My self-imposed #scicomm challenge of putting together an infographic in a few hours on the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is concluded for another year!

It’s been a few years since I topped up the sloe gin reserves so I’m making up for lost time with a quadruple batch

What makes us sleepy, and what medicines can help when we can’t doze off? 😴 The latest edition of Periodic Graphics in C&EN examines drugs that combat insomnia and how they work: cen.acs.org/biological-c...

🧵 What is all this pink about? It is an explosion of extremely rare pink auroras over the skies of Norway! How come?🤔 Well, pink auroras are a sign of nitrogen. ➡️ www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?... ©Markus Varik/Greenlander 🔭 🧪 #science

I took the familiar walk down Bathwick Hill and along the canal to the train station for the first time in a number of years this morning. Bath really is a ridiculously beautiful place!

It was great to be back in Bath yesterday for a fantastic day of talks at #BathChem25. Thanks to @bathchem.bsky.social for the invite and for putting together such an enjoyable and engaging day!

Back at Bath for #BathChem2025 today and look what I found in the chemistry building!

🎉 Today we welcome 170+ Bath Chemistry alumni + staff back to campus for #BathChem25! 🧪Talks, networking & evening fun with The Beakers and Quiz. We are Celebrating Bath Chem past, present & future 💛 🎶 Details can be found chem25.co.uk #BathChem25

Picked up a new breakfast time insult while navigating around London’s tube strikes this morning

We found some hare’s foot inkcaps while out and about today so we’re giving making mushroom ink a go. Like other inkcaps, these should quickly self-digest to leave a black goo, a process called deliquescence. I wrote more about it last year here: www.compoundchem.com/2024/09/19/i... #FungiFriends

Looking forward to this next week!

Good luck to all teachers heading back this week! If you're teaching @ocrexams.bsky.social A Level, GCSE or Entry Level qualifications this year, make sure you join our free online Subject Briefing next week to get all the key information you need for the year ahead: bit.ly/41yUlXr

Fantastic double rainbow over Ely earlier today! 🌈

Yesterday’s August 20th fireworks in Budapest 🎆

A 17 year wait for this counter to reset! #COYS

A few years ago, I met the incredibly talented Dr Rebecca Struthers - the UK's only watchmaker with a PhD in horology. We immediately hit it off and became friends... and then wrote this book together. Out in August, available to preorder now! geni.us/AboutTimeDK

May's Flower Moon (well, 99% of it) rising over the rooftops earlier this evening

Here comes the enormous model sun ☀️ Currently displaying at Ickworth @midsandeastnt.bsky.social, Helios was put together with over 100,000 photos of the sun, with every centimetre representing 2000 km of the sun’s surface.

FROG: A Story of Life on Earth hops into the world today! To celebrate, I have a copy to give away, along with two perfect chocolate frogs! To enter, share this post and leave a comment below with your best froggy fact 🐸💚 @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

5yo: “Daddy, I know the D word” Me, slightly concerned: “Oh, what’s the D word?” 5yo: “DRAGONS! And I know the F word” Me, lulled into a false sense of security: “And what’s that?” 5yo: “FUCKING!”

Can we just have a third leg of Inter vs Barca instead of the other semifinal tomorrow? Football at its chaotic best.

I let the kids make signs from bits of an old pallet planter I cut up earlier. Only after did I realise it kind of looks like we’ve marked where the bodies are buried…

Squirrel vs cat face-off in the garden this morning

Denied a perfectly good chemistry pangram

Today is Eel Day in Ely! To mark the occasion, a giant eel rampages through the city, grazing on the occasional child, before the cityfolk chase it through the streets and back to the river.

It's Friday, so let's talk about the most eel-some place in England. That's right..it's Ely time! Ely is all about eels. Bede wrote in his Ecclesiastical History (c. 700 CE) that Ely took its name from the abundant eels in the nearby fens & waters: Ely means Isle of Eels. 1/3 🗃️🧪

Remember when you first learned about genetics at school? All those fascinating examples of human traits that are each apparently determined by just a single gene? Time to check in on some of your favourites to see how they’re doing. 🧬🧵🧪 1/n

For #FossilFriday here’s a neat ammonite fossil I found at Osmington Mills in Dorset over the Easter holidays (me for scale)

Happy Friday! The perfect sunny evening to enjoy this before the weather turns over the weekend 🍻

Sundog over our garden right now

Well this from the local Reform mayor candidate sounds like utter grandstanding bollocks. I’d love to hear more about this mysterious biotech product…

When I went on a school trip in year 8 to see the Bayeux tapestry we played “spot the penis”, can I be a history professor too?

How can we incorporate links to sustainability and climate science within existing chemistry qualifications? In my #EarthDay blog for @ocrexams.bsky.social, I pick out six topics and consider how you could make stronger connections: www.ocr.org.uk/blog/how-can... #ChatChemistry

Really awesome to see the giant pliosaur skull at The Etches Collection in Kimmeridge today. People in the background for scale – this thing is huge!

This is excellent on the blast furnace

Saw a blackbird with weird plumage in the garden this morning and learned that it’s leucism, a genetic condition that leads to an absence of melanin in some feathers. Also learned that @btobirds.bsky.social have a form for reporting abnormal bird plumage: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

UNATTENDED CHICKEN ON THE COUNTER #CatsOfBluesky

goddd the number of things that turn out to be caused (at least partly) by infectious, vaccinatable diseases. apparently some dementia is actually "long chickenpox"? www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

If anyone’s wondering, I tried extracting rubber from normal dandelions last year and, yeah, there’s not enough rubber in them for that to work

The Science Teaching Survey closes 7 April! Have we heard from you yet? Science education needs to change – and as someone who works in education, your perspective matters more than anyone’s. Take part in the survey: buff.ly/FaqBZBb #ChemSky #SciTeachUK

A thought-provoking first day at the @cambridge.org & @cambridgezero.bsky.social science convocation representing @ocrexams.bsky.social. Lots of interesting presentations and discussion about incorporating climate & sustainability into school curricula. Looking forward to more discussion tomorrow!

Our nursery fees go up 17% from next month – even with 30 free government hours, that means it’s almost £900 for our youngest to go there for four days a week. We’re lucky enough to be able to absorb that increase, but it’ll be tougher for some other families. UK childcare costs are ridiculous.

Love the fleeting blossom season at @cambridge.org offices!

I’m certain all the free speech absolutists will be falling over themselves to condemn this, right?

Our eldest has a science-themed birthday party to go to today so the #ACSSpring2025 loot I brought back is being appreciated!

I’m trying to find more information on James T. Grady and James H. Stack, the former @acs.org News managers after whom the Grady-Stack award is named. I’ve found detail on Grady through the @cenmag.bsky.social archives but struggling to turn up anything on Stack. Any #ChemSky pointers appreciated!

Sadly, it’s a good time to once again share this amazing infographic that we ran at @science.org more than 7 years ago 🧪 #IDsky www.science.org/content/arti...

The airplane food version of a full English breakfast was a truly tragic thing to experience

We are entering the last week of this important survey. Please do all you can to push the survey with your networks as well as answering yourself. We particularly need more responses from Wales, Scotland and NI to make by nation analysis possible. The deadline is 7th April! 🔗 ow.ly/chk550VpJF0

Well, San Diego, #ACSSpring2025, it’s been a blast! Great to meet up with so many people in person, nine years since the last ACS meeting I attended. Hopefully not such a long gap until next time!