The petrol price comparison site reckons that is ~20p per mile. Charging our electric car at 10.5p per kWh and doing ~4 miles per kWh works out to 2.6p per mile. For my bike ride to/from work today I guess you could count the 75p banana: ~8p per mile. Shockingly expensive!

Neil Withers@neilwithers.bsky.social · last wk.

Diesel at my nearest + cheapest source (a supermarket) is £1.95 per litre, which Google AI converts to $9.94 per (US) gallon; regular unleaded petrol (gasoline) is £1.72 per litre => $8.77 per gallon.

The furin cleavage site strikes bat, I mean back...

Chemistry World@chemistryworld.com · 2w ago

An international research team has discovered a previously unknown coronavirus in a Parnell’s moustached bat. Sequencing its genome, they found it is a betacoronavirus, one of the groups of coronavirus which includes Sars-CoV-2 that infect humans. #ChemSky www.chemistryworld.com/news/does-th...

It's sticky, you see, the sense that it's a tricky problem AND because honey is physically sticky. Also bonus points for us getting a test tube in the picture, which is normally basically forbidden otherwise we'd do it every month.

Paul J. Dauenhauer@pauldauenhauer.bsky.social · last mo.

"The Sticky Problem of Identifying Fake Honey" www.chemistryworld.com/features/the...

Gibbs was an austere genius, too little appreciated.

Chemistry World@chemistryworld.com · last mo.

In this week’s feature, historian of science Mike Sutton introduces us to Josiah Willard Gibbs and the efforts from other scientists critical to ensuring his work was understood. Read: #ChemSky @rsc.org www.chemistryworld.com/features/150...

Interesting article about molecular ratchets. I’m really inspired by the studies mentioned, but I can never get a student to work on such complicated problems! #chemsky www.chemistryworld.com/features/mol...

Molecular ratchets: unlocking the chemistry of biological motion

Motor proteins power everything from muscle contraction to bacterial swimming. While replicating their chemically fuelled directional motion in the laboratory has proved difficult, researchers are mak...

chemistryworld.com

🧪 🔬 🔭 Calling all STEM students who studied in the UK! Our amazing freelancer (and former intern) Victoria wants to hear from you. How has your Plan 2 student loan affected you? Are you struggling with debt? Have you been forced to leave science? lnkd.in/e9RmuZgv

How do Plan 2 student loans impact science graduates? | Victoria Atkinson

How has the Plan 2 student loan system impacted science graduates compared with other disciplines?   I am currently researching a feature piece for Chemistry World investigating this question and, if ...

lnkd.in

I was going to say that Garry Sobers, among many other things, was surely the only cricketer to be mentioned on prime time US TV (in an episode of the Cosby Show, guest starring Norman Beaton) – but then I remembered that Tim Rice mentioned Denis Compton in his 95 Oscars acceptance speech #niche

I heartily concur

Tom Freeman@tomfreeman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"This book is dedicated to my mother, Ayn Rand, and God." This sentence shows that the Oxford comma can be misleading or ambiguous.

OK, new challenge for everyone – can we find the London chippy that KC Nicolaou's dad ran and that young KC worked in?? From @natrevchem.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I haven't been able to eat pear drops since those 2-3 weeks as a first year undergraduate when there was always someone in the lab doing the synthesis of isopentyl acetate practical

Anon Opin@anonopin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I'm not sure whether it's bananas that smell like painted fingernails or the other way around, but the similarity is there.

I saw an unusually large and unusually low plane overhead while sweltering in the garden yesterday evening – turns out it was the new (*slightly* controversial) Air Force One (w/o POTUS) heading from Ankara to RAF Mildenhall theaviationist.com/2026/07/08/v...

Extremely proud to see my* copy of Atkins (5th edn) photographed for this interview - what edition are you?? *It was my brother's before me – not sure if he sold or gave it to me! www.chemistryworld.com/peter-atkins...

Peter Atkins: ‘Rather than a single author book with an author’s voice, it’s becoming more of a committee construction’

The author of the venerable Physical Chemistry on how writing chemistry textbooks has changed over his career

chemistryworld.com

Glad to see my genius is still remembered www.theguardian.com/politics/202... (and for ref www.buzzfeed.com/hannahjewell... )

Hmmm at the Rio Olympics we thought the green diving pool was CAUSED by adding H2O2 (destroying the hypochlorite)... www.chemistryworld.com/news/algae-c...

Algae confirmed as culprit in Rio green pool saga

Accidental addition of hydrogen peroxide destroyed hypochlorite allowing algae to thrive

chemistryworld.com

Erin Fogg says Free Link@criminalerin.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Tired: They're painting the roses red Wired: They're pouring hydrogen peroxide in the reflecting pool at a rate far far far too low to actually kill all that algae in there

Just give Christie a rest and do some Dorothy L Sayers FFS! #WeWantWimsey

General Boles@generalboles.bsky.social · 4mo ago

They've made Poirot horny, because of woke www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...

If it was a CW feature (most likely), the human(ish) editor was me, the AI was Copilot and the summary is semi-hidden in an expandable box. Ask Me Anything.

Dan Falk@danfalk.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Spotted in the magazine Chemistry World: “This summary was generated by an AI and checked by a human editor.”

I call this the mango chutney problem and find it occurs in many choices in my middle age: after years of testing I have a favourite brand of something (Geeta's for the chutney), choosing an alternative means a high chance of disappointment.

Nature@nature.com · 4mo ago

An experiment with 2,520 participants backs Richard Feynman’s answer to every diner’s dilemma: do I want to try something new? go.nature.com/4uMMmTb

Absolute peak trolling is using UK pronunciation with the US spelling: al-you-min-um. [And I guess vice versa (although somehow not as weird – maybe the odd local UK variant does it? Welsh? Fenland?): al-oo-min-ium]

patricklinnen.bsky.social@patricklinnen.bsky.social · 4mo ago

My Mom and I had fun with the British / European manner of saying 'Aluminium'

Simply ridiculous. I much prefer the UK spelling of figmalium.

Claire Zagorski, PhD, MSc, EMT-P@clairezagorski.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Tag yourself I’m figmailm

My reflections on Craig Venter for @chemistryworld.com. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/the-...

The complicated legacy of J Craig Venter

By attempting to commercialise parts of the human genome, he sped up the development of gene sequencing technologies

chemistryworld.com

Imagine if your circular cookie cutter suddenly started making star-shaped cookies! And could never make round ones again!! (That's the idea behind the illustration btw. Better ideas on a postcard, if you've got them).

Chemistry World@chemistryworld.com · 5mo ago

In many cases, the first polymorph made is the one which is faster to nucleate & form crystals, then is replaced by the second which tends to be more thermodynamically stable. www.chemistryworld.com/features/the...

Fantastic piece by @dereklowe.bsky.social. Feeds into an ongoing debate among scientists: is it possible to dedicate yourself to finding the truth about the real world, and not vocally oppose an administration that constantly undermines the truth? Is doing so political, or just being a scientist?

‘The truth is supremely valuable and we cannot lie our way to it’

As a scientist with family in Iran, Derek Lowe finds his own government's approach to truth alarming

chemistryworld.com

Glad to see this profile of Fritz Strassmann in @chemistryworld.com. As the standfirst says, his moral courage in the face of the Nazis does indeed deserve wider recognition. (You can read a briefer account of that in my book Servingh The Reich.) www.chemistryworld.com/features/fri...

Fritz Strassmann: the principled chemist who discovered nuclear fission

Analytical chemist Friedrich Strassmann played a crucial role in discovering nuclear fission with Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, but his principled opposition to Nazi ideology nearly destroyed his career...

chemistryworld.com

Achievement unlocked!

Anna Slater@annagslater.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Today’s reason (#873053) we were late to school: the kids were arguing over who got to have my copy of @chemistryworld.com …

We're all about the weirdly massive crystals today!

Chemistry World@chemistryworld.com · 7mo ago

We've been hearing from a teacher growing a 2kg copper sulfate crystal www.chemistryworld.com/culture/how-.... Which led us to wonder what other record-breaking crystals are out there?

News you can use

Chemistry World@chemistryworld.com · 7mo ago

What’s the biggest single crystal you’ve grown? David Boyce and students at Queenswood School have grown a 3kg crystal of copper sulfate. Now he shares his tips for how you can do it too.

It would be very difficult to separate hundreds and thousands (sugar strands) by colour - that's the thinking behind the image, by the way.

Chemistry World@chemistryworld.com · 8mo ago

Rare earth elements power smartphones, wind turbines and more – but extracting them remains problematic. New research could change how these critical metals are refined – Victoria Atkinson explains how.

Applications for the internship are open now!

Chemistry World@chemistryworld.com · 8mo ago

Mason Wakley got on so well with his internship at Chemistry World that he is now a science correspondent. One to read if you're just starting out and curious where your career could take you, or just interested in what working at CW is like.

A search for "*chem*" in the Epstein files reveals: Lots of references (eg Whitesides' CV); a pool with algae needing treatment; typos for 'them'; messages to someone who was late because they had 'chem tutoring' (yikes)

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