How to make your own robot!
A review of people making awesome lab robots out of commercial 3D printers. Thank you @vsaggiomo.bsky.social and Sander for inviting me to help write this paper in @digital-discovery.rsc.org.
Beep boop! 🤖 #chemsky
doi.org/10.1039/D5DD...
FREE TO READ - PERSPECTIVE - OPEN ACCESS:
Towards animate droplets: Active, adaptive, and autonomous
by Joe Forth, Robert Malinowski and Giorgio Volpe
#FreeToRead #Perspective #OpenAccess
@uclchemistry.bsky.social @livunisps.bsky.social
👉 iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
New paper! Active Droplets: Active, Adaptive, Autonomous.
Me, Rob Malinowski, and Giorgio Volpe pitch droplets as energy converting systems that act collectively.
Out in @epljournal.bsky.social
@uclchemistry.bsky.social and @livunisps.bsky.social.
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
#chemsky
AIchemy is BUSY 🚀 and the opportunities are stacking up!
💰 1 live funding opportunity (with Frontier Fund announcements coming 👀)
🎓 5 training & internship programmes
📅 14 events open for registration
Funding. Training. Community. Momentum.
Sign up to our newsletter and be part of it.
While many of us resent much of the recent digital disruption to our workflows, I for one welcome the invention of this *completely new genre* of snow day.
Lads the internet is down at work. All my docs and work are "in the cloud" and installed software struggles to open local-only files. Do I:
1.) Persevere and grind out work that I will probably spend at least as long integrating into online versions afterwards OR
2.) Go to the pub?
#chemsky
📢 Liverpool delivered.
A room full of curious minds, practical problem-solving and some genuinely exciting ideas taking shape.
Take a look at our highlights ➡️ buff.ly/8fhonYg
A huge thank you to Mike Parkes at UCL and Joe Forth at University of Liverpool for the delivery!
🚀 Liverpool sold out - but we’ve got you covered!
Due to popular demand, we’re running another Inator Hackathon at University of Strathclyde on 18 March 2026 🗓️.
📍 University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
🕘 09:00–17:00, 18 March 2026
🎟️ Free, register now before it fills up!
👉
🚀 We’re recruiting a postdoc to join a @ukcatalysishub.bsky.social project at the @liverpooluni.bsky.social. Collaboration with @donnablack.bsky.social, @virtualatoms.bsky.social, @astrazeneca.bsky.social, @glaxosmithkline.bsky.social, @aichemyhub.bsky.social. Please share or apply if interested
📢 We’re hiring!
Join us as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in AI/ML-Driven Chemical Discovery
Work at the intersection of AI, machine learning & chemistry on cutting-edge research.
📍 Liverpool | ⏰ Apply by 20 Feb 2026
👉
Doing revisions to Reviewers comments and this observation is evergreen tbh.
Fully funded, 3.5-year PhD position with me, Marco Giardiello, and Liam O'Brien developing Magnetic Particle Imaging towards direct imaging of local material properties (rheology, pH, etc).
More here:
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
@livuninews.bsky.social @livunislsj.bsky.social
#chemsky
A poster for 'Falling in Love with Love: A History of Popular Romance: An Online Course' including front covers from the following books: Fantomina by Eliza Haywood, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Sheik by E M Hull, The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer, Tabitha in Moonlight by Betty Neels, Indigo by Beverley Jenkins, Hen Fever by Olivia Waite, The Isle of the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri
I'm running a popular romance course at the University of Liverpool... but only if enough people sign up!
Come and join us!
www.liverpool.ac.uk/continuing-e...
When the Manchester Guardian calls, the people of the North heed the call. And if those people are me, we inject Manchester Liberalism, even from across the Pennines, right back in to the paper of Northern record. Get your fill. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Yes - I think the way in which I and others are currently using it is mostly vibesy "let's get an ERC" branding and it would be nice if it were better than that.
Computers (and logic gates generally) also very good at making "decisions" despite not being alive.
Oliver Maguire doing interesting thinkery about "materials that decide". @alexblokhuis.bsky.social too (unsure if he thinks chemical reaction networks can "make decisions" tho)
New pre-print! Giorgio Volpe, Rob Malinowski, and myself discuss the possibilities of making materials from droplets that can move, process information, and make decisions collectively.
@livunisps.bsky.social
@uclchemistry.bsky.social
arxiv.org/abs/2512.13425
#chemsky
**new blog post** I thought it would be interesting to see what it would look like if tuition fees had grown with the "triple lock" approach of the state pension. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/...
There is truly no finer sight than walking into the group office to find a mess of screws, tools, and disassembled 3D-printers being hacked into god-knows-what.
Looks like science to me, lads.
#chemsky
Opportunity to join us at @liverpooluni.bsky.social as our new Chemistry HoD: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPQ019/p... - lots of brilliant science & exciting plans going on, plus the joy of being my line manager :D
Would you like to be our Head of Department? A unique opportunity to guide some important developments (see e.g., news.liverpool.ac.uk/2025/11/18/u...). Advert now live on jobs.ac.uk.
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPQ019/p...
Ytterbium Surprise -a most unexpected paper from a former collaborator of mine, Helen Aspinall
Be sure to checkout the 3D animations of various bell ringing peals!
Visualisations of Minimus Methods
#chemsky
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Hackathon time! Can you build an ML model for sigmatropic rearrangements of allylcatechols in flow?
Teams of <=4; total prizes £2000; time limit 09 Jan. 🧪 #Chemsky
Competition Link: www.kaggle.com/competitions...
Example Notebook Link: www.kaggle.com/code/josepab...
Yeah so just a couple more major iterations and I reckon my grant will be ready submit. #chemsky
I went tonight to see my PhD student Emma Brass’s fantastic AI art exhibit in Liverpool. It features a 4x4 m screen with a giant robot arm (see video below) and the whole thing is really fantastic!
badness 10000
Yeah I acknowledge it's good for long complicated docs and stuff with lots of maths and/or cross-references. Otherwise, it's a terrible idea.
