In 2023, @nature.com published 'Papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time', receiving world-wide media attention. Our Matters Arising, published after a 32 month delay (more on that soon), shows that the reported decline can largely be attributed to dataset artefacts. 🧵

When removing the hidden outliers with CD = +1, the reported decline in disruption largely disappears across all databases used in the Nature study. For Web of Science, it reduces by 93 %. 3/8

It's Friday afternoon (somewhere) so time for a take. One of my issues with what is often called "hard sci fi" is that it mainly focuses on accuracy in physics but will neglect basic chemistry (I'm sure it also neglects other subjects like biology and the like as well, but let me stay in my lane).

Continuing our campaign to study all the alkali metals in organometallic chemistry. Why don't you try this in your own studies? Our friends in Bern @evaheviagroup.bsky.social are! Comparisons and Contrasts in a Complete Set of Alkali Metal Cumyl Structures | Inorg Chem pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Comparisons and Contrasts in a Complete Set of Alkali Metal Cumyl Structures

Alkali-metal benzyl complexes derived from toluene are known to vary their metal–ligand coordination mode as a function of the alkali-metal, with the metal transitioning from a typical σ bond to the anionic CH2 for lithium toward an interaction with the delocalized pi system of the aromatic ring as the metal gets larger and softer. Here, by switching to cumene, we report the charge-localizing effect of replacing the hydrogen atoms at the formally carbanionic carbon CH2 with electron-donating methyl groups in C(Me)2. NMR spectroscopic studies reveal competitive ring-metalation occurs, at the meta and para positions, alongside α-metalation on using an alkyl lithium base, with the meta- and α-isomers crystallographically characterized as a solvated dimer and monomer, respectively. Using Lochmann-Schlosser type base pairs to access the heavier alkali-metal complexes unveils only α-metalation. The presence of the methyl groups limits the variation in metal–ligand bonding, their electron-donating properties forcing the delocalization of the negative charge into the ring resulting in M-Ph interactions and sp2 hybridization at the formally deprotonated α-carbon regardless of the metal used. Considerable variation in aggregation state is observed with monomeric (Na), polymeric (K, Cs) and tetrameric (Rb) motifs identified in the solid-state.

pubs.acs.org

Took me a while to read but this post by Peter Kenny is well worth the time. fbdd-lit.blogspot.com/2026/01/hit-...

Hit to Lead best practice?

I'm now in Trinidad and I'll share a 180° panorama from Paramin where I walk for exercise. This district in Trinidad's Northern Range is ren...

fbdd-lit.blogspot.com

When researchers bring up confounders without ever having declared the actual analysis goal

Congrats to Emilien, Maurus and Giorgia! Metal- and CO-Free Carbonylation of Alkyl Iodides @jacs.acspublications.org pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Excited to share work out in @jacs.acspublications.org led by Yuxuan and @genlichem.bsky.social on activity-based sensing of acetaldehyde using an inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction, enabling selective detection of two-carbon metabolism! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

An Inverse Electron-Demand Diels–Alder Approach to Selective Activity-Based Sensing of Acetaldehyde in Living Cells

Acetaldehyde (AA) is a reactive aldehyde primarily produced in cells as a metabolic intermediate during ethanol oxidation. Excess AA, often resulting from impaired AA detoxification, leads to aberrant...

pubs.acs.org

Congrats to @mixalhsmpogdos.bsky.social, @sevenroediger.bsky.social, @fruepp.bsky.social, Nathalie, Patrick, Fabio and Jan on this epic study of C-N red. elim. in @jacs.acspublications.org - using causal inference, organometallics, electrochemistry, kinetics and DFT. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Great to see this published! In short, we introduced causal inference logic to test which of metal electronics, ancillary ligand sterics and metal coordination number (CN) directly affect the rate of reductive elimination at Pd(II) (and presumably other metals...) 1/

Morandi Research Group @morandilab.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Congrats to @mixalhsmpogdos.bsky.social, @sevenroediger.bsky.social, @fruepp.bsky.social, Nathalie, Patrick, Fabio and Jan on this epic study of C-N red. elim. in @jacs.acspublications.org - using causal inference, organometallics, electrochemistry, kinetics and DFT. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Pleased to have been awarded the ETH Medal this summer for my PhD thesis! Many thanks to all those who supported me through my journey, especially my PhD supervisor Prof. Bill Morandi.

Congrats to @fruepp.bsky.social, Vasily Grebennikov, Mykola Avramenko, Marc-Olivier Ebert "Kinetic, Spectroscopic, and Computational Investigation of Oxidative Aminative Alkene Cleavage Reveals an N-Iodonium-Iminoiodinane Pathway" now @chemrxiv.org - chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

We have two open PhD positions to start our new group at University of Geneva! If you are interested in organometallic chemistry, heterometallic complexes and mechanistic investigations, please contact me. Check more details here: jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...

Blunt letter to the editor on ACS: "If ACS won’t stand up now, it should stand down." cen.acs.org/business/Rea... #chemsky 🧪⚗️

100 %. Very frustrating that EU institutions increase funding when they eye US researchers, but don't care about scientists in Europe who leave science for other careers in droves. Why endorse American exceptionalism? That is to say nothing of the intra EU inequality, a whole other can of worms.

Darren Dahly@statsepi.bsky.social · last yr.

American scientists aren't special. It's the institutions, and willingness to spend on research, that set them apart. Similarly invest here, and you will naturally attract the best talent from *everywhere*. www.politico.eu/article/euro...

Re-upping this post this morning: Big Pharma CEOs are finally starting to speak out about the Trump administration. Unfortunately, they’re smiling and clapping.

Pharma CEOS Speaking Up, Damn It

science.org

Biopharma companies and CEOs are keeping their heads down at their own peril. They should speak up about what’s happening to the NIH and other science agencies before it’s too late. Silence gives consent. And no one should consent to this.

Stand Up And Be Counted

science.org

When the federal government abandons important areas of funding and leaves a gaping hole in the advancement of science, any prudent funder would fill the hole, not follow suit. I don’t know the rationale here but seriously WTF? Disclosure: HHMI paid my way through graduate school.

Science Magazine@science.org · 2y ago

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the nation’s largest private funder of biomedical research, yesterday killed a $60 million program aimed at making universities’ STEM education more inclusive. scim.ag/3EtS0US

Hey American PIs. If you have undergrad students who, for whatever personal reasons might find it...appropriate to not do grad school in the good ol' US of A for the next 4+ years, I (and my colleagues at UWindsor Chem) are open to applicants. They pay Canadian domestic rates at UWindsor.

And you WON'T BELIEVE the incentives the Canadian Government will give you to just do R&D in Canada. It's literally insane. Anyways, happy to talk and connect people if anyone is interested. Things might get rocky for a bit, and staff might be happier living somewhere that thinks they are humans.

How does one include all sources of error for a quantity of interest obtained by fitting a model e.g. rate constants from kinetics? Simulations give the answer: atigdnc.netlify.app/post/error_handling/ tldr; fit each dataset, propagate and combine errors (or random effects model). #chemsky

Wrapping up 2024 - quite the year! I defended my PhD, after more than 4 years at ETH. Here's hoping 2025 has something just as exciting in store!

Along similar lines, the results of the second protein binder design competition were announced and de novo design didn't do so well: www.adaptyvbio.com/blog/po103

Adaptyv Bio - Protein Optimization 103: Racing to the Top 100

What a close race this one was! In this blog post, we look at how submissions evolved throughout our latest EGFR binder design competition. We highlight the most widespread model and design choices, h...

adaptyvbio.com

Michael Bogdos@mixalhsmpogdos.bsky.social · 2y ago

I think that just like with protein prediction, the community should now only look at the results of competitions (à la CASP). The docking equivalent is: cache-challenge.org www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I think that just like with protein prediction, the community should now only look at the results of competitions (à la CASP). The docking equivalent is: cache-challenge.org www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Derek Lowe@dereklowe.bsky.social · 2y ago

DiffDock, a new diffusion-based ligand docking program, made s big splash earlier this year. But it’s apparently not all it’s claimed to be:

New radical cross-coupling using phosphonium salts and HMDS anion as the electron donor: www.nature.com/articles/s41... I watched Sven lead this work experimentally and computationally and was very impressed - very rare for someone to be so adept at both. Great to see his hard work pay off.

Coupling of unactivated alkyl electrophiles using frustrated ion pairs - Nature

A transition-metal-free platform enables the formation of challenging C(sp3)–C(sp3) bonds in organic compounds via single-electron transfer, facilitating the coupling of functionalized fragments and e...

nature.com

For trans day of remembrance, this is Ben Barres. Ben was a remarkable biologist who transformed our understanding of brain function. Born in 1954, he transitioned from female to male in the late 1990s.

My first FA of my PhD investigated the factors controlling the β-Η/β-Χ competition in Pd(II) alkyls: rdcu.be/cVqUz The eagle-eyed will notice that we did not address the relative metal electronics at T-shaped vs. square-planar Pd(II) (minor spoilers for upcoming research). #chemsky

An amazing thing to say. Whoever it was has a greatly inflated idea of what the Big Labs are able to think of and to cover.

Carolyn Bertozzi@carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · 2y ago

And big-lab-group-think is a stifling influence. Last month I gave a talk at a local big pharma site and the director/host literally asked me “if [insert three big names of field] haven’t already thought of the idea you presented, how could it possibly be true/important?”

A tool for predicting glycosylation based on structure: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Hopefully this is broadly generalizable, it would be invaluable.

Restoring protein glycosylation with GlycoShape - Nature Methods

GlycoShape is an open-access web-based platform designed to supplement three-dimensional glycoprotein structures with missing structural information on glycans. To link them, the Re-Glyco algorithm ev...

nature.com

Has anyone ever collected solution state NMR spectra on a protein immobilized on beads? #NMRchat