Neil Withers
@neilwithers.bsky.social
📤 1453
📥 861
📝 226
Features Editor for Chemistry World, Twitter refugee. Tractor fan
I heartily agree. Worth it for the part-finished raised carvings alone – incomplete art, frozen in time. But also: a four-odd thousand year old dress! In pretty good nick! Rameses III's girdle!!
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14 days ago
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Glad to see AI has finally found its niche
www.aptaclub.co.uk/baby/baby-to...
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Poogle It! - Free AI Baby Poo Tracker Tool | Aptaclub UK
Worried about your baby's poo? Poogle It! Scan your baby's nappy with our free AI poo checker to get insights and track changes. Sign up now to get started.
https://www.aptaclub.co.uk/baby/baby-tools/poo-tracker.html
16 days ago
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That's all folks!
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23 days ago
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Neil Withers
Jet Lee
27 days ago
This is a very well-written piece on this year's MOF Nobel prize with a lot of personal accounts from the community
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Neil Withers
Julia Robinson
28 days ago
Last week Susumu Kitagawa, Omar Yaghi and Richard Robson were awarded the
#Nobelprize
in
#chemistry
for their work developing metal-organic frameworks. Here I tell the story of how MOFs came to be - incl. an interview with Kitagawa himself!
www.chemistryworld.com/features/how...
@chemistryworld.com
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How the pioneers of metal-organic frameworks won the Nobel prize
From wooden models to thousands and thousands of structures, Julia Robinson tells the story of how Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi won the 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry
https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/how-the-pioneers-of-metal-organic-frameworks-won-the-nobel-prize/4022318.article
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Here it is! The full
#LongRead
feature article on this year's
#ChemNobel
-
@robinson-julia.bsky.social
managed to speak to Kitagawa yesterday!
www.chemistryworld.com/features/how...
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How the pioneers of metal-organic frameworks won the Nobel prize
From wooden models to thousands and thousands of structures, Julia Robinson tells the story of how Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi won the 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry
https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/how-the-pioneers-of-metal-organic-frameworks-won-the-nobel-prize/4022318.article
29 days ago
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Neil Withers
Jet Lee
about 1 month ago
A fun read while getting my
#MOF
fix
#chemsky
#MOFs
#NobelPrize
#chemistry
@chemistryworld.com
www.chemistryworld.com/news/i-worke...
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‘I worked on it little by little, with the help of a beer’: Making MOFs out of paper
Chemistry World talks to Ryo Horikoshi about engaging students with chemistry concepts using his stunning paper models
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/i-worked-on-it-little-by-little-with-the-help-of-a-beer-making-mofs-out-of-paper/4021198.article
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Ooh, looking back at the Nobel nominations database, which now goes up to 1974, John Goodenough was first nominated *in 1974* - before he'd even made a battery, and 44 years before he won it....
about 1 month ago
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Neil Withers
Stuart Batten
about 1 month ago
Just a little humble brag. Here's me getting my PhD with my supervisors - Bernard Hoskins and newly minted
#NobelPrize
Laureate Richard Robson. So thrilled for Richard, and thinking also of Bernard tonight (who passed away many years ago but was a crucial collaborator of Richard's).
#Chemsky
#ozchem
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Can't wait to see the write-up of the MOF/[porous] coordination polymer/whatever nomenclature debate on the BBC!!!
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about 1 month ago
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I always say that although the Nobel gets criticised it is definitely good for one thing: getting some proper chemistry* in front of people's eyeballs, once a year. So it's great to see this real in-depth reporting from the Guardian:
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Oh. *and biology
about 1 month ago
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I didn't realise Robson was from Yorkshire! Just 12 miles (as the crow files) from where Geoffrey Wilkinson was born...
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
Neil Withers
Jamie Gould
about 1 month ago
Another person who would surely have been in contention is Gérard Férey, who sadly passed away in 2017. His MIL-53 and MIL-101 structures continue to wonder and show new applications.
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Always good to remember that the T in BET adsorption is Edward Teller, 'father of the H bomb'
about 1 month ago
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In all seriousness, I've long been impressed by how MOFs bring together so many different bits of chemistry - a well deserved prize!
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about 1 month ago
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Ah, but is it [organic, solid state, coordination, physical] chemistry?
about 1 month ago
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So what meeting has Kitagawa got to go to?? Hopefully champagne is involved!
about 1 month ago
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I predict a lot of happy
#OzChem
ists
about 1 month ago
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MOFs in a box
about 1 month ago
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It's MOFs!
about 1 month ago
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What's in the box??
#ChemNobel
#ChemSky
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
Neil Withers
Patrick Walter
about 1 month ago
Morning all. An exciting day in the chemistry calendar. The
#NobelPrize
in chemistry will be announced in a little over an hour. We're keeping track of all the developments as they happen at Chemistry World
#chemnobel
www.chemistryworld.com/news/the-202...
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The 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry as it happens – live
Join us as we provide analysis and commentary in the run up to the announcement of the biggest prize in chemistry
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/the-2025-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-as-it-happens-live/4022193.article
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The laureates' 'prize-earning' papers in Phys Rev Lett, Phys Rev B from 1985 + 1987 have 276, 342 and 518 citations [Scopus] - low for Nobel-winning work, maybe? [1/2]
about 1 month ago
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Electrons go wheeee
about 1 month ago
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It's a good day for Johns in California!
#PhysicsNobelPrize
about 1 month ago
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Well that's perfectly clear. WTF??
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about 2 months ago
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Well that's perfectly clear. WTF??
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about 2 months ago
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In my very early days as a journal editor, somebody had a Word doc – several pages long – with the best comments from referee reports. It was pretty funny, but some of them probably belonged in this article
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
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‘Lipstick on a pig’: how to fight back against a peer-review bully
Scientific societies, journals, editors and researchers are pushing back against mean-spirited peer reviews.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02922-y
about 2 months ago
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Neil Withers
Chemistry World
2 months ago
While alchemy is increasingly seen as a precursor to modern chemistry, 'witchcraft' – practised by lower-status women – is still ignored. But was the 'magic', from flying ointments to healing potions, grounded in real pharmacology?
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From flying ointments to healing herbs: the forgotten chemistry behind historical witchcraft practices
The unusual concoctions of village witches have historically been dismissed as nonsense hocus pocus - but is this the whole story? Victoria Atkinson investigates the chemistry behind the myth and whet...
https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/from-flying-ointments-to-healing-herbs-the-forgotten-chemistry-behind-historical-witchcraft-practices/4022002.article?utm_campaign=organic_social&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky
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Number four in Multidisciplinary Chemistry (Excluding review journals) Will Surprise You !1!
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3 months ago
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It’s amazing who you bump into on a sunny day in London…
#ChemSky
3 months ago
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reposted by
Neil Withers
Chemistry World
3 months ago
Former NIH director Elias Zerhouni says that the Trump administration's plans to slash research spending will 'create havoc and destruction'.
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‘It’s carnage’: Former NIH director decries Trump administration efforts to slash research spending
Elias Zerhouni tells Chemistry World what's changed from when he was appointed by a Republican president to the current Trump administration
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/its-carnage-former-nih-director-decries-trump-administration-efforts-to-slash-research-spending/4021985.article?utm_campaign=organic_social&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky
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It's a Small World in The UK Establishment part 5745: this Biographical Memoir of John Davidson FRS, chemical engineer, vice-master of Trinity College etc etc, was checked for family details by inter alia his son-in-law the Rt Hon Sir Oliver Letwin
doi.org/10.1098/rsbm...
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John Frank Davidson. 7 February 1926—25 December 2019 | Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society
John Davidson was an engineer who made major contributions to chemical engineering science. His elegant and concise analytical models have underpinned the development of fluidised bed reactors used in...
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2025.0004
3 months ago
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Neil Withers
Richard Jones
3 months ago
Who/what to blame for current state of UK? Nigel Lawson, imo, not blamed enough for 3 policy doctrines which caused long-term damage: 1. Energy is just another commodity that can safely be left to the market 2. Financial services industry should be deregulated 3. The trade deficit doesn't matter
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Neil Withers
Royal Society of Chemistry
4 months ago
“Chemistry World … holds huge amounts of information and knowledge about different fields.” Shefali Saxena, MRSC RSC members get Chemistry World’s news and expert analysis, interdisciplinary perspectives and crucial topic updates on demand. Join for full access:
buff.ly/7BTzLFY
#ChemSky
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Interesting to see how things have changed since 2017, which sources tell me is 8 (eight) years ago...
www.chemistryworld.com/features/mof...
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4 months ago
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Don't look back, Ilan Gur
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4 months ago
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Are any of you good people going to the ABSW awards shindig next week? I'm planning to attend to cheer on
@rachelbrazil.bsky.social
and her nom for specialist feature. Hope to see some familiar faces...
4 months ago
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I think I missed this when it came out late last August, but great to read about how Jane Richardson invented protein ribbon diagrams in Quanta:
www.quantamagazine.org/how-colorful...
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How Colorful Ribbon Diagrams Became the Face of Proteins | Quanta Magazine
Proteins are often visualized as cascades of curled ribbons and twisted strings, which both reveal and conceal the mess of atoms that make up these impossibly complex molecules.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-colorful-ribbon-diagrams-became-the-face-of-proteins-20240823/
4 months ago
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In which I meander from 'carbon-based lifeforms' (argh) to refineries, MOF carbon-capture and end up at liquid carbon.
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4 months ago
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Neil Withers
Chemistry World
5 months ago
'Our reliance on carbon-containing compounds, especially as fuel, has come at too high a cost,' writes
@neilwithers.bsky.social
. 'Efforts to decarbonise our economy are progressing, of course, but where does that leave the places and people who produce carbon chemicals?'
#ChemSky
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Chemistry's capital C
From refinery scale to a nanosecond existence, carbon is everywhere - in life as well as chemistry
https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/chemistrys-capital-c/4021698.article?utm_campaign=organic_social&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky
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It's the benzentary. Benbizentary? Bizenetenary. Happy 200th birthday benzene!
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5 months ago
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reposted by
Neil Withers
Chemistry World
5 months ago
'US science is suffering a destruction from within.' Andrea Sella explains why he returned the Royal Society’s Michael Faraday prize over their inaction regarding Elon Musk’s membership.
#ChemSky
#SciSky
#ScienceSky
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Why I returned the Faraday prize to the Royal Society
Andrea Sella explains how inaction over Elon Musk's membership motivated him to act
https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/why-i-returned-the-faraday-prize-to-the-royal-society/4021668.article?utm_campaign=organic_social&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky
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reposted by
Neil Withers
Andy Extance
5 months ago
My latest story for Chemistry World describes UK oil refineries' ambitious attempts to ensure they don't go from economic lynchpins to historic relics. 🛢️ Read it here: 🤳
www.chemistryworld.com/features/how...
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How decarbonisation will help the UK’s last refineries survive
Carbon capture and low-carbon hydrogen are central to any possibility of supplying liquid fuels compatible with net zero, reports Andy Extance
https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/how-decarbonisation-will-help-the-uks-last-refineries-survive/4021607.article
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reposted by
Neil Withers
Dorothy Bishop
5 months ago
www.ft.com/content/8778...
Kudos to Andrea Sella for taking a stand against
@royalsociety.org
’s inaction over Elon Musk FRS
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Royal Society prize winner returns award in protest over Elon Musk
Andrea Sella is latest scientist to express dismay over UK science academy’s refusal to criticise tech billionaire
https://www.ft.com/content/877853df-1687-4d1f-940b-9eefc0cf69c0
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reposted by
Neil Withers
Chemistry World
5 months ago
‘Scream about first class pottery’ while you complete this
#cryptic
#chemistry
#crossword
www.chemistryworld.com/puzzles/cryp...
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Cryptic chemistry crossword #089
'Scream about first class pottery' while you complete this cryptic chemistry crossword
https://www.chemistryworld.com/puzzles/cryptic-chemistry-crossword-089/4021620.article?utm_campaign=organic_social&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky
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The streets of Ironbridge (and Coalbrookdale) are paved (well, kerbed) with iron (if you look closely right at the bottom of the pic)
5 months ago
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reposted by
Neil Withers
Bárbara Pinho
6 months ago
I've been a fan of Nature's newsletter 'Anthropocene' for a while now and was so happy to see my
@chemistryworld.com
article on period products featured in today's edition 😊 Read the story here:
www.chemistryworld.com/features/how...
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How safe and sustainable are period products?
Millions of people around the world use period products every month. Bárbara Pinho finds out what their environmental footprint is and whether they carry chemicals harmful to human health
https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/how-safe-and-sustainable-are-period-products/4021461.article
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reposted by
Neil Withers
Julia Robinson
6 months ago
From 1 June 2025, it will be illegal for businesses to sell or supply single-use vapes. In our latest explainer
@adamcvean.bsky.social
tells you everything you need to know about exactly what this means and why it is happening:
www.chemistryworld.com/news/explain...
@chemistryworld.com
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Explainer: Why is the UK banning disposable vapes?
Prior to the ban, almost seventy million single-use e-cigarettes were being discarded each year in the UK - containing enough lithium for a thousand electric vehicle batteries
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/explainer-why-is-the-uk-banning-disposable-vapes/4021578.article
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reposted by
Neil Withers
Chemistry World
6 months ago
It's the International Day of Action for Women's Health. Our latest collection explores how women’s health has historically been neglected in medical research, looking at the gender gap in health and drugs, the safety of period products, changing menopause treatments and more.
#WomensHealthMatters
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Women's health | Chemistry World
Many medical conditions affect only women, or affect them disproportionately, but women's health has historically been neglected in medical research. In this collection, we look at the gender gap in h...
https://www.chemistryworld.com/collections/womens-health?utm_campaign=organic_social&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky
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