National Lab Research SLAM event brings chemistry to Capitol Hill
The Department of Energy annually sends early-career scientists to the Capitol to share their research in just 3 min. This year, chemistry was a focus.
#chemsky 🧪
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Indirect Costs (But Were Afraid to Ask)
I have been working on this post for some time.
Lots of data, analysis, and some policy recommendations.
goodscience.substack.com/p/everything...
Questions and comments welcome.
The first step of oxidizing the premier Li-ion battery solvents is simply a “reverse PCET”, but complexity explodes from there. It is a network of intertwined intermediates and products. Even with one solvent/salt!
Check out how in our new paper #battchat
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
“We have really good data sets out there for really boring chemistry.”
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...
“Here’s what hadn’t changed in those 27 years: the basic model of graduate STEM training still rested on extracting maximum labor at minimum cost, justified as “training” rather than employment”
sciencepolicyinsider.substack.com/p/below-mini...
That’s one Big Battery
“The clean energy resources funded through the agreement include a 300 megawatt (30 gigawatt-hour) Form Energy iron-air battery system installation” #battchat
newsroom.xcelenergy.com/news/xcel-en...
Now, that is an idea:
“The organizers of the [IJCAI] have sought to limit submissions by introducing a policy that requires researchers to pay US$100 for every subsequent paper after their first. These payments then get distributed between reviewers.”
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Is “THIS WORK ★” Really the Best?
The Trouble with Figure-Driven Claims of Excellent Performance | Editorial by Phil Christopher in ACS Energy Letters pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Why authors should not feel that every paper must show champion performance without standardization in measurements
“Researchers operating within NSF’s peer review system are no less creative than those pursuing radical ideas through ARPA or venture-backed biotechs. But the organizational context shapes which ideas can be pursued”
sciencepolicyinsider.substack.com/p/three-thin...
Very insightful conversation with Jeff Dahn. The place of Moli Energy in the battery R&D is less known, but very important #battchat
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
This has implications for AI4Science:
“Across all tasks and models, the longer models spend reasoning and taking actions, the more incoherent they become”
“Larger models learn the correct objective more quickly than they learn to reliably pursue it”
alignment.anthropic.com/2026/hot-mes...
More here
m.youtube.com/watch?v=XqoB...
What happens if AI scientists can automate the research process (big IF)? Clever take by Andrew White
More here:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=OFTJ...
Definitely an underrated challenge holding back the research enterprise in the US
While we are all talking about data centers…
“While the data center buildout is monopolizing headlines about grid challenges, it’s not the case that the AI boom is creating a capacity debt that wouldn’t otherwise have existed”
www.latitudemedia.com/news/another...
Look at the heavy duty trend… #battchat
Peer Review and AI:Your(Human)Opinion Is What Matters
ACS Nano Editorial pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
"No LLM can replicate critical thinking and experience of researchers. Editors specifically chose you because of your expertise; we value your unique perspective and evaluation,not that of an LLM"
“Seen this way, the design of autonomous laboratories cannot be separated from the design of the scientific enterprise itself.” 🧪
hhlee.substack.com/p/building-s...
If you had to design a battery from first principles to meet these 4 needs, would it be the same as an EV battery? #battchat
“According to numbers from BloombergNEF, the U.S. is expected to add 204 GW of battery storage in the next decade.” #battchat
www.latitudemedia.com/news/the-une...
We close the year with one last article
assessing preconditioning for Zn batteries @jmaterchem.rsc.org. Led by our group colleagues at ANL, in collaboration with Coulomb Technology to translate impact
#battchat
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
Battery research has been ready to emancipate from the renewable portfolio for a few years… it is time to consider it on its own merits to enable many other technologies, too
#battchat
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/c...
The concept of Szilard point:
“the threshold at which the total cost of competing for a grant equals (or surpasses) the value of the available funding”
Believe it or not, funding calls can cross it!
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
“Earlier this year, Frontiers piloted an in-house AI tool for peer reviewers in a handful of its journals. The GPT platform operates in a closed environment that protects the confidentiality of manuscripts and authors’ intellectual property.“
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
“This will be the starting point for a new Ford energy storage business; it plans to invest roughly $2 billion in the next two years” #battchat
www.latitudemedia.com/news/the-ev-...
