This paper has TOF mass spec data of ejected plume material from Saturn’s E ring / icy moon Enceladus (acquired at 18 km/s velocity— how’s that for collision energy 👀). I think it is pretty awesome! #teammassspec #chemsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

France 1998 World Cup ball 🐐

Important research from analytical scientists in NC on PFAS

Almost all of my students are US citizens and I want the very best for them in life and in their STEM careers. This is not how we achieve that.

Attention early-career astrobiologists: come check out the first of two panels titled "Navigating Uncertainty in Astrobiology" where scientists in the field will discuss their perspectives and how they got started. Tomorrow (Sep. 24th) at 2:00 PM EST

Instantly regret seeing clips from today’s presidential press conference

The @washingtonpost.com story on Tylenol & autism leaves out a MAJOR 2.5M sibling-controlled study of children in Denmark, which "found no evidence that acetaminophen use during pregnancy was associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability." jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

GO BIRDS

Can always count on Philly to tell it like it is. (gift link) share.inquirer.com/I75bb0?utm_s...

Things that make me feel patriotic include: welcoming and including immigrants, freedom of speech, separation of church and state, balance of powers, honest telling of our history, national parks, etc. Not feeling super patriotic at the moment. www.npr.org/2025/09/17/n...

Fundamentally the #Mars announcement NASA is making today boils down to: there could have been some chemical reactions in these ancient rocks that could have been mediated by living organisms. The word "could" is doing a LOT of heavy lifting there. 🧪

Florida Made a Vaccine Mistake. Now, It’s Everyone’s Problem. Agree with @lisamjarvis.bsky.social, viruses don’t give a damn for state lines www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

The 2025 @aaup.org Faculty in the South Survey of 4,000 professors in 12 states has revealed the significant impact of political attacks on faculty work and recruitment. The findings show a widespread climate of fear & ongoing desire by some to leave the region for other jobs. 1/x

Big story for Drive-By Truckers enthusiasts cc: @stevenhyden.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/u...

On Sunday, Aug. 17, during #ACSFall2025, the American Chemical Society Board of Directors’ chair, Wayne E. Jones Jr., announced that the ACS Board approved $2.5 million to be granted to graduate students who have been impacted by recent funding cuts. cen.acs.org/acs-news/ACS... #chemsky 🧪

I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.

I had a 75-minute discussion today with first-year students on how the scientific enterprise works in the USA and the value of both basic and applied research. It was really great, the students brought up really important points and questions (e.g. how patents work / Bayh-Dole Act)

How the success of a Black Little League team in 1955 South Carolina sparked one of the biggest crises in youth baseball history and led to the creation of an all-white rival league across the South:

Tomorrow, in my first-year undergraduate writing class on evolution and astrobiology, we’re going to read/discuss Keats’ Bright Star poem and compare it to Sagan’s pale blue dot video. I love teaching at a #PUI 😊

How I’m thinking about students having AI do their assigned work. I think we need to ask why they make this choice. Those answers can help us be more effective instructors.

Cool paper from some great PUI analytical chemists! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Once you start building concentration camps, it's hard to stop apnews.com/article/flor...

This is helpful, actually — the best journals in our minds do not align with Impact Factors (if they ever did). Please stop using them.

A very interesting (and very thorough) case for Alzheimer’s as (of all things) a disease of lithium deficiency. This one’s worth taking seriously, I believe:

My College of Charleston colleague Heather Fullerton and JPL collaborator Laurie Barge are both featured in this podcast — informative and a relatively short listen! www.npr.org/2025/08/11/n...

"PhD-level experts in your back pocket" is a completely nonsensical description of AI but a pretty good description of social media if you follow the right people

Thinking about my syllabus for a first-year writing seminar this fall; the last time I taught it was in the fall of 2020 (online). Essentially have to re-do it from scratch. Nothing is the same.

Proud this was selected as yesterday’s #ACSEditorsChoice article! Please share with those interested in PUI faculty positions — it is targeted at analytical chemists but hopefully useful to others too. cc: @chemjobber.bsky.social

I wrote a perspective article in JASMS about my experiences at a primarily undergraduate institution and how to develop a research and teaching program in mass spectrometry — I hope people find it useful! (PS there are some great PUI job postings in chemistry for 2026) pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

The 2025 @aaup.org Faculty in the South Survey is live. If you are a professor in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, or Texas it's for you. Ends 8/29 at 5pm Eastern forms.gle/v7T3BH2w9LXs...

I get the sentiment but, frankly, this is BS. Most of the smartest people I know don’t work in finance; they are teachers, researchers, healthcare workers, religious leaders even. Lots of us could’ve been “finance bros” but realized early on that some things are more important than money.

A university scientist who discovered alarming levels of toxic chemicals in a lake in southeastern Louisiana was abruptly removed from her research position this week without explanation

By no means an original thought but IMO one of the most important things science education does is provide a framework for scale and magnitude. I think a lack of understanding of scale has profound impacts on numerous aspects of society.

There's being photogenic, and there's being Saturn photogenic

History of Jazz in America

Faculty who wrote to defend their president and object to a DOJ investigation of their university...are now being investigated by the DOJ. The most banal defense of free speech and academic freedom will trigger the full wrath of the US government now. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

Put a few of those reusable silicone water balloons in the bathtub with the toddler and you’ll never guess what happened next

We're close to our goal of 10,000 signatures on this petition against an ICE detention camp in South Carolina. Add your signature and spread the word: aclusc.org/ice25

Rosalind Franklin was born #OTD in 1920. She was a chemist and crystallographic who made a key contribution to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA: www.compoundchem.com/2017/07/25/f... #ChemSky 🧪

it's never been about antisemitism

Highly recommend the novel Hell Is A World Without You if you are a millennial and grew up enmeshed in evangelicalism. Also recommend it if you don’t understand white Christian nationalism at all. Those of us raised in this culture saw this current political moment from a mile away. @jasonkirk.fyi

I'm letting Rumeysa's words speak for themselves: www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025...

When I was little, the U.S. military came to our home at gunpoint and took me and my family away. We were imprisoned for years in barbed wire camps simply because we were Japanese American. I have spent my life telling that story, hoping it would never be repeated.

Stephen Colbert is my favorite person in showbiz and has been since I was in college when the Colbert Report came out. His interviews on life, faith, humor, and sadness are incredible. Sad to see him leave late night (though I almost never stay up that late) and look forward to his next steps.

I need to figure out how to do “vibe chemistry” 🤣

[gets out red pen] SIG FIGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

My email is just one person after another emailing to tell colleagues that they are leaving NASA. I’m so sad and angry it’s honestly hard to function.

About to start our 10th and final week of summer research. I am so proud of our students and have seen much growth from them! Not only growth but also bravery — bravery to look at America as it is and say “in spite of all this, I know science and diversity make this place better.” #PUI #teammassspec

James Dobson / Focus on the Family videos on sex and marriage in Sunday School which, obviously, I had to discuss with a therapist years later