Stopping my deference to shared chemical expertise and returning to traditionalism by teaching exclusively the Bohr planetary model of orbitals and railing against the cultural Marxism of molecular orbitals theory
How to talk to journalists (without getting in a huge amount of trouble and ruining your life)
Today Why do press? Types of press How to pitch How embargo works How to answer questions How the record works How to run a press cycle During and after the story How to manage risk Q&A
A screenshot of a very long email that unfortunately I can't OCR but it shows how I pitch a journalist on a story under embargo.
How to answer questions if they’re cueing you “But don’t you think that” / “Would you say that” This is probably a practical trick, and not a malicious one Options Be cool about it Do not be cool about it
Last year, I developed a one hour training for scientists on both "hidden curriculum" and practical pointers I've figured out for working with journalists. I'd be happy to run it for free for a few scientists who need press as a lifeline to save their labs / projects. Please feel free to reach out.
gimlet-eyed gleam of an f-block chemist being able to show that one crustal abundance chart
Can't DM - have one out, radio silence from program officer since september
One of the happiest updates I’ve written since I started following this story. 12 students back in status and maybe more to come. Across the country, students are saying their SEVIS is back.
www.dailycal.org/news/campus/...
I love you batteries I love you ever decreasing cost of LFP I love you paired solar/storage I love you death of new fossil fuel infrastructure
The number of international students hit by the Trump administration's visa actions is likely much larger than reported. For example, Northwest Missouri State has 43 revocations--twice as many as the University of Michigan. The regional public angle here deserves more attention.
UCB chem moment
Sarah’s rules of looking for life with only chemical signatures:
1) the smaller the molecule(s) the more likely they can also be produced by abiotic processes
2) one molecule, if it can be produced by any abiotic process, will never be enough to definitively claim detection of life
Among the many reasons it was good that Harvard decided to fight this is that "viewpoint diversity" can become insidious very quickly. e.g. Creationists in your evolutionary biology department, vaccine skeptics in your immunology department? Very important not to cede arbitration in that sense.
A light blue diagram depicting the sea, with the water's surface at the top, and just below it is an outline of the Mary Rose, with the depth (12m, 40ft or 6.7 fathoms). There is a line showing the seabed, which takes a rapid dive into the vertical...
On the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we thought we'd answer a question that's often asked,
"If they raised the Mary Rose, why not raise the Titanic?"
Allow our scaled diagram to explain...
Circumstances appear to justify handing it to Harvard University
dire straights realizing that the best azeotrope for my material is 77% water and has a boiling point of 99 C
Organic radical moment
This "burn the university to the ground" x "more fine chemicals manufacturing" situation is a great chaser to "gut all federal health and safety regulation"
You know you're entirely right, completely forgot people have the same last name... Such as the gap F-element small molecule inorganic labs at Berkeley with PIs named "Arnold" (no relation)
That it's kinda generic, but at the same time could just frame by institution (eg "Berkeley XYZ lab") to differentiate. I would prefer a unique signifier that doesn't come directly from the PI's name
Best argument I've come across is just a clear differentiator - hard to convey eg what the specific difference between the disciplinary approach of the Surendrenath lab vs Kartish Manthiram's group, my grad lab would have to be called something so generic "Physical Organic Chemistry laboratory"
Today is historic: thanks to years of organizing by GSWs & postdocs, Caltech’s first-ever union contract is now in effect!
We will finally see the benefits of our fight for higher wages, protections against bullying & discrimination, and support for international workers!
Remarkable level of administrative cowardice in this memo
🚨An SEIU 925 member at UW Medical Center has been in ICE detention since early March after being denied re-entry to the U.S. following a trip to the Philippines. She’s part of our union family — and this could happen to any of us.
Just banger after banger on this chemistry out of her lab lmao, truly beautiful stuff
God, california is the future (derogatory)
Must read: Mahmoud Khalil speaks out for the first time since his arrest by the Trump administration in an exclusive letter, dictated over the phone to his family, from ICE detention in Louisiana.
The university that Bret Stephens describes here exists in the pages of the Atlantic and in Pamela Paul's rightfully defunct NYT column. Grow a spine and start blaming the correct people: billionaires who want to gut both the practice and idea of education as a public good
Someone tell the massive number of PIs who actively retaliated against their grads for striking about their Maoist cadre pedigree
Columbia has expelled the president of @swcolumbia.bsky.social, a HELU member org, for participation in Palestine solidarity activism. This comes less than 24 hours before SWC's first bargaining session. We stand with SWC-UAW against this illegal interference in bargaining.
uaw.org/in-shocking-...
Here is an open letter signed from UChicago AAUP signed by over 200 faculty to our administration on what we believe this moment requires:
uchicagoaaup.wordpress.com
Very interesting to see which liberals decrying Trump are now silent about the detention of a Columbia grad student. It can't possibly be the pro palestine thing can it? 🤔
