David Harding

📢 Issue 41 is online! pubs.rsc.org/ce/issue/28/41 On the cover: "Temperature-dependent dynamic Jahn–Teller effects accompanying the solid-state phase transition in the semi-rigid coordination polymer [Cu(tbbt)3](BF4)2: from octahedral CuN6 to axial compression" pubs.rsc.org/ce/article/2...

In some personal news I found out that I have been promoted to full Professor of Inorganic Chemistry. I would like to thank my research team, students and especially my family for all their support on this journey.

Another nice paper from the group exploring how a simple anion change switches gradual spin crossover to abrupt. Careful structural work with @jackkclegg.bsky.social was critical here. Link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1nzz%7E54J...

BREAKING NEWS The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2026 #NobelPrize in Chemistry to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.”

This is critical. A major reason Thai academics increasingly publish in for-profit journals is because their funding requires it. The OA journals have higher quartiles and hence we are forced to publish there, even though we know the journal isn't necessarily as good.

Avoiding the path of LIESST resistance #chemsky

🔥 New and HOT in Chemical Science !🔥 "Heteroleptic Cr4+ molecular color center candidates" by Danna E. Freedman, David D. Awschalom, Timothy C. Berkelbach et al. Read it for free here: doi.org/10.1039/d6sc...

🔔 Hot article by Jett T. Janetzki, Colette Boskovic 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭. Multi-step spin crossover and valence tautomerism in dinuclear metal complexes 🔗 doi.org/10.1039/d6qi... #SpinCrossover #ValenceTautomerism #MetalComplexes #MolecularSwitches

🔔 Review article by Peter Weinberger 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭. Tetrazoles as ligands in Fe(ii) spin crossover compounds: from rational ligand design to multifunctional materials 🔗 doi.org/10.1039/d6qi... #SpinCrossover #Tetrazoles #FeII #MolecularMaterials

#ChemDoodle v12.12 includes expanded support for #inorganic compounds & complexes, haptic bonds & multi-center attachments, their use calculations, & perspective ring templates. More inorganic capabilities to come. #molecule #chemistry #cheminformatics ichemlabs.com/news/read?po...

Just walked past this collection of bags outside one of the lecture rooms. In the UK, this would all be stolen in minutes!

Crystallization is a real art and often produces beautiful crystals of all shapes and sizes.

For the first time in a while I did some real chemistry in the lab, growing crystals. The results are pretty decent I'd say.

The cat is looking very cute today.

This is where we need to ask what matters to us. If the metrics are in areas that are not of critical importance to you, or are things you have no control over (income from block grants), then it's best to not concern ourselves too much with these. Universities are always more than their rank.

The problem with this approach is that it shortens the government horizon and that in turn impacts the discovery of truly ground-breaking ideas. Given AI's potential to find some of these small gains, it strikes me as sensible for research agencies to pursue these longer term goals.

I really wanted to thank the SCO community for their support of our recent review of the basics of spin crossover. To achieve 7 citations in 6 months is really good going. Lastly, thanks to @crystengcomm.rsc.org for publishing the review.

The announcement that @chemicalscience.rsc.org is going fully Gold OA shocked many, but I have a genuine proposal. How about for say 5 reviews, each reviewer gets a free OA token for the journal? ChemSci gets reviewers and we can afford to publish our best work in the journal.

Scientists who use large language models (LLMs) to help them with their research will spend less time refining their work and instead jump quickly to fresh projects, according to a modelling study. go.nature.com/451DgXl

#thefarside #farside #comic https://www.thefarside.com/2026/07/29/3

A new article is out now in @chemicalscience.rsc.org as an edge article: Solid-State Spin Dynamics of a Molecular Qubit of Ce3+. pubs.rsc.org/sc/article/d...

Pleased to share this link for our latest article in spin crossover complexes. This time we look at heteroleptic complexes combined with a flexible triflimide anion, we see abrupt or stepped SCO for the fluoro and iodo systems. The link is free for 50 days! authors.elsevier.com/a/1nWIl4xXie...

I really love the graphic here. It's so clear what was discovered in the paper.

In this pre-print, we've been using 3D electron diffraction again, this time to study metal-organic polyhedra containing Zn(II) paddlewheels in work led by Matt, Bea, and Calum. chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10....

This is the symbol of SUT. It looks so bright against the slightly cloudy sky.

I have to say, I was really looking forward to the @rsc.org publication refresh, but I must confess I am not keen. We can't see the graphical abstract, and extra clicks are required to access what we want to see. It would have been nice to show it to readers before committing.

It's always great when someone shows that something long thought impossible, can actually be done. LIESST in a Mn(II) SCO system!!

I just finished a survey for @pubs.acs.org. I was stunned that at no point during the survey did they ask: are our APCs reasonable and affordable? In fairness to ACS, this is a question for many publishers. But society publishers really need to work harder to be affordable.

I just finished doing some proofs for our latest article. The thing I found really odd was just how many mistakes there were in the references. The mistakes were so odd that it made me wonder, had the publisher used some automated AI? If so, I suggest that they stop. #ChemSky

Suranaree University of Technology has had it's best year reaching 201-300 and up 2 bonds. It's a great testament to the hard work of our whole community.

Just finished teaching the first inorganic chemistry II class. Always fun!

I really like this new website that visualises the various space groups. spacegroups.symotter.org/group

We are seeing more and more of this in the HE sector. My question is why does this keep happening? How are uni admin trained such that they become so detached from the faculty? I think that until we start valuing long-term uni benefits, governance issues will continue to be a problem.

🚨We are pleased to share our Editors' Choice Collection! This specially curated collection highlights some of our most popular articles published in 2025, handpicked by our Editorial Board. Read the full collection 👀👇 pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/... #Chemsky 🧪

I really feel for US scientists, these guidelines will really hurt US science.

Does the identity of the substituent group matter when cocyclising pillararenes? It most certainly does! Now out in @jacs.acspublications.org with Mahidol University and University of Tsukuba. #ChemSky #Supramolecular pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Immigration make Britain brilliant

Online petition and open letter to the University of Nottingham in response to its plans for redundancies in the School of Chemistry. nottinghamchemistry.github.io/Open_Letter/

I was reflecting on the hype concerning AI. I truly believe that the fact that it so often makes mistakes means that it's going to end up being less impactful than we are being told. Does anyone remember how the metaverse was going to change our lives? #AIhype

The discovery of an SN2 reaction that doesn’t invert the carbon at the centre shows that there’s still plenty to learn about even classic textbook reactions. @mwakley.bsky.social www.chemistryworld.com/news/flip-ov...

Good to see one of my ex-computational science students on this paper!

📣We are delighted to announce the launch of the CrystEngComm Emerging Talent Series! If you are interested in submitting to the series or would like to nominate someone else, read our blog post for more information👇 blogs.rsc.org/ce/2026/04/1... #ChemSky

SCAFFOLD REMOVAL👷‍♂️💎 In the past years we developed a #MOFs synthetic approach inspired by #architecture & applied it at the molecular scale. We've been asked many times whether we could remove these molecular scaffold/falseworks. Yes, we can! Fresh off the press in @natchem.nature.com

‼️Don't miss our latest Editorial – The crystal engineering foundations of the MOF Nobel Prize Nathaniel Rosi, @furukawas.bsky.social & @sbattenresearch.bsky.social all share their experiences of working on MOFs in future Nobel-winning laboratories👏⬇️ 🔗 doi.org/10.1039/D5CE... #Chemsky🧪

It’s now overwhelming. Full Membership. 🇬🇧🇪🇺

408 vibrational modes of the CuSCN-MBTz complex from a recent paper I worked on. The vibrational frequencies are translated to audio, with volume decided by Raman activity, sweeping up from low frequency to high frequency. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

This was fun! The material has a staggeringly large Stokes shift when in solution or thin spin-coated films, but not in bulk crystal phase. I got to calculate the crystal's Raman spectrum and analyze the contribution of intermolecular vibrational modes.