When you lose your job, it can be tough to know what to do next. Career coach Octavia Goredema shares a practical checklist of next moves, from reviewing exit paperwork to securing health care. #news #NPR https://www.npr.org/2025/06/25/nx-s1-5366671/layoffs-job-loss-unemployment-finance-money-tips

@sellathechemist It was a key step in my thesis. (Trying to convert vanilla to morphine). It was everything I'd hoped the Dark Magic of synthesis would be. A dark viscous stinky liquid, and scooting that carbonyl down the chain.

Call morpholine "lizard tails" and and the sulfur "brimstone" and you've got full-on wizardry!

@sellathechemist Do magic. Do a Willgerodt-Kindler.

We're just past the 200th anniversary of Michael Faraday announcing his discovery of bicarburet of hydrogen (that Mitscherlich would call "benzine" and Liebig would rename "benzol") a molecule that would <ahem> resonate intellectually and industrially. for 200 years and counting.
A single phrase in his description caught my eye. He says that "a stoppered bottle… was brought home". It a phrase that speaks volumes. He was a lab rat, pure and simple. #ClassicKit https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/faradays-laboratory-manual-and-the-isolation-of-benzene/4021734.article

“advances in molecular science have helped researchers understand key mechanisms underpinning the carnivorous lifestyle: how a flytrap snaps so fast…how it morphs into an insect-juicing “stomach” and then into an “intestine””.
🧪 #Scicomm #Plants
@KnowableMag is a great resource.
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2022/how-plants-turned-predator

Interstellar clouds are brewing rich organic chemistry. Astronomers just detected a complex molecule called cyanocoronene (C₂₄H₁₁CN) floating between the stars in Taurus.

We don't know if life is common in the universe. But prebiotic chemistry sure is.

https://public.nrao.edu/news/cosmic-chemistry-breakthrough-largest-aromatic-molecule-found-in-deep-space/ #science #space #technology

The observation campaign for the stellar occultation by (389) Leopoldina was very successful. We have at least 12 positive observations and 5 negative. The best occultation observation of this minor planet to date.

Reports are still coming in.
C. Weber has provided a first, preliminary shadow profile with 10 positive chords reported to SODIS.

https://sodis.iota-es.de/

#astronomy #occultation #space #asteroid #citizenscience

I think I just hit peak irony.

Video of a small bird (Northern parula) that wants to hang out at our French door window.

(It brought larvae in its beak later that afternoon. I gave it the thumbs up of appreciation of its hunting prowess.)

#fensterfrieitag

@KellyLepo @nazokiyoubinbou High pressure is not a deal-breaker. The current limit for survivability is 1.2 GPa. We've done experiments at Very High Pressure (ca. 800 MPa) to see how life would adapt to high pressures at Titan's ocean bottom. (100 km of ice + 100 km of ocean.)

In habitability parameter space, pressure is not that bad. In comparison, cold can be a bigger issue. (Stabby-stab ice crystals that puncture cell membranes, for example.)

Just a reminder that Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically any genetic tech today, was only possible because of an extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. The value of basic #science cannot be predicted and often is realized decades after it's done.

How a discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR - Richmond Scientific
https://www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discovery-in-yellowstone-national-park-led-to-the-renowned-technique-of-dna-amplification-pcr

When there was a tan brown suit tūī in Hamilton in 2021, it made the news. Here’s the article. It mentions that the mutation is mostly seen in females.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/300370914/rare-mutant-brown-tui-being-seen-more-regularly-in-hamilton

#tūī #birds #nz

Every time I go to the local primary school for science outreach, I bring my pencil and notebook with me and emphasise how they're the most important tool in my research tool kit, and the pupils get all excited about that.

Key quote: "NASA is f***ed."

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/05/trump-pulls-isaacman-nomination-for-space-source-nasa-is-fed/

Viruses that roam the fungal kingdom https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2025/the-strange-viruses-that-infect-fungi

"today, scientists researching fungal #viruses are enjoying a golden age of discovery... finding all sorts of weird and wonderful interactions between #fungi and their viruses and even between fungal viruses and #plants or #animals. Most fungal viruses don’t seem to do much of anything to their hosts, but others cause sickness or offer surprising benefits."

EDIT: After you answer the poll, please reply with what your answer was, and what field you work in. With 70 votes in, the result shocks me!

Question for academics: if you read X±Y, what is your default assumption for what Y means if the authors didn't specify it?

(I just found out not everyone has the same answer, and I'm curious how widespread the "other" approach is.)

#Statistics

On May 26, 1970, to celebrate the birthday of Lenin, the former Soviet Union starts the secret project "SG-3" on the Kola-Peninsula.

The drilling project planned to study the Mohorovičić discontinuity, projected to be encountered at a depth of 15 kilometers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole

🚨 #JOB ALERT 🚨

If you're an experienced communicator, passionate about #astronomy, and fluent in English and Spanish, there's a great job opportunity as ESO's Head of Communication in #Chile

Details here: https://recruitment.eso.org/jobs/2025_0041#

#scicomm #FediHire #astrodon #astronomy #science

The restored opening scene from the original release of Star Wars in 1977, with John William's memorable score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJguy6wSYyI
2/n