Cambridge Libraries Survey is open until Friday 27th March. Your libraries, your views!

🧪 This bacterial strain has been maintained in sterile water since 1994. Possible carbon sources incl. “phthalic acid - a plastic degradation product likely leached from inoculation tubes“. Genomic variations accumulated between 1994 and 2022 suggested adaptations to long-term nutrient deprivation

in a hospital i once saw several vials of an evil-looking* solid * specifically looks like solid iodine: a dark mauve solid full of crystals which looked like they were melting down the side of the vials 1/2

'Panic buying' and related crisis behaviour is in the news again. Here are some slides from my recent presentation on the topic. www.theguardian.com/food/2026/fe...

What were once vices are now. . . essential for human reproduction, apparently. Ancient retroviral sequences put to use:

#ChemSky I don't promote all our papers on here...like they are ALL AWESOME (of course they are, I wrote them, and you should be honoured to have access to my GREAT THOUGHTS) but this one is a bit special. And has broad implications. doi.org/10.26434/che... ⚗️📜🧵

"The paper exhorts med-chem teams not to stop optimizing affinity once you hit nanomolar levels" 😲 1/3

Prompt was: what makes for an exceptional day in lab, and it is absolutely this!

cant imagine what #Chemistry at #Cambridge would be like without the #NMR team, for instance life would've been so different--nothing like having spectrometers act up or getting weird results at inconvenient times and then being so relieved on seeing one of the #NMR staff around

Precisely why a really good instrument tech is worth 5-10x their salary and benefits. The cost of replacing an instrument is often in the $100-$500k range. Many chem departments have at least a dozen instruments. Being able to keep instruments going for double their expected lifetime saves money.

From choosing unusual course combinations to a constant feeling of catching up – Ada McVean shares how she navigated university as a first-generation student.

In 1937, sulfa drugs--some of the first antibiotics--were introduced. This lowered childhood pneumonia rates. As a direct result, kids with access to these antibiotics... 1 stayed in school longer, 2 had higher incomes, & 3 worked more/had fewer work limiting disabilities. Antibiotics FTW!

Chronic ocean heating fuels ‘staggering’ loss of marine life, study finds

many years ago when I was still a young(er) #graduate student at @caiuscollege.bsky.social , we had this workshop to help students navigate situations involving #sexualharrassment 1/n

Scientists: for a new story, I have one big question—> What is a “good day” in the lab? I’m looking for epic examples of the best day ever to general criteria for what constitutes a “good day” compared to a nothing-burger day. Ping me if you have examples to share! Re-posts appreciated!

One of my pastels from nearly 30 years ago showing a path across Jesus Green in Cambridge. I think this was late in the year with a few leaves hanging on to the trees with some autumn colour remaining. It was bought by a late friend and is now with his family. #Cambridge #pastel #painting

hmm? Why do i need to know what "snail" is in German? 😂 and also what sort of sentence is this?

If #AI discovers a drug, who gets the money? Science spoke with intellectual property lawyers on why questions of AI inventorship and profit remain wide open. https://scim.ag/4kFVaWF

Proposal: #Disney releases a #Frozen-themed short this year (2026), in which Nokk comes across his fire counterpart #YearofFireHorse

The distinctive smell of durian on #Singapore ‘s trains is not something I have detected in a while

The Royal Society of Chemistry is honoring Carolyn R. Bertozzi with its top accolade, an Honorary Fellowship. cen.acs.org/acs-news/Roy... #chemsky

#ValentinesDay #chemsky 🧪

This Valentine's Day, we wanted to help all the chemistry-minded sweethearts out there. Choose from one of five exciting cards to share with that special someone. In matters of love, it all comes down to chemistry. #ValentinesDay #chemsky 🧪

Happy Valentines Day #chemsky #chemchat

Valentine’s Day with a twist of ChemScrapes #chemsky #chemchat

Happy Valentine’s Day! #chemsky #chemchat

❌stuck for seven years in a #PhD programme ✅staying one night in an infamous haunted house to graduate early me: understandable, have a nice day

1/ Finally wrote up “The Story of Mendeley”! Most people know the tool, few know about its rise and fall. The Mendeley story provides important clues for how to build self-sustaining AND non-extractive knowledge commons, which is why I think it deserves more attention 🧵

#Chemsky -- PhDs in Canada in chemistry--brief. Reskeets welcome. 🧵 Seeing that a lot of excellent US students are not receiving admission to PhD programs for...the obvious reasons...I want to make sure mentors, students, and advisors are aware that Canada might still be an option. 1/n

glad to see this shift. hope everyone is coming here to #Bluesky 😀

mCherry is red DAPI is blue I reserved the confocal To make Z-stacks with you 🧪 🔬 #ScienceValentines

growing up i used 青 and 绿 interchangeably and it was only when i was much older did i realise that they referred to different shades of blue (or green, or whatever floats your boat)

i once saw lysine with one fewer carbon* multiple times in a textbook, but δ-amino acid? LOL. *methylene group, if we're being pedantic

cant wait for pentavalent carbon arising from #AI generation of images--wait, we already have this in #Chemistry and #Chemsky too 🫠

"if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" 😂

so what are the three spidermen films titled? Is the "Day" going to be the recurring word?

KOG IS GREENLIT! Since this was shown in the trailer/ad for the artbook it felt safe to share. This was drawn in '24, early dev, the first time it really felt me, Zach, and JBO understood Frankie, Andi, and the show's tone. I still look at this drawing and think, oh yeah. That's #knightsofguinevere.

"Free condoms for competitors at the Winter Olympics have run out within a [RECORD-BREAKING] three days, according to La Stampa." (emphasis mine) I see what you did there, @theguardian.com source: www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...

Back in the day: "The study of Literature is important because it helps develop one's sense of culture, etc." Now: "The study of Literature is important because it will allow you to understand modern meme formats" 😂

yeah, this is accurate

#Avatar5 plot: new material discovered on Pandora, it turns out that Eywa herself actually contains material that can power #AI

reminds me of that #Chemistry meme where meetings are just about colleagues asking if you have "tried that reaction again at (insert general modified condition* here)

some of my friends express surprise at me borrowing physical books from the #library

I’d been wondering about this!

Today I learned that E. coli are pressurized. The cells are roughly pressurized to the same level as a car tire. I really love working with my microbio colleagues. These little bugs are so neat.

if the plural of lacuna is lacunae, and the plural of amoeba is amoebae, then surely the plural of papaya is not papayas, but rather papayae? 🤔

about to climb into bed and suddenly got hit by a pang of nostalgia re the #UK. it's been a few months but i occasionally still miss #England (specifically #Cambridge)

And as before, it was good to burn, he felt himself gush out in the fire, snatch, rend, rip in half with flame, and put away the senseless problem. If there was no solution, well then now there was no problem, either. Fire was best for everything! "The books, Montag!"

'No, Winston, that is no use. You are lying. You still think there are four. On a scale of one to five, with five being the highest morale and one being the lowest, how would you describe your morale now?' 'Four! five! Four! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop the pain!'