Professor in Synthetic Organic Chemistry University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!

Please RT!

The Dept of Chemistry at UC Irvine invites applications for a tenured faculty position in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. Deadline: July 1, 2026.

More information about the position can be found here: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF10109

@uciphyssci.bsky.social

@jeremymberg.bsky.social has posted a bit on this, it looked like NIH was slow and way behind the norm but getting at least some things out. NSF is another story…

😂😂😂😂 to be fair to your friend, that’s not far from the way I have seen bartenders prepare it, so they are basically a pro!

As far as i can tell, sweet or sour, brandy is typically used here, but I’m not a fan of brandy old fashions, i like the classic bourbon much better.

I was so confused the first few times ordering... sweet or sour? either option is incorrect! Just an Old Fashioned-Old Fashion

A line grant of the cumulative numbers of awards for NSF from fiscal years 2021-2026. The curve for fiscal year 2026 lies below well the other curves.

NSF update

Still looking very bleak.

4/5

2014-2019 were some of my favorite years doing science

We are trending down significantly due to budget pressures (TA lines, external support, etc)

Ah, so there is another mechanism at play that is slowing the award notifications at NSF I'm guessing? I thought it was an issue with releasing the money to NSF. This last year+ sure has been a crash course in the flow of resources and the not so obvious choke points.

Hopefully this means NSF and DOE will be in a similar position

Why did the biologist break up with the physicist?

There was no chemistry. 😆

a provost initiative.

Time for some desktop sized pluse epr spectrometers!

Materials Engineer, Failure Analyst - NMR Specialist - Jobs - Careers at Apple Apply for a Materials Engineer, Failure Analyst - NMR Specialist job at Apple. Read about the role and find out if it’s right for you.

Materials Engineer, Failure Analyst - NMR Specialist (organic, polymeric and other novel material) Apple, Cupertino, California, United States jobs.apple.com/en-us/detail... #NMRjobs #NMRchat 🧲

This thread is the dialog running through my head as i go through all the various content i have made and pulled together over the years for my three main courses to update and make sure it all meets accessibility standards wondering where i need to/should trim content out

Sure, but then just make that more clear from the start. The messaging has just not been great.

Measurement and Control of Crossed Potentials in a Flavoprotein Flavoproteins constitute 1–3% of prokaryotic and eukaryotic proteins, functioning as electron transfer agents, catalysts, and sensing or regulatory modules. Their versatility as redox-active proteins stems from the tunability of the flavin cofactor’s one- and two-electron reduction potentials via interactions with the protein scaffold. Although several mechanisms have been proposed to explain how the flavin-binding pocket modulates redox thermodynamics, a holistic model enabling interpretation and prediction remains to be established. In this study, we investigate how the flavin N5 environment influences the redox properties of the flavin mononucleotide cofactor in the “improved” light-oxygen-voltage (iLOV) sensing protein using site-directed mutagenesis, redox titrations, and hybrid quantum mechanical molecular mechanical (QM/MM) methods combined with classical alchemical free energy simulations. Mutating the residue Q103, which interacts with the flavin N5 and O4 atoms in the X-ray crystallographic structure, exerts a modest <35 mV effect on the overall two-electron reduction potential, but significantly alters the potential separation of the two one-electron couples (potential crossing) by up to 168 mV. QM/MM and free energy calculations reveal that water penetration into the flavin-binding pocket near N5 and O4 largely explains the trend in reduction potentials among the mutants. The results suggest a molecular mechanism of flavin tuning in which hydrogen bonding to the neutral semiquinone, either directly by the side-chain or a protein-penetrating water, contributes significantly to the potential crossing. These findings establish quantitative experimental benchmarks for theoretical models and advance a molecular mechanism for redox tuning in flavoproteins.

It's finally out! Great work Ben, Sichu, Sarah, Brett, Ian and Samer for the wonderful science and effort here. The role of the N5 environment in tuning flavin reduction potentials.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

This is what letting RFK jr go wild on health looks like

Exclusive: key NIH review panels due to lose all members by the end of 2026 Thirteen of the agency’s advisory councils, which must review grant applications before funding is awarded, are on track to have no voting members.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Feeling really good about the proposal i just submitted 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

🤦‍♂️

Snapshot of temperatures too cold to live in

Not any better here 🥶🥶🥶

“The Ents are going to war”

Teaching glycolysis this week in my biochemistry class, and cannot recommend this article enough. I really wish I had been taught this critical pathway from a perspective of (bio)chemical logic, rather than memorizing ten enzymatic reactions...
www.nature.com/articles/nch...

Correlating Protein Dynamics and Catalytic Activity of a Model Hydrogenase Using Paramagnetic and Biological Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Rational catalyst design remains a significant challenge, with electronic structure, steric, and electrostatic effects known to contribute to activity. Recently, dynamics has been recognized as anothe...

Congratulations to Henry & all-- major thanks to the PNNL & OSU teams! This was a true collaborative effort that we're excited to see out. Give it a read if you're interested in paramagnetic Ni NMR, regular NMR, or catalyst dynamics-- there's even some machine learning! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Certainly the case in my department, there have been retirements with the expectation that hire would follow and we are still waiting. I would be interested in the funding picture, how much funding is currently held by faculty in a position to retire. But that also may not be a big impact either.

Disentangling First and Second Sphere Effects in Iron–Sulfur Cubanes Cubane-type iron–sulfur clusters (Fe4S4) are some of the most versatile metallocofactors and, as such, among multiple functions, primarily responsible for mediating challenging electron transfers (ETs...

Thrilled to introduce my first work as a (co-)corresponding author, in which we attempt to elucidate "how" 4Fe4S cluster's properties are tailored by different types of interactions... (1/2)

Disentangling First and Second Sphere Effects in Iron–Sulfur Cubanes | JACS Au pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

This NSF MPS “reorganization” email seems unclear and disruptive… so about as expected. Feel bad for the POs.

But the other one was perfect!!

Dying iPhones and liquid helium fills u-of-o-nmr-facility.blogspot.com/2019/04/dyin... #nmr #nmrchat #chemsky

a man with a surprised look on his face is wearing a red shirt Alt: a man with a surprised look on his face is wearing a red shirt saying Woah

If you see this, repost with your model of positive masculinity.