If you think there are too many AI startups named from Tolkien, @evrat.bsky.social has Season 2 of his fantastic, informative, (scary? weird?) Shell Game podcast out now. www.shellgame.co

And the babkas are done! #ChemistsWhoBake

My quote of the day To President Kennedy the world of creation and the world of thought were not removed from the mainstream of American life. They were at the very core of civilization, the power and achievements of man's art stripped bare the truths of human life. Lyndon B. Johnson

NEW: The FDA won’t tell Americans where their generic drugs are made, so ProPublica did it instead. Use information from your prescription label to locate the factory and see if the plant has a history of inspection violations.

We asked, you voted! Hexanitrogen is your 2025 Molecule of the Year! To get all the details on the spectacular finalists, check out our full coverage at cen.acs.org/synthesis/Mo... #chemsky 🧪

It's not just "learning for learning's sake" nor is simply a bunch of facts you acquire. Even in subjects like chemistry, it's the way you think and the reasoning. It's being able to recognize patterns, extrapolate from data, and come up with solutions (no pun intended) to complex challenges.

I’m hiring 1-year postdoc position in computational chemistry at the University of Copenhagen The research is focusing on automated reaction prediction in collaboration with two major Pharma companies (see e.g. doi.org/10.1002/anie...) Please share #compchem

Over a decade ago, John Swanson, Pitt trustee told a room full of us that everyone was looking at rooftop solar the wrong way. Instead of "oh, it's cloudy here, it's over 10-12 years to payback" .. instead, it's 8% return guaranteed As rates rise, it's even more important to get solar

Hey #Pittsburgh - donate through Dec. 10th - we've got some toys in storage that will get some good use!

Happy Grad School Recommendation Letter Deadline Day for all who celebrate! Can we come up with a grad school "common app" like for undergrads? Please? 🎉 #chemsky #academicsky

Do you know outstanding undergraduate researchers who could use up to $1,000 in travel funding to present their work at the Spring @acs.org or @pittcon.bsky.social Meetings? Please encourage them to apply for a Kolthoff award! Deadline is Jan. 12, 2026. acsanalytical.org/undergraduat...

Remember when Amazon held a sale during Independent Bookstore Day in an effort to undercut indie bookstores? We didn’t forget. Support local bookstores during Small Business Saturday and beyond.

UNCW's Dept of Chem and Biochem is looking for four (4!) new members this cycle including: Asst Professor Analytical Chem Asst Professor Physical Chem Lecturer - Bio- and general Chem Lecturer - General Chem Our dept is a great place to work and Wilmington's a blast! #ChemSky #ChemJobs Links ⬇️

Unfortunately, I don't remember the presenter. But at a recent ACS meeting, they asked ChatGPT why a particular drug passed the blood brain barrier. It gave reasons that some drugs *do* pass, but as the presenter mentioned, this one doesn't. When presented with the correct facts, it "apologized"

One amazing thing about Calvin & Hobbes is how well it holds up so many years later. My son, now a teenager, eagerly re-reads my book collection.

We just passed 3M downloads worldwide! 🎉 🎉 Thanks to all our users - it's been a great start and we look forward to more great things to come! #chemsky #compchemsky

Happy International Day of LGBTQIA+ People In STEM! How are you celebrating it? #LGBTQSTEMDay #PrideInSTEM

I know @pittchemistry.bsky.social and other schools have undergrad lab courses on "let's see if we can find antibiotics from soil bacteria" .. so hopefully we find even more soon

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I'm all in on #Pittsburgh but this article lacks some context. Consider that affordability and housing availability were major topics in the recent mayoral primary in the spring. Note that the article mentions "greater Pittsburgh area" - not necessarily the city proper.

If you do MD and haven't looked at WESTPA @pittchemistry.bsky.social - you should #compchem Of course I'm biased because Lillian and her group are doing great science

For the past 75 years, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has quietly powered innovations that shape our daily lives, from the classroom to the smartphone, from the weather report to the internet. Celebrate the NSF with Carlos Javier Martinez. act.ucsusa.org/3JuAItP

"The moment of discovery" does not always exist: the scientist's work is too tenuous, too divided, for the certainty of success to crackle out suddenly in the midst of his laborious toil like a stroke of lightening, dazzling him by its fire. ~Marie Curie #BOTD in 1867. #physics #womeninStem

This is really great news - "agreed to maintain the school’s current 59% reimbursement rate for ancillary research costs through 2029"

This is terrible news. If anything we need *more* independently funded postdoc fellowships. Frankly, I'm hoping we can create something like this at Pitt. Maybe some donors want to step forward? #academicsky

Chemistry has come a long way in 150 years from "a few tobacco pipes and tea cups to perform the most varied experiments" 🧪⚗️ - First isolation of Vitamin C by C.G. King - First Hartree-Fock calculation on water - Discovery of LDA for organic synthesis And of course many more - now to the next 150!

Pitt faculty taking a stand against the higher education "compact" www.wesa.fm/identity-com... I know of a few other news stories about similar faculty action. Please share them here.

We've been starting up some tutorial videos on Avogadro2 🎬🍿 www.youtube.com/@AvogadroPro... What topics would you like us to cover? Let us know over at discuss.avogadro.cc #compchem #chemsky

While it's depressing, is it surprising? These are experts when people in power are ignoring expertise? With an active attack on academia in general and research funding of all kinds slashed in the US? With people declaring that facts don't matter any more? I'm mostly surprised it's 75%

Congratulations to Alysia Mandato (Ph.D 2025) for receiving the Pittsburgh Section of the American Chemical Society Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes outstanding volunteer service to the local ACS section.

#chemsky #compchem Nice work by Brenda de Souza Ferrari, Ronaldo Giro & Mathias B. Steiner - generating SMILES for polymers through an automated set of calculations to determine the polymerization sites jcheminf.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

"The enthusiasm for putting the humanities on a starvation diet and 'pausing' graduate admission represents a steady move away from research … toward pedagogy, where fee-paying students are seen as more useful than any research…" #academicsky www.chronicle.com/article/rese...

#chemsky #compchemsky

Happy Mole Day, everyone! 10 to the 23 is a biiiiig number. Here are some incredible drawings from @chemscrapes.bsky.social illustrating the bigness of moles and the smallness of atoms and molecules.

Pittsburgh #NoKings 18-Oct-2025

I mean, the worst part is that there are actual deterministic #openscience tools to do name => SMILES (or other chemical format) + depict in 2D. Combine OPSIN with RDKit.. maybe check PubChem or ChEMBL or other open database if people use an informal term.

More MOF awards 🎉

Do you use Windows? We're now on the Windows app store: We will now offer signed MSIX packages with releases, in addition to the traditional installer. apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n21v... Let us know how it works at discuss.avogadro.cc

I'm definitely using this one in my class this spring.

I know this has been one of the most widely requested features. Should be in the release on 10/23 #chemsky #compchemsky #opensource

"Pittsburgh’s universities and hospitals are the big employers that economically and socially are actually really analogous to what the mills were 80 years ago" www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

I guess I'm happy that we installed #solar at our house in 2020, but this seems like it deserves more reporting...

#compchemsky Now offers tools to save computed spectra as PNG, PDF, SVG .. or the underlying data. Found a really nice #opensource #openscience plotting library

BTW, lots of great collaborations between @pittchemistry.bsky.social and the School of Pharmacy

The 2026 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List has 170 tenure-track positions and 19 teaching positions: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... #facultychemjobs #chemjobs #chemsky 🧪⚗️