Reminder to anyone who needs it today: you have until midnight tonight to submit books and audiobooks for PLR UK: your future self will thank you when the cheque comes in!

it’s out!😻😻😻 like all her others, it is my favourite book of the year 🐾 (and is currently been devoured accordingly) #science #chemistry #history #AgathaChristie #books

First aid for a wasp sting: a plaster and being brave. First aid for drinking hydrochloric acid … I wrote about V is for Venom by @rotwangsrobot.bsky.social for @newscientist.com, a look at how the poisons of Agatha Christie work for real. www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

If your business model doesn’t work without breaking the law, then you’re not in business. You’re in organized crime.

Stream Online "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" Free on Its 50th Anniversary www.openculture.com/2025/05/stre...

Today's office

#AmReading We Are Bellingcat: An Intelligence Agency for the People by Eliot Higgins #BookSky 📚

#AmReading The World of Yesterday: Memoirs of a European by Stefan Zweig

Happy Birthday, Robert Bunsen! 🎂 He's best known for the eponymous Bunsen burner, which was actually constructed for Bunsen by instrument maker Peter Desaga. It was essential to the discovery of caesium and rubidium through their emission spectra. www.compoundchem.com/2023/03/31/b... #ChemSky 🧪

A friend included this anti-acknowledgement section on her PhD thesis. She also added the proposition: “Systematic bullying and undermining of girls and women in STEM starts early on and is the reason why they do not stay in science and related fields.” Absurd we still need to go through this 🧪👩‍🔬

The Scottish have won the AI Wars.

Fun Fact: today is Ash Wednesday, named after Ian Holm's character in Alien because he was still tidying up his pancake disaster from the previous day.

Questions for teachers and parents and readers and writers - what are the young folk reading these days in the whodunit genre? What's going on in the YA murder mystery world?

UK folks, five and a half more hours for this! #authors #artists #books #authorcommunity

#ICYMI: With news about #JamesBond I think you’ll enjoy Ep 222 of Jo Durrant’s Beautiful Universe podcast where I talk to @rotwangsrobot.bsky.social about book ‘Superspy Science’ & science behind 007 including diamonds 📲 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/j... 💻 jodurrantsbeautifuluniverse.libsyn.com

The fabulous Granite Noir #bookfestival is on again in #Aberdeen 20-23 February. I had a fantastic weekend last year, don't miss! lifeisafestival.wordpress.com/2024/02/29/s... #booksky #crimefiction www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/granite-noir/

#AmReading A Passage to India by E M Forster #BookSky 📚

#AmReading The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig #BookSky 📚

🎧 Ep 222 of Jo Durrant’s Beautiful Universe podcast is out Weds: 🤩 @rotwangsrobot.bsky.social talks about the science of James Bond in ‘Superspy Science’ inc lasers, volcanoes & gold ☠️ Story of Arsenic @rpharms.com 📲 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/j... 💻 jodurrantsbeautifuluniverse.libsyn.com

I won't be around for ToxTueday, so you'll have to settle for ToxMonday, instead. Today, I'm posting an experiment I did about 5 years ago with my old lab for some "team building." So what did we do? Look for drugs on money, of course! What did we find? Lots, but you'll have to keep reading:

I saw this on LinkedIn 😂 #chemsky

Happy Public Lending Right Statement Day to those who celebrate!

#AmReading The Trial by Franz Kafka #BookSky 📚⚙️👨‍⚖️📚

Hell is empty, And all the devils are here.

Your horoscope for today: Be like a flashlight - illuminate safe paths for others through dark times.

[email protected] I absolutely loved DEATH BY SHAKESPEARE, which taught me a ton about Shakespeare, his world and science. So much ghastly fun.

Deadline for ScienceWrite apps is getting closer, having participated last year I highly recommend!

#AmReasing The Complete Mapp & Lucia: Volume One by E. F. Benson #BookSky

#AmReading The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman #BookSky

40 WAYS TO DIE IN THE PREHISTORIC. Enjoy! These illustrations were made as scale drawing for a book about prehistoric creatures. Thought it would be fun to have a bit more interaction between the animals and human figures

Two stages of writing: 1) This shouldn't take too long 2) Oh no

#AmReading Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift #BookSky

Tomorrow!

#AmReading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman #BookSky

Oh wow! It's been a true whirlwind 48 hours - still on a massive high. Thank-you SO SO MUCH to #AnPost #AnPostIrishBookAwards #BooksellingIreland & to all those who voted; who write, draw, make, champion, sell, read, love books. What an honour to be part of your story! Photos soon! 💚📚😍 #APIBA #Derry

@jimspim.bsky.social Hello. How are you doing? Got a gap in your diary for a cuppa sometime?

I am performing at the @cosmicshambles.com Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People hosted by @robinince.bsky.social Please do come! All profits will go to charities Hope not Hate and Two Wheels for Life www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/com...

#AmReading Original Sin by P. D. James #Booksky

Me do!

There's lots of buzz about scientists on #bluesky! Don't forget to make room for the medical and science historians, too! Here's my #starterpack of some awesome people (and institutes). From medieval astrolabes to Victorian corsets, radium soap, and beyond! I got you covered. go.bsky.app/3DuVT6Z

On page 60 of 219 of my 4th complete read-through of V is for Venom. I strongly dislike reading my own writing. I think it's like hearing a recording of your own voice or seeing yourself on the telly. It's weird and disappointing that you aren't nearly as interesting or articulate as you had hoped.

As well as seeing the ISS, you can see all of the naked eye planets in the sky tonight apart from Mercury Venus sets early in the evening Saturn is a bright ocre colour in the south Jupiter is incredibly bright high in the east. Mars rises around 8.30 pm with the moon rising an hour later.

#AmReading Good-Bye to All That by Robert Graves #Books

ScienceWrite, a UK scheme for aspiring STEM writers from minoritised backgrounds, is open for 2025 applications! The 3rd year @romatheengineer.bsky.social & I are running this, with support from @royalsociety.bsky.social & I am SO EXCITED Deadline 3rd Jan #SciComm 🧪 www.sciencewrite.co.uk

I have gained over a thousand followers in a few short days and I'm not quite sure what to make of it all. I think much of this influx of lovely people is down to @jamiebgall.co.uk including me on a scicomm starter pack. Thank you. Appreciating all the support from fellow scientists and scicommers.

🐈‍⬛🤍.

The #SciComm starter pack is almost full. Make sure to revisit it as l’ve added lots of folk this week. Do share it and flag up if you’d like added. go.bsky.app/VJQzace

On December 3rd I'm going to Nottingham to talk about Death and Shakespeare. 💀🗡️💔You can come along and hear me if you'd like. It's free but you need to register here institutemh.org.uk/events/event...

Why am I only finding this now?! Absolutely glorious writing. Do give it a read.

How to save a post you want to go back to later. Place a 📌 in the comments of post. Think of this as a bookmark. When you want to see what you pinned, go to the search bar and type in the pin emoji. All your pinned posts will pop up. It’s really cool.