Mark Levin
@levinchem.bsky.social
Professor of Chemistry University of Chicago Single-Atom Skeletal Editing (Interspersed with doomposting and AI skepticism) Husband, Dad, Crossword Addict http://levingroup.uchicago.edu
This well-meaning article falls into a familiar trap - after detailing how AI is failing on scale in her role as CIO, the author credulously asserts thats it does work for drug discovery. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o... Reminds me of this: inpreparation.substack.com/p/scientists...
This brings me to an amusing point. If a community fights back against a planned data center, delaying the approval process, they’ll inevitably make it vastly, vastly more expensive to build, costing the developer millions or billions. www.wheresyoured.at/premium-ai-is-getting-way-too-expensive/
"As Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Asia found in a recent investigation, just five US tech giants — Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle — are hiding an estimated $1.65 trillion in debt that doesn’t appear on balance sheets. futurism.com/artificial-i...
AI Companies Are Trying to Hide a Staggering Amount of Debt
AI companies are pouring tens of billions of dollars into enormous data centers. They're being built on top of a mountain of hidden debt.
futurism.com
We already do this and companies who want them are happy to pay for PhD student interns. Why do precious and limited NSF funds need to be deployed for this? Most PhD student pursue industry jobs anyways - that has always been true. Use NSF funds to support basic science that industry wont support!
Jonathan Wosen@jonathanwosen.bsky.social · 7d agoWith academic jobs few and far between, the NSF is testing a new approach to graduate education: Giving Ph.D. students industry experience — and dollars — as part of their training. For more, see my latest for @statnews.com. www.statnews.com/2026/07/29/h...
Reading through the ASAPs at @synthesis1969.bsky.social and boy-oh-boy is the Thieme website a smooth user experience after having dealt with the RSC and ACS shenanigans. #chemchat
I was a chemistry-major undergraduate and I only wish I could have bought in to that one or the Apple IPO later that year! Here’s a real time capsule of an earlier era on Wall Street, when a first-day jump was considered undesirable (!)
A 'Hot' Offering Retrospective; Genentech And Apple Varied Greatly COMPANY NEWS Recent 'Hot' Issues: A Retrospective Risky but Desirable (Published 1980)
nytimes.com
I am reading Sally Smith Hughes's book about the history of Genentech, and in it she mentions that in 1980, $150M ($600M in today's dollars) was considered an irrational investment "mania" Not sure how that makes me feel about the present
The new web interface of @acs.org publications is agonizing. TOCs missing from ASAPs/misplaced in issues, terrible URLs, and reading that’s now painful on both mobile and desktop. If page views and readership matter to ACS, this is an emergency. I hope ACS leadership is listening.
‘When we asked Jeremy Grantham for signals of an imminent bubble bursting, he told us back in June that one of the most reliable things to watch out for is when leaders of the previous bull market start to underperform while the overall market continues to rise.’ www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
RUNNING FOR THE CAPEXITS See if you can pinpoint the moment when $GOOGL raised its full-year capex guidance to $195B to $205B
Two routes diverged in a yellowed lab catalog And sorry I could not afford both And be within my budget And while I pleaded for more funding The spot price for my metal doubled;
So at least for now, the threat of a grant being terminated mid-award is removed. Since threat of termination is a major driver of the censorship process, perhaps this ruling can interrupt the censorship process too.
Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...
Trump administration limits student visas to four years, changing longstanding policy - The Boston Globe
The new rule, which also restricts the international students’ ability to transfer schools or change majors without approval in their first year, will go into effect in mid-September.
bostonglobe.com
"If the scientific community fails to address the influence of AI, then authentic research and validated findings will slow down to an expensive trickle into established knowledge, and the opportunities for flawed or fabricated info to be seen as reality will grow—all while AI profiteers cash in."
AI in scientific publishing: Slower, worse, and more expensive
There’s a saying in the management world, popularized by NASA administrator Daniel Goldin in the 1990s, that the goal of technological improvements is to make products faster, better, and cheaper. Alt...
science.org
New online! Direct copper-catalysed deaminative cyanation of aliphatic primary amines: Nature Catalysis, Published online: 10 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41929-026-01578-9Direct deaminative cyanation of aliphatic amines is hampered by inert C–N bonds and oxidative instability. Now a copper-catalysed,…
Direct copper-catalysed deaminative cyanation of aliphatic primary amines
Nature Catalysis, Published online: 10 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41929-026-01578-9Direct deaminative cyanation of aliphatic amines is hampered by inert C–N bonds and oxidative instability. Now a copper-catalysed, preactivation-free approach enabled by anomeric amide activation is reported that also includes an asymmetric variant.
go.nature.com
Lindsay Graham saw Trump for exactly what he was in 2015/16 and spoke the truth about him. And then he spent the last ten years of his life groveling for the man, loudly and shamefully. All to hold on to his power and position, and that’s how he’ll be remembered. Learn from this vile example.
fwiw, this admin isn’t even focused on making pizzas. More like a Ford Pinto, which they have confused for a food product. Or magic beans.
Benjamin Pope@benjaminpope.bsky.social · last mo.cutting pure science to prioritize applications is fundamentally like asking farmers not to waste time producing grain, cheese, and tomatoes and focus on making pizzas
Now online @natcatal.nature.com ! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Direct copper-catalysed deaminative cyanation of aliphatic primary amines - Nature Catalysis
Direct deaminative cyanation of aliphatic amines is hampered by inert C–N bonds and oxidative instability. Now a copper-catalysed, preactivation-free approach enabled by anomeric amide activation is r...
nature.com
Mark Levin@levinchem.bsky.social · 10mo agoNew @chemrxiv.org, a collaboration with @honggen-wang.bsky.social and group alum, now asst prof. Myojeong Kim: the first true catalytic interception of isodiazene-generated primary-amine-derived radicals. The key is an N-F reagent that enables productive chain carrying! doi.org/10.26434/che...
I'm been wondering if it would come to this and apparently it has. huge move from cloudflare, which hosts a fifth of all websites on earth.
Publishers Are Preparing to Opt Out of Google Search
The nuclear option is gaining traction as web traffic collapses and Google refuses to negotiate with content creators
adweek.com
🚨A new take on how you can use alkyl halides in synthesis! 🚨 Congratulations to the team and our collaborators in the Hirschi lab for this First Release of our work in @science.org! A true work of art that required students who are passionate about studying mechanism.
Jake Yeston@jakeyeston.bsky.social · 4w agoOut First Release in @science.org for chemsky today, the Hirschi and Musacchio groups collaborate on a radical 2-for-1 substitution of alkyl halides www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Uhhh wow ACS sure has gotten a lot more expensive... Was it always 1 grand for the whole week? Gordon conference levels, but without the food or housing included!
Mark Levin@levinchem.bsky.social · last mo.I am tickled by this ACS email as someone whose most common registration approach in previous ACS's was to forget to register until I try to pick up my badge and then register on-site. lol @ "gentle reminder" and "we understand" Guess most speakers "forgot"?
Study: 97% Of Average American’s Day Spent Retrieving 6-Digit Codes https://theonion.com/study-97-of-average-americans-day-spent-retrieving-6-digit-codes/
“don’t tell casual acquaintances you live with an anthropomorphic sausage”?
