Patrick Lutz

The enrollment cap in my Organic II course has risen from 211 to 260 between Spring 2024 and Spring 2027. This has put specs grading the course into serious jeopardy. Freaking out just a bit about how to handle the load. Anyone out there innovating in very large Organic courses? #chemsky

Against my (admittedly low) expectations, authors and graphical abstracts seem to be returning to tge ACS journal RSS feeds. Glad to see it!

Gonna make chemistry research sound even cooler by referring to reaction optimization as yieldmaxxing.

The new wild cat species is about the size of a domestic kitten and lives in Bolivia.

Har du lagt merke til at ting døyr litt for tidleg? Det har vi òg 👀 Det er tema for vår nyeste rapport. / Ever noticed how things tend to die a little too soon? So have we 👀 That’s the topic of our latest report. Les rapporten/read our report👉forbrukerradet.no/shortlife

HOMES → SHAME

If you missed the solar eclipse, this is what it looked like:

I bet it was cool to be a professor before there were, like, four different existential threats to higher ed in the space of half a decade.

As a service for the #chemsky Cthulhu community, please see optimised image below. If folks want a transparent version to slap on t-shirts, mugs, whatever, let me know an I'll put a download on my website.

Thoughts on the various Trump administration proposals to revamp US science funding - and what they all have in common:

A very interesting paper in PNAS. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I am going to attempt (badly) to explain why this is so cool, not just because of the medicine itself but because of the science behind how they made it, please no one tell the chemists how inaccurate this is about to be

🚀Space package launch is a go!🚀 @cenmag.bsky.social's physical sciences team has been working hard on this for over half a year and I'm so excited to finally show it to the world! cen.acs.org/physical-che...

really think that if democrats hold any chamber of congress next year that a condition of passing a budget is the removal of russ vought, who has a genuinely tyrannical vision of presidential power and is a focal point of the lawlessness of the trump administration

Gonna show this to anyone who asks why they should study organic chemistry.

Gonna show this to anyone who asks why they should study organic chemistry.

biblically accurate benzoquinone derivative

Good to see Olivia Rodrigo singing about her course-based undergraduate research experience, but she needs better PPE.

yum Cp* crackers

Hi #chemsky were you affected by the Canvas outage? We at @cenmag.bsky.social would love to hear from you for a potential story! My DMs are open!

phthalaldehyde

The difference between alkane and alkene is alkene can be hydrogenated.

If you think legislation that targets “low enrollment degrees” only impacts the humanities please look at this list. Degrees in chemistry, math, physics, political science, data analytics, psychology and economics are being eliminated. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/04/16/o...

Trump's 2027 budget proposes cuts of: 🔻 $5.8 billion to NIH 🔻 $5.6 billion to NASA 🔻 $4.8 billion to NSF 🔻 $4.6 billion to EPA 🔻 $2.9 billion to CDC 🔻 $1.6 billion to NOAA If these science cuts pass they will make the US a less healthy and less safe place to live.

A hot dog/sandwich debate just spontaneously broke out among my students before class started.

The White House budget proposal is out. Suggests cutting $5B from the NIH budget, to $41B. A similar cut to what was suggested in FY26, and which lawmakers rebutted. (But, keep in mind, the FY26 appropriated money has not been granted as you'd expect.) www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

It's cool that the ACS Quick Style Guide cites Steeped, but who is F. Frankel?

No April fooling - #RMC2026 Registration & Abstract Submission close May 1. The 40th biennial Reaction Mechanism Conference is June 7-10 in Holland, Michigan. That's less than 10 weeks away, so book your flights & hotels soon too! hope.edu/rmc2026

Did you experience travel issues at the ATL airport returning from the ACS meeting? Willing to share for a c&en story? My DMs are open #chemsky #ACSSpring2026

Despite it taking two hours to get to security at ATL (was in line outside for an hour) things are moving smoothly and everyone is being very friendly.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

there's a world map in "list of chemical elements named after places"

My student Lauren discovered this new(?) demo with sprinkles + LN₂! I haven't been able to find anywhere else that's reported this, but let me know if you've seen it before.

But, as they say, there is no time like the present [OK, maybe the 1930s if you want to nitpick] But, with some data wrangling, my first NSF Funding Curves! 2/3

Come be my colleague at @hopecollege.bsky.social ! We are hiring a 1 year VAP to teach GenChem lecture & lab. Past VAPs have had great success! Whether you've done a postdoc & now want to buff your teaching for a TT job, or are a fresh PhD aspiring to teaching-only jobs: jobs.hope.edu/postings/5069

They could really step up by vocally lobbying and teaming up with key industry partners to push the government to stop their insanely damaging policies. I'm sure some of this is happening behind the scenes but I wish they were shouting from the rooftops.

Chemical Formula xkcd.com/3200/