This is my 2nd start up job, working on completely different systems in each company. All those skills I developed in academia have been very useful indeed.

I haven’t abandoned biology , soft matter , ageing , cancer research , and thermodynamics. I’m just keeping those on the down low while I navigate the excitement that is start up life.

New year new Job!!! Based in the heart of Cambridge (next to Parker’s Piece) I’m now a materials and process development manager at sustainable tech startup , Fab Materials.

Darwin on top Christmas form

Working through 3 months of gardening leave. It’s such a weird place of limbo. It gives me time to find a job or setup my company. It’s such a strange feeling having no job to go into in the morning.

We're looking for a new postdoc on our new BBSCR grant (Graham Taylor/Tim Guilford/Cait Newport). See link below! my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Darwin on top form

Well here’s a life update !! I’ve resigned from my job in the sustainable tech startup . It was a good 2.5 years but time to move on. The question is what to do next . I mist likely will be starting up my own company!!

If replicated in humans this could revolutionise the treatment of Alzheimer’s www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Well it's been 2 years and 2 months since I left academia (after being in academia for 25 years!!). Start up life is pretty crazy but still infinitely less stressful than academia. I should have made the transition 15 years earlier!!

Home electronics projects are fun..next up a radio controlled car

I must be bored, I just typed in to Google “Karoline Leavitt, what does she do all day?”

Darwin on top form

Roses in the new old house

I’ve just discovered Toast of London

A cheeky question to anyone working on photovoltaics out there. Is is relatively straightforward to build an Arduino based device for measuring the efficiency (I-V curves) of a dye sensitised solar cell?

The UK’s Advanced Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA) is funding Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) projects including thickening Arctic sea ice to make it more reflective, Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) and Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI).

Returned to Newcastle last week for some business meetings. It was so strange being back after 2 years away. The new Engineering building looks quite fancy…

Wow , it looks like Harvard is gonna be destroyed. Are we living in a nightmare?

Just a little update for the busy, from the world of science: 1) There's no life on K2-18b 2) Vaccines cause adults 3) They are not Dire Wolves Carry on.

If you want to read one more dire wolf take this week, i can thoroughly recommend @maxhenrybarnhart.bsky.social's deep dive on what scientists make of the announcement, just why it broke like it did, and what that means for conservation work more broadly. @cenmag.bsky.social 🧪

At Cambridge University today , meetings in Chemical Engineering. Can feel the intense brainwaves radiating from the Cavendish lab

Darwin and his friend Baxter

each year @newlimitbio.bsky.social, we share an update on our progress with the public this week, we revealed the early results from our programs in metabolism & immunology. we’re starting to see the first hints of reprogramming medicines on the horizon. watch here: m.youtube.com/watch?v=HR0-...

I'm probably getting fired.

Hmm somehow ended up at Imperial College today !! Looks quite fancy these days

This guy, @albertburneko.bsky.social, is a genius. Please read his brilliant article on Elon Musk's deranged and morally repugnant Mars colonisation schtick. defector.com/neither-elon...

How the Royal Society has any association with the Nazi conman Elon Musk is beyond belief. The Royal Society is a disgrace to scientists in the UK.

I continue to be surprised that more of the learned societies are not coming out with statements like this (And well done to @planetarysociety.bsky.social for being clear and simple, and bold, in this statement) 🧪 - if the cuts haven't hit an agency near you - it seems to be a "yet" issue 😭

"Quantum Dots and their promising applications in the fabrication of injectable hydrogels" Always nice if the authors use the word "fabrication". #ImageForensics

What's happening at #USAID is causing so much damage. The great reporters at @science.org explore some of that damage. www.science.org/content/arti...

Omg my Mac Mini has arrived and it is soooo tiny yet so powerful. Highly recommend!

BBSRC fellowships are now open! If anyone is interested in applying to work in my team on Efflux and/or AMR mechanisms @imibirmingham.bsky.social then drop me a line! www.ukri.org/opportunity/...

I'm thinking of obtaining mind mapping software. Does anyone have any recommendations? I really like the look of "The Brain" but is a tad pricey for access through all devices.

Would finding biopolymers on a meteorite be evidence of extra-terrestrial life? I'm always a little disappointed when they announce (however amazing) the presence of amino acids, nucleic acid bases e.t.c. Biopolymers would suggest assembly of complex molecules via enzymes..

🔌💡Just a few years ago, if somebody told me that battery prices would fall to $50/kWh, I would have laughed! But soon they'll be $25/kWh! It's an absolutely astonishing feat! You could get an entire Tesla Model 3 battery pack for $2,000 - $3,000! What a world that would be! #EVs #battchat

OpenAI Furious DeepSeek Might Have Stolen All the Data OpenAI Stole From Us www.404media.co/openai-furio... #openAI #deepseek #ethics

🔬 MedSky 🔬 Bi-paternal mouse survives to adulthood, marking scientific milestone

Open access 🧪 study in Nature Astronomy here: Abundant ammonia and nitrogen-rich soluble organic matter in samples from asteroid (101955) Bennu. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The chemical building blocks of life have been found in the grainy dust of an asteroid called Bennu. Samples of the space rock, scooped up by a NASA spacecraft, contain a rich array of minerals and thousands of organic compounds. 🧪🔭 Links to open access studies below. www.bbc.com/news/article...

For anyone with reservations regarding whether Elon Musk is a full on Nazi, the salute should clear that up. Personally, he had me at "I am Dark MAGA"

postdoc opportunity in @alexwoolgar.bsky.social and my lab, based in Cambridge UK! seeking someone with excellent analytical skills to join our project using time-resolved human neuroimaging to study receptive language processing in non-speaking autistic individuals 🧠✨ www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/48835/

🚨New job opening 🚨 Hey #Chemsky, we have an opening for an editor on the cross-journal team to handle papers in organic chemistry & related fields 📍 Shanghai, Beijing, Heidelberg or Berlin 🗓️ Closing date: Feb 4th ❔ DMs open if you have questions www.nature.com/naturecareer...

📣We're recruiting📣 a PhD student for an exciting collaboration with the Capripox Biology group at @pirbrightinst.bsky.social to study the host range and innate immune evasion of these important animal pathogens. Proteomics, structure, infection and more! Details: www.pirbright.ac.uk/careers-and-...

Never forget that Exxon built their own climate model in the 1970s that correctly predicted climate change from the burning of fossil fuels

Research Fellow in Artificial Cell Modification Particularly suited to applicants with expertise in protein overexpression and purification, peptide synthesis and characterisation of proteins and their conjugates, including mass spectrometry. jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

New paper is up! Elephant skin collagen is all tangled up! Theead coming up in a few hours! www.nature.com/articles/s42...

New year, new #compchem program! I just uploaded a video on how to install and run a molecular dynamics simulation with XTB from @grimmelab.bsky.social Please help me share! #chemsky #science #chemistry youtu.be/vty_N3ctv7E?...

The big question is whether Elon Musk is a genuine fascist or is just doing Putin’s bidding. Either way I will celebrate his downfall when it inevitably happens.