iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

I don't think it's ever okay for a professor to date a student at their university in any department. That power imbalance can stretch quite far in academia.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 5h

For LOTS OF REASONS I don’t think it is ever okay for a professor to date a student in their own department. It’s an obvious power imbalance and potentially disastrous for the student’s education and career. So it is real jarring and not fun to see it portrayed as a cute happy romance in a novel!

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 3h

One of the most harrowing things about academia, when you're a grad student, is how vulnerable you are to how you're perceived by more senior researchers. Your career advancement depends on confidential letters of reference & private discussions amongst faculty. You have no information or control.

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Dr Keith Wilson 💭 @keithwilson.eu · 4h

Industrial action by over 100,000 public sector workers in Ireland doesn’t even make the front page of the public broadcaster, RTÉ. And what it does say includes a lot of misinformation from the Irish government who are the ones refusing to enter negotiations without preconditions. #SIPTU #Speirgorm

rte.ie

Over 100,000 public sector workers begin work-to-rule

More than 100,000 public sector workers in areas such as health, education and local authorities have begun industrial action in the form of a work-to-rule.

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Jake Yeston @jakeyeston.bsky.social · 10h

chemsky @songlin1.bsky.social

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 22h

Eugenics 🤝 ai www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/h...

One of the things that is going to change is that we’re never ever again going to be able to be dominated by public officials who tell us, ‘Trust the experts,’” Mr. Kennedy said during the Tuesday session.

“If somebody tells you, ‘Masks work, trust the experts,’ A.I. may tell you otherwise,” he added. “If somebody tells you, ‘Social distancing works, trust the experts,’ A.I. may correct that. And if somebody tells you that a vaccine will prevent transmission and infection, or you need to take it to protect your grandmother, A.I. may say it actually doesn’t do that.”

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Eddy Conroy @econroy.bsky.social · 10h

I’d truly love it if leaders of the nation’s most powerful and wealthy institutions understood that cowering in the corner is not a strategy. www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

insidehighered.com

University of Michigan Pauses Pass–No Credit Pilot

Less than two months after announcing a pass–no credit grading pilot program, the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts hit pause on the plan, The

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Duncan Hothersall @dhothersall.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

For all that it's been barely reported in the UK press, it's still hard to understate the importance of the stance @labourunionsuk.bsky.social has taken on trans and non-binary rights this week. Every single trade union affiliated to the party of government has stood up and said we will not comply.

Joint statement from National TULO

Solidarity with the trans and non-binary community

Labour's 11 affiliated trade unions stand in total solidarity with the trans and non-binary community.

Trans rights are human rights, and trans rights are workers' rights.

We in the trade union movement will do all we can to stand up for our trans members and all our trans siblings, to protect them from persecution, harassment and attack.

The government must act now to protect all trans people, to make sure their rights are protected, expanded and upheld in our workplaces and communities.

Labour Unions

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Anne Helen Petersen @annehelen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This is *the* piece. Kate Manne, professor of philosophy at Cornell, speaks truth to the totality of failures at the university — and why students protesting the war in Gaza have faced far harsher consequences than any of the Cornell 7: www.thecut.com/article/what...

thecut.com

What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now

As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Der Herr Warum @adairneto.bsky.social · 19h

From Brent Yorgey's advice to students ozark.hendrix.edu/~yorgey/fore...

Don't believe self-serving lies about technologies being "inevitable" or "here to stay". You don't have to just go along with the dominant narrative. You can make deliberate choices and help others to do the same.
Be intentional about deciding your own moral and ethical boundaries up front. Don't settle for the lie of compromising your principles "just for now" until you can find something better.
Cultivate your ability to think deeply. Do whatever it takes to carve out distraction-free bubbles for yourself in both space and time. This might mean saying no to technologies or patterns of working that others say are critical or inevitable.
Care deeply about your craft. Refactor code until it is clear and elegant. Write good documentation for other humans to read. Have the courage to go slowly, especially when everyone else is telling you that you need to go fast and cut corners.
Care more about people, relationships, and justice than you do about profits, code, or productivity.
Above all, be motivated by love instead of fear.

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University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 14h

Nottingham today. Everywhere tomorrow. 2,700 staff put at risk. 600+ jobs targeted. At least 48 courses facing closure. What happens here sets the template for the sector. Stand with Nottingham.

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Anna Meier @annameier.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

really striking that unions require staff to canvass for candidates they've endorsed as part of their normal job responsibilities but don't require any time spent on mutual aid work, community organizing, etc. choosing to define "political work" as only "electoral work" is pretty weird! just saying!

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 29/09/2026

unsolicited brag: dug into the data -> ai -> surveillance pipeline in class this morning and received a standing ovation at the end of class. genuinely did not expect it. now i’m in tears. first time for everything

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

CMU Mellon College of Science @cmuscience.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Join MCS and @cmuchemistry.bsky.social for the Pople Lecture in Theoretical & Computational Chemistry on Oct. 7. Martin Head-Gordon, professor at U.C. Berkeley, will present "Density Functional Theory in Chemistry: Past, Present and Future." Register: www.givecampus.com/schools/Carn... #ChemSky

cmu.edu

Pople Lecture Connects Nobel Past With Chemistry’s Future

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will announce the winner or winners of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Oct. 7. Later that day, Carnegie Mellon University will gather to celebrate the legacy...

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Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

"Notes from the Sex Worker Left" by @drheatherberg.bsky.social highlights the unruly thinkers who are at the vanguard of radical theorizing on family, work, the state, and community care, drawing on interviews with sex workers and their writings. Check out the intro for free: buff.ly/fKIQIDz

Cover of Notes from the Sex Worker Left: Lumpen Theory by Heather Berg. The cover features a watercolor painting of three individuals holding their faces close together with eyes closed. The central figure’s mouth is open showing teeth and bright red lips. The painting uses a navy blue for linework and shading. The title is written in the same blue in an all caps serif font in the bottom right. The subtitle is below in a fleshy pink. the author’s name is to the left in black.

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

UofT Department of Chemistry @chemuoft.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Join our faculty! The Department of Chemistry at U of T invites applications for a full-time tenure stream position in Theoretical Chemistry. To learn more or apply, visit: jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

Poster for a job ad for a Theoretical Chemistry Professor.

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Chenxin Li, PhD @chenxinli2.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Requiring scientists to be political neutral is to require scientists to shut up when the facts are inconvenient.

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Kim Weeden @weedenkim.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This is another attack on the so-called "feminization" of higher education, abetted by widespread ideology (also held by far too many uni leaders) that education has no value beyond a taxpayer-subsidized job training program for corporations. Also part of effort to resegregate higher education.

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Chemistry World @chemistryworld.com · 29/09/2026

Athina Anastasaki & ETH Zurich colleagues have developed what they say is the first low temperature chemical recycling of acrylic, taking place below 200°C & requiring no solvents or light irradiation, boosting the possibility of commercial scale-up. #ChemSky www.chemistryworld.com/news/hats-of...

chemistryworld.com

Hats off for new, lower temperature route to unzip plexiglass for recycling

Hydrogen atom transfer agents key to solvent-free method to produce pristine monomers from old acrylic

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Noel Healy @drnoelhealy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The assault on US universities didn't start in 2025. Our new paper traces the decades of corporate capture that made it possible, and why climate research is a primary target. Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/09/2026

"I believe that science derives its authority from something more than mastering the pipeline from data generation to publication. Rather, it comes from interactions within a community of people trained to interrogate evidence and answer for the conclusions they draw from it."

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Peter Coles 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇮🇪 @telescoper.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There is no such thing as "AI upskilling"

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Wobbologist @wobbologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

...do not graduate due to advisors and universities, not because the student was not smart enough or was unwilling to work (aka the student is not lazy or unqualified). The fact that after a decade of this that number has not changed much (year to year it may change slightly +/-)...

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Wobbologist @wobbologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I had a conversation this weekend where we were chatting academia, biases, psychology, and more. And it's *always* jarring, after years of knowing these stats, that ~40% of PhD candidates (those who passed their coursework and quals - often considered the most difficult part of the PhD)...

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Dr Katie Twomey @k2mey.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026

This is quite cool. My university is the first organisation in the world to force Microsoft to allow us to turn off copilot summaries in Word 365, after a backlash against it from staff (including, very vocally, me). That cannot have been easy for our heroic IT people so hats very much off to them!

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Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_...

en.wikipedia.org

Deaths linked to chatbots - Wikipedia

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Tim Hsu @timhsu.net · 25/09/2026

Pleased to announce that San Jose State Math/Stats (www.sjsu.edu/math/) is hiring two tenure-track faculty this year, one in discrete math/graph theory and one in statistics/data science! More details and application form in thread below:

sjsu.edu

Department of Mathematics and Statistics

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026

And when I say bad behavior I mean no, you should not be fucking your students and I mean that broadly. Not a student in your department, not a recent graduate, not even a student in another department. Not someone you’re mentoring. Some of the men who like to talk about me have done these things

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026

Rape culture is structured by the incident of rape and other forms of sexual assault, yes. But it is also structured by the assaulter’s impression of what the consequences might be. Structured by the unfettered harassment anti-assault advocates face. Given shape by bad behavior being given a pass.

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Kylie Cheung @kylietcheung.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I think its important to understand the campus sexual assault crisis is way worse than you think. universities suspend just 1/12,400 students each year for sexual misconduct & expel 1/22,900. once you read title ix administrators in their own words, you get a sense why that is:

jezebel.com

Not Only Do Campus Sexual Assailants Go Unpunished, They Often Get Special Treatment

Since 2007, Jezebel has been the Internet's most treasured source for everything celebrities, sex, and politics...with teeth.

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

hannah @hannahkateboast.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The Joint Universities Financial Working Group has produced detailed analysis of the university's actual financial position: www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/ju-finance-w...

ucuedinburgh.org.uk

Dispute analysis by the Joint Unions Finance Working Group — UCU Edinburgh

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Open Journals Collective @ojcollective.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

We're delighted to share that TIB – Leibniz-Informationszentrum Technik und Naturwissenschaften und Universitätsbibliothek has joined the Open Journals Collective! TIB and OJC are both at Open Access Tage in Linz, Austria 28 - 30th September #OAT26 - if you're here, do come and say hello!

German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) joins the Open Journals Collective.

If you require a copy of this press release in an alternative format, please email info@openjournalscollective.org.

If you require a copy of this press release in an alternative format, please email info@openjournalscollective.org.

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 28/09/2026

Brilliant @amyremeikis.bsky.social piece here - absolutely gut-wrenching that Nepal PM's speech got buried under the nonsense of AI doom-hype. thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...

“We have built a world with flawless logistics for war, and broken logistics for food, and this is not Nepal’s private misfortune. Ask Bangladesh, ask Bhutan, ask India, ask the Maldives, ask Pakistan, ask Sri Lanka, ask any other country in our region, and you’ll hear the same account.

“Hit by the climate, we did not warm, and again hit by the wars, we did not start.”

Shah is right. Nepal contributes less than 0.1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It does not have the institutional or global power to force change, even as its people are swamped by the consequences of inaction.

“Our glaciers are retreating, our mountain slopes are becoming unstable, our rivers are becoming less predictable and every major disaster threatens to erase years of development,” he told the UN.

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Angela Sutton (she/her) @drangelasutton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Reminder that federal loans are now capped at $65k total for undergrads, $20.5k/year for grad students & $50k/year ($200k lifetime limit) for professional programs (med, law). These limits change which programs remain financially viable without family wealth or private loans.

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Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The humanities have been calling out genAI theft since the jump, while STEM has rallied around “discovery potential”. I am *ONCE AGAIN* reminding EVERYONE that science is not the sacred cow, STEM isn’t the exception. They are going to steal our IP, too. We aren’t special.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 28/09/2026

I feel this in my bones. We're mourning the death of a career many of us thought we could have, while witnessing our chronic illnesses and disabilities becoming more debilitating. The networks of mutual support that suspended us in meaningful relationships with the rest of society have come undone.

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Best of luck to @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social members going on strike for over a month. Nobody does this willingly - it’s a last resort, unlike that enormously rich university’s slash and burn tactics.

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Nina Markl 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 @ninamarkl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

solidarity and love to @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social on day one of 5 weeks of planned strike ❤️

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Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them) @ewcss.info · 28/09/2026

Can't wait to see more of what you've put together!

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David K Smith @professor-dave.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

As part of our decolonisation work @chemistryatyork.bsky.social, I have created 25 touchstone global chemical stories, each linked to a key point in our curriculum. 13 'Chemical Histories' and 12 'Scientists'. Over the coming weeks, I will share some as 'quote posts' of this, so they can be found.

DECOLONISING CHEMISTRY

PACKAGE OF MATERIALS FOR YORK CHEMISTRY UNDERGRADUATES

Global Chemical Histories

Contents

FIREWORKS and EXPLOSIVES 2
INDIGO 7
MAKING DYES STICK – MORDANTS 11
CEMENT – BUILDING CIVILISATIONS 15
PERFUMERY 18
MINERAL ACIDS (and ‘ALKALI’) 22
RUBBER 27
PAPERMAKING 31
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY – STANDARDS and UNITS 34
GOLD PLATING 36
SURFACTANTS IN CLEANING 39
LUBRICATION TECHNOLOGY 41
THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE 43

DECOLONISING CHEMISTRY

PACKAGE OF MATERIALS FOR YORK CHEMISTRY UNDERGRADUATES

Global Scientists

Contents

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER 2
HAR GOBIND KHORANA 7
TU YOUYOU 11
C. V. RAMAN 14
ALICE BALL 19
AP DE SILVA 23
TAKAMINE JŌKICHI 27
BERTRAM OLIVER FRASER-REID 32
MARIE MAYNARD DALY 35
OSAMU SHIMOMURA 39
PRAFULLA CHANDRA RAY 42
MARY ELLIOTT HILL (& CARL McCLELLAN HILL) 46

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Melissa Johnson, PhD @ladyhistorian.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Do we teach skills that are useful in the workplace? Fuck yes we do. Did I become a history professor because I'm passionate about vocational training? Fuck no i did not

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It’s happening again. LLMs reporting someone’s in progress research as if it’s own discovery.

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Reposted by Evan Spotte-Smith (they/them)

Dr. Paulette Vincent-Ruz @stemxicaned.latinsky.app · 28/09/2026

Ok #chemsky what is the minimum, simplest one needs to understand about molecular orbitals and advanced theories of covalent bonding a NON CHEM and NON BIOCHEM major needs to understand when leaving GenChem1 to survive orgo. I just want to hear what are people's opinions

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Andre the Chemist @andrechemist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The biggest challenge with education (all levels and types, but specifically *public* K-12, college, and university) is that long ago the idea that education is an important public good, necessary for a strong, flourishing society, was seemingly abandoned

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Andrea Reyes E (she/her) @altibel.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I'm begging ppl to familiarise themselves with TESCREAL. The folks developing AI have a very peculiar view of the world, humans, and knowledge. It is a fascist project. doi.org/10.5210/fm.v...

doi.org

The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence | First Monday

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