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Comment by _Wintermute | Hacker News Reader

Colloquially, I would say the shop is called a chemists, but the person working there is a pharmacist.

I haven't actually lived in the UK, but from what I've read, the person working there is called a "chemist". However, that's (finally) changing and they're being called a "pharmacist" more and more.

Apparently, the whole thing comes from a century or more ago when you'd go to this "chemist" shop to get anything related to chemicals, whether it was drugs, arsenic (to kill rats, or perhaps your spouse), developing chemicals for your camera film, or petrol for your motorcar. Like so many things, the British simply refused to change when newer, more modern ways came along, and they kept calling this place and person "chemist" even though the person had a degree in Pharmacology.

Maybe one of these days, after they finally all call this place a "pharmacy", the UK will finally have sink faucets which actually mix hot and cold water like every other country on the planet, instead of having separate hot and cold ones.

Dear sir, I live in London and I can assure you that we do have mixing taps. We keep installing separate ones for the amusement of the foreigners looking for the remnants of the British Empire.

In all seriousness, maybe this is some online meme or something, but I have read British people online defend the separate taps: something about the hot water being non-potable or something. Maybe it's only in older buildings?

It's a made-up media story. In the old days cold water came from the mains and hot water came from a storage tank in the loft where it could be contaminated and for that reason hot water was considered unsafe for drinking. Another reason was difference in pressure which could force water coming from one source into another.

UK building regulations being extra cautious. Like the fused power plugs.

The best power plugs in the world, sir.

I hope you're joking, because they're really not (partially because of their ridiculous size, but mostly because of the dumb fuses). The best power plugs are the (northern) European "schuko" plugs, although they're still a compromise. The idea of having separate fuses in each plug is ridiculous; any decent modern electrical system uses circuit breakers at a central point to protect whole circuits from overcurrent conditions.

Isn't Pharmacology a different degree from a Pharmacy degree?

Can be (and is) very confusing because some countries don't even give Pharmacology degrees, only Pharmacy ones. But afaik UK does both.

Yes, I have a degree in pharmacology from a University which had both pharmacy and pharmacology courses. There were maybe 2 shared modules in the first year and that was the only similarities in the courses. Pharmacology trains you to be a research scientist, pharmacy trains you to be a clinician (or an over-qualified shop assistant as we joked).

Yep, I know that. I'm pretty deeply interested in pharmacology (and related research), despite I've never earned a degree in either. And from all the contact I had with people holding either, the differences are striking, indeed.

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