I'll miss my official "Welcome to bye-fellowship at Catz" dinner this evening as I'll be in London watching Operation Mincemeat, but I've managed to pop in for lunch and a cuppa at least!

Applications for the STEM SMART programme are open for Year 12 (or equivalent) state school students until the 31 October 2025. Watch our video: www.tiktok.com/@cambridgeun... Read more and apply: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/stem-smart #EduSky #SciSky

Please enjoy today, 25/9/2025, the last square date until 2116 (5^2/3^2/45^2).

Celebrating Faraday's birthday at his lab ⚗️ #RealTimeChem #ChemSky #SciSky

The Home Office claiming there is no evidence that one moved to the UK with one's parents, as a child, hits rather close to home... (Lest a team turn up at my door, I did, after many stressful months, get the decision to deny me permanent residence overturned and indeed am now a British citizen.)

It's been another successful STEM SMART residential this year, hosted in our new RDC building this time. Thanks to everyone who supported the event: the students really appreciated it!

A really enjoyable event every year. Great to meet so many new teachers as well as seeing returners again. Lots interested in chemistry this year: hope the keenest ones enjoyed the detour to @stcatharines.bsky.social to see the orbitals exhibit 😀 Have a well-deserved summer break! #ChatChemistry

Do you have experience teaching science at secondary/sixth form? Come join us at Isaac Science as a project biologist, chemist or physicist! We're a small, friendly team and the work is very rewarding. #iTeachPhysics #ChatPhysics #iTeachChem #ChatChemistry #iTeachBio #ChatBiology #SciTeachUK #UKEd

First Cambridge Open Days with Physics based in the new RDC building have been a success, though the weather has been rather too hot... Thanks to everyone who stopped by, and good luck to everyone planning to apply!

Congratulations to the 47 students who attended the 2025 Senior Physics Challenge on an excellent week of quantum mechanics problem solving and experiments! #iTeachPhysics #EduSky #ChatPhysics

Everything would be awesome if we could build the Catz periodic spiral in LEGO! A design has been created & needs 10k votes before LEGO will consider it so let's get voting at ideas.lego.com/proje.... Learn about the original: caths.cam.ac.uk/abou... @chemlibcam.bsky.social‬ ‪@chemistryworld.com‬

The Beamish Museum (County Durham) is advertising for a Learning Coordinator (STEM): www.jobtrain.co.uk/beamishmuseu... 🏛️🎓

Euro notes contain a pigment which includes (very appropriately!) the rare earth metal Europium. It glows red under UV light. On this week's Rare Earth on BBC Radio 4 we dug deep into the environmental benefits & costs of rare earths and other critical minerals. Do listen! www.bbc.co.uk/progra...

In #MathsToday, it is time for the UKMT Team Maths Challenge National Final! Good luck to all the teams taking part 🙂

🥽Goggles or 👓 safety specs – how are they labelled in your classroom or lab? edu.rsc.org/endpoint/do-... #iteachchem

I wrote an article for @rsc-eic.bsky.social on safety specs vs goggles in schools! The link in the quoted post is broken, but try edu.rsc.org/endpoint/do-...

Do you know your safety specs from your goggles? Chemist @stareatair.bsky.social‬ shares why it's crucial we all know what to use when 👇 edu.rsc.org/endpoint/do-...

Quick poll time, it would be very useful for our work to know how many labs you have in your school. Sadly we can't do this via a voting poll, so please just reply with how many labs (teaching labs + prep rooms) you have. Please also share this with others Thanks for your help in this 👍

In #MathsToday, time for the UKMT AGM at the London Mathematical Society's De Morgan House. As a chemist, couldn't help noticing it opened on Mole Day!

And so the building we moved into in January, new home of the @cambridgephysics.bsky.social, is now officially open!

Thanks @chemistryworld.com, #Chemsky please vote to help @iupac.org to define key molecular machinery terms 👍 🔗 www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/4021... Task Group Members: @aprahamian.bsky.social @deanst.bsky.social @sgoldup.bsky.social @daisypooler.bsky.social Carson Bruns Pierangelo Metrangolo

New design of the Isaac page coming soon, with chemistry content featured more prominently than before!

You can beat Zr, Rf and Pr with "quicksilver" though 😉

Well done everyone! Was a pleasure to lead the Cayley marking this year and to have so many great volunteers contributing their time and expertise, such as @ridermeister.bsky.social, @algebraist.bsky.social, @heerpal.bsky.social and also great to finally meet @dannykodicek.bsky.social #MathsToday

Some data on the success of our STEM SMART programme! #ChatChemistry #EduSky

In #MathsToday, currently running one of the regional UKMT Team Maths Challenges at Framlingham College, before leading the Cayley marking in London with assistance from @ridermeister.bsky.social this weekend. Also, the Cayley/Hamilton/Maclaurin video solutions are live: ukmt.org.uk/video-soluti...

Went to see "Diving into Math with Emmy Noether" yesterday: an excellent play about her life and maths contributions. Highly recommended if it's ever performed in your neck of the woods. #MathsToday

Watch for the effect of a magnet on the iron/thiocyanate complex. Paramagnetism at work. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qipp... #ITeachchem #RealTimeChem #chatchemistry @sfed-rsc.bsky.social

Teaching Physics Waves topics at KS3, GCSE or A Level? Join our free, IOP-accredited online CPD starting with KS3 Waves today, Thurs 27 Feb 4:30pm (GMT). Book now: isaacphysics.org/events/25_wa... #chatphysics #EduSky

Really good to see @roysocchem.bsky.social explicitly address the UK University crisis. www.rsc.org/news-events/...

In #MathsToday, the solution videos for this year's UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge are now live for you to enjoy (I would say muahahaha, but my evil laugh did not make the final cut): www.youtube.com/watch?v=omtw... And then it's time for BMO2 marking tomorrow!

We managed to win £30 for @animalaid.bsky.social by coming joint third! 🎉

Chemistry highlight from packing up our offices in recent weeks. Not sure how old this filter paper is. (Any chemistry historians out there who know? It talks about Berzelius in the past tense, but little more to go on.) In any case, what amazing marketing slogans 😆 #ChemSky #EduSky #ScienceHistory

THREAD An Ode to Yorkshire They call it God's own Country. Among the stereotypes of England, it ranks up there with Shakespeare, Dickens, Tea & Biscuits, top hats and a very particular brand of dentistry. Why Yorkshire? Isn't this account about Attention Scores and Memes? Couple of reasons. 1/31

The thing we're annoyed about is the pentavalent carbon rather than the pronunciation (see "tickle 4" or "BuLi"!).

Great idea! Based on a couple of recent real-life #ChemistryConversations I've had off the back of people commenting how much better new no/low-alcohol beers have become in recent times, I can suggest the various ways that alcohol-free beers are are made as a #ChemistryConversationStarter

The countdown is on to the release of my book “Onscreen Chemistry” - which tells the story of chemistry/chemists in moving pictures from the very beginning up to the present day, charting all the highs & lows. You can pre-order it here for 12th Feb #Chemistry #SciComm books.rsc.org/books/monogr...

Happy New Year +/- a few hours depending on your time zone +/- significantly more than a few hours if the Gregorian calendar is not your calendar of choice! And if it is, enjoy the last year of the first quarter of this century (wait, how did that happen?!).

Merry Christmas, everyone! Here's an interdisciplinary reindeer question to fill a little bit of your time if your day is not busy enough... #ChatBiology #ChatChemistry #ChatPhysics

A couple of quick freezing point depression calculations today #EduSky

For day 19 of #ChemAdvent24, we look at the compounds behind the delicious smell of roast chestnuts #ChemSky 🧪 [Now with less Christmas magic pentavalent carbon]

Find our festive Isaac calendar, featuring themed Isaac questions released every other day on our site: isaacphysics.org/pages/2024_1... 🫚Eaten any gingerbread lately? Why does ginger taste so different when it's baked? Look at the underlying chemistry: isaacphysics.org/questions/gi... #ChemSky

For day 14 of #ChemAdvent24, a look at the compounds behind the distinctive aroma of frankincense, with isomers of olibanic acid the most important #ChemSky 🧪

I had fun writing this one, though had to keep reminding myself I was writing a question not a blog 😆 So many fascinating connections to make from silver fulminate! It's aimed at A Level chemists #ChatChemistry, but anyone can have a go and search for any answers they might be unsure about online!

Continuing my reposting of maths/science/coding advent calendars with the classic @compoundchem.com calendar!

In #MathsToday, I was looking at this kids' maths advent calendar question (sorry it's in German, though you can do the version aimed at the highest year groups in English) www.mathe-im-advent.de/de-fo/kalend... and thought that would be a fun way of introducing limiting reagents ☃️ #ChatChemistry

I'm just reposting nerdy advent calendars at this point, but here's another fun one! 6 stars down, 44 to go...

"PiA® - Physics in Advent" is a unique Advent calendar offering 24 fun physics experiments and puzzles. Each day features a video showing an experiment you can try at home, with questions to answer online and solutions revealed the next day. Discover the joy of physics! youtu.be/ribyOc220z4

Amazing stuff.

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.bsky.social