Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 8hHans Christian Andersen was full of this sort of thing. Young children should be actively kept away from his stuff as far as I’m concerned. 020
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 13hElf, do you have a source you could send me to for that quote or the doctrine behind it? As someone who’s done biopharma research for the last 30-odd years I have some opinions, as you’d imagine (!) 140
Reposted by Derek LoweTaniel @taniel.bsky.social · 04/10/2026If you're in these 3 states, *TODAY* is deadline to register to vote. Alaska Rhode Island South Carolina Even if you think you've registered: doesn't hurt to check everything is in order. Do it now. And there's a lot to vote for across them. A thread with stakes on each. ⬇️ 111137854
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Aaron is not exaggerating one bit. This is not just some fancy way to say “I don’t like Trump” These are the ramblings of a disordered mind. The interviewers have done us a service by taking it all down verbatim. 25414
Reposted by Derek LoweTaniel @taniel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026NEW: It's that time of year: time to launch my annual guide to November's elections! I guide you through over *650* interesting elections, & why they matter. Judges, AGs, govs, mayors, lawmakers, AGs, county & school boards—plus many (many) ballot measures. Oh, & Congress. Explore & bookmark!boltsmag.orgYour Cheat Sheet to the 2026 General Elections - BoltsCongressional races will take center stage on Nov. 3, but they’re just the tip of what to watch. Prosecutors and governors, attorneys general and sheriffs, school boards and mayors, utility... Read Mo... 25805456
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026No images and no authors - I hope they don’t think they’re finished! 110
Reposted by Derek LoweJohannes Gierschner @gierschner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Again papers citing already retracted papers: here in ACS Applied ....Materials & Interfaces doi.org/10.1021/acsa... Ref. 22 ...Bio Materials doi.org/10.1021/acsa... Ref. 5 ACS: not able/willing to run a simple search for "retracted" before publishing? #ResearchIntegrity #ChemSky @pubs.acs.org 142
Reposted by Derek LoweAaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 30/09/2026I for one think it’s bad that the president can just say crazy stuff all day every day and 99% of it doesn’t make the news because we’ve normalized having an insane president 895254416022
Reposted by Derek LoweDavid Shaywitz @dshaywitz.bsky.social · 30/09/2026This suggests to me an extraordinarily narrow and reductive view of employee capabilities… Not my experience in R&D but ymmv I suppose. @dereklowe.bsky.social @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social 6122
Reposted by Derek Lowesteve @stupidlikeafox.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Isotopic labeling just got significantly more extreme #chemsky 55011
Reposted by Derek LoweMichael Gilman @gilman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Cool story, which emphasizes the science NEVER lies. (Which, sadly, now feels like a political statement.) 0204
Reposted by Derek LoweWell-tarred Flask 🇮🇹🇺🇦🇨🇦 @chemprofcramer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026here's a nice, old example of a steric isotope effect showing faster hindered rotation in the heavy isotopologue: actachemscand.ki.ku.dk/pdf/acta_vol...actachemscand.ki.ku.dk 042
Reposted by Derek LoweWell-tarred Flask 🇮🇹🇺🇦🇨🇦 @chemprofcramer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026super-interesting, but deuterium is not "larger" (per authors). because of the difference in zero-point vibrational energies (QM #ftw) a C-D bond is SHORTER than a C-H bond. so, one might expect MORE flexibility (although I hesitate to guess how that affects mobile/stationary phase interactions). 1142
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The craziest compound-impurity story I’ve ever heard:science.orgNow That's An Impurity Story 1010143
Reposted by Derek LoweRichard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Noise/useless science rather than AI slop is a current challenge: "If medical schools and universities don't want the literature to be overwhelmed with garbage, they should stop giving every applicant ... an incentive to publish a lot of crap." www.medpagetoday.com/special-repo...medpagetoday.comIs AI Flooding Medical Journals With 'Meaningless' Research?'It's not fraudulent, and it's not really slop,' one expert says 49126
Reposted by Derek LoweCarl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 27/09/2026Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWaycnyti.msDid Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work. 882123874
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026I’m so sorry to hear this! You have obviously given your cats lots of care and attention and been a great human for them. Faraday was an excellent cat and I wish I’d had the chance to meet him in person. 020
Reposted by Derek LoweLiz Neeley @lizneeley.bsky.social · 26/09/20262. We spent the week dreading a new EO that would have created a new commission set above institute directors, but the plan to give Vought (and others) personal veto over every NIH grant has been walked back …at least in latest incarnation. www.statnews.com/2026/09/23/n...statnews.comWhite House plan to increase control of NIH grants appears 'dead'A planned EO that would have greatly enhanced White House influence over grants at the NIH is “looking dead,” a source said. 1194
Reposted by Derek LoweLaura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Not everybody knows this, and everybody should. On Sept. 26, 1983, a Soviet nuclear warning system alerted Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov that the U.S. had launched a missile attack. He did not retaliate, preventing WWIII. This is a post about AI. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanisl...en.wikipedia.orgStanislav Petrov - Wikipedia 11572209
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Another dahlia bloom, this one from an unknown variety (purchased as a mystery tuber, which is always a category at any dahlia sale) 2532
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Had to run through both of them in my head, but then the answer leapt out! Two wonderful songs. 010
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 25/09/2026I note that the picture of the "European Academy of Engineering" that comes up in Google Maps is an altered version a 2022 picture of a main building of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. The facade has been digitally reworked to make it look like the engineering academy! 22514
Reposted by Derek LoweRichard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 25/09/2026AI discovery of new enzymes "not a breakthrough...a wrinkle on what we know" www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/s...nytimes.comAnthropic’s A.I. Is Teaching Itself Biology. Now It’s Made Its First Discovery.Scientists at the company announced their first finding: a group of enzymes whose function is unknown. 1167
Reposted by Derek LoweTobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 24/09/2026There was a bloom of stories maybe ten years ago about older professors creating problems for the job market by not retiring, and just checking in now to point out that they’ve since retired and almost none of their jobs continue to exist. 1041271
Reposted by Derek LoweAaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Incredible. First Secretary Mullin claimed that DHS had identified 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter roll. Then DHS officials told a skeptical Nevada, no no no, that’s just people we flagged. Here are the names of 185 people we KNOW aren’t citizens. All 185 were citizens. DHS got 100% wrong. 21188123852
Reposted by Derek LoweJohn Scalzi @scalzi.com · 24/09/2026ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US Congrats on your space potato @alyankovic.bsky.social! 61380108
Reposted by Derek LoweChemjobber @chemjobber.bsky.social · 24/09/2026As a fellow (Anglo first name) (Asian last name), I'm kicking this dude out of the club. Multiplication tables??!? I was disappointed when my (then)-second grader didn't have them fully nailed down 6302
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Thoughts on Anthropic’s worries about people accessing Claude for possible bioweapons design:science.orgAI Help for Biological or Chemical Weapons 2205
Reposted by Derek LoweChemistry World @chemistryworld.com · 24/09/2026As we all wonder what the next Nobel chemistry win will be, the Chemistry World team want to know... Who was most overlooked for a Nobel prize in chemistry? Tell us in the comments below & don’t forget we’ll be hosting a panel to unpack this year’s prize: www.chemistryworld.com/webinars/nob...chemistryworld.comNobel prize in chemistry 2026: ReactionJoin us for an exclusive look at the science behind the Nobel prize in chemistry 2026 652
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Thread - it's awful that it's come to this point, but this is the way it has to be done these days. 3254
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026SeO2 is at least a crystalline solid, so it has that going for it. 020
Reposted by Derek LoweAndrew S. Rosen @andrewrosen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026The number of LLM-written computational MOF papers on @chemrxiv.org is making me quite frustrated. There is a new one every few days, and it's a mess... 3174
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Unfortunately I can’t give too many details (work-related) so probably not . . . 050
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Six weeks to go. Let’s make these numbers even more catastrophic for Trump and the Republicans than they are already. No letup! 1333
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Not seeing the graphics (norvthe authors) in the ACS feeds I have with items from this morning, unfortunately. Still holding out some hope that things improve. 020
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Keeps finding new ways of making me ashamed of my country and of the people who thought he was fit for office. 2748
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Well, it took me about 45 years in the lab to get around to it, but I finally ran one of those selenium dioxide oxidations that I learned about in sophomore organic chemistry. Now to see if it worked! 5683
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Just checked my RSS feeds, but no ACS journal feeds I read have pushed anything since last night. Waiting! 010
Reposted by Derek LoweScott Bagley @bagphos.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Finally! @acs.org put the TOC graphics back up on the ASAP pages! #ChemSky 4294
Reposted by Derek LoweMark Histed @markhisted.org · 22/09/2026The idea of AI curing all diseases is, IMO, silly. Biomedical research is mostly limited by data, not ideas. Imagine saying AI will build a world-champion basketball team by replacing basketball coaches with hyperintelligent AI. You see the problem. Someone still needs to dribble and make shots. 925539
Reposted by Derek LoweAndre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026It's a shame no chemist ever came up with the idea to say "I'm working on something that might kill all of humanity, so please give me several billion dollars so I can stop myself" That feels like something that should've been right up our alley 68817
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 21/09/2026The Trump administration tries - yet again - to get federal research research funding under its ideological control. Let’s defeat it like we did the last one!science.orgYet Another Attempt to Strangle Scientific Funding 25219
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Great! I have been doing this for a while, haven’t I? 020
Reposted by Derek LoweChemjobber @chemjobber.bsky.social · 20/09/2026RUSSELL VOUGHT'S ILLEGAL ACTIONS MUST BE STOPPED 04211
Reposted by Derek LoweDan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 19/09/2026New: Officials battled over NIH in the Oval Office today, per people familiar. RUSS VOUGHT criticized NIH "woke" spending and floated executive order to review its grants. JAY BHATTACHARYA defended NIH's alignment with Trump. TRUMP appeared to side with Vought. with @rbeggin.bsky.socialwashingtonpost.comVought pushes for scrutiny of NIH grants in Oval Office clashA heated debate took place in the Oval Office on Friday, with some Trump officials accusing the National Institutes of Health of funding grants that conflict with the president’s agenda. 1512993
Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026A new intracellular system that binds to and recognizes glutathione adducts is uncovered during a screen for glutathione degraders. What’s its function and what other proteins participate?science.orgNot The Glue They Thought It Was 0214
Reposted by Derek LoweMIT Technology Review @technologyreview.com · 18/09/2026One of the ways AI experts fear AI might end us all is by somehow aiding the design, creation, and release of some kind of bioweapon. Let’s take a closer look at why.trib.alThe specter of AI-enabled bioweapons is a wake-up call for biotechIt’s easier than ever to design killer pathogens. 0116
Reposted by Derek Lowejamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18/09/2026RFK Jr. wants people to get sick. He wants them to get sick and he thinks it is a good thing if they die, since those who live will have "natural immunity" and emerge stronger and fitter. 39867231671