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 · 5d 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 · 7d 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 · 2mo 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 · 2mo 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 · 2mo 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

We are seeing more and more of this in the HE sector. My question is why does this keep happening? How are uni admin trained such that they become so detached from the faculty? I think that until we start valuing long-term uni benefits, governance issues will continue to be a problem.

ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 3mo ago

ANU governance issues cost $100m in reputational damage, interim vice-chancellor says

🚨We are pleased to share our Editors' Choice Collection! This specially curated collection highlights some of our most popular articles published in 2025, handpicked by our Editorial Board. Read the full collection 👀👇 pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/... #Chemsky 🧪

I really feel for US scientists, these guidelines will really hurt US science.

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 3mo ago

Of all the harm this administration has done to US science, today's proposed changes to the way federal grants are awarded and administered is the most damaging yet. The text of the federal register document is impenetrably tedious by design, so here's an excellent summary of what it says.

Does the identity of the substituent group matter when cocyclising pillararenes? It most certainly does! Now out in @jacs.acspublications.org with Mahidol University and University of Tsukuba. #ChemSky #Supramolecular pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Beyond Passive Substituents: Tosyl-Directed Self-Templation Enables Selective Pillar[4 + 1]arene Formation and Topology Switching

Substituents in supramolecular chemistry are usually treated as passive handles that tune solubility or reactivity rather than as active determinants of assembly pathways. Here we show that tosyl grou...

pubs.acs.org

Immigration make Britain brilliant

Online petition and open letter to the University of Nottingham in response to its plans for redundancies in the School of Chemistry. nottinghamchemistry.github.io/Open_Letter/

I was reflecting on the hype concerning AI. I truly believe that the fact that it so often makes mistakes means that it's going to end up being less impactful than we are being told. Does anyone remember how the metaverse was going to change our lives? #AIhype

The discovery of an SN2 reaction that doesn’t invert the carbon at the centre shows that there’s still plenty to learn about even classic textbook reactions. @mwakley.bsky.social www.chemistryworld.com/news/flip-ov...

‘Flip-over’ nucleophilic substitution reaction challenges classic SN2 textbook mechanism

Team behind work say this is a reminder that even simple reactions are more complicated than they first seem

chemistryworld.com

Good to see one of my ex-computational science students on this paper!

Nature Synthesis@natsynth.nature.com · 4mo ago

Now online: Perspective article by Aron Walsh & co-workers @aronwalsh.github.io Closing the synthesis gap in computational materials design www.nature.com/articles/s44... ($) #Chemsky

📣We are delighted to announce the launch of the CrystEngComm Emerging Talent Series! If you are interested in submitting to the series or would like to nominate someone else, read our blog post for more information👇 blogs.rsc.org/ce/2026/04/1... #ChemSky

SCAFFOLD REMOVAL👷‍♂️💎 In the past years we developed a #MOFs synthetic approach inspired by #architecture & applied it at the molecular scale. We've been asked many times whether we could remove these molecular scaffold/falseworks. Yes, we can! Fresh off the press in @natchem.nature.com