That's an inside joke among the students of my particular program. I only just heard about this story before moving out after finals (I get to see my grades next week...fingers crossed!), and though it's too short to make into one of my vignettes, I thought everyone needed a laugh. (Names and particulars have been changed to protect the innocent, guilty, and gormless in the odd event that this is true.)

Background: the students of this program are supposed to be the best and brightest, or at least the ones who did enough busywork to maintain freakishly high GPAs. (I don't know how I got in by insisting on only having one or two regular extracurriculars and getting at least six hours of sleep a night. I look like the lazy, unambitious moron of the bunch next to them.) But, being human despite their best efforts, every now and then someone does something incredibly stupid. At that point, any witness usually yells "Re-test!" - that is, retake the test to see if you really belong here.

So, now we come to Student A. I don't know if this is even true after having been passed around, or if so, how recently it happened, but it's damned funny anyway, and makes for a good story. Student A (the name was so androgynous I don't know if it was a man or woman) decided to prove just how harmless a certain dilution of acid was.

You can see where this is going already, can't you?

Student A poured some of the solution on their bare, ungloved hand.

A few minutes later, the student realizes that the skin on that hand is itching horrendously...

And the irony of the story is, if it's true, that Student A is a chemistry major.

If any readers can find any source saying this is an urban legend, point it out. But I still think this is true, because I know some people dumb enough to do this sort of thing.