Motherfucking wind farms…

Today I argue that the industrial strategy really is a break with the past. Hands off as far as possible, hands on as far as necessary.

Chemists have woven entangled nanocarbon structures that boast some of the most fiendishly complicated shapes. Dubbed “perplexanes,” they represent an entirely new topological class of molecules. cen.acs.org/synthesis/Pe... #chemsky 🧪

When is a knot not a knot? Enter perplexanes, molecules my mind is not meant to understand. Read @markpeplow.bsky.social's latest in ‬C&EN: cen.acs.org/synthesis/Pe... @cenmag.bsky.social

Well this couldn’t have come at a better time www.bbc.com/news/article...

“A Busy, Busy Day at the Airport” By Ruben Bolling Genius. Click in.

“So it was like, okay, how can we figure out a way to capitalize on these user habits while also making the major labels happy? Which is not the same thing as figuring out [how to] use technology to make it easier for people to support artists,… the people whose work they are listening to.”

Sascha Feldmann’s group at EPFL @feldmannlab.bsky.social probes the fundamentals of light, charge, and symmetry to boost solar photovoltaics, build energy-efficient electronics, and develop quantum information technologies. Read more: cen.acs.org/materials/ph... #CENT12 #chemsky 🧪

I've taken a look at why the driving test system has collapsed in the UK. Who is to blame? A badly-run public body with poor IT? A lack of test examiners on low wages? Enterprising and ruthless touts selling on £62 tests for £500? Or ill-prepared learner drivers?

They’re here! Introducing the Talented 12 Class for 2025. These early-career scientists are taking on big global #chemistry challenges. Meet the 2025 Class: cen.acs.org/people/profi... #CENT12 #chemsky🧪

Ever wanted to curate a mix or showcase your taste? Good news! With the new Bandcamp Playlists Beta, you can create and share playlists from the music in your Bandcamp collection. They're digital mixtapes powered by your support as a fan. Head here to get started:

One cool artist delivered to your inbox, every week. Couldn't be easier. Sign up for Bandcamp Notes. bandcamp.substack.com

Writes @katherinejwu.com: “Extracting oneself from a maelstrom of jargon can require a writer to step outside their comfort zone and interrupt, which takes a certain kind of nerve and grit.” Here’s how. 🧪

Want to influence international chemistry nomenclature? Here's your opportunity: www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/take... #ChemSky #ScienceSky

With NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya dismissing my reporting as "false" and "spreading rumors" hours before releasing a policy that confirmed said "rumors," I feel compelled to respond. Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Another week, another cool molecule to write about for @cenmag.bsky.social. This one is an in-plane metallo-annulene from Haiping Xia and coworkers. cen.acs.org/synthesis/Os...

The NSF is in a crisis. its director is out, hundreds more grants have been cut, and it is staring down catastrophic budget cuts and layoffs. Our reporting: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

In their latest work, Eric J. Schelter and his colleagues have shown that 4f orbitals can play an essential role in guiding the reaction of a molecule attached to a lanthanide. cen.acs.org/materials/in... #chemsky🧪

2nd find at used bookshop yesterday: 1818 edition of Jane Marcet’s groundbreaking “Conversations on Chemistry,” which inspired Faraday toward a scientific career. 🧪 Note that Marcet’s name doesn’t even appear here. #ChemicalHistory

An exclusive @nature.com analysis sees the first real signs of a US science brain drain (by our excellent careers team) ⚛️🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Just saw this in the Sun's piece: Lead scientist Professor Nikku Madhusudhan said “there is no mechanism in the literature that can explain what we are seeing without life”. 🤔 erm..... really hoping he's been misquoted here as there is lots in the literature to provide alternative explanations

An astonishing headline reporting on new observations from a team led to Nikku Madhusudhan claims they’ve found ‘hints of life’ on a planet orbiting a dwarf star some 124 light years away. What’s going on? (1/n) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭 🧪

The ethanol technology firm LanzaTech has received a takeover offer of 2 cents per share from one of its investors. Carbon Direct says the offer, which is at about a tenth of LanzaTech’s current stock price, may be the only thing that keeps LanzaTech from going bankrupt. cen.acs.org/business/fin...

One of my very first columns, twenty years ago, was about the daftness of eliminating bilateral trade deficits. We hired a babysitter to look after Baby Harford (who has now long since grown up and left home). Bilateral trade deficit with babysitter. Sad! timharford.com/2005/12/a-tr...

With the death toll rising still rising in Myanmar - still well short of the 10k-100k+ foreseen by the USGS, I've been talking to seismologist @judithgeology.bsky.social about the surprising "supershear" geophysics the unzipped the underlying fault in 90 seconds. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

I read through (most of) Project 2025's 922 pages to better understand how the agenda aligns with the Trump administration's science policies. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Elon Musk Amazed At How Much Cheaper Bribing Voters Is In Midwest

Happy International Whiskey Day! Here’s my piece on whiskey chemistry. It includes phenolic, ester, and lactones that add the aroma and flavor of whiskey #chemsky #sciart #science

In which @jburnmurdoch.ft.com concludes that AI might soon take his job. I reckon he’s got a while yet! www.ft.com/content/471b...

Out today on the first quarter day of the year. Our first single of the millennium. prolapse2.bandcamp.com/album/on-the...

“The best chance we have seen for identifying the remains of life on Mars” Tantalising organics found in Sheepbed mudstone on Mars 🧪 www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Heard about that French scientist who got turned away at the border? @heidiledford.bsky.social & I report on researchers' increasing anxiety about traveling in or out of the US: 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Elbows up, Canada.

Wrote this piece about the challenges of Frozen Head and the Barkley for @theguardian.com #bm100 www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/m...

There’s a great interview with Nick Park about Wallace And Gromit in last month’s Empire, and this bit in particular stood out. It sums up what artists have been trying to say about AI. The mistakes and the learning aren’t things to be bypassed, but a vital part of the process 🤟

A Chinese team has created a fridge-sized, 23kg satellite that can perform quantum key distribution in space & used it to transmit a secure image 13,000km. A quantum secure network that spans the globe is not far away ⚛️🧪 My @nature.com story here: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The big-tech industry has a long history of building renewable-energy capacity to service its needs. An article from Nature Index explores how these companies may further change the green energy industry in the US to power their AI demands. 🧪

Very pleased to talk to @keltonminor.bsky.social r.bsky.social, one of the victims of the sudden NIH grant cuts at Columbia University, and to @patosilveyra.bsky.social whose studies were mischaracterised as 'transgender' in the SOTU address. Science/Politics again. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

Roses are red Violets are blue

NEW: LibGen contains millions of pirated books and research papers, built over nearly two decades. From court documents, we know that Meta torrented a version of it to build its AI. Today, @theatlantic.com presents an analysis of the data set by @alexreisner.bsky.social. Search through it yourself:

This week in the C&EN Magazine: Trillions of tons of hydrogen may be waiting under our feet + Good old pills vie for weight-loss market + ‘Why is it that nobody can reproduce anybody else’s findings?’ cen.acs.org/magazine/103... #chemsky🧪

After a brief memorial, laz lit the cigarette at 11:37. The 2025 Barkley Marathons has begun. #BM100

Europe courts US scientists fleeing Trump crackdown https://www.ft.com/content/cdcbe3df-9475-4816-9a95-0df64838566f

BYD shares hit record high on 5-minute EV charging claims https://www.ft.com/content/a50a535b-91e1-4442-a5b1-aea50a261be8

Really good and balanced overview of the REMA zonal pricing tussle this. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

🚨 @newscientist.com SCOOP: I've exclusively obtained Peter Kyle's interactions with ChatGPT using FOI laws - in what I believe may be a world-first transparency release. The chatbot said "Lack of Government or Institutional Support" slowed UK AI adoption www.newscientist.com/article/2472...

I'm sorry but the response from the *Australian Prime Minister* is the most Australian thing I've ever come across www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This week I left The Washington Post after 40 years, 6 months and 6 days. Today I have a piece in the New Yorker explaining my heart-breaking decision, and including the column that was spiked. I wish I never had to write it. www.newyorker.com/news/essay/w...