Rob Scott
@saskchemprof.bsky.social
Prof @USask. Research includes nanochemistry, catalysis, and staring at X-rays. Dad of two teenagers and 1 cat, avid reader, and movie buff. Social introvert and lover of bad dad jokes.
Reposted by Rob Scott
Oh please just fuck off
November 26, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Oh please just fuck off
This is gold! (Made up chemistry facts)
You have to buy different NMRs in the southern hemisphere because the nuclei spin in the opposite direction there
November 26, 2025 at 2:42 AM
This is gold! (Made up chemistry facts)
Reposted by Rob Scott
Not that you asked, but here's a thread of intriguing 100% FAKE chemistry facts to amuse/bore your friends and family.
Great for gatherings when you need to change the subject!
(Feel free to add your own!)
#chemchat
Great for gatherings when you need to change the subject!
(Feel free to add your own!)
#chemchat
Not that you asked, but here's a thread of intriguing (real!) food facts to amuse/bore your friends and family.
Great for gatherings when you need to change the subject!
Great for gatherings when you need to change the subject!
November 25, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Not that you asked, but here's a thread of intriguing 100% FAKE chemistry facts to amuse/bore your friends and family.
Great for gatherings when you need to change the subject!
(Feel free to add your own!)
#chemchat
Great for gatherings when you need to change the subject!
(Feel free to add your own!)
#chemchat
Reposted by Rob Scott
Fifteen Years
xkcd.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Hidden metal hearts;
Absorbing light, revealing
Coupling’s changing shape.
Do palladium clusters really retain their structures during coupling reactions? Glad to report our journey into following these reactions by X-rays is now out (1/2):
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
#chemsky
Absorbing light, revealing
Coupling’s changing shape.
Do palladium clusters really retain their structures during coupling reactions? Glad to report our journey into following these reactions by X-rays is now out (1/2):
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
#chemsky
Investigating Transformations in Catalytic Pathways and Site Selectivity of Pd3 Nanocluster-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions
Atom-precise nanoclusters (NCs) of Pd have emerged as highly active and selective catalytic systems for cross-coupling and hydrogenation reactions. The unique Pd speciation in NCs has enabled unconven...
pubs.acs.org
November 24, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Hidden metal hearts;
Absorbing light, revealing
Coupling’s changing shape.
Do palladium clusters really retain their structures during coupling reactions? Glad to report our journey into following these reactions by X-rays is now out (1/2):
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
#chemsky
Absorbing light, revealing
Coupling’s changing shape.
Do palladium clusters really retain their structures during coupling reactions? Glad to report our journey into following these reactions by X-rays is now out (1/2):
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
#chemsky
Reposted by Rob Scott
The world could use less artificial intelligence and more plain intelligence right about now.
November 22, 2025 at 4:17 PM
The world could use less artificial intelligence and more plain intelligence right about now.
Reposted by Rob Scott
I wrote about that! www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/wher...
Where does bromine come from?
A journey that begins in a former oil field in Arkansas
www.chemistryworld.com
November 22, 2025 at 6:36 AM
I wrote about that! www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/wher...
Reposted by Rob Scott
Massive shoutout out to whoever handles the Royal Canadian Air Force’s social media account. They responded to every single comment on their already very solid Trans Day of Remembrance post and they responded like this…
November 22, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Massive shoutout out to whoever handles the Royal Canadian Air Force’s social media account. They responded to every single comment on their already very solid Trans Day of Remembrance post and they responded like this…
Reposted by Rob Scott
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
We seem to have a quockerwodger outbreak!
Word of the day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet politician whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.
November 21, 2025 at 1:07 PM
We seem to have a quockerwodger outbreak!
Change one letter and ruin a candy
Hershey Pisses
Hershey Pisses
change one letter and ruin a candy
Geese's Pieces
Geese's Pieces
Change one letter and ruin a candy
Slickers
Slickers
November 21, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Change one letter and ruin a candy
Hershey Pisses
Hershey Pisses
Reposted by Rob Scott
Look
if you had one ring
with one Pd in it,
and pull everything onto one thread
in one moment.
would you break it
or just let it slip?
Great work by @jamesormson.bsky.social and @tomasnicolas.bsky.social now in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social! #chemsky
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
if you had one ring
with one Pd in it,
and pull everything onto one thread
in one moment.
would you break it
or just let it slip?
Great work by @jamesormson.bsky.social and @tomasnicolas.bsky.social now in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social! #chemsky
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Template‐Controlled Mechanochemical Dissociation of a Rotaxane
The presence or absence of the Pd template used in rotaxane formation selectively leads to two different mechanochemical dissociation pathways. The Pd maintains a smaller cavity size that favors diss....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Look
if you had one ring
with one Pd in it,
and pull everything onto one thread
in one moment.
would you break it
or just let it slip?
Great work by @jamesormson.bsky.social and @tomasnicolas.bsky.social now in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social! #chemsky
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
if you had one ring
with one Pd in it,
and pull everything onto one thread
in one moment.
would you break it
or just let it slip?
Great work by @jamesormson.bsky.social and @tomasnicolas.bsky.social now in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social! #chemsky
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Me: This is awesome!
Also me: but the half life calculation is based on 0th order kinetics, thus is only useful for a given starting amount.
Former grad student me: I wonder what the half life of spatulas and stirring bars are and whether they follow 0th order kinetics?
#chemchat
Also me: but the half life calculation is based on 0th order kinetics, thus is only useful for a given starting amount.
Former grad student me: I wonder what the half life of spatulas and stirring bars are and whether they follow 0th order kinetics?
#chemchat
70 teaspoons placed in tearooms around the institute & observed weekly over 5 months. 80% of spoons disappeared; spoon halflife~81 days. Communal room halflife lower than in specific labs. 250 spoons annually required to maintain 70 spoon population.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute
Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom. Design Longitudinal cohort study. Setting Research institute ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
November 20, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Me: This is awesome!
Also me: but the half life calculation is based on 0th order kinetics, thus is only useful for a given starting amount.
Former grad student me: I wonder what the half life of spatulas and stirring bars are and whether they follow 0th order kinetics?
#chemchat
Also me: but the half life calculation is based on 0th order kinetics, thus is only useful for a given starting amount.
Former grad student me: I wonder what the half life of spatulas and stirring bars are and whether they follow 0th order kinetics?
#chemchat
Reposted by Rob Scott
This mural has gone up in Kingston, ostensibly for Christmas but AI has ensured it's actually to celebrate the return of our dark lord Cthulhu
November 18, 2025 at 9:44 AM
This mural has gone up in Kingston, ostensibly for Christmas but AI has ensured it's actually to celebrate the return of our dark lord Cthulhu
Reposted by Rob Scott
Autocorrect has become our worst enema.
November 19, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Autocorrect has become our worst enema.
Reposted by Rob Scott
It's that time again: @cenmag.bsky.social 's molecule of the year poll is now OPEN! Check out the contenders, lovingly curated by yours truly from past C&EN stories, and vote for your favorite by Dec. 11
#chemsky #scisky #moty2025
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Mo...
#chemsky #scisky #moty2025
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Mo...
Meet the molecules of the year 2025
C&EN editors’ annual round-up of spectacular molecules we’ve covered in the past year
cen.acs.org
November 19, 2025 at 4:28 PM
It's that time again: @cenmag.bsky.social 's molecule of the year poll is now OPEN! Check out the contenders, lovingly curated by yours truly from past C&EN stories, and vote for your favorite by Dec. 11
#chemsky #scisky #moty2025
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Mo...
#chemsky #scisky #moty2025
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Mo...
Reposted by Rob Scott
40 years ago today the world was introduced to a small boy and his best friend. Happy birthday Calvin & Hobbes.
November 18, 2025 at 6:37 AM
40 years ago today the world was introduced to a small boy and his best friend. Happy birthday Calvin & Hobbes.
Had trouble with my phone charging for six months, finally take it in to a repair place and lo-and-behold, a giant piece of lint jammed in the charging port was the problem.
(Size exaggerated for effect).
(Size exaggerated for effect).
a hand with a ring on it holds a small gray object
Alt: a hand with a ring on it holds a large ball of lint.
media.tenor.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Had trouble with my phone charging for six months, finally take it in to a repair place and lo-and-behold, a giant piece of lint jammed in the charging port was the problem.
(Size exaggerated for effect).
(Size exaggerated for effect).
Still firmly on Team Stir.
More blog catchup: a closer look at the “no need to stir a lot of organic chemistry reactions” data. This topic gets bench chemists all . . . Well, you know:
Reaction Stirring, Part Two
www.science.org
November 18, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Still firmly on Team Stir.
I need the coffee in me before I can make smart decisions like this.
November 18, 2025 at 6:13 PM
I need the coffee in me before I can make smart decisions like this.
Reposted by Rob Scott
I am so tired of “full responsibility” that involves no action and “shame” that kicks in only upon public disclosure.
SUMMERS: “.. I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”
@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
November 18, 2025 at 1:35 AM
I am so tired of “full responsibility” that involves no action and “shame” that kicks in only upon public disclosure.
Reposted by Rob Scott
November 17, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Huzzah. No mid-winter election!
170-168, House approves government's budgetary policy.
Liberals and Elizabeth May in favour.
Conservatives, Bloc and most NDP MPs against.
Four abstentions: NDP MPs Gord Johns and Lori Idlout, CPC MPs Matt Jeneroux and Shannon Stubbs.
Liberals and Elizabeth May in favour.
Conservatives, Bloc and most NDP MPs against.
Four abstentions: NDP MPs Gord Johns and Lori Idlout, CPC MPs Matt Jeneroux and Shannon Stubbs.
November 18, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Huzzah. No mid-winter election!
One cool thing on living in Saskatoon is the free demonstrations of the thermodynamics of ice crystallization from the gas phase.
November 16, 2025 at 10:19 PM
One cool thing on living in Saskatoon is the free demonstrations of the thermodynamics of ice crystallization from the gas phase.
Reposted by Rob Scott
UVic Chemistry is hiring again!
Come join us in beautiful Victoria, BC on the Pacific coast!
Mild winters, incredible summers, great facilities, & inspiring colleagues (minus me).
Asst. Prof. level. Physical, Organic, & Inorganic preferred.
www.uvic.ca/faculty-staf...
Come join us in beautiful Victoria, BC on the Pacific coast!
Mild winters, incredible summers, great facilities, & inspiring colleagues (minus me).
Asst. Prof. level. Physical, Organic, & Inorganic preferred.
www.uvic.ca/faculty-staf...
CHEM 270-155 - Faculty & staff - University of Victoria
Inspired by and honouring place, we are a community-minded, globally engaged university where we transform ideas into meaningful impact.
www.uvic.ca
November 15, 2025 at 12:16 AM
UVic Chemistry is hiring again!
Come join us in beautiful Victoria, BC on the Pacific coast!
Mild winters, incredible summers, great facilities, & inspiring colleagues (minus me).
Asst. Prof. level. Physical, Organic, & Inorganic preferred.
www.uvic.ca/faculty-staf...
Come join us in beautiful Victoria, BC on the Pacific coast!
Mild winters, incredible summers, great facilities, & inspiring colleagues (minus me).
Asst. Prof. level. Physical, Organic, & Inorganic preferred.
www.uvic.ca/faculty-staf...