iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Robert Millikan, 115 years ago this month, showed that electricity was quantized into electrons (and gave a value for Avogadro's number) with his famous oil-drop experiment in Phys Rev 32 (1911), 349-97. #ChemSky #Chemchat 🧪 Read the long paper here: www.columbia.edu/~mm21/exp_fi...

columbia.edu

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

אַ פֿריילעכן סוכּות אײַך אַלעמען! Happy Sukkot to all!

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

What chemistry papers or texts do you think are most important historically? I've been posting for about a year. Let me know, and if I haven't yet posted it, I may add it to my spreadsheet for future posting. #ChemSky #Chemchat 🧪

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

John Lennard-Jones published his "Electronic Structure of Some Diatomic Molecules" 97 years ago this month in Trans. Faraday Soc. 25 (1929) 668-686. He explained O2's paramagnetism, N2's triple bond, & gave support to MO theory. #ChemSky #ChemChat 🧪 Read it here: www.chemteam.info/Chem-History...

chemteam.info

Lennard-Jones: Electronic Structure of Diatomic Molecules

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Hear one of my choral arrangements, “Bénissez-Nous,” at 6:10, by the superb Harmonium Choral Society. #JewishMusic #choir m.youtube.com/watch?v=xBbk...

m.youtube.com

Live Harmonium Choir Tour Performance - June 30, 2026 - Harmonium Choral Society

YouTube video by Harmonium Choral Society

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

249 years ago this month, Antoine Lavoisier had his paper, "Memoir on Combustion in General," read to the French Academy of Science, rejecting phlogiston as the principle of combustion, accepting oxygen instead. #ChemSky #chemchat 🧪 Read it here at web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/lavoi...

web.lemoyne.edu

Antoine Laurent Lavoisier

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Make a band edible. ”The Rolling Scones”

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

‏אַ גוט, געבענטשט יאָר אײַך אַלעמען! ‏ May the new year 5787 be an improvement on what the world experienced in 5786. #RoshHashanah

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Linus Pauling's landmark paper "The nature of the chemical bond. IV...." appeared 94 years ago this month in JACS; it introduced electronegativity. #ChemSky #Chemistry #Chemchat 🧪 Read it here: scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/coll/pauling...

scarc.library.oregonstate.edu

"The nature of the chemical bond. IV. The energy of single bonds and the relative electronegativity of atoms." May 18, 1932. - Published Papers and Official Documents - Linus Pauling and The Nature of...

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Well, “MyDialect”’s results are no surprise.

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I am now in the “Chemistry Creators & Communicators” starter pack! Follow us! #chemsky #chemchat 🧪

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Fritz Klatte applied for a US patent 113 years ago this month, #1,084,581, which marked the birth of polyvinyl chemistry. Read his patent, "Manufacture of Esters and Ethers of Ethylidene Glycol and of Vinyl Alcohol," here. #ChemSky #Chemchat #Chemistry 🧪 patents.google.com/patent/US108...

patents.google.com

US1084581A - Manufacture of esters and ethers of ethylidene glycol and of vinyl alcohol. - Google Patents

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

170 years ago this month, William Perkin received patent 1984 for his mauveine dye, changing fashion and organic chemistry forever. #ChemSky #Chemistry #Chemchat 🧪 Read the patent here: catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/00843...

catalog.hathitrust.org

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Bit of chemical calligraphy I did for the Philadelphia Calligraphers’ Society show at Philly City Hall; multiple cases of work on display through mid-September. (Reaction is ClO2 decomposing into Cl2 + invisible O2). #Chemchat #ChemSky #Art 🧪

Man in front of glass case showing many examples of calligraphic art

Display case showing many examples of calligraphic art

Calligraphy of quote by American chemist Ira Remsen, with illumination showing decomposition of chlorine dioxide into chlorine gas.

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

The existence of Paraguay implies that there are also an Orthoguay and a Metaguay. #Chemchat #ChemSky 🧪

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Trip this weekend to Joseph Priestley’s home in the wilds of northern Pennsylvania. #ChemSky #Chemchat #Chemistry 🧪

Federal style large White House on sunny day with Stephen Cohen posing at the historical marker

Reproductions of Joseph Priestley’s lab equipment: pump with bell jar on stand; burning glass; gas-collection apparatus

Overall view of Priestley’s laboratory with ovens and reproduction glassware

Reproduction custom glassware in cabinet used by Priestley

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Apparently the new ACS logo has received a LOT of pushback (I wonder why 🧐), based on today’s email. I don’t see the option “redo it” in the last sentence, though. #ChemSky #Chemistry #Chemchat 🧪

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

My post of 2 weeks ago about Lavoisier calls to mind my trip to Paris’s Musée des Arts et Métiers in summer 2019, which has an entire room of Lavoisier’s equipment to fawn over. #Chemistry #ChemSky 🧪

Room of 18th-century lab equipment including Lavoisier’s desk, a giant pair of scales, heating devices and more.

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I am an Affiliate of Rice University’s new Center for Science Communication and Public Engagement (SCOPE). If I can come to you, or help you better understand science, please let me know. #ChemSky #Chemistry 🧪 news.rice.edu/news/2026/ri...

news.rice.edu

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Thanks to the Philadelphia Calligraphers’ Society for highlighting my work as part of their 50th anniversary celebration! #Art #calligraphy #Hebrew

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

237 years ago tomorrow, de Morveau, Lavoisier, Berthollet, & Fourcroy published their "Méthode de Nomenclature Chimique," the start of our current way of naming compounds (and convincing chemists to accept oxygen as combustor). #Chemsky #Chemistry 🧪 Read it here at archive.org/details/bub_...

archive.org

Méthode de nomenclature chimique

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

This month in 1903, Ramsey and Soddy showed that atoms can split, and why He is in radioactive ores, in "Experiments in Radioactivity, and the Production of Helium from Radium," in Proc. R. Soc. (1904) 72 (477-486): 204–207. #ChemSky #Chemistry 🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/rspl/article...

royalsocietypublishing.org

Experiments in radioactivity, and the production of helium from radium

Abstract. Of recent years many investigations have been made by Elster and Geitel, Wilson, Strutt, Rutherford, Cooke, Allen, and others on the spontaneous

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

A visit to the Science History Institute in Philadelphia, with one of the best chemistry exhibits in North America. #Chemistry #ChemSky 🧪

Man gesturing at the entrance to the Science History Institute

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I was honored to talk to the History of Chemistry division of the American Chemical Society on Wednesday; here is the talk. #ChemSky #Chemistry 🧪 #Yiddish m.youtube.com/watch?v=DxEe...

m.youtube.com

ChemHISTExtendedEdition07082026

YouTube video by HIST ACS

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

106 years ago, Latimer & Rodebush published the 1st paper on the "hydrogen bond" (not using the term) in "Polarity and Ionization from the Standpoint of the Lewis Theory of Valence" (JACS, 1920, 42, p 1419). #Chemistry #ChemSky 🧪 acshist.scs.illinois.edu/awards/Citat...

acshist.scs.illinois.edu

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Be sure to attend Harmonium Choral Society’s concert in Morristown, NJ tonight. They are performing my choral arrangement of ”Bénissez-Nous.” #choir #JewishMusic www.harmonium.org

harmonium.org

Harmonium Choral Society

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

174 years ago this month, Edward Frankland reported the first organometallic compounds of Sn, Zn, and Hg in The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Phil. Mag. and J. of Sci. #ChemSky #Chemistry 🧪 Read it here: scispace.com/pdf/on-a-new...

scispace.com

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

From the ACS Gov’t Affair’s Team: “ACS is actively assessing the [OMB] proposal and its potential impact on our members, the broader scientific community, and ACS operations.” Compare with Stand Up For Science’s response. Which method will work? 🧐 #ChemSky #SUFS 🧪

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

In May 1909, Søren Sørensen introduced the pH scale in Biochem. Z., 21 (1909), 131. Chemical historians think it may stand for “pouvoir Hydrogène". #ChemSky 🧪 Read it at babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=in... and the English translation is at www.chemteam.info/Chem-History...

babel.hathitrust.org

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

If I were the Editor, I’d have worded this headline differently.

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

This month in 1913, J.J. Thomson announced analysis of rays with positive/negative charges. He found 22Ne and 20Ne with the first mass-spec method. #ChemSky 🧪 Read his Bakerian lecture here: royalsocietypublishing.org/rspa/article...

royalsocietypublishing.org

Bakerian Lecture:—Rays of positive electricity

Abstract. In 1886, Goldstein observed that when the cathode in a vacuum tube was pierced with holes, the electrical discharge did not stop at the cathode;

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Midwest Jewish Studies Association Call for Papers (no, you don't have to be in the Midwestern USA). #JewishStudies #Academic

38th Annual Midwest Jewish Studies Conference, call for papers.

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Music for your soul. My arrangement (get it through Transcontinental) of the 200-year-old SW French-Jewish bilingual “Bénissez-Nous” (Bless Us), which uses a medieval Sephardic melody. Thanks to the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. #Choral #JewishMusic www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxEK...

youtube.com

Bénissez-Nous, arr. Stephen Cohen (words by David Lévi Alvarès)

YouTube video by Santa Fe Desert Chorale

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

It's now 151 years since Lecoq de Boisbaudran announced the discovery of Ga. Did he name it for France (Gallia = Gaul) or himself (Lecoq = Gallus)? #Chemsky #Chemistry 🧪https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14786447508641312

tandfonline.com

On the chemical and spectroscopic characters of a new metal (gallium)

Published in The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science: Series 4 (Vol. 50, No. 332, 1875)

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

73 years ago this month, Watson & Crick published their short article in "Nature" (with serious controversy later as to how they got their data) deciphering the structure of DNA, beating Linus Pauling. You can read it here. www.mskcc.org/teaser/1953-... #ChemSky 🧪 #Chemistry

mskcc.org

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Lavoisier read "Memoir on the Nature of the Principle which Combines with Metals during their Calcination and which Increases their Weight" 251 years ago this month (published 1778), studying "fixed air" (CO2). #ChemSky 🧪 Read it here: web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/lavoi...

web.lemoyne.edu

Antoine Laurent Lavoisier

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Latest result of drawing challenge with my daughter. The theme is “wineglass.” #artchallenges #drawing #drawsomething #pencildrawing

Photograph of corresponding wineglass on wooden table

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

This afternoon I gave a jointly sponsored talk (Royal Soc of Chem; Society Hill Synagogue) in Philadelphia for Yom HaShoah: “Dr Stefanie Horovitz: The Isotope Lady,” who proved in WWI that isotopes are real. I can come to your venue too. Just ask. #ChemSky 🧪 #YomHaShoah

Man lecturing to audience in all-purpose room near large-screen TV

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

85 years ago this month, Robert Woodward published rules to match structures of certain ketones with their UV absorbance spectra. #ChemSky 🧪 Read the 1st page here: pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

pubs.acs.org

Structure and the Absorption Spectra of α,β-Unsaturated Ketones

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Steve Cohen @drstevecohen.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

אַ זיסן פּסח אײַך אַלעמען A sweet Passover to all

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