BREAKING NEWS The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2026 #NobelPrize in Chemistry to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.”

This is critical. A major reason Thai academics increasingly publish in for-profit journals is because their funding requires it. The OA journals have higher quartiles and hence we are forced to publish there, even though we know the journal isn't necessarily as good.

Mark A. Hanson@hansonmark.bsky.social · 2w ago

There is one regulatory mechanism that can make this happen: funder and university action. Funders and universities require the research they fund to be published. Great, keep doing that. Just require it to be in non-profit journals. Keep walking and talking with me here... 👣 9/n

Avoiding the path of LIESST resistance #chemsky

Avoiding the path of LIESST resistance

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 25 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41557-026-02259-7Access to long-lived light-induced states in earth-abundant transition-metal chromophores is desirable but hard to achieve. Now, enhanced metal–ligand covalency has been shown to increase the lifetime of the photomagnetic high-spin state in a manganese photoswitch.

dlvr.it

🔥 New and HOT in Chemical Science !🔥 "Heteroleptic Cr4+ molecular color center candidates" by Danna E. Freedman, David D. Awschalom, Timothy C. Berkelbach et al. Read it for free here: doi.org/10.1039/d6sc...

🔔 Hot article by Jett T. Janetzki, Colette Boskovic 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭. Multi-step spin crossover and valence tautomerism in dinuclear metal complexes 🔗 doi.org/10.1039/d6qi... #SpinCrossover #ValenceTautomerism #MetalComplexes #MolecularSwitches

🔔 Review article by Peter Weinberger 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭. Tetrazoles as ligands in Fe(ii) spin crossover compounds: from rational ligand design to multifunctional materials 🔗 doi.org/10.1039/d6qi... #SpinCrossover #Tetrazoles #FeII #MolecularMaterials

#ChemDoodle v12.12 includes expanded support for #inorganic compounds & complexes, haptic bonds & multi-center attachments, their use calculations, & perspective ring templates. More inorganic capabilities to come. #molecule #chemistry #cheminformatics ichemlabs.com/news/read?po...

Just walked past this collection of bags outside one of the lecture rooms. In the UK, this would all be stolen in minutes!

Crystallization is a real art and often produces beautiful crystals of all shapes and sizes.

C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News)@cenmag.bsky.social · 4w ago

Each month, ChemReels features science communicators diving into chemistry subjects you've been curious about, with all the technical detail intact. Join Maciek Majdecki as he guides us through the art (and science) of crystallization: #chemsky 🧪

For the first time in a while I did some real chemistry in the lab, growing crystals. The results are pretty decent I'd say.

The cat is looking very cute today.

This is where we need to ask what matters to us. If the metrics are in areas that are not of critical importance to you, or are things you have no control over (income from block grants), then it's best to not concern ourselves too much with these. Universities are always more than their rank.

Graham Kendall@grahamkendall.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If your university, depsite significant investment, stays still in the rankings, is that necessarily a sign that you are not improving? I explored this in my (LinkedIn) newsletter a few weeks ago, in an edition titled "Is Your University Running Just to Stand Still?" buff.ly/GhsZqVl

The problem with this approach is that it shortens the government horizon and that in turn impacts the discovery of truly ground-breaking ideas. Given AI's potential to find some of these small gains, it strikes me as sensible for research agencies to pursue these longer term goals.

Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · 2mo ago

As Western nations seek economic growth, many are pondering whether to direct their research budgets towards industrial priorities. That is a policy Ireland has pursued since the 2008 economic crash. But researchers are divided on its wisdom. Seher Asaf writes #academisky https://ow.ly/QXu950ZCnrn

I really wanted to thank the SCO community for their support of our recent review of the basics of spin crossover. To achieve 7 citations in 6 months is really good going. Lastly, thanks to @crystengcomm.rsc.org for publishing the review.

The announcement that @chemicalscience.rsc.org is going fully Gold OA shocked many, but I have a genuine proposal. How about for say 5 reviews, each reviewer gets a free OA token for the journal? ChemSci gets reviewers and we can afford to publish our best work in the journal.

Scientists who use large language models (LLMs) to help them with their research will spend less time refining their work and instead jump quickly to fresh projects, according to a modelling study. go.nature.com/451DgXl

Scientists using LLMs will ‘do more, less well’, modelling study predicts

Research suggests that the combination of incentives to publish and the use of large language models will lead to more papers, but they will be less refined.

go.nature.com

#thefarside #farside #comic https://www.thefarside.com/2026/07/29/3

A new article is out now in @chemicalscience.rsc.org as an edge article: Solid-State Spin Dynamics of a Molecular Qubit of Ce3+. pubs.rsc.org/sc/article/d...

Pleased to share this link for our latest article in spin crossover complexes. This time we look at heteroleptic complexes combined with a flexible triflimide anion, we see abrupt or stepped SCO for the fluoro and iodo systems. The link is free for 50 days! authors.elsevier.com/a/1nWIl4xXie...

I really love the graphic here. It's so clear what was discovered in the paper.

Chemical Science@chemicalscience.rsc.org · 3mo ago

✅This week’s Chemical Science Pick of the Week is “Phase-Dependent Responsiveness in Soft Porous Crystals Assembled from Flexible Metal-Organic Cages” by Professor Shuhei Furukawa et al. from Kyoto University. You can read for free here: doi.org/10.1039/d6sc...

In this pre-print, we've been using 3D electron diffraction again, this time to study metal-organic polyhedra containing Zn(II) paddlewheels in work led by Matt, Bea, and Calum. chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10....

This is the symbol of SUT. It looks so bright against the slightly cloudy sky.

I have to say, I was really looking forward to the @rsc.org publication refresh, but I must confess I am not keen. We can't see the graphical abstract, and extra clicks are required to access what we want to see. It would have been nice to show it to readers before committing.

It's always great when someone shows that something long thought impossible, can actually be done. LIESST in a Mn(II) SCO system!!

Nature Chemistry@natchem.nature.com · 3mo ago

Covalency control of photomagnetic relaxation in a manganese(II) photoswitch #chemsky

I just finished a survey for @pubs.acs.org. I was stunned that at no point during the survey did they ask: are our APCs reasonable and affordable? In fairness to ACS, this is a question for many publishers. But society publishers really need to work harder to be affordable.

I just finished doing some proofs for our latest article. The thing I found really odd was just how many mistakes there were in the references. The mistakes were so odd that it made me wonder, had the publisher used some automated AI? If so, I suggest that they stop. #ChemSky

Suranaree University of Technology has had it's best year reaching 201-300 and up 2 bonds. It's a great testament to the hard work of our whole community.

Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026: a greater mission. The eighth annual Sustainability Impact Ratings encourage institutions to consider what universities are good for, not just what they’re good at. #THEImpact #THEunirankings https://ow.ly/ONXQ50ZfzKW

Just finished teaching the first inorganic chemistry II class. Always fun!

I really like this new website that visualises the various space groups. spacegroups.symotter.org/group