"I’m a former creationist. Here’s why ‘follow the science’ failed." archive.ph/2025.09.23-0...

Merely because she was a woman, PhD Maria Goeppert Mayer, spent 1930 to 1960 without a permanent paid post. But 3 years later, she was the cowinner of the #Nobel Prize in #Physics for realizing that spin orbit coupling of nucleons led to magic numbers-why oxygen is more common than elements 3 to 7.

The Swiss Water Process is a clever way of removing most caffeine from coffee without relying on CO₂ or toxic solvents. It's used to produce #decaffeinated Kirkland&Loblaws coffees. Max Morgenthaler came up with the method in the 1930s, but it was only commercialized in the 1980s in British Columbia

Poplar leaves go from green to yellow. Why? After chlorophyll is broken down to recycle nitrogen and magnesium, #autumn exposes oxygenated #carotenoids known as xanthophylls in cottonwood leaves. Lutein is their main xanthophyll, which, in the summer, protects them from high light intensity.

The early bird catches the #sunrise. Aren't you glad that Rayleigh scattering is inversely proportional to the 4th power of wavelength? That way, when you look more directly towards the sun, through a longer path- length of air molecules, you get more scattering of blue & more leftover red?

I've always loved the practice and realized the essentials as a kid: use a flat stone; apply spin; toss it parallel to the surface. "Spin prevents the stone from tilting and hitting the water edge-first, just as fast rotations stabilize a bicycle or a spinning top." www.science.org/content/arti....

We don’t celebrate his death, but we won’t hide the truth about his life.

Reduction of Ag⁺ from silver nitrate by copper metal. The reaction is irreversible because aqueous Ag⁺ is a better electron-thief than Cu²⁺. Why? Cu²⁺ is more stable by being better solvated due to its smaller size: 87 vs 129 pm for Ag⁺. #chemsky

Plant chemistry keeps them alive, and is of course the basis of life on Earth. Luckily, plants don't hate chemistry while they're in high school. 😁 #chemistrysky

#NewLondonDisaster www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/...

#peaches #esters #lactones wp.me/p4TifG-6F6

#iron wp.me/p4TifG-6FA

#chemsky #sciencehumor

A magnetar is a #neutronStar with a magnetic field that is 10¹⁵ times stronger than the Earth’s. A study( iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3... ) suggests that flares burping off these stars could produce heavy elements like gold, platinum & uranium. #chemsky

'Why do you dance?' Dirac asked. 'When there are nice girls, it is a pleasure,' Heisenberg replied. Dirac pondered this notion, then blurted out: 'But how do you know beforehand that the girls are nice?' #physicsky www.theguardian.com/books/2009/f...

14 years ago, while still a student, Mary Anne Ji-Kidwell, made this classic #LadyGaga parody video about grad students' frustrations. She went on to get 11 papers published and now works as a scientist in industry. youtu.be/Fl4L4M8m4d0?... #chemsky

My favorite example of #correlationWithoutCausation is that, among grade school children, there is a positive correlation between shoe size and reading scores.

According to recent Pew Research Data, the public’s trust in science has fallen: 57% say #science has had a mostly positive effect on society, down from 73% in 2019. www.acs.org/acs-webinars...

If #Venus was habitable, you would have to wait 5832 hours before saying good morning again. It's related to the fact that its surface pressure is 92 times higher than that of Earth. #astronomy

In case you missed it in 2022: the 1st empirical evidence that simple RNA molecules can emerge into complex, replicating systems... #OriginOfLife #chemsky www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/pre...

Chronic use of #benzodiazepines (Xanax, Klonopin, Ativan and Valium) could damage the brain's GABA receptors.

Here are only some of the Ukrainian scientists who have been killed by Russians recently or by the former Soviet Union. #ukraine

ESA's Rosetta's lander, Philae, landed on Jupiter-family-Comet 67P's surface on November 12, 2014 & analyzed its compounds. Glycine was one of them. Rosetta had also identified a brew of chemicals in the comet's coma. #chemsky

To improve the old beer cannon demonstration, (1) we got a welder to make us a barrel more compatible with a tennis' ball diameter (2)used a small oxygen tank to add pure O₂ to the fuel (3) used plasticine to seal the hole&(4)included a fuse #chemsky www.youtube.com/shorts/ODTSB...

The #NOAA is important to science and to the public. The current U.S. administration's recent indiscriminate cuts threaten the agency and the excellent website earthnullschool.net

Too bad. It's nice metal wall art, but they had to use E, which stands for energy; e is the symbol for elementary charge or for the electron or for the base of the exponential function. When will art finally have a passionate affair with mathematics or science? #physicssky #metalWallArt

I'm not much of a philatelist but if you're looking to get into it, this is how to start. #chemsky

"By examining small spectral differences between the basalt samples, scientists can in theory determine whether an exoplanet once had running surface water or water in its interior, said Gazel, a fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability." #chemsky news.cornell.edu/stories/2024...

Beavers influence the chemistry of trees they use to build dams. Regrowth of cottonwood trees felled by them results in the synthesis of higher levels of phenolic glycosides. These serve as a defence against beavers &other mammalian herbivores,ensuring the long term survival of cottonwoods. #chemsky

Remarkably, at least one Freon( refrigerant that destroys ozone on Earth) occurs naturally in outer space. #chemsky www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/astrono...

I am not a fan of graffiti, but if someone feels compelled to do it, this is how to do it right. ☺️ #chemsky

One year I worked as a poll clerk. A woman came to vote. Her name? Avogadro. “Any connection to the famous Amedeo?” I asked. She said she was a direct descendant. “So cool!” I remarked. But she did not seem proud. “Are you a chemist or something? Because most people never heard of him.” #chemsky

I originally came up with a long-winded way of solving this easy #mathematics puzzle. If the digits of John's age were reversed, it would equal Mary's age. In how many years will this reoccur?

One of the most remarkable discoveries about Hale Bopp(1997) was that the comet had a 3rd type of tail. In addition to the well-known gas and dust tails, it had a faint tail of elemental Na, only visible with the right filters. #astronomy

Detailed but clear explanation of how neutron star collisions make heavy elements through the r process. A discussion of the evidence is also included #astronomy www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

DYT that in February (at 45 N latitude) each day gets longer at an average rate of ~3 minutes/day whereas in early January the daily rate of increase was only about 1 minute/ day?

'Just found out that my one time phys chem professor, Kurt Ekler, was a Hungarian Jew and survivor of the #Holocaust. At the age of 16 or 17, he escaped on the Kindertransport. #chemsky

Hardwood xkcd.com/3051

#chemsky The ratio of atoms in the universe to those in one human body is 10⁵². Be humble. (Image credit: #NASA, #ESA, P. Oesch of the University of Geneva, and M. Montes of the University of New South Wales.)

A 3:1 mixture of hydrochloric & nitric acids is known as aqua regia. Normally gold will dissolve in it and turn it deep orange. But if #Trump's Presidential gold coins are added to the solution, you will observe a yellow, comb-over like precipitate. #chemsky

Rasputin ate enough cyanide-laced cakes to kill a monastery but survived. One hypothesis is that the cyanide was too old. The carbonic acid from air's CO₂& moisture will slowly react with cyanide to make HCN(which escapes), leaving only K₂CO₃, which will irritate the stomach but not kill. #chemsky

Found a newspaper clip about #climatechange from 27 years ago: the Kyoto Protocol applied to the seven greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (CO₂) methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride(SF₆), nitrogen trifluoride (NF₃).

#chemsky, why throw away those little bread bag clips, when they're begging to become a periodic table? Life's essential elements are in green.

Compared to cars, gasoline-powered motorcycles emit only 1/3 of the CO₂-- but 30× more NOₓ, 4 × more hydrocarbons and 80 × more carbon monoxide. Go electric!