Congrats to Dr Simona Bianco (University of Glasgow) and Dr Jiarong Wu @jiarongwu.bsky.social (University of St Andrews/Universität Würzburg) who were awarded the 2025 RSC MASC Group PhD Thesis Award trophy 🏆 given in memory of John Fossey! #MASC2025 #RSC_MASC

Well, this is the first time I have seen an emoji in a reference letter... my grumpy old man status means this is not a positive aspect of the letter even though it has a big smile...

Very proud of Simona and all of her many achievements at @uofgchem.bsky.social - she was a fantastic PhD student!

Interesting we don't seem to get a say in whether our proposals will be used to train the AI and release the confidential ideas into the AI world...

I need suggestions for a journal that will publish some careful work we have that shows how difficult it is to collect specific data carefully and how to it properly. It accidentally shows key papers in the field are likely wrong. Currently getting referees telling us there is no **impact**…

Another paper out - this one is working with Arthi Jayaraman at the University of Delaware to use their machine learning approaches to understand our small angle scattering - written as a tutorial review so hopefully useful for people to follow: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Latest work from the group looking at using our functionalised dipeptides for energy storage via a micellar analogue to MOST... www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Seeing all the aurora photos on here, I will join with the latest masterpiece from my 4 year old of her thumb which fits the colour palette…

Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...

Why oh why are universities (for example) still using twitter?

A few key things that apply no matter where you are: ⭐ Meeting with your supervisor at least once a week strongly correlates with higher satisfaction ⭐ Students early in their PhD tend to be happier than those nearing the end ⭐ Working more than 60 hours a week makes satisfaction plummet

@profdraper.bsky.social @unistrathclyde.bsky.social @uofglasgow.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk @uniofnottingham.bsky.social

Delighted to have been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize from @leverhulme.ac.uk thank you for the recognition and support from the Trust throughout my career, and to my collaborators, colleagues and all the researchers who worked in the group ❤️

As always, it’s such a shame to see chemistry Nobel prize winners posing in the lab without appropriate PPE… #failedrolemodels

This is great. It naturally follows that Musk can only get out of our politics if politicians and political journalists stop using the social media site he controls.

This does not look like “impartiality”. It looks like propaganda. www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/how...

Latest work from the group, led by Yanyao, a visiting student from China, with a lot of collaborators... onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

It's clear people are using ChatGPT for everything and one dead giveaway is a million em-dashes in the text. Can anyone tell me why ChatGPT loves an em-dash?

I should be able to charge my coffees to my research grants considering this is essentially the main way of getting papers written...

‼️ NEWS FLASH ‼️ 📣 Following a successful programme last year, the University of Glasgow MedTech Innovation Fund will open again for applications on the 14 August 2025. An update on application criteria and how to apply will be available on ‘Call Open’ day. #medtech #innovation #glasgow 😃 1/2

Latest work out of the group in collaboration with Ed Egelman and Ravi Sonani in Uni of Virginia: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #gelsgelsgels

✨Spotlight✨ The MASC Interest Group and WISC Network @wisuprachem.bsky.social announce the inaugural 2025 MASC/WISC EDIA Award for “excellence in equality/equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA)”. Application deadline 📆 5th Sep 2025 More on mascgroup.co.uk/2025-masc-pr... (1/5)

All this does is explain to me how Brexit and Farage have come to be... If you believe in werewolves, you no doubt believe in the magic NHS money tree and Johnson's lies...

My out of office autoreply does not seem to be working for everyone so to make it totally clear - I am not in Glasgow…

Latest preprint from the group - twisting together gel noodles to make interesting new materials... Probing the Structure and Mechanics of Intertwined Homo- and Hetero-Supramolecular Gel Noodles | ChemRxiv - doi.org/10.26434/che...

Very proud to be in this list…

Interesting thread Nick! I am wondering how much some journals will now change their approach, or whether we are all about to get emails asking us to submit XXX

Sometimes, your Google Scholar updates throw out some papers with beautiful data! The cryoEM here is a good start, but the SAXS/SANS data are **chefs kiss**... pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

After waking up to check the world is still standing and WW3 hasn't (yet) broken out fully, here's our latest preprint from the group. Potential common impurities in peptide synthesis can still self-assemble and can co-assemble or self-sort with the parent peptide... chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

What to do when a request to referee turns up in your inbox for a paper directly related to the one you have had under review for 8 months and are still wating for the referees to comment on the revision...?

Turns out that the thing that will drive me to preprint papers is the astronomical time that refereeing is taking at the moment and the need for group members to have output on CVs and applications...

I have poked the @rsc.org on X/Twitter a bit over the years (sorry folks...), but huge kudos to them for leaving what has become even more of a toxic and hateful platform www.rsc.org/news-events/... 👏 #chemsky

I’m raising money for MacMillan Cancer Support and will be taking part in HYROX Dublin in November and will be doing various other silly stuff in between now and then to fundraise. If you would like to watch me suffer/donate link is below 💕 www.justgiving.com/team/amyly

At the ICSMC for the week and Kyoto is an amazing place. The science is good too!

Long hours is never a good idea. The constant ‘you must be passionate’ from key “leaders” in the field is so unhelpful, wrong and leads to unhappiness… this is also why advertising for a ‘motivated’ PhD student should be a red flag to applicants

Lastest work out from the group looking at making supramolecular noodles which we can use as photoinitiators #gelsgelsgels pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

A weird moment where a referee has told us we are using the wrong value for something. We haven't, but interestingly if you google it, the AI bit at the start says a different (VERY wrong) value. I think this is my first time seeing a referee believe AI first and assume the humans are wrong...

If anyone is brimming with such ideas and not appalled at the state of the world, I can put you in contact with the sender of this junk email…

Delighted to be in Glasgow and attending the most recent @faradaydiscussions.rsc.org on Advances in Supramolecular Gels. Lots of great discussion underway ⬇️ with co-chairs Annela Seddon and @profdjadams.bsky.social

The 56 new Fellows and 4 Honorary Fellows announced by the Learned Society of Wales show how Wales has answers to many of the most pressing questions we face today. www.learnedsociety.wales/welcome-to-o...

Some good news for a change–Queen's has set aside funds to assist any students who have lost their visa status in the US and are looking to continue their graduate studies. Please share widely. www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...

It's only 7:17 and I've already done some work AND written to my MP 💅🏻 Which reminds me: have you written to your MP? Please do, even if it's just to say that you support trans people and their right to pee where they've always pee'd. That's all. You don't need to make it complicated.

Our latest work is out in collaboration with Arthi Jayaraman's group in Delaware - using machine learning to understand and interpret small angle scattering data... again, a perfect demonstration as to why breakfasts at conferences can lead to interesting collaborations arxiv.org/abs/2504.03869

When did ‘enthusiastic’ become the euphemism for a PhD student/postdoc I can drive into the ground?

Without reading this right wing nonsense, if true I’m guessing the resulting bad reception will lead to 1000% tariffs for Scotland…

Just over one week left to register for the @rsc.org Faraday Discussion on #Supramolecular #Gels. Join speakers including Darrin Pochan and Thorri Gunlaugsson and discuss the very latest research! @faradaydiscussions.rsc.org @softmatter.rsc.org

"I want to be a writer who doesn't write" is just such absurd, weak, lazy shit. Do the work. The work is clarifying. You just want to push a button and have a machine excrete content -- content formed by digesting the work of the *actual* writers who came before you.

Choosing to take money from disabled benefit claimants rather than levy a wealth tax is simply immoral 👇

The world basically sucks at the moment, but less than an hour away from home we have this and sometimes it is badly needed…

We're hosting a Faraday Discussions meeting in Glasgow themed around supramolecular gels. Just highlighting that the early bird registration date is fast approaching - get involved to have fun discussions around the use (or not) of inverted vials! We also have an excellent line up of speakers...