Bri Barbu

@cenmag.bsky.social needs YOU to help us elect a molecule of the year 2026! #ChemSky you can read up on the candidates' platforms and cast your vote by November 10 at the link below. And please share with your friends! cen.acs.org/synthesis/mo...

Vote for your favorite molecule of 2026: cen.acs.org/synthesis/mo... #chemsky 🧪

Researchers have designed an implant that converts excess blood glucose to gluconate using an electrochemical reaction. The device could one day help people with diabetes manage their condition with fewer drugs. #chemsky 🧪

Researchers did electrochemical glucose oxidation in alive mice! Pretty hecking wild if you ask me! Obviously medical implants that use electricity to do stuff aren't new but this is a whole chemical reaction they're catalyzing in there! Read on in @cenmag.bsky.social: cen.acs.org/biological-c...

Researchers invented a reaction that joins two flat molecules together through a new single-carbon connection to quickly access complex 3D organic molecules known as spirocycles. #chemsky 🧪

A fun addition this year: Readers can play investor by giving $1 million in imaginary funding to one or more companies!

A little peek inside how seriously we take chemical structures at @cenmag.bsky.social. Last week at 5:30 AM we were literally losing sleep over it. Editorial with @fmorningstar.bsky.social, @bethanyhalford.bsky.social. and @laurahowes.bsky.social cen.acs.org/synthesis/st...

One last thing from my very busy week @cenmag.bsky.social! Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder invented a system of inks for creating full-color tattooed images that appear and disappear in response to light. And the PI tested it on himself! Read more: cen.acs.org/materials/na...

Lovely op-ed from Neil Garg about giving a pub lecture and how chemists can meet the public where they're at. "Organic chemistry gives us medicines, materials, and much of life as we know it. Yet our field is still best known publicly as a bad college experience." cen.acs.org/education/ou...

I went on the Stereo Chemistry pod to talk about--what else--stereochemistry! That being the topic of this year's #ChemNobel. (Cut for time: me yapping about linocut, neutrinos, and a running joke among the science team concerning the chirality of cows.)

As space agencies prepare to turn brief excursions into long-term stays on the moon and Mars, chemistry shifts from a backstage helper to a leading role. #WorldSpaceWeek #WSW2026 #chemsky 🧪

Oh also all three of the Blavatnik award laureates have ties to chemistry! I helped pull together a quick story yesterday about it with @maxhenrybarnhart.bsky.social and Prachi Patel! Big congrats to @nagiblab.bsky.social!!! cen.acs.org/people/award...

me at 5:59 AM

Are you ready to try something new and work in #SciComm? Apply now to be a part of the 2027 cohort of @aaas.org #MassMediaFellows! Spend the summer using your STEMM background as a journalist writing the news. English and Spanish language placements available. bit.ly/3KugH6D

Of the 20 recipients of this year's MacArthur "genius grants", two —@songlin1.bsky.social at Stanford and Liangfang Zhang at UCSD—have ties to chemistry! Both creatively merge science and tech with implications for building better medicines: Read more @cenmag.bsky.social: cen.acs.org/people/award...

Can I use my work card to buy a skeleton outfit for the Phoebe Bridgers concert next week if I then use it to make a video about skeletal editing? (For legal reasons this is a joke! I use work funds responsibly!)

2 Atoms, 2 Swapped: the sequel! Now playing in a Science journal near you!

Phosphate has stepped into a new role as an autonomous molecular machine! Researchers took cues from biomolecules such as DNA, RNA, and ATP to design this clever lil molecular walker. Read more @cenmag.bsky.social: cen.acs.org/materials/mo...

TIL that the totality of dark matter on Earth is about the same mass as a squirrel! This illuminating fact and more can be found in @ananyapalivela.bsky.social's superb new feature on the role of chemistry in dark matter detection! cen.acs.org/materials/da...

Adrian Figg was a delight to profile for T12 and his opinions on ice cream are 100% correct.

Trying to get alkyl radicals and alkenes to link up is kind of like trying to get two introverts at a party to talk to each other. @pushingarrows.bsky.social and crew's clever solution was, basically, to get a carboxyl group to introduce the two and then leave them to it. cen.acs.org/synthesis/ca...

Hot people do spreadsheets and organic chemistry confirmed

When life gives you limonin, make a pyrrole analogue using an atom swap reaction! And observe how it dramatically changes the molecules' interactions with proteins! Cool new science from @ypark-kaist.bsky.social, lovingly distilled by me for @cenmag.bsky.social : cen.acs.org/synthesis/sk...

Unusual radical species whose applications previously sat largely in the territory of physics have become accessible to bench chemists!

Synthetic chemists deserve to use whatever radicals they want! cen.acs.org/synthesis/fi...

This guy gives "plant milk" a whole new definition.

Please enjoy my first attempt at producing a video! s/o to @theanageorgescu.bsky.social for invaluable constructive feedback and not letting me give up on this idea!

Very very cool interactive data story from some of C&EN's finest!

Pharma journalism focuses a lot on the great new thing - the daraxonrasib, the tirzepatide. But I think it can be useful to look back at the 90% of drug candidates that fail and try to get a handle on why. That's what this story tries to do. /5. cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic...

Curious about the clinical candidates presented in #FirstTimeDisclosures at #ACSFall2026? You can now read my write up for @cenmag.bsky.social. It's mostly molecular structures with bullet points, but there are some notes on things I learned during the talks. #chemsky cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic...

Researchers at The University of Chicago have developed a new skeletal editing technique that lets chemists create challenging pyrrole compounds from easier-to-assemble isoxazole molecules through an oxygen to-carbon swap. #chemsky 🧪

Anyone who was at the session where this happened at #ACSFall2026, please get in touch. My colleague @laureloldach.bsky.social is working on something for @cenmag.bsky.social Thanks

Reminder: Dolly Parton helped fund the Moderna vaccine for COVID.

Nixed title: "O no, here comes another atom swap story!" But seriously this is some cool skeletal editng work from @levinchem.bsky.social and squad. Just 3 easy steps to turn an $11/g molecule into a $2300/g one! #chemsky @cenmag.bsky.social cen.acs.org/synthesis/sk...

This was a fun one! Very classic Newscripts. A friend and I have been texting each other pretty much every morning with our multiplet.app daily puzzle times for a couple months now so I am super curious how the #chemsky #chemchat community will find it!

There’s truly nothing like space travel to bring people together. And chemistry plays a pivotal—but perhaps underappreciated—role in mission success. #chemsky 🧪

TIL the University of Chicago has a Botany Pond It's a shame there isn't a Chemistry Pond, you could have a big open reactor, some stir bars within, whiteboards explaining the chemistry and some condensers recirculating solvent

How do you like this Appel? That's my latest rejected headline about new work in which the @gouverneurgroup.bsky.social riffs on the classic Appel reaction to make alkyl fluorides. Read about it in @cenmag.bsky.social #chemsky🧪 cen.acs.org/synthesis/fl...

Chemistry is key to the success of current and future space missions: cen.acs.org/physical-che... #chemsky 🧪