Story about distinguishing between physics and chemistry:
When I was doing my physics-for-teaching course at the University of East London, we had one module on nuclear physics. I remember the teacher talking about how nothing you could physically do to a radioactive substance would have any effect on its radioactivity. He said something like:
You can heat it to 1000 degrees, melt it down, burn it up, turn it into a gas, smash it into a million pieces, react it with anything you like, and it will make no difference, because all you're doing is messing with the electrons. The electrons are…