User:Astrochemist

Introduction
This Wikipedia name was created so that I can edit material of interest, mostly as relates to science, mathematics, and their history. Working on articles is a type of educational service activity for me, and a fun one at that.


 * My edit statistics
 * My contributions (count)

My foci on Wikipedia

 * 1) Content - Wikipedia and similar efforts will fail without quality, authoritative articles.
 * 2) References - Articles need authoritative references for verifiability.
 * 3) Pictures - Reading long pieces of unbroken text is boring, so I've added images to many articles through both Wikipedia and Wikimedia.  Some images are pictures I've taken or ones I've scanned, while others are public-domain materials or older items for which fair-use can be claimed.  (Note that it's easier to add pictures and references than to do the time-consuming work of research and writing!)

Articles I'd like to start or edit
If only there was time ...


 * Justus Liebig's kalliapparat - Finally done!
 * Jules Duboscq, his photographs, and his colorimeter - Finally done!
 * William Huggins - His article is in terrible condition, as is his wife's.
 * Alexander Marcet (Jane's husband)
 * Job and his method of continuous variations

Some articles I've created

 * Lauder Brunton, Catherine Cate Coblentz, William Coblentz, Josiah Parsons Cooke, Frederick G. Donnan, Augustus George Vernon Harcourt‎, Claude Hudson, Arthur Michael, Helen Abbott Michael, Edgar Fahs Smith, Adolph Strecker, James Alfred Wanklyn, Karl Weltzien, Ludwig Wilhelmy, hyperfine coupling, Karlsruhe Congress, pneumatic chemistry

Some articles to which I've contributed

 * Ernst Otto Beckmann, Jacob Bronowski, Stanislao Cannizzaro, Henry Cavendish, James Dewar‎, Humphry Davy, Michael Faraday‎, Robert Were Fox the Younger‎, Eugen Goldstein, Robert Hooke, Eben Norton Horsford, Pierre Janssen, Richard Kirwan‎, Joseph Norman Lockyer, Eilhard Mitscherlich, John Pitkin Norton, Reginald Punnett‎, François-Marie Raoult, Theodore William Richards‎, Wilhelm Schlenk‎, Alexis St. Martin, Silvanus P. Thompson, Cavendish experiment, Electron paramagnetic resonance, List of molecules in interstellar space‎, Nernst heat theorem

Some pictures I've contributed

 * Follow this link to view a gallery of 500+ images I've added to Wikimedia. Many of them are now in English Wikipedia articles.

Why I will leave Wikipedia in the future

 * 1) Probably a fourth of my 5100+ contributions have been deletions of vandalism, and that has consumed precious time.  Wikipedia writing, with its necessary time spent in policing, is unlike what professionals do, and unattractive to many.
 * 2) I enjoy writing and educating, but the "everyone is equally qualified" attitude will kill Wikipedia.  Individuals with a one-topic agenda, or folks who are simply malicious, will revert and tinker forever while the rest of us drop out.  My Wikipedia collaborations have been confined largely to friendly individuals who have taken the time to study their subjects carefully, as I believe I have.  I've learned from those people and I thank them.