for two weeks). because eventually they may be used as ligands and then they would help someone produce pharmaceuticals or anything else that improves someones lifestyle quality.

[Ψ×Ψ]

How weird are your weird thiophenes???

[Donaldson Tan]

Is that for bonds, or for options?  It looks a lot like a form of the Black-Scholes equation for options.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-Scholes

The Black-Scholes Equation (or its modified form) is used in many pricing models for the different types of securities because the equation assumes stochastic process.

[Jokerine]

Of all the things I like doing and that I am resonably good at, Chemistry was the one I thought would pay the best and be the hardest to do as a hobby, next to other work. So here I am getting my PhD and I am enjoying it most of the time.

[FeLiXe]

?*?, just thiophenes with another cycle condensed to them. I just think it's weird that he has been working on them for years. I don't think I could work synthesising the same substance for years.