whoa

In @science.org this week @zachwickens.bsky.social and collaborators find a way to do Z-selective elimination using thianthrenium chemistry in a versatile route to Z olefins. chemsky 🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Vaccinating against group B streptococcus (GBS) during pregnancy has been a long time coming, this week on the @science.org podcast w/ Leslie Roberts. Listen here 🎧: www.science.org/content/podc...

I am a new Expert Voices columnist @science.org and my first article just came out! In it, I argue that scaling technology has a dark side, particularly when it comes to alleviating inequality and injustice. And I suggest what scientists, engineers, and policymakers can do about it.

The last political column I was allowed to write in the @washingtonpost.com was a criticism of Obama. His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful. Now he is tweeting in support of me. This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*. Or used to work.

This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.

OH MY GOD

At this point in their particular discourse parade I’d rather hear Klein and Douthat debate the relative merits of tie with no jacket and jacket with no tie

“ABC and CBS are making a serious miscalculation. Their servility to Trump will not earn them peace, only greater pressure.” That’s the German professional association of journalists, @djv.de, calling on major US media to support their journalists instead of preemptively silencing them.

Increasing the breadth of researchers trained as peer reviewers is crucial to upholding quality in academic publishing. Last year, the Science journals began a pilot in which invited peer reviewers could add trainees as co-reviewers, with more than 2200 scientists participating. #PeerReviewWeek

Alexandria library to host exhibit on 400-year Black equality struggle www.alxnow.com/2025/09/16/a...

Oh man. If you want a fun movie that holds up, try Sneakers. Watched with kids over the summer and it has a lot to say in 2025.

"When we design tools that welcome different ways of sensing and thinking, we open new reaction pathways for discovery. Inclusive design doesn’t just widen participation; it expands the very structure-function relationship of science itself." cen.acs.org/careers/dive...

So many were involved in this project, but I want to give a special shout out our guest editor Mona Minkara! Mona had a hand in selecting our theme and the 12 Trailblazers featured here. She also wrote a stellar guest essay that I highly encourage you to read: cen.acs.org/careers/dive...

These 12 profiles highlight how this year's @cenmag.bsky.social Trailblazers are expanding our knowledge of the molecular world, while not shying away from talking about the struggles that come with having to navigate inaccessible STEM environments. cen.acs.org/people/profi...

It so was hard to imagine having successful career in science as a disabled PhD student that eventually I just left. Who could have guessed that years later I would help create a magazine issue dedicated to highlighting Trailblazing disabled chemists! cen.acs.org/people/profi... #DisabledInSTEM

I have come to the conclusion very few people actually understand the First Amendment in a serious way.

And yes, I was the last Black full-time columnist in the Opinion section. Washington Post -- operating in a city which for a long time has been majority Black, is now without any full-time Black opinion writers.

Some personal news: I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. Thread incoming. substack.com/@karenattiah...

Not a football guy but all I’m saying is if you were about to marry one of the most famous people in the world and got asked about it non-stop and you had the best people in your sport on the other side trying as hard as they could to mess you up, it would be astounding if you didn’t drop the pass.

Spelling Bee badges I’d like instead: 50 Latin plurals no one ever uses 40 birds 30 plants 20 “ee” suffix words 10 ethnic varieties of stew 0 names of molecules [to get this one you have to have tried 100 different ones that aren’t accepted]

If you visit downtown Tupelo, there’s a store with a sign telling the story about how a young Elvis walked in hoping to get a rifle and got sold a guitar instead, and in all seriousness there should be a national grassroots initiative to do that all the time everywhere.

Of course, as a practical matter, you could augment this with some kind of voucher you could choose instead that might go towards making a purchase at a music store, an art shop, etc.

Not only could we afford this if we wanted to, but I imagine a lot of companies would be willing to develop kits and pitch in themselves.

One policy solution to Young Men we should be considering is Universal Basic Electric Guitar (UBEG). I'm not joking, by the way. Kids of any gender should get a low-cost starter kit for some hobby of their choosing once they turn 13. A camera, paints, a cheap sampler, etc.

Update: Harvard has received reinstatement notices for more than half of its NIH grants (over 600 were terminated), but no money is flowing yet, per an internal email to staff this afternoon.

Your post has 25 likes, that’s the most in at least a day here in ChemSky - its Friday but wow it’s tumbleweeds here lately (unless your talking about ‘other stuff’)

This is a good post, chemsky—please clap

In @science.org this week from Simon Aldridge's group, CO is a sneaky thief: binds unexpectedly to tin at low temp, then steals both its ligands to make a carbene 🧪 chemsky www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

3/3 Ancient pollution from mines and smelting shows that Britain's economy did not suffer when the Romans left in 410 AD. Metal production rose for the following two centuries. A fascinating mix of #geochemistry and #archaeology 🏺 reported by @evoscribe.bsky.social. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

2/3 Two recent studies of marsquakes recorded by the InSight lander provide new information on Mars' interior, reports @voosen.me. One study probed the planet's mantle, the other its core. #planetsci #seismology #earthquake www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Lots of interesting reporting in this week's issue of @science.org: 1/3 The loudest gravitational wave event observed by @ligo.org determined the surface areas of the black holes. The results confirm Stephen Hawking's theoretical predictions, writes Adrian Cho. ⚛️☄️🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The photosystem I and light-harvesting proteins of marine coccolithophores assemble into a huge molecular machine that efficiently captures, transfers, and converts light energy, demonstrating the evolutionary diversity of photosynthesis. Learn more this week in Science: https://scim.ag/4mZBkpy

wrote about the “national conservative” vision for america

@wikipedia.org is in the top 10 highest traffic websites in the world. That's a lot of people accessing an electronic reference work, far more than ever had a print encyclopaedia at home, let alone used it regularly.

Maybe they had it right, keeping books analog. We’ve miniaturized all reference books to fit into a medium-sized wallet and we aren’t seeing more humans make use of them.

One of the most fascinating things about watching this show now is they have a time machine the size of a pocket watch but to keep track of history they need a clunky reference book made of paper

Here’s my list….

Finally had a chance to read through the redesigned monthly @cenmag.bsky.social and it’s great! Chock full of interesting long form articles plus old favorites like Newscripts. My fave was this one on the Graduate School Readiness Boot Camp. As a first-gen grad schooler: what a great resource!

I started research for this story, which came out today, more than a year ago. Thanks to all who stuck with me, and shared their thoughts. www.science.org/content/arti...

In @science.org this week, a collaboration among Feng Wang, Nengchao Luo, Paolo Fornasiero and coworkers reports a 2-stage photochemical hydrogenation and then partial dehydrogenation to produce ethylene from CO2 🧪 chemksy www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

bioRxiv bat signal. We had a huge influx of submissions around Labor Day and now have a backlog. If any affiliates are available to screen, we'd be eternally grateful!

Like a Senate panel in July, a U.S. House of Representatives spending committee has rejected President Donald Trump’s request to gut the budget of the National Institutes of Health. https://scim.ag/4m180xV

The article reporting this research is free to read www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

It turns out that the heavily polluted Tijuana River also pollutes air in the surrounding neighborhoods. In the latest @science.org podcast @kprather.bsky.social talks about ways to clean the air and water w/ Nazeefa Ahmed Listen here 🎧: www.science.org/content/podc...

The thing that might annoy me most about the endless Bluesky discourse is when critics assert that it's our responsibility as users of this website to stop it from going out of business by posting better (as defined by the critic) If anything these arguments make me more committed to posting worse

tbh it was less fabulous than the last time there was an s

That's bollocks.

Researchers have made a broad-spectrum antiviral that works against several virus families by blocking N-glycans—long thought of as undruggable targets. cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic... #chemsky 🧪

Currently going a little nuts for Icelandic Provisions Skyr—esp the peach and the key lime flavors