Keep Your Noise Out Marcus Aurelius drafted the private journals that became the Meditations while camped in a tent on the front lines of the Danubian wars.

Returned back to the backlog of emails. Felt like a good attempt to put my own Substack medicine into action. groundinghour.substack.com/p/keep-your-...

The Doyle Identity (No $*£&, Sherlock) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle loathed Sherlock Holmes. He viewed his famous detective as a distraction from serious historical novels he wanted to be known for.

How often do we keep wearing science hats even on Easter Sunday? My weekly substack on the risk of being a one-trick pony. groundinghour.substack.com/p/the-doyle-...

When you are more tempted to eat the sample than to scan it… Happy Easter!
Peer review (taste test) pending!
#easteregg #happyeastereveryone

First stop: Well Green: the place where Renton losses his constipation at the beginning of the film.

2nd Annual MacMillan Lecture - University of Glasgow Join us for the 2nd Annual MacMillan Lecture —feat. Prof. Jeff Long (UC Berkeley) and RSC Prize winner Prof. Jim McCusker (Michigan State)

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2nd-annual...

#ICIQJobs

💡 #PhD Call ICIQ Severo Ochoa 2026 is now open!

🧪 5 multidisciplinary research projects
📆 Deadline: 3 May

Apply 🔗 careers.iciq.org/jobs/7461315...

@cerca.cat @bist.eu @sommalliance.bsky.social

Learn with The Vibe Photo credit: My Wife

My latest substack post explores why we often prioritise feeling good vibes over learning better. It turns out the most effective learning environments require a bit of both, unsurprisingly. both. groundinghour.substack.com/p/learn-with...

Great food and lovely presentation. One thing that stands out straight away to is how the sauce looks like. With pasta, layering the sauce is a small detail, but apparently a big thing for a chef. Not a criticism at all, the taste is the same so for home cook it’s something not be bothered with.

Lectures are over @uofgchem.bsky.social and I’ve just realised that nearly my entire 2Y timetable was set in the most stunning corners of the university. Bute Hall is a difficult place to top for a lecture theatre. And its stained glass fits the crystallography theme perfectly.

To recognize young scholars producing outstanding PhD theses in the field of crystalline materials, the journal Crystals have awarded the Best PhD Thesis Award since 2023. Applications for this award are now open, with a deadline of 31 May 2026

www.mdpi.com/journal/crys...

Thanks Mario. I am glad you liked it.

To follow up on last week’s Substack featuring Trainspotting groundinghour.substack.com/p/the-relent... (and @mariogonzalez.es to revisit TS scenes) I decided to pass by the former location of the iconic Vulcan Club. Gone for a long time now, with new builds in its place instead.

Such a delight when speakers are willing to share unpublished data. Thank you, @annagslater.bsky.social, for an excellent talk at @uofgchem.bsky.social.

DEI is dead, long live PSI DEI, efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in corporate and public life, has become one of the most derided and despised concepts in ESG.

klementoninvesting.substack.com/p/dei-is-dea... A very interesting post in finance but applicable to academia. Potential and synergy are particularly interesting options, indeed.

Overhauled MOFs experiment for PGT labs and these are over now, with @forganross.bsky.social CDMOF-1 (left and centre with indicator) finally adsorbing a detectable amount of CO2.

A great talk by Chris Collins @uofgchem.bsky.social on materials discovery in the age of AI and machine learning. Batteries and robotics included. Looking forward to a sequel from @annagslater.bsky.social in her next week's talk.

Lithiation‐Driven LiCrSe2 Shell Growth on Metallic CrSe2 Core Governs the Plateau–Slope Behavior Layered CrSe2 is investigated as a lithium-ion battery cathode combining fast Li+ diffusion and structural reversibility. Calculations and experiments reveal a single topotactic intercalation process...

This paper came out of probably the largest team I’ve ever worked with and some serious data analysis. Huge credit to a fantastic collaborators (pity none of the team except @profdraper.bsky.social here) for making the experiments possible. advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

High hopes Last year, an MIT report that 95% of businesses got zero returns from AI made headlines.

klementoninvesting.substack.com/p/high-hopes Zero returns. Can you believe that? I don’t.

#ICIQJobs

📣 ICIQ 2026 #PhDFellowship Programme for graduates students is OPEN. Join our experimental and computational research groups, like:

➡️ Prof. Julio Lloret-Fillol: AI-driven robotics for catalyst development

🔗 careers.iciq.org/jobs/7131517...

@cerca.cat @bist.eu @sommalliance.bsky.social

The only way to catch up with esteemed colleagues (like @vihar.bsky.social) is to catch them at an event. Thank you SPEERI

Two things come to mind after reading the article. Phil Tetlock's research where well-over than "four dozen specialists” quoted in article were out-predicted by dart-throwing primates. And this amazing substack “Bag of words have mercy on us" www.experimental-history.com/p/bag-of-wor...

When I talk to fresh PIs, I say an hour in the lab costs an hour of esteem. Of course I ignore my own advice. I’m unpacking that stubborn belief in my new substack, The Work Nobody Sees. But De Niro was probably onto something at the wheel of his taxi. groundinghour.substack.com/p/the-work-n...

Grey He lecture bottle connected to a gas regulator

Like @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com I remain haunted by standing charges. Large He cylinders sit quietly like Preta, aka hungry ghosts, consuming budget relentlessly. For equipment rarely used, lecture bottles is a way stop feeding the cylinder charges ghosts.

A graph showing consumers sentiments

After seeing that beautiful infographics @nature.com piece “Can the clean-energy revolution save us from climate catastrophe?” www.nature.com/immersive/d4..., I could not stop myself from revamping my Valentine’s graph. It used to be effectively invisible on a small screen.

Patenting AI & Materials: IP Webinars – aichemy KEY DETAILS

📢 Webinar Series – Patenting AI & Materials: IP Essentials for Innovators

Are you working at the intersection of AI and materials science? This webinar series from Keltie LLP is what you need…

📅 11 Mar & 15 Apr 2026 | 14:00–15:00
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Recency bias is wild. Yesterday’s FT: “British scientist raising $1bn for new AI lab.” First thought @leecronin.bsky.social or @aicooper.bsky.social Meanwhile, back on Earth: the partnership between batteries & hydrogen is what will actually keep those servers running without blackouts.

PhD in Chemistry - Development of Organic Synthetic Methods for the Discovery of Novel Fluorescent- Amino Acid and Peptide-Based Imaging Agents at University of Glasgow on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - PhD in Chemistry - Development of Organic Synthetic Methods for the Discovery of Novel Fluorescent- Amino Acid and Peptide-Based Imaging Agents at University of Glasgow, listed on FindAP...

A PhD is available in the Sutherland group to develop synthetic methods to access novel amino acid and peptide-based probes to start in October 2026. Deadlines for applications is 31st March. See link for details: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

A glassed door with a picture of a lunar calendar for the year of a horse.

A lunar calendar page has turned on the window to the GECOS research office. In true academic style, it still bears a few traces of previous years. Happy New Year of the Horse!

I have a 2 year PDRA position available in my group focusing on synthetic organic chemistry for supramolecular materials. Please apply using the link below if you’d be a good fit for the role in Glasgow @uofgchem.bsky.social

www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research...

Photo of a benchtop XRF spectrometer with a sample changer for 10 samples.

Why XRF is so underused in materials chemistry? It’s puzzling why we gravitate towards labor-intensive SEM/EDX when even benchtop XRF gives composition in minutes. If the group is arguing about mystery white powder on balances, no gold sputtering is required as XRF is indifferent to surface charge.