SellaTheChemist

https://mastodon.social/@sellathechemist

🇺🇦🇺🇦 Born at 318 ppm CO2, UCL Prof, chemistry, climate change, energy waste, chemical weapons, #ClassicKit, bicycles, Lab_14, #UCLChemAirPoll. Timeblind and tired. Ask about my heat pump. @SellaTheChemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy.

“Real” name: Andrea Sella
Official webpage: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/4658-andrea-sella
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-sella-26ba44b/
Current status: Tired and stressed. But learning.

Public Key

npub1w88tysv0mxwjap04y5fx56klkeuy7lenaedklsw8xq2gaeh9k2zsfflw2w

NIP-05 Address

sellathechemist_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs8rn4jgx8an8fwsh6j2yn2dt0mv7z00ue7ukm0c8rnq9ywumjm9pgprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmnt6x4yya

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1w88tysv0mxwjap04y5fx56klkeuy7lenaedklsw8xq2gaeh9k2zsfflw2w

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-04-24 19:49:22 UTC

Caption competition, anyone?
For the historians “Roll over, Arrhenius”.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/461/404/520/668/854/original/dbfe88d1ef5f06e7.jpeg

2026-03-29 12:05:49 UTC

I’ll be talking about the very serious helium shortage that is looming (actually, it’s already upon us) and risks crippling semiconductor chip production and diagnostic instruments like MRI scanners, not to mention low temperature science.. It’s maddening because we’ve known that helium is very limited but it’s cheap so no one recovers it. It’ll be on BBC World Service Newshour around 13:45 BST.
#elements #chemistry #economics #profligacy

2026-03-25 21:03:52 UTC

- reply

Aluminium has an Achilles skin.

2026-03-25 18:02:32 UTC

- reply

No. I need to watch that. I've just spent too much time thinking about aerospace alloys and now I'm late for a talk I'm giving at Institute of Physics. Yikes. #StrangeIce

2026-03-23 17:35:11 UTC

I have just spent rather too much of the last hour and a bit watching videos about heat treatments for metals. some ten years after a colleague "lent" me his copy of Cottrell's Introduction to Metallurgy that took me down such a deep rabbit hole that he eventually stormed into my office with a copy he'd bought for me, demanding his own back 😂, I continue to find this stuff endlessly fascinating. #metallurgy

2026-02-27 16:48:37 UTC

Public institutions having to grovel to under-taxed rich dudes is how you end up with Epstein scenarios. Discuss. Use both sides of page if necessary.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/143/609/914/788/463/original/cedee1b0dc5754d9.jpeg

2026-02-16 19:06:19 UTC

Polenta is chiral. Clockwise stirred doesn’t mix with anti-clockwise, esp if done with the left hand. Something for @npub18rv…74cc to ponder. #polenta #chirality #food #carboloading
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/081/845/613/876/222/original/d0924e4de63c36ff.jpeg

2026-02-14 21:31:08 UTC

The British government is on the verge of ensuring that the UK drifts into complete insignificance. BBC World Service has more than 300 million listeners each week and a glorious reputation. Get a grip people. Value is not the same as price. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/10/bbc-world-service-funding-tim-davie?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

2026-01-25 18:10:04 UTC

For those not on LInkedIn, here is a sample of the brilliance of Patrick Gathara who holds up a mirror for those of us in the "old world". #trump #tribalism
ALT text had to be truncated. Sorry.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/957/072/518/042/108/original/1a9aa520aa5aed8b.jpg

2026-01-25 12:18:10 UTC

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff/115953575574318349
One of the many reasons why all of us should make regular donations to support the Wikipedia project that is being relentlessly scraped by the AI bots. Support it financially or lose it.

2026-01-12 12:37:03 UTC

Prof Rachel Oliver has now upped the ante by writing to Paul Nurse, the President of the Royal Society, arguing that the failure to act on Elon Musk heightens the risk of sexual and other harassment of women in academia and STEM more widely. The letter can be read here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18poQruZ9oImg-4SUH-P-1JAdqFdf1HCx/view?usp=drive_link
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/882/152/905/758/322/original/07311435e60dbc67.jpg

2026-01-11 08:59:08 UTC

This article, in which Paul Nurse compares Elon Musk with Isaac Newton (“a nasty piece of work”), leaves me completely speechless.
I don’t even know where to start.
https://www.ft.com/content/088b804f-15e0-4a8e-b32d-146a826b8d6c?shareType=nongift
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/875/625/253/726/370/original/281094bfb92d180d.jpeg

2025-12-29 10:22:34 UTC

I dream of the day when Drax is shut down at last. The madness of shipping wood from 1/3 of the way round the globe to burn it with an efficiency of about 30%. The number of cooling towers (12) tells you just how much energy is wasted. It is an astonishing monument to the Second Law.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/802/340/211/291/869/original/0559f624fc9f47f7.jpeg

2025-12-26 10:47:20 UTC

It’s awfully tempting to write another spoof article, inspired by this marvel of artistic and technological creativity. #ClassicKit
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/785/455/118/659/754/original/fde376300dba358b.jpeg

2025-12-10 22:12:30 UTC

Ok #repair experts. Can you help me? What is the name for that white connector called? I’m ready to swap the battery on this bike light but I don’t know enough about small and infuriatingly fiddly connectors. And I probably need to order one or two. In the old days there was Radio Shack and Maplins where might browse but without them I’m lost.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/697/554/905/089/980/original/08435866be2a7a1f.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/697/554/911/841/887/original/d9792719f953fb52.jpeg

2025-12-05 22:10:27 UTC

Went to an event at the Houses of Parliament tonight. And was unable to get my folded #Brompton #bicycle to fit through the X-ray machine, so had to go home.
Kind of nuts. They said that the new ones don't fit. Not hte ridiculous over-sized G-line bikes. The "original" C-line. Clearly these two have undergone a bit of size creep…
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/669/238/010/211/575/original/266cae386efb4fbd.jpg

2025-12-05 22:03:25 UTC

Very grim to talk to the Head of Department at Leicester - they face a staff cut of 1/3, merger with several others… Grim stuff. Sheffield in a similar position. And rumours of other closures or massive cuts.
More asset stripping and short-termism. The UK continues to cut the branch it is sitting on.

2025-12-04 16:56:22 UTC

Does anyone remember Letraset, the scratch and print sheets that could be used to apply professional lettering to sheets of paper? They were part of the pain of writing a scientific thesis before the arrival of the Macintosh and the democratization of (admittedly often second-rate) graphic design.
anyway it's some pre-Christmas #ClassicKit
https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/letrasets-transfers-and-placing-precision-back-on-the-drawing-board/4022562.article

2025-12-02 23:01:34 UTC

- reply

I'm not sure I can take this on but I would strongly advise your following people like Michael Liebreich, the chemical engineer Paul Martin, Michael Bernard, @npub1sgj…vpjx and others who all have extreme reservations about hydrogen. And I'm in their camp. The idea of using hydrogen for anything other than chemistry (making ammonia for agriculture, or fine chemicals) just don't add up. And there's a huge drive by the FF industry to keep the idea alive.

2025-10-23 13:37:47 UTC

Showing student how to sublime white phosphorus today. Initial sublimation step has gone nicely - now we need to get the stuff into another flask.
Now to deal with the left-overs. It burns with a warm and sinister yellow flame… #P4 #chemistry

2025-10-08 10:05:09 UTC

So Yaghi Kitagawa and Robson for porous frameworks. Widely expected. https://www.nobelprize.org

2025-09-13 21:24:49 UTC

Am I to understand that after arresting many hundreds of quiet people holding signs under "terrorism" legislation over the past few weeks, after hours of "significant aggression" and "unacceptable violence" today the police arrested a total of NINE people?
How reassuring that the new Home Secretary says "Anyone taking part in criminal activity will face the full force of the law". https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwydezxl0xlo

2025-08-19 17:33:41 UTC

I missed this in February - a chilling paper in The Lancet looking at life expectancy at birth in Gaza from 2017 to 2024. #Genocide quantified.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02810-1/fulltext
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/056/607/981/923/099/original/c6e130f503279bc9.jpg

2025-08-18 21:14:29 UTC

If you're in Puglia (which the FT say is the new Tuscany) head to Bisceglie to admire the fine Norman/romanesque churches and drop in on an exhibition of @npub1rf5…y720 cartoons.
Then don't miss Trani, Andria's Castel del Monte, Barletta and on and on and on.
https://livellosegreto.it/@maicolemirco/115051633537866602

2025-08-18 13:20:27 UTC

- reply

So many fingers. So little time.

2025-07-05 08:05:51 UTC

According to the BBC World Service news bulletin the Guadelupe river in Texas rose by 8 meters in 45 minutes. Governor Abbott speaks in biblical terms about this disaster as if it were just bad luck or a random event.
Continued denial is going to give us a lot more of this inexplicable stuff. #climatechange

2025-06-30 13:59:08 UTC

‘It’s the season to use Mylar falalala lala la la!
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/772/664/568/884/335/original/97b66c9584632110.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/772/665/554/052/542/original/d12c9f8ee2c13d88.png

2025-06-28 17:25:12 UTC

- reply

High points #UCLOpenDay
0. The widow and son of one of our students who wanted to see the lab he worked in. We found a copy of his thesis.
1. A student: "You talked about phase diagrams in that talk in Manchester didn't you?".
2. A parent: "I don't have a question but you did the elements podcasts, didn't you?"
3. The family that did a diffusion tube project in Harringay.
4. The smiles: "Data is power. Look at how scared some governments are of scientists and their methods."

2025-06-28 10:32:53 UTC

- reply

Ho hum. Another day another #UCLOpenDay. Today I'm talking about #UCLChemAirPoll a project I'm getting ready to resurrect. #UCLChemAirPollTheUndead
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/760/528/121/874/767/original/12c3c5beb1489791.jpg

2025-06-27 17:35:45 UTC

- reply

it 6:30 pm and I'm almost too tired to cycle home. And tomorrow is round 2…
Fun fun, but intense. #UCLOpenDay

2025-06-27 13:00:04 UTC

Part one of today's UCL Open Day. Big crowds. very busy. We have six demonstration stations to talk about ocean acidification and carbon dioxide, fluorescence, magnetism and superconductivity, use of microwaves in synthesis, citizen science and air pollution, and the smells of organic compounds.
Fun for all the family. #chemistry

2025-06-24 08:35:30 UTC

Every so often you see a letter in a local paper that just pisses you off so much - "climate is always changing" and "we have no idea about temperature" - that you feel forced to respond. And in this case, I was not alone. From the Islington Tribune, complete with both [@ed_hawkins](https://fediscience.org/@ed_hawkins ) #WarmingStripes and a plot of temperature from Tamino's Open Mind. #climatechange (My letter, slightly shortened is in the Alt Text)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/737/402/808/541/218/original/1a9b38198bb4c589.jpg

2025-06-21 16:43:12 UTC

- reply

And buried in Matthew Cobb's talk, a lovely little Easter egg, with a mention of the destruction that Elon Musk (referred to as FRS (sadly)) and Trump have caused and are causing to US science. Matthew Cobb jokingly singled out @npub17rh…p2vq and me as the people to ask about the issue of the #RoyalSociety and their silence about Musk and his fellowship. #RoyalSociety #Musk
see Alt text for more details.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/722/340/055/573/445/original/ee629d1691d10126.jpg

2025-06-21 16:33:53 UTC

Had the huge pleasure of attending Matthew Cobb's Bernal-Wilkins-Medawar Lecture "The LIfe and Times of Francis Crick or does it matter who does science?" I went in the company of @npub17rh…p2vq with whom I formed a two-man peanut gallery near the front.
A superb exploration of the origins of creativity.
"I read and I think" was the bottom line for a man who had such huge impacts on genetics and neuroscience.
You can watch the talk here: https://youtu.be/JkXcteRrPmc
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/722/301/350/186/767/original/7aff54eb26f149bf.jpg

2025-06-18 20:10:18 UTC

Holy moley! Careful oxidation of an azide at very low temps gives rise to an absolutely bonkers bonkers bonkers molecule: N6!!
An allotrope of nitrogen! And it seems to be stable at liquid nitrogen temperature, 77 K. Look at the isotopic signature in the infrared spectra. Spectacular fundamental science.
In case you're wondering, the starting material, silver azide is terrifyingly explosive. This is chemistry at the absolute absolute limit of the possible. Chapeau
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09032-9
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/706/164/583/932/547/original/c41e1115685435f4.jpg

2025-06-17 20:48:29 UTC

- reply

Decimalising…. 😍 and not before time!!!

2025-06-16 16:03:03 UTC

- reply

It doesn't let me register… If you let me in, I'd be grateful. And then give me an idea of what level of support I should be contribute to hosting costs.

2025-06-16 16:00:29 UTC

- reply

…which instance was the one I was looking at so let me go for that.

2025-06-16 15:31:01 UTC

Any advice on which PeerTube instance I should use?

2025-06-13 20:03:47 UTC

- reply

Meh! I don't feel all that brave. I'm not standing in front of militarised riot police. I'm not waiting for drones to slam into my apartment block. I'm not at risk from snipers.
I'm just an old guy who wants to be an accountability partner for my peers. I hope that they will see things differently.
The brave one was @npub1vtp…9ma5 who went first. She's one of my heroes. And @npub17rh…p2vq and @npub13c0…ehps . Without them, would I have had the idea?
It's a chain of support. Be strong.

2025-06-13 14:56:58 UTC

- reply

A little more about why I returned the #RoyalSociety Faraday Prize, with a question for everyone to ponder. #Musk
https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/why-i-returned-the-faraday-prize-to-the-royal-society/4021668.article

2025-06-10 06:20:57 UTC

It is with great sadness that I am doing what I would once have thought unthinkable. Following Salim Abdool Karim's superb Faraday Lecture 10 days ago, i have decided to return my own Faraday prize, awarded in 2014.
The silence of the Royal Society in the face of Elon Musk's rampage (a member of the RS since 2018) across US science is incomprehensible to me.
We must all draw the line somewhere in the face of authoritarian attacks and this is mine.
https://www.ft.com/content/877853df-1687-4d1f-940b-9eefc0cf69c0?accessToken=zwAAAZdYtYr2kdOHeFPfFodNH9OUC57vwM9pwA.MEUCIQDNG6kcQyHa-g6Kx4G9NHE2ofD36kR8OX0yEu-KfXlV0QIgcmMFKTaT90y42QfwQTWb05khk6thpQPe-JvIGkaZzQY&segmentId=e95a9ae7-622c-6235-5f87-51e412b47e97&shareType=enterprise&shareId=5fbecded-0dc9-419a-b064-cda0dee0d73a

2025-06-07 09:48:56 UTC

Chris Clark wibbling and wobbling in his food science show. Delights for children of all ages including me.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/641/446/733/600/882/original/7790219a8695d0f2.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/641/446/939/667/792/original/4db6453caeb2b56d.png

2025-06-06 08:47:00 UTC

Today is the anniversary of the D-day invasion across the Channel in 1944. With news that newly released papers suggest that Churchill was worried about supplies of penicillin, you might want to learn some of the backstory to that supply chain. Walter and Władzia Podbielniak developed revolutionary separation methods that made the scale-up of the purification of penicillin by solvent extraction, all based on a rapidly spinning rotor. It's #ClassicKit. https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/podbielniaks-contactor/4014234.article

2025-05-16 09:55:26 UTC

- reply

Spot on, Prof! This sentence: "Ofwat argues that there are measures in place to protect customers and that the creation of separate privately financed vehicles will lower costs."
Really? Really?????
What would all the schools, universities and hospitals say, the ones that got locked into extractive PPI contracts for 25 years. At UCL we've only just got one of our buildings back after 25 years. And what worries me is people are talking about private finance again, FFS.

2025-05-11 15:45:18 UTC

- reply

Bllue Box is a fantastic film. It was broadcast as part of the Storyville segment on BBC television a year or so ago. A brilliant film that shoudl be shown everywhere. In the current circumstances it can be hard to remember that there are plenty of Israelis who are enraged by the current situation and who can't stand the government's policies.
Boycotts, have their uses, but they have to be applied with nuance.

2025-05-09 16:58:16 UTC

- reply

This is interesting and, to me, a surprising result given what we've been seeing anecdotally in our Department. But that just me the optics of the curmudgeonly old person. 😀

2025-05-03 19:11:20 UTC

- reply

If someone holding a gin and tonic pisses you off,sprinkle a little salt in their drink. The chloride ions quench the fluorescence by stealing away the excitation from the quinine molecules, leaving them with both a salty, and quite dull-looking, drink.
You might call it The Revenge of the Chemical Physicist.

2025-05-03 17:26:37 UTC

- reply

If you want to explore the reflection, the intensity of which depends critically on the angle of incidence of light and the refractive indices of the materials inside and outside, use a blue/violet laser pointer and shine it into a bottle of tonic water. The fluorescence from the quinine shows you the path and relative reflection vs transmission outwards. You can get it to skip round the inside multiple times. Just watch out for stray reflections into your eyes. #demos

2025-05-01 22:13:13 UTC

From the FT: UCL Student Union suspends the Ukrainian Society for buying a drone and sending it to a Ukrainian soldier - action is in breach of the UK's laws governing charities. Official UCL says it supported "the action taken by the Union'…" https://www.ft.com/content/40719104-6404-448e-8232-9f8e5e3493a5
The decision makes me feel uncomfortable. I get it, yes, but no I don't.

2025-04-11 11:05:32 UTC

And now climate modelling at Princeton gets whacked. Dismantling US universities one nibble at a time. https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2025/04/ending-cooperative-agreements-funding-princeton-university

2025-03-29 11:45:39 UTC

Your last chance to catch the partial #eclipse today. Don't look at the sun - poke a hole in some cardboard and look at the image on a sheet of white paper behind it.
Or use binoculars like this.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/245/546/084/115/259/original/ecd5fa27af45f01e.jpg

2025-03-25 11:40:46 UTC

As science gets trashed and manipulated in the US, I was reminded of the chemist Richard Willlstätter, who uncovered the structures of plant biomolecules, not least the anthocyanins and other indicators. An ardent patriot he signed the Declaration of the Ninety-Three just before WW1, but refused to develop poison gases with Haber - he developed gas masks instead. In the late 30's he resigned his post when a Jewish colleague was refused promotion. A lesson? #ClassicKit https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/willstätters-nail/4016589.article

2025-02-28 23:23:43 UTC

An extraordinary performance from Carla Sands on Newsnight tonight. Utterly disconnected from reality.

2025-02-25 12:59:48 UTC

#UCL has just adopted a new AI-driven lecture recording system. It's called Panopto. No doubt the name will have biased the decision. After all, our Patron Auto-Icon and Mascot Jeremy #Bentham (still present but not voting) is the one who dreamed up the #panopticon
I'll bet good money that people have forgotten that the Panopticon was Bentham's ideal prison; a utopian prison where a single warder could watch all the inmates without them knowing.
A metaphor for these complex times.

2025-02-22 21:36:41 UTC

- reply

The problem is that I'm a Professor, right? 🤣 I have Professorial delusions. So I replied that i would have a go at it myself.
This morning I nipped to the local builders' mechant and got myself a replacement press-fit elbow and set about swapping the old one, with Hilaire Belloc's epic poem ringing in my ears:
Lord Finchley tried
To mend the electric light himself.
It struck him dead and serve him right.
For tis the duty of the wealthy man to give employment to the artisan.
Wealthy? 3/n

2025-02-22 21:33:12 UTC

- reply

They then offered someone on Monday but at a time corresponding with a lecture to 300 students - I just can't afford to cancel a lecture given how constrained our timetable is.
So i was on my own. I called a plumber who quoted me £580 for the job. I put down the phone and contact a friend - one of our piped services guys in UCL Estates - and sent him a photo of the situation.
He told me the price was outrageous and that it was a 5 minute job. If I wanted he could come round. 2/n

2025-02-22 21:30:06 UTC

Am trying to recover from what I think is an almost unheard of domestic emergency. On Thursday evening I spotted that my heating system was leaking water and the pressure was falling steadily.
Uncertain I turned off my heat pump and tried to contact my installers who made a series of pretty major blunders.
Next day, with water still streaming out of the pipework gently, I finally made contact with them. No one was available for a week. 1/n.

2025-02-16 17:11:56 UTC

At what point will people start asking whether the US dollar should be the benchmark/reserve currency? If the US can suddenly renege on financial commitments why would you want to hold dollars?

2025-02-13 12:53:56 UTC

- reply

I am a lifelong Mac user. Me my first in 1984. And now, on the threshold of retirement I’m thinking the unthinkable: Linux.

2025-02-12 10:29:11 UTC

Can anyone point me towards sales numbers for battery electric vehicles as opposed to fuel cells? All I have is Michael LIebreich's sarcastic slide from 2017. #energytransition
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/990/439/147/682/650/original/70e2aa397c5ddf9f.jpg

2025-02-06 21:02:30 UTC

The idea that there might be fewer #swasticars on the road causes me little grief. But given his track record at the Shitter site, maybe he’ll demand that companies be forced to buy his privacy invasion machines. @npub1thu…8zxf
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/958/951/015/207/777/original/04dbdf4715eb51ac.png

2024-12-25 18:27:52 UTC

I can no longer access my bank's website - I suspect it's due to the Badger tracker-blocker which has spotted tiqcdn which belongs to a company called Tealium, and then there's TrustPilot. Any thoughts about this?
I've found a page about something called "Confection" that can help tiqcdn get round Safari and Brave's privacy settings. any advice? Not to be able to access online banking is annoying. And I will complain to them but first any information you have would really help. @npub1m24…d9a3

2024-12-12 22:43:36 UTC

I saw the #documentary “The Bibi Files” tonight. It pulls no punches and the storytelling is remarkable. Phenomenal shots of faces, of glances, of looks. Loads of candid footage of the police interrogations. In the second half, his pact with the devils Smotrich and Ben Gvir is explored in brutal detail. Along with brutal images of the war. I might have liked the odd interview with some of his supporters. But it’s riveting. Riveting. #bibi #israel

2024-12-08 10:14:52 UTC

- reply

BBC World Service has been outstanding . Weekend invited Prof Joshua Landis from Oklahoma, an outstanding authority on the conflict – for three hours we had the benefit of his insight. The interview with 39 year old Rania K in which she described her trembling joy; ex-prisoner Ahmad Helmi who described being imprisoned by the regime.
Outstanding radio. Applause for the Weekend team. The last hour is here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172zcxbh4q5z7x
You don't get this on commercial radio, folks.

2024-12-08 10:05:46 UTC

I cannot tell you the joy I feel this morning listening to the news not just of the fall of the monstrously cruel #Assad regime, but also the fact that for the moment things are calm, peaceful and joyful.
Trivial though it is, I think of the insults, slurs and threats that I endured (alongside others) for daring to suggest that the Assad regime, abetted by the Russians, had used chemical weapons on their own people. There are awful people out there, and plenty of cheerleaders.
Let's celebrate!

2024-12-07 13:52:50 UTC

Daraa was the place where the rebellion against Bashar Al-Assad began. 15 boys/young men were arrested and brutally tortured in 2011. The resulting uprising was the start of the civil war that the Assad regime repressed brutally with the aid of Russian forces, using torture, disappearance and chemical weapons. The local population won't be sad to see the back of Bashar's mukhabarat and the army.
Whether an islamist regime is much better remains to be see, but I shed few tears for the Assads.

2024-12-07 11:10:47 UTC

In case you've not seen it yet, there's a petition to Parliament going round here in the UK asking for a ban on advertising fossil fuels and sponsorship by such companies.
I'm old enough when Formula 1 cars and stadia were emblazoned with tobacco advertising. Banning that was part of an effective strategy.
As storm Darragh ploughs its way across the UK - with government warnings not to travel and be careful - this might be a good time to think about signing. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700024

2024-12-05 13:27:18 UTC

- reply

Perhaps the potential savings could be used to electrify parts of the network or extend the electrification. Or to buy rolling stock with batteries that could run in the gaps in the electrified network. Electric trains are lighter and put less stress on the track, especially if they don't carry diesel backup like those that run north from Swindon toward Cheltenham for example that have a diesel generator built in to cope with the non-electric parts of the network.

2024-12-04 10:13:58 UTC

A marvellous video from the team @npub1s58…dknc which talks about the primary energy fallacy, and how replacing combustion with renewables results in a huge reduction in total energy requirements.
Every thermodynamics lecturer should include this in their lectures, especially giving students the challenge of thinking about what noun never gets mentioned in the entire discussion. #energy #transition #fallacy #climatechange https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVJkq4iu7bk

2024-12-03 09:25:26 UTC

FT has an interesting article about the massive impact that #Brexit has had on the UK #chemicals industry, especially on SMEs and spin-out companies. In particular they need to deal with two diverging regulatory regimes, which turns out to be quite expensive. D'oh.
There remains a lack of clarity about whether and how the government will address this. https://www.ft.com/content/401fca38-d156-4128-b46e-7682a30a3d66
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/588/160/405/745/282/original/4a2a881c7db55876.jpg

2024-11-25 12:48:05 UTC

- reply

So I am now gradually clearing old samples, some of them 20 years old, out of the #glovebox. I had kind of assumed that they were mostly dead.
Not quite. A few grams of brown NaMeCp caught fire after 5 or 6 minutes in air. And two samples of K4Si4 went off with a flash/bang when I dropped them into a wet beaker. More are waiting. #yikes
Depressing to think of the embodied emissions, but at least no one else has to deal with the surprises in future… #chemistry #academiclife #shitejihad

2024-11-23 09:59:48 UTC

A brilliant example of in vivo fluorescent labelling at the Avishai Cohen gig at the Union Chapel. It was a wonderful gig with Ziv Ravitz on top form and Cohen himself drawing amazing colours and space from his trumpet.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/531/667/844/727/944/original/52de6dd5f51d3953.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/531/667/862/207/579/original/8790dbb4eacde941.jpg

2024-11-16 12:28:02 UTC

- reply

The atmosphere is now as good as I've seen it in years. There's bit of a white film on the window that needs wiping off and ancient samples that I don't suppose I'll ever use again.
Once we've done our shite jihad I suspect that my #glovebox will be good to go for another decade or two - I've seen second hand microprocessor controllers on eBay and relays, fuses and so on are easy. Someone will inherit an old but solidly working box when I go.
So quick, let's get some #chemistry done. 2/2

2024-11-16 12:23:12 UTC

- reply

I'm taking stock of this whole affair. The first thing is that the original oxygen and moisture-scrubbing catalyst last for 30 years! I know people who insist on changing theirs annually. So although the box is messy as hell it's actually been well looked after.
There was one serious wrong turn - we mis-diagnosed some of the symptoms and wasted £300. In the end the part that needed replacing cost £15 and a little soldering. Plus the replacement catalyst that was lying spare in a cupboard. 1/2

2024-11-15 19:26:32 UTC

- reply

And so my glove is is undead!! Atmosphere well below 5 ppm of oxygen. Now the cleanup begins.
The spots are a very sensitive organometallic compound used as an indicator. Green is good. Orange is baaaaaad. #chemistry #academiclife
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/488/563/794/820/314/original/fb9f6afd86d3f54a.jpg

2024-11-14 22:03:56 UTC

No, BBC. Please. RFJ Junior is not a "sceptic". He's a rabid disinformer and denier. Don't use euphemisms.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/483/568/041/936/903/original/77d5a95dd1e8fa8a.jpg

2024-11-13 11:52:02 UTC

- reply

All fo that said, you wonder about the relationship between the X and Truth (sic) platforms. What happens to the latter on January 20th? #Twexit

2024-11-13 11:33:34 UTC

- reply

#GloveBox Saga. So the regeneration cycle is on for the catalyst on my #glovebox. Because I'm out of town I've got a couple of students primed to take photographs of solenoid valves to see whether the lights go on in the right order and whether when VRE opens the gas actually flow. If the light is on but gas doesn't flow then it's back to ordering another replacement part. How many weeks might that take? #sigh #chemistry #academiclife
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/475/424/673/383/800/original/539e396d674ef9e8.jpg

2024-11-12 19:12:50 UTC

- reply

I return to my #glovebox to discover that the catalyst heated but the gas did not flow through at all - the flow rate seemed correctly set at the start. Does this mean that there's a deeper problem still lurking?
A whole day wasted. I'll have to try again tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

2024-11-12 13:07:51 UTC

- reply

#Glovebox purged with 100 bar (7 m3 of nitrogen). Now the catalyst is heating up waiting for its nitrogen/hydrogen feed to reduce it down and activate it. We might have a working box by morning.
And then the shite jihad will begin. Time to clear out a lot of ancient samples and abandoned schlenks. There's a fair bit of rather manky white phosphorus and alkali metal in there so there may be some fun to be had… #chemistry #academiclife

2024-11-12 12:12:59 UTC

- reply

After multiple vicissitudes the correct replacement circuit breaker for my #glovebox has finally arrived. When it was installed, the blower that runs the recirculation in my glove box came back to life. 🍾🍾🍾 So now I need to purge the box with a cylinder of nitrogen and regenerate the catalyst which I have completely replaced. It's been a 2 ½ month emotional roller coaster. Fingers crossed we'll have the atmosphere down around 5 ppm O2 before the end of the week. #chemistry #academiclife

2024-11-11 19:11:56 UTC

At the Royal Institution for David Clary’s talk about science in the Second World War. “The lost scientists of WW2”. A talk about the Avademic Assistance Council that helped scientists and scholars escape. 1000 scientists were helped by this programme.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/465/890/544/560/603/original/3039801219c93341.jpg

2024-11-10 16:38:01 UTC

- reply

Yup. I had a load of it yesterday with a group of very nice, educated people, all scoffing about heat pumps and how useless they are, and how the radiators are cold. So I got them to touch the radiators in the house of their host who, with a Combi boiler, had her flow temp set to 36. There was momentary astonishment and then it was back to telling me that EVs were catching fire “everywhere”…

2024-10-30 09:32:02 UTC

Last night I opened my thermodynamics lectures with #UCLChem001x by holding up a spud and saying "Behold the potato. 400 g of sunbeams that I can hold in my hands."
To my astonishment 300 mobile phones came out and there was laughter - little had I realised that, as luck would have it, I had held up the potato such that, on the screen, I had been transformed into Prof Potatohead.
Something tells me that they won't forget the moment. #teaching
(and if someone sees the picture, post it here)

2024-10-26 11:28:39 UTC

Saturday. My glove box remains dead after a mysterious cockup while I was on holiday that caused one glove to be torn and the catalyst to sinter into multicoloured lumps. It doesn't get much worse than that!
But after several abortive attempts to fix things, I woke up at 02;30 in a cold sweat about it. And then a possible solution dawned. So, back to the lab to try it out.
That glovebox has run for 30 years on the same catalyst. I'd hate to lose it. #chemistry #InInsomniaConsilio
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/373/475/500/301/902/original/c0a239ea82997142.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/373/475/805/350/728/original/1be500ca69066c6d.jpg

2024-10-22 20:08:22 UTC

- reply

Original article here: Israel launched a dozen attacks on UN troops in Lebanon, says leaked report https://on.ft.com/3C5G2PZ (ps Phosphorus not phosphorous - the two have different chemical meanings)

2024-10-18 15:47:45 UTC

- reply

That isn't quite true. In the British system it is perfectly possible for a party to get a large proportion of seats in parliament (from which the PM is drawn) with less than a majority of seats. The first past the post constituency system means that there has always been this anomaly. At the moment, the Labour government has 411 seats out of 650 in parliament with only 34% of the popular vote. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_Kingdom_general_election

2024-10-18 10:53:23 UTC

- reply

I'm hoping to set up an honour-based lending library in our common room for all basic textbooks - who know if some students might not dip into them rahter than getting everything online. But I also have some wonderful things - like the book on Molecular Structure that Peter Debye sent to Christopher Ingold in 1931… And the same for Guggenheim's Thermodynamics.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/328/042/131/595/876/original/f823b639b53d8f26.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/328/042/602/611/214/original/882361f03822410b.jpg

2024-10-18 08:28:16 UTC

- reply

Ihave a huge library of books - 2000 or so- some of mine, some inherited from colleagues who left or died. I wonder what will happen when I go.

2024-10-17 18:37:08 UTC

- reply

My God. A colleague of mine took early retirement very quietly and left abruptly without saying goodbye or anything. He had a lot of books but no one said anything.
One day I saw a series of wheelie bins filled with them being walked to our service lift. And I was too stressed and busy to try to salvage a thing. Gone. All gone. Really depressing.

2024-10-12 09:21:25 UTC

- reply

Back in the innocent days when there were limits on political donations, owners of private companies would use their distribution networks to build contributions to specific campaigns. Each firm would be instructed to donate to a particular campaign. The result was that you could get 50 times the limit based on the whim of a single individual. There should be a ceiling on contributions, but no floor on declarations. And see simon Kuper in FT today. https://www.ft.com/content/bf4395e2-eb61-4e43-9d9c-fbe37cfd4c03

2024-10-11 13:44:58 UTC

The @npub1umd…wfr7 is down. Looks like they got hit by a massive DDOS attack.
Remember to toss a few quid their way if you can. If we lost them we'd rue their disappearance as all trace of past lies and erasure of political and corporate shenanigans woudl ensue. As well as losing an invaluable knowledge-base that is under huge threat from monopolist, rentier corporate interests.

2024-10-11 11:49:34 UTC

- reply

Is the one on the left Victor Horta? I dream of going back to Brussels to drool over his staircases…

2024-10-08 14:08:17 UTC

Rather interesting to hear Hinton's fears about machine learning. He is worried about superintelligence in 20 years and that the profit motive is leading companies like OpenAI to dump their safety people. I was surprised, though, that he made no mention of the torrent of machine-generated shit that is starting to completely swamp our knowledge-base, our online feeds, and our energy systems while companies do their utmost to shred libraries and shared resources. #NobelPrize #physics

2024-10-08 13:50:58 UTC

At the end of an interview on BBC WS Newshour that elicited a rather formulaic set of replies, absolutely outstanding question from presenter Celia Hatton to a US Ambassador (double-barrelled name): "Should the US Government trust Mr Netanyahu?"
There was a loooong pause, a fluffle… and then a rather hesitant and honest replly about how Netanyahu has repeatedly ignored Biden and Blinken.
Applause for Ms Hatton for revealing a little of what is behind the veil. 🍾🍾🍾 #slamdunk [@fulelo](https://journa.host/@fulelo )

2024-10-07 18:36:48 UTC

- reply

May I also draw your attention to [@philipcball](https://mastodon.social/@philipcball ) 's book How Life Works which covers Ambros' work in the RNA chapter early in the latest book. It's another fine example of how the #NobelPrize for Medicine has been awarded for Chemical work. <ducks> https://how-life-works.philipball.co.uk

2024-10-05 18:36:26 UTC

Having told my students that our lectures are superspreader events, guess what? #COVID. Both lines came up in about 15 secs….
And now I’m kicking myself because I was masked for the first two and then a couple of people convinced me that I was overdoing it… #sigh #CovidIsNotOver
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/256/250/802/986/744/original/05dda41427d4ca79.jpg

2024-10-04 18:45:00 UTC

I'm probably not the only one who noticed that the 22 billion that the UK government have devoted to carbon capture and storage is only a little smaller than the cumulative number of tonnes of coal burned by the UK over the past two centuries. It's a figure that XKCD played with this week.
In my next Fermi question workshop I'm going to get my students to estimate the total volume of the CO2 that needs to be stored to be "net zero" (as a solid and then as a liquid). https://xkcd.com/2992/

2024-09-19 18:11:09 UTC

- reply

Well…!