Tim Easun
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timeasun.bsky.social
Tim Easun
@timeasun.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.1K following 440 posts
Supramolecular photochemist, time-resolved spectroscopist. UoBChemistry, Royal Society URF #MOFs
#chemistry Same U/N at .social
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timeasun.bsky.social
In the spirit of #ChemChat, here is one of my favourite bits of physical chemistry out in the real world: the 4th century Roman Lycurgus Cup.

Green in reflection, red in transmission, due to gold/silver nanoparticles in the glass, I finally got to see it for real a few weeks ago. Beautiful.
An ornate cup with green and red glass.
November 17, 2025 at 2:58 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
After a break over summer, we finally managed to reinstate baking for group meetings.

Thanks to Emily for the chocolate cake!

#ScienceFuel
A piece of date and honey flapjack, a slice of chocolate cake, some cream and a few raspberries. They look, and were, delicious.
November 12, 2025 at 3:22 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
@epomm.bsky.social The 2nd EPSRC EPoMM* network meeting has started!

A warm welcome as always by Alex O'Malley to two days of holes.

*Engineering Porous Materials at Multiple Scales
Alex stood in front of the intro slide for the conference
September 17, 2025 at 9:13 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
A much less common event for me than in the past - a ##StationCoffee on the way from A to B.

Although these days, it's really *from* B, as I'm setting out from Brum!
The lid of a coffee cup is out of focus at the bottom centre of the image. There is a view along a station platform with a train along the left edge. The words "mind the gap" are painted on the stain floor on the left side.
January 21, 2025 at 10:21 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
Found another one - #MASC2024 chemists are assembling!
@jona-foster.bsky.social is new to Bluesky :)
Two men smiling at the camera, on a train (still). I'm on the left, Jona Foster is on the right.
December 16, 2024 at 8:33 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
Not just one, but two chemists with #StationCoffee on the way to #MASC2024

Good to have new @uobchemistry.bsky.social colleague @oliver-maguire.bsky.social as company en route 😀
Two smiling men on a train holding cups of coffee. The train is sat in Derby station, so it is #StationCoffee and not #TrainCoffee, for the pedants.
December 16, 2024 at 7:14 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
My journey to #MASC2024 starts in ebullient mood despite the early hour.

Looking forward to the next 2 days of #macrocycles and #supramolecular #chemistry in York!

#Chemsky
A giant mechanical bull seen from the side as it faces to the right. It's 10 metres tall and called Ozzy. It lives in Birmingham New Street station.
December 16, 2024 at 5:54 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
Someone doesn't want me to go to the synchrotron today.
A black and white cat sat in an open suitcase. She is not impressed that I am packing.
December 10, 2024 at 11:50 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
Good morning London.
A view over the tops of green trees to the London skyline under a white cloudy sky. The London Eye big wheel as visible on the left end, with the Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben in the centre. It's a nice view.
October 30, 2024 at 9:18 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
This gate in Birmingham is quite hard to close.
A white gate that a tree has grown around.
September 12, 2024 at 1:46 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
Anyone on #Chemsky and ALSO going to #MOF2024? We're on our way and very excited!
A view of clouds from above from a plane window, with blue sky above
July 13, 2024 at 8:16 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
A delicious timeline juxtaposition:
Screenshot of the quoted post with @seismatters post immediately underneath that says (in reply to something else, of course) "Oh yeah. I saw this last week. It's an ace communication tool!". It looks like this is in response to the post about picking rocks being recommended by Google's AI!
May 25, 2024 at 2:10 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
Oh no! Unwanted mechanochemical C-H activation of my caffeine has occurred.

#ChemSky 🧪
A 3D printed caffeine molecule held on the left by my finger and thumb, on a desk. Atoms are coloured (O red, N blue, C grey and H white). One of the hydrogen atoms has broken off the end methyl group and is sat forlornly on the desk to the right.
January 12, 2024 at 11:25 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
"No verified email" 😂
A screenshot of Albert Einstein's Google Scholar page. You can find it here: https://scholar.google.com/citations? Einstein has no verified email and an h-index of 125.
January 6, 2024 at 8:59 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
Totley Tunnel in August 🚂🛤
A train coming out of a tunnel. The surrounding hillside is verdant green foliage
December 30, 2023 at 12:04 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
Hello people.
What is the big round growth on this tree, please? It's centre-left of the image.
Thanks in advance!
A big tree with spreading branches. Along one set of branches, centre left, there is a large round ball growth of wood.
December 29, 2023 at 3:39 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
And goodbye #MASC2023 from in Birmingham! A wonderful couple of days of fantastic science with good people.

See you all next year #MASC2024 in York 😃
A night photo of the green centre of the University of Birmingham campus. The clock tower spikes up the far centre, with the clock lit up bright white. Shadowy clouds overhead, the moon peeking out in the upper left. Across the middle and either side, building lights shine.
December 19, 2023 at 6:46 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
Good morning #MASC2023!
Welcome to @unibirmingham all the MASC 2023 delegates, it's almost time for the conference to start 😀
Looking forward to an excellent couple of days of #macrocycles and #supramolecular #chemistry!
#ChemSky 🧪
Orange red sunrise behind the almost silhouetted clock tower at the University of Birmingham. The roof of the Chemistry building is in the foreground, covered in pipes.
December 18, 2023 at 8:11 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
Beautiful sunlight in the graveyard this morning, on my walk into work.
Dappled light on a stone cross with trees and green foliage behind and above either side.
October 30, 2023 at 9:05 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
A black cylindrical space probe/ship with a flowing orb protruding laterally from one end, against a backdrop of stars. Image taken from Star Trek The Votage Home
October 28, 2023 at 10:58 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
It's that time of year again, now the weather has turned.

Time to retrain the cat again, not to hook into and pull every jumper.

#JumperTime
A black and white cat paw on a red woollen jumper. A claw is just about visible. The other claws are out of sight because they're neatly hooked into the jumper. Sigh.
October 21, 2023 at 2:12 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
Scree shot from Star Wars of Admiral Firmus Piett saying his line "It's an older code, sir, but it checks out". White memetext has been added above and below to read "It's an older meme sir, but it checks out".
October 20, 2023 at 6:08 AM
timeasun.bsky.social
He has several papers almost ready to go, and he's done excellent work on photoactive MOFs. Dom is a talented scientist.

He's also got excellent judgement... at least, I'm going to say that after the very lovely gift he got me 😆 (look closely 🤩).
My hand holding a bottle of Strathisla 15 year old whisky. It's engraved "To the best PhD supervisor. Many papers to come!".
October 15, 2023 at 7:02 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
Two weeks ago my student Dom submitted his PhD thesis and I'm really proud of him.

Through a global pandemic, he's done a fantastic job! And he's hardly aged from start (1st photo) to finish (2nd photo) 😃

(electronic submission so no physical thesis🤦‍♂️)
A young, clean-shaven and neat-haired man in lab coat and safety glasses, wearing blue gloves and holding a large separating funnel containing a yellow orange solution. He is smiling at the camera. A slightly older smiling Dom, in an office, pretending to hold and point at a thesis, which is a white rectangle with the word Thesis! written in it. Both word and rectangle have been amateurishly added after the photo was taken, by me.
October 15, 2023 at 7:00 PM
timeasun.bsky.social
"Look up! It looks like fur!"

Be like my 8 year-old. Don't forget to raise your eyes sometimes.
A deep blue morning sky with white fronds of cloud that do indeed look like brushed fur. Chimney silhouettes along the bottom.
October 10, 2023 at 7:13 AM