Slightly increase a band Gigadeth

This is actually kinda interesting, because most unis appoint the VC as a Professor, hence they are a member of the academic staff and presumably therefore have academic freedom, which this would presumably be an expression of? Although Grant Robertson doesn't seem to have Professor as a title...?

The discovery of ferrocene in the early 1950s revolutionised chemistry. In Chemistry in New Zealand (online) Dr Tameryn Stringer tells us how this accidental discovery has grown into a compelling story of innovation. www.cinz.nz/posts/ferroc...

I was a linux boy for ages, begrudgingly accepted windows 10 (with WSL) and even came to like it, but windows 11 has me at the end of my tether. I've never wasted so much productive time waiting on an OS.

If New Zealand is a freeloader in a military sense, BOY OH BOY can I sell you our epic level of science freeloading?

We're pleased to announce applications are now open for NZ Association of Science's 2026 Medals. The closing date for all applications is 5pm Monday 3rd August 2026. The medals are ... scientists.org.nz/Awards (1/7)

On University of Otago's website if you navigate to "Rangahau/Research" > "Research Expertise" > "Staff expertise" it bizarrely takes you to the health sciences expertise database (www.otago.ac.nz/research/exp...) I assume this is an oopsie, makes it somewhat hard to find people in other fields!

New life goal unlocked

if this is retrospective, then I assume existing derivative works will also no longer be "legal". Think carefully before creating arrangements of PD scores etc. I guess 🫠

I might be missing the point, but that dress is green not mustard right?

After seeing a sneak peek of these graphs overnight (Wanna be cool like me? Join the NZAS council...) I couldn't help but start my chemistry lecture this morning with a plea for students to cast aside the apolitical scientist myth and make sure they're informed/voting.

Hey kids, don't you just treasure the [least worst option]? What an opportunity! Apply this to whatever you want, it's one of the joys of adulting that nobody tells you about.

Excited to launch this today! If you know any Indigenous students in the Australasian region who are interested in Animal Behaviour, please encourage them (or nominate them) to join ASSAB for free 🐦 🐛 🐸 🐀 🪲 🐝 🐟 🦎 🐔

Well 🤬

President of MIT not mincing words today in @statnews.com www.statnews.com/2026/05/27/s...

My afternoon was sufficiently flat tack that I haven't opened that NZAS slack, but I've been getting notifications all afternoon. *Deep breath* 🤿

Nominations are open for the JEOL Brian Halton Award. This award is made to a student member of the NZIC who has published an outstanding paper in the field of chemistry. Find out more: nzic.org.nz/awards

Meanwhile in Australia…. #chemsky #chemchat

Hijacking this insightful post to note that (at least in Aotearoa) grant agencies expect academia to do 1. AND 2. on grant awards that haven't appreciably grown for 20 years. Fund the basics science, let the horses have their courses.

Always a good reminder that the most important, existential issues in your sphere barely register on a national level. Also some of the issues being pushed in parliament barely register on a national level. Representative democracy?

I just did a terrible survey where they asked about engagement with certain content and then even if you answered that you didn't engage with any of the content you were then forced to answer questions about behavioral changes based on said content. It was a choice between lies or not finishing 🤦

Cool... new ChemDraw autoinstalled at some point and while it has a fancy redesigned logo it otherwise appears completely borked. I guess instead of working with my VERY expensive productivity software I'll spend time trying to make it usable instead... *SIGH*

I was reminded of this today. From 2021, and still bad science is getting trotted out to justify bigotry. Personally, if you need to be conscious of someone's gender to value them as a person you need to take a long look at yourself. You're not a good person. From: scientists.org.nz/press-releases

Chris Hipkins is a wet bus ticket

Any #chemsky people ever used a "Cryocool 100 II immersion chiller? We discovered one in a storeroom today. I've not used one of this model and I have a couple of questions.

I am about as far as you can get from someone with a deep knowledge of the economy, but generating thousands more unemployed people when the economy is bad doesn't seem like the right direction?

Ooooh - if you're someone who works for a company that considers a collection of chemists to be your target audience, and you wish to spend some sponsorship dollars.... HIT ME UP (and/or check out the website). We'd love to have a chat about the available options 🥰

Registration for the NZIC2026 Conference is Open! We extend a warm invitation for you to join us in Hamilton from 15-19 November. We are looking forward to welcoming our outstanding line-up of speakers, check them out on the conference website. Full details can be found at: nzic2026.eventsair.site

New Zealand Institute of Chemistry 2026 Conference registration is open: nzic2026.eventsair.site We're putting together what I think is a pretty awesome programme, I mean... just click on that Speaker page and see all of those happy faces! More to come too. Register ASAP and come hang

This morning I'm disgruntled with the world

Been asked a bit lately about what I look for in a political party, and maybe the subtext is why or how did I end up with the Greens over other parties that might have similar policies - and fair enough. It really comes down to what is the core tenant of your politics, esp if you're a leftist.

I'd forgotten that building bicycle wheels is (for me) a trust the process without being 100% sure what the process is. I know what I need to achieve, I know technically how to achieve it but it's a bit blurry in the middle. 😵‍💫 Neat use for a penny whistle though

New Zealand Institute of Chemistry 2026 Conference registration is open: nzic2026.eventsair.site We're putting together what I think is a pretty awesome programme, I mean... just click on that Speaker page and see all of those happy faces! More to come too. Register ASAP and come hang

With a dash of underfunded tertiary institutions... what could go wrong?

My cousins came to town to see the NZSO travelling by bicycle and Te Huia (train). They saw the sights, popped over to visit us and otherwise did everything you'd do with a car, without a car. This is the dream.

Call me idealistic, impractical, foolish, misguided, naïve, stupid - really whatever you want but IMO the best response to removing the fees free year is to promise a return to free tertiary study. You want to win an election, actually do something. Think big. Be bold. Nurture the future.

Waikato Symphonic Band (the only adult Symphonic Wind Band in the Waikato) were adjudicated a Gold award! We currently rehearse Friday evenings and it really is an all-welcome/the more the merrier vibe. We're friendly folk and have some instruments if you have the skills but not the gear.

I should've posted this yesterday, but if you're in the vicinity of Matamata today or tomorrow there is a band competition at Matamata Intermediate School. Waikato Symphonic Band (Hamilton based) playing at 1345, the little band than can (but trying to grow! Join us?) 🪊🎺🪈🥁🎼🎶🎵🎷

Well 🤬

Trains! Have you tried getting to Tauranga from Hamilton without a car? Options are limited...

👀 Safe ship management 👀 Cook Strait ferries 🏃

Random quote from my thesis: "Where pendant substituents offer a longer carbon chain extended conformation these have been ignored so as to maintain a meaningful uniformity." MEANINGFUL UNIFORMITY... lmao...

The helium shortage is now unavoidable. Another wonderful follow-on to the Iran War, and if you think helium doesn’t matter much, think again:

Copyediting standards seem pretty terrible at journals right now. For example, I'm reading a J. Med Chem article (10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5c03255) where someone has clearly done a 'find and replace' for "ki" -> italic(K)subscript(I) How does this stuff get through, these journals charge $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Well... that's a new one for me. I have files in a folder that I can manipulate in Explorer, that turn up in a "Get-ChildItem" listing in Powershell, but when I do a "Test-Path" don't exist (and thus return errors for any other manipulation in Powershell. I'm guessing some OneDrive shenanigan 🤷

Marsden in this graph @ $35,000/yr for 3 years. For reference: www.auckland.ac.nz/en/study/sch... www.aut.ac.nz/study/fees-a... www.waikato.ac.nz/study/schola... www.massey.ac.nz/study/schola... www.wgtn.ac.nz/scholarships... www.canterbury.ac.nz/study/gettin...

Time for my yearly update on how we're doing in AoNZ vis-a-vis PhD stipends (poorly). I use the Marsden Fund PhD and Masters stipends as the benchmark because they are at the *top* end of what is offered, btw. 🧪

"Why not return to basics? Fund our universities properly, provide mechanisms to support our graduates to build careers here rather than board a flight to Australia, and fund high-quality, internationally excellent research – assessed as such through international peer review." 🙏

When Einstein developed general relativity the closest thing to a practical application that could even be imagined at the time was a slightly more precise description of where to look for the planet Mercury in the sky, and yet now we’d all be literally lost without it. Anyway: fund basic research.