I should not use memes when writing to authorities about particular producer of fake food supplements. I should not use memes when writing to authorities. I should not use memes when writing to authorities. #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga #TaurateCurse

I keep thinking about it: Koreans love #crystallography but most don't know it yet - Tetragonal lattice at Incheon International Airport, Seoul

That sound like a challenge, but looks like I cannot get my hands on it unless I am in Canada.😢 Maybe in August. I tried to look on few "Proudly made in USA" ® ™ © "products" - guys, it is not even interesting, I can see from the labels that your products are faked... #chemsky #TaurateCurse

How bad is quality of food supplements? If you think that it is bad - you are wrong - it is much worse. Of course, it depend from particular type of supplement, but it could be disastrous, like in the case of "magnesium taurate". #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga #TaurateCurse 🧵 1/x

A serious question to be #Chemsky, because (a) I don't understand what the hell is going on, (b) I am not a proper chemist. A typical described method to synthesize hypothetical magnesium taurate is simple neutralization: 2(C₂H₇NO₃S) + Mg(OH)₂ → Mg(C₂H₆NO₃S)₂ + 2 H₂O Why it is not working? 1/2

Organic synthesis went sideways; probably the FLP were too frustrated, so they bit off a ring from a couple of BARF-24 anions and glued them together with a hydrogen atom. This is a second example with such anion, first one is this one dx.doi.org/10.5517/ccdc.... #chemsky #crystallography

What do you think about my template for Mg supplement? This is a version for a product. Anything to add? #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga #TaurateCurse

What do you think about my template for Mg supplement form (not specific product)? Anything to add? #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga #TaurateCurse

Ok, I got 5 new “products” and tested them. So now you can’t try to answer two questions: - Does #TaurateCurse broken? - How many minerals I found in these 5 bottles? (Bonus if your can name it)? Waiting for the last one, for which I promised to make a video. #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga

IUCr Electron Crystallography School 2026 🔬 📅 8–10 Aug, Calgary (same venue as the IUCr Congress) 3 days on 3DED/MicroED, structure solution, dynamical refinement & 4D-STEM. Lectures + practicals. Registration open 👇 sites.google.com/view/iucr-sa... #3DED #microED #4DSTEM #IUCr2026 #IUCr #chemsky

Today I dedicated a full day for "suffering with XRR", but with help from @brukercorporation.bsky.social application scientist I quick find out what I was doing wrong (everything), so we actually went from suffering to measurements stage. So here is my second XRR pattern (it is a quick test).

Happy bee day! Bees are the reason why I read "Crime and Punishment" when I was a kid.

Nature: - I will take one TMP cation, than I will add phenolate. And three phenol molecules, because why not. #Chemsky #chemchat #crystallography

Done, I ordered a last batch of "Magnesium Taurate" supplements. Last, in a sense that almost no other brands left. I do not have big hopes, because out of these 6, three are produced by incompetent idiots and one from US. #TaurateCurse #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga

Shocking news - I bought calcium L-threonate (from BLD, but in principle it is a food supplement) and it is indeed calcium L-threonate! I forgot that it could be like this... It is used a food supplement for ~20 years, but was not characterized structurally (yet). dx.doi.org/10.5517/ccdc...

Something is telling me that France is not so far away.

Post a meme made by you

I don’t like stereotypes, but the most realistic explanation that I have is that an AirLiquid engineer somewhere in Paris ate wrong kind of frog legs than drunk couple of liters of absent and - “I have a great idea - a cylindrical nut!” #chemsky

Some people are not even trying... How difficult it could be to make a label? So, what is inside? Mythical magnesium taurate, magnesium sulfate or metallic magnesium? I am still thinking if I want to test it. #TaurateCurse #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga

According to @ccdc.cam.ac.uk, probably to find a structure with Z' = 10 is ~ 20 ppm. So, why, why, in my case it is rather 1000 ppm? Z' = 10, P2₁, everything is ordered at 100 K Z' = 1, P2₁2₁2₁, painstaking disorder at RT It is an asymmetric unit on the picture for both cases.

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In fact, #TaurateCurse is so strong, that even @efsa.europa.eu cannot fight it, see: focalpointbg.com/images/stori... page 9. "On a molecular weight basis the percentage of magnesium in magnesium taurate amounts to 18.4 %." For info, theoretical maximum for this hypothetical compound is 8.9%

#Chemsky, let's play "Name That Tune"! Can you name a song by residual electron density map? See figure. P1-Q1 ≈ 1.3 Å. Q1 ≈ 0.68. #crystallography

The #TaurateCurse cannot be broken! *evil laugh* Real content: taurine and brucite, aka Mg(OH)₂, zero of magnesium taurate. That one I bought in local pharmacy. #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga

That was an easy case - both products are same and crystalline, which helps me. Of course, not of the reported values (10.9% and 14.5%) were correct, calculated value for trimagnesium dicitrate _decahydrate_ is 11.5%. *sigh* Read you own labels. #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga

Who got a new structure of the MG food supplement? - I got it. A rare case when it is a structure for myself (important parts omitted for obscurity). #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga #crystallography

Nobel laureate Dorothy Hodgkin was born 116 years ago today. The legend among legends in crystallography, she cracked the 27 atom structure of penicillin, and then the 181 atom structure of vitamin B12, and THEN the 788 atom structure of insulin. tinyurl.com/yketyrn5 #WomenInSTEM #ChemSky #BioSky

Asking for a friend – I am looking for a book about history of pottery and ceramics that gives a historical overview _and_ discussing chemistry behind. For example, three-phase firing for black-figure pottery, etc. @skugelgen.bsky.social , maybe you can recommend something? #booksky #chemsky

Well, I am kinda happy that we got a structure of a β-cyclodextrin with something that is not water, but I would be more happy is said "something" would be: (a) a whole target molecule and not a fragment. (b) inside β-cyclodextrin and not playing sandwich around. #crystallography #chemsky

Can you guess if these two products are the same or not? And what value of Mg content is correct? (I know answers) #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga

That was just boring hydromagnesite and taurine. What makes it interesting is the fact that it is a deliberate fake. Why can I say it - well, because I tested twice, first time this January. 🧵 #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga #TaurateCurse

Which minerals could compete this September? Nominations are open! www.mineralcup.org/nominations All nominations are read. Providing reasons why a particular mineral is appealing makes us more likely to select it.

We have from time to time suspicious e-mails asking for a blood samples. For "research purposes"...

Well, that is an easy one. Guess what is in the bottle? #Chemsky #chemchat #SupplementsSaga #TaurateCurse

Bloody hydrogens everywhere! Yes, literally bloody - these crystals have deep red colour. Dataset is quite good, so I really see disordered hydrogen atoms. #crystallography #chemsky

Ok, let's dig some #minerals! Deposit number 1. "Magnesium Taurate" from a brand Raibu. It is "the best" among the worst, because it is probably contain magnesium taurate. It also contains (as just physical mixture) taurine and a Mg mineral Hexahydride (MgSO4·6H2O). #SupplementsSaga #Chemsky

🚨New paper about the second largest tsunami ever recorded, just published in @science.org A short 🧪⚒️🌊 thread #EGU26 @ucalgary.bsky.social @ucalgaryscience.bsky.social doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Well, if planes are still flying in August, then I'll see some of you in Calgary at @iucr2026.bsky.social #crystallography

Oh, this is really a good batch! Not in a sense that everything correct in the bottles, of course, but for a new round of guessing game. #Chemsky, guess what is in the bottles? There are two new (for me) minerals. #chemchat #SupplementsSaga #TaurateCurse

Which mineral one can find in this food supplement that I acquired in France? Yes, really, it is a food supplement. #chemsky #crystallography

Picking crystals in the evening: Crystal 1. Quick pre-experiment - right compound (omitted for obscurity) with dichloromethane, but the crystal slightly twinned. Crystal 2. Screening - no twinning, same cell - started experiment, went home. In the morning - very good dataset, but were is my DCM?!

OK, I used scientific method - a random number generator. So, here is the next group. #chemchat #SupplementsSaga #TaurateCurse

FFS Right: 1) LLMs hallucinate and are/can be trained on biased datasets. 2) Like anyone or anything that summarises a subject without the capacity to understand it in an expert sense, an expert still has to do the work of checking the summary. This ain't the time saver it's promised to be. 1/n

Now only ten untested brands remain on Amazon.de for me. Two of them are obvious fakes, one on the edge + one from US for which I have very low expectations. Hmmm, which should I select for the next series of tests? #chemchat #chemchat #SupplementsSaga #TaurateCurse

Calling all crafty crystallographers! Are you going to #IUCr2026? Would you like to have a craft meet up in Calgary? Laura Folkers (at @stoenews.bsky.social) and I are looking to organise a gathering, all crafts welcome! Please fill in the EOI form so we can include you forms.gle/wpTpe4WVsdtY...

Nowadays it should be "Our AI agent deleted everything", isn't it? #chemsky

And the answer is magnesium L-threonate, yes, you are reading this correct, the "Magnesium Taurate" contains only magnesium L-threonate. We confirmed it by PXRD and liquid NMR. #chemchat #chemchat #SupplementsSaga #TaurateCurse

Credit where credit's due: US-made/ "US quality" food supplements maybe often total rubbish (too often), but a security seal is always well attached. In "EU quality" supplements security seal often just fell off. #chemchat #chemchat #SupplementsSaga

In fact, I can write a full competed guide for magnesium taurate in one post: "Do not use magnesium taurate." And I absolutely serous here. I am planning to write a little guide on different magnesium forms, classified by important parameters like and hype and screw-up-ability.