FIVE TARGETS. ONE MOLECULE. (It's a peptide-small molecule conjugate, so we're looking at 2+3=5 instead of one incredibly polypharmacological binding interface, but STILL.) cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic...

For our obit of Craig Venter, @maxhenrybarnhart.bsky.social dug up pre-HGP drama that I had never even heard of (spoiler: it's to do with patenting genes.) And @phylogenomics.bsky.social graciously shared remembrances of a complex, but really influential scientist. cen.acs.org/people/obitu...

Celebrating 1. Mai by doing my tax return.

Lots of people are talking about this study, this headline, this picture (!), and ultra-processed foods. It’s been my job for 25 years to understand nutrition. I think there are 5 - count ‘em, 5! - things that you need to know about UPFs and health. Here they are. 🧵 bsky.app/profile/cnn....

Read everything you write out loud. It helps you spot clumsy sentences and non sequiturs.

Credit where credit's due. 1 month since I put the application in, and 20 days since the passport office received my docs, and then new dark blue passport was just delivered. So I am yet again able to travel back to the home land.

Trump hasn't just waged war on US media; he has transformed it in his image. Billionaire allies now own major outlets. Tech titans indulge him. Fox News dominates. "He did this in a totally free society," says one historian. "It’s extraordinary". Today's Big Read is on #FTEdit 👉 ft.trib.al/jLYsNAn

Really interesting to see the role the Berkeley grad student union has played in this case: cen.acs.org/research-int...

"peptide biohacking"

Is it life? No. But is it a first of its kind chemistry experiment done more than 100 million miles from Earth? Hell yah!!🧪 (Plus, finding new organics on Mars is pretty neat too) cen.acs.org/physical-che...

Hey, UC Berkeley chemistry department: C&EN would like to hear from you. DM, or signal Laurel_Oldach.07 (amplification appreciated!)

If you think the nuclear-powered supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford is the most powerful ship in the world, you are wrong. It's actually the German cruise ship Mein Schiff 4 (pictured), which successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend

I actually think there're going to be transformative uses of AI and science. But i'm not convinced that souped up dataset and literature searches are, in and of themselves, going to revolutionise the science and business of making and testing new pharmaceuticals.

NEW—I got an exclusive excerpt from a USAID whistleblower's new book that made me gasp multiple times. It details Trump's dismantling of the humanitarian aid agency & his team/DOGE's shocking ignorance to public health. 'Into the Wood Chipper' by Nicholas Enrich is out tomorrow. Read excerpt here:

I visited Chornobyl ahead of the 40th anniversary to get the truth on the ground: has contamination worsened, or faded? Has the Russian invasion made things worse? What's the future for the exclusion zone? Is nature struggling or thriving? www.newscientist.com/article/2520...

Absolutely the stupidest timeline... Genuinely think we should make it easier for people to use less rather than artificially reducing costs on a commodity in limited supply.

This, by the way, is intended to take waste heat from one of the two ethylene crackers on site, and produce steam for formic acid production. Kinda bonkers cool

I will admit this plays into some of my biases but JFC

I promise to go read this report before commenting further, but the FDA just approved a small molecule GLP-1 agonist. I'm biased perhaps, but there's still a big role for chemistry

I'm proud to share that an article I published in @cenmag.bsky.social last February, "Long COVID studies stymied by pharma's lack of cooperation," has been selected as a finalist in the trade journalism category of the @nihcm.bsky.social Journalism Awards:

Gradually, then suddenly.

Just did an involuntary shudder

Today in separated by a common language: teaching the newsroom about "spiking" a story.

Drill chocolate containing (of course!!) undeclared sildenafil!

For the med chem and structures nerds of #chemsky, @bribarbu.bsky.social sat in on the #ACSSpring2026 first disclosures session to see what new drug candidates were unveiled cen.acs.org/synthesis/me...

My god the UK passport office is needy. I filled in my renewal application yesterday and they're already texting me reminders to not forget to send them my documents. It's OK love, I just haven't got the post office yet.

I heard there was a secret wrap You pull it long and hear the snap But you never handle petri dishes Do ya

Liebe Journis die sich gerade in Massen bei mir melden wegen KI Porn Betroffenheit und Gewalt gegen Frauen im Netz, lasst mich bitte eine Frage allgemein beantworten die mir momentan täglich gestellt wird: Ein KI Gesetz ist keine Lösung für antifeministischen Backlash in Deutschland.

I've told this story before, but the only time I was sexually assaulted since living here, the perpetrators were white German boys who thought it was funny until I threatened to punch one of them in the face...

🧪How do you study microplastics when everything in your lab is also made of plastic? I spoke with researchers in Germany, Norway, the US and Australia about how they try their best to create plastic-free labs, from 100% cotton lab coats to (near) 100% steel laboratories. @cenmag.bsky.social

Good story in C&E News about damage to the scientific enterprise and loss of confidence from researchers about having a trusted partner in the federal government. nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

‘A Mass Disaster Nonstop’: Inside the Turmoil at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s C.D.C. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

When the Ukraine war started that was exactly the political messaging in Germany. It's what prompted me to buy an electric blanket for the home office. The impact of the strait pinch on energy, fertilizer, commodity chemicals it going to just keep multiplying the longer this goes on.

With @maxhenrybarnhart.bsky.social in @cenmag.bsky.social cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic...

Er hat 'ne Fahne!

Serotonin’s role in mental health is more complex than we thought “I’ve been trying to get away from working on serotonin for a long time,” says John F. Cryan, “And I can’t because every time I leave serotonin, it keeps coming back.” cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic...

Hacks! The deadline for entering the BEST PRIZE IN JOURNALISM is Tuesday 17 March. Cash prizes! The admiration of your peers! The chance to get your picture taken with Ian Hislop so your mum can show it to people when they ask her what it is you actually do! www.private-eye.co.uk/paul-foot-aw...

Narratively having Ever Given getting stuck in 2021 to set up Hormuz in 2026 is great foreshadowing. You want your audience to understand the basics of international shipping in a lower stakes context so you drop the real plot without a lot of saggy exposition about the minutiae of cargo logistics.

Love this nerdery so much

Wild, I actually saw this from the back seat of our car driving up the 5 yesterday evening

Trump's decision to bomb Iran is now the greatest windfall to the Russian war effort on record. If it continues, it might save the Russian war economy.

It's not just the price of petrol at the pump...

Decent analysis of our local elections last night, the first I could vote in as a citizen.

I would have enjoyed world book day as a kid if I could have just been left alone to read a book all day instead of trying to find a way to make a costume from my existing clothes, then stand in a big circle while everyone failed to guess who I'd dressed up as.

The FDA recently announced a new regulatory framework that would let personalized medicines with a “plausible mechanism” of action bypass randomized clinical trials. For @cenmag.bsky.social, @rowanwalrath.bsky.social and @laureloldach.bsky.social dig into it

The inside scoop from @leighkboerner.bsky.social: "About 150 employees remained in ORD as of Feb. 13. Most got letters that day saying that they would be reassigned to other offices in March. The letters did not specify which offices."

Bahnfahren ist ein Glücksspiel *No actual cash at risk, but making your connection is

Went for a haircut, and let me tell you: based on the chat in the chair, the mood is not good.

Germany's rotten luck strikes again. After having its spy chief stuck in Ukraine after the war started there four years ago, its EU minister ends up stuck in Cyprus after Iran strikes www.euractiv.com/news/germany...

If you want to know how the British print news industry ends (which is, de facto, amazingly still what supports most newspaper websites) it's the distribution channels getting banjaxed. When you lose "TG Jones" etc even people who want a paper can't get one. That'll be the real start of the ending.