Gearing up for a super expensive 13CO2 labeling experiment. Wish us luck! The cylinder comes with 33 psi of 13CO2 and a big warning label not to open it without a regulator-otherwise you lose your precious gas! #chemsky #chemchat #realtimechem

Riding a bike is safe. Cars and poor infrastructure make it dangerous.

If you ever want to read a paper for free and can't find it otherwise, email the lead author and politely ask for a copy. You will not be bothering the person. You will in fact make their whole entire day. I have had scientists get so excited I asked they sent me everything they ever published.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

In case you’re just waking up, the U.S. has teamed up with Israel overnight to start an illegal war of regime change, apparently on a presidential whim with no involvement of Congress, and they are already committing horrific atrocities.

New piece: on learning loss after immigration raids. Ignore news conferences and politicians. We will know the current horrors are over when kids come back to school. But getting kids back in school is just the first step. Then the real work begins.

Enjoying the view of snow-capped mountains all around from our instrumentation chemistry lab at Cal Poly Pomona! #chemsky

Moral panic around e-bikes is getting out of control. The assemblywoman proposing this bill is quoted in the article saying she has concerns abt people riding "30,40, even 60 mph" -- those are not e-bikes! Those are e-motos! www.cbs8.com/article/news...

They are feeding our proposals to ChatGPT to ask "is this DEI" and then ChatGPT will use our proposals, which is supposed to be confidential and proprietary, to train its next model. Talking about breach of confidentiality and intellectual theft.

Support the @teamsterslocal2010.bsky.social in their strike! They‘re critical to @calstate.bsky.social operations! See our roof leak today in front of our offices! Normally the Teamsters fix this, but they aren’t paid enough and are on strike. #chemsky always an adventure in chemistry Departments

Let me just make a few little adjustments to that title… “How a scientist with a PhD in Geology and 25 years of experience is helping lead California’s earthquake work” Way to devalue my experience.

NSF Update Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit. Now by Directorate... 1/11

1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken. Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵

Fascism wants you to believe that you are alone. That you are isolated. That the feelings you have are yours and nobody else has them because everybody is too afraid to speak. But love is stronger than fascism. Community is stronger than fascism.

I don't like to talk about stories before they are fully reported, but I am writing on ICE in a Minnesota town that isn't Minneapolis. However bad you think it is, it is worse. It is a campaign of pure terror whose only strategic goal is more terror. There is no strategy other than to break people.

I just got tear gassed along with thousands of union members, many of whom had their families with them. Federal agents at the ICE facility tear gassed children. We must abolish ICE, DHS, and we must have prosecutions. I expect to see enforcement of our city code prohibiting the use of tear gas.

US measles cases this year already exceed the total for the whole of 2023 and 2024 combined, and it is only January. Yikes.

There are Senate Democrats who loudly support defunding ICE—which is a reminder that the ones making weaker demands could ask for more too. Keep calling! As we’ve seen in Minneapolis, a lot of momentum can build in two weeks.

I am hearing that RFK Jr.’s minions are going to go after HPV vaccines. I’ve got problems with these people and now you’re going to hear about them, first from a personal perspective and then from a professional one. It all boils down to this: WE HAVE A SAFE VACCINE THAT PREVENTS CANCER.

The Episcopal Church has put together a very impressive toolkit for protesting, including tips for clergy in particular. Truly inspiring. This is how Christians ought to be engaging the moment. www.episcopalchurch.org/protesting-f...

We had eradicated this disease. And now because of targeted disinformation, children, immunocompromised people, elderly folks, and so many others become victims in this proxy war and we have a new avoidable pandemic.

A reminder that ICE hasn’t slowed down in Minneapolis at all. Outside of Minnesota, it might feel like everything has changed since Alex Pretti’s murder. But ICE hasn’t actually lost any power and they’re continuing to terrorize our communities.

ICE murdered Renée Good in broad daylight. Less than 3 weeks later, they killed Alex Pretti, shooting him 10 times. Every day, we watch as people are ripped from their cars, their homes, their lives. We can't allow ourselves to look away from this cruelty. Abolish ICE.

Tomorrow morning is a great time to call your reps and tell them to abolish ICE. I wrote a script you can use. And no, this is not a joke, it really is that simple. Find Your Senators: www.senate.gov/senators/sen... Find Your Representatives: www.house.gov/representati...

As someone who is literally waiting for one button to be pressed to give me $2.1m of NSF funds six months late: I’d rather shut my lab down than have another person killed by ICE - in the street or in custody, citizen or non-citizen

Republicans are refusing to separate DHS funding from the rest of the government funding bills. Let’s be very clear: they are shutting the government down to allow ICE to keep killing Americans.

HAPPENING NOW: A massive crowd is gathered in freezing temperatures outside ICE headquarters in DC to demand ICE OUT OF ALL COMMUNITIES NOW.

As a someone with a 33 year NIH-funded lab whose grant is supposed to be reviewed this week, shut NIH down if that is what's needed to end ICE terrorism. Innocent lives are more important 🧪

It's the PTO moms and spreadsheet dads and other random-ass Minnesotans concerned for their neighbors. There is no one central organizing org, just a ton of people who give a shit. It's both beautiful that it's happening and laughable that anyone thinks there's some broader apparatus at work.

If you’re outside of Minnesota and you’re wondering how to help, this guide is excellent. And seriously. Take down your Ring doorbell TODAY.

Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...

Nothing complicated or subtle or hard to understand about what is happening: -"forcibly entered homes without a judge’s warrant" -"interrogated people because of their ethnicity or accents" -"broke windows and dragged occupants from their cars" -"used force on people who were already restrained"

Seriously, WHEREVER you are in the world, I recommend watching all of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s powerful & already famous speech at Davos. Can’t underestimate its leadership importance. Key line: “Middle powers must work together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

National media should really be covering the fact thay every major school, museum, and arts institution in the Twin Cities, and hundreds of local businesses are closed tomorrow to protest federal occupation. Nothing like this at this scale has happened anywhere in America anytime in living memory.

Cal State University’s deal with OpenAI — providing ChatGPT to all faculty, students, and staff — will expire in June 2026. Amid the prospect of layoffs in the CSU, we’re asking the chancellor not to renew this costly and demoralizing contract. Link below and anyone can sign:

ARE YOU A NON-MINNESOTAN WHO WANTS IDEAS OF STUFF TO DO TO HELP MINNESOTA RESIST FASCIST TYRANNY? Have I got a blog post for you! With additional advice for how to get ready in case tyranny shows up at YOUR doorstep next! naomikritzer.com/2026/01/21/h...

People don't really think through how the Nazis actively made it harder for Jews to leave The idea that all Americans are guaranteed any kind of freedom of movement, including boarding a flight, is quite the presumption at this point.

Mamdani: "I am in support of abolishing ICE. What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist. We're seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it's doing is terrorizing people."

Science isn't something you can just restart by a snap of the fingers either. The amount of lost knowledge and lab-specific know how lost is immeasurable. Like poisoning the soil in a forest of 300 yo trees. You can't just replant and hope things are like before.

“I can’t imagine being like, here’s this random person that said they’ll give you a ride to school & feeling more comfortable sending my child out in that car than me being able to take them… I can’t even begin to imagine what those families are feeling.”

Remember, newbie aurora enthusiasts— while the lights tonight will be strong enough in many locations to see with the naked eye, you’re gonna want to point a camera at them regardless, as cameras can pick up waaaay more color. Most of the time *only* cameras can detect them, including phone cameras

This is an Underground Railroad style operation. This is what I mean that we should study UR history, tactics, and strategy.

i was talking with someone in the twin cities about how it’s not even accurate to call them protesters. they’re literally just people protecting their city from TERRORISTS.

What an act of betrayal to the Hmong community by our own government. People who put their lives on the line during Vietnam.

"The best way to discourages ppl from riding a bike is to make the infrastructure so dangerous you just give up." Perfectly describes California's bicycle policy.

Over 500 people showed up to my neighborhood meeting this morning. We love our city and we are fired up. As one of our state reps said, “Because we’re winning, they’re coming twice as hard at us. They want us to be scared…but they don’t know us.” Some more: 1/n

Getting asked about how academics can continue to do science & inspire trainees even in the midst of a continued (escalated) assault on science, reason, truth, & human rights. I don’t have great answers. I would love to hear from mentors about advice they’re giving to trainees/ colleagues.

US ICE agents have been using tear gas on protestors in Minneapolis. There's been plenty of tear gas misinformation flying around on social media; here's a summary of the chemistry and the best way to get rid of it (TLDR: water): www.compoundchem.com/2020/06/09/t... #ChemSky 🧪

I’m seeing posts from people (outside of MN) about how US citizens should carry their passports. And let me say that *inside* MN, we are calmly responding to requests with: “No, I don’t have to show you any documentation.” Because that’s how you protect everyone, regardless of immigration status.