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Free Radical

@freeradical1.bsky.social
180 followers 223 following 356 posts

Ineffable. 🇺🇦🇨🇦 in 🇺🇸 Mastodon: @freeradical@mastodon.online

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Reposted by Free Radical
Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
We are about 6 months away from my book, RESONANCE & RADIANCE, being released into the world. (April 13th, 2027!) RESONANCE & RADIANCE is a narrative nonfiction book about spectroscopy—the field of science that studies how light interacts with molecules. I want to share this book’s origin story 🧵:
A picture of the cover of the book: RESONANCE & RADIANCE: HOW LIGHT REVEALS THE CHEMISTRY OF OUR WORLD by Debbie Gale Mitchell 

The book cover is a selfie of a woman (me) using an infrared camera
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 22h
"Data available upon sincere request, …"
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 22h
"In Situ,…"
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Sheldon Cooper Sprays Lysol in Big Bang Theory
ALT: Sheldon Cooper Sprays Lysol in Big Bang Theory
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Savannah Ostrowski @savannah.dev · 09/10/2026
Happy Python 3.15 final day! May you all go forth and profile and lazy import and use frame pointers everywhere!* *please read the What's New, release too stacked 🏎️ docs.python.org/3.15/whatsne...
docs.python.org
What’s new in Python 3.15
Editor, Hugo van Kemenade,. This article explains the new features in Python 3.15, compared to 3.14. Python 3.15 was released on 9 October 2026. For full details, see the changelog. Summary – Relea...
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 09/10/2026
NEW: Records show Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken nearly 1,000 trips during his tenure, costing $3.3 million in security. We could only connect 138 of those trips and $553,000 in security costs to state business. with @texastribune.org
propublica.org
Ken Paxton’s Security for Travel Cost Taxpayers Millions. Just 1 in 6 of His Trips Had a Stated Business Purpose.
Records show the Texas attorney general has taken nearly 1,000 trips during his tenure, costing $3.3 million in security. We could only connect 138 of those trips and $553,000 in security costs to sta...
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Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 09/10/2026
BREAKING: We have a new cat. Her name is Loopy Lou and she is tiny and perfect 😻
Small Gray tabby cat playing with string
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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This is petty and least important aspect of this but: I reported on this years ago and the trump campaign falsely denied the reporting, and now via Hegseth they’re just doing it. Monstrous
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 08/10/2026
Elites are pathetic, contemptible cowards, part batrillion.
theguardian.com
EU drops sponsorship of disinformation conference at Trump officials’ request
Lithuania and Canada were also pressured to withdraw, and days before #Disinfo2026, logos were wiped off website
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toilet bones @toiletbones.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Found the email I sent when I got accidentally added to the faculty listserv of an orthopedic surgery clinic and nobody would remove me so I sent this email to all faculty/staff/med students and they removed me almost immediately
Hello Bone Colleagues, 
I have invented a new type of ankle and I'm very excited to show it to you. Early raccoon trials suggest a 60% increase in scurrying speed and dramatic increases in fine motor banditry. I know we are not supposed to create super raccoons, but I think you'll change your mind and professional ethics when you see how cute they are. I believe we are on the cusp of a new era in advanced human scurrying because if medical science has taught me anything, it's that improvements in raccoons correspond 1:1 to improvements in humans. 

--
[My name]
Chief Bone Inventor
Chair, Department of Foot and Leg Innovation
Lord Mayor, Musculoskeletal Medicine 
Hartford HealthCare,
The Bone & Joint Institute at Hartford Hospital.
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matty @mattio.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This is wild - somebody did a deep dive into the real stories behind this famous XKCD: sheets.works/data-viz/hol...
an XKCD comic showing a precariously assembled tower of blocks. much is labelled "all modern digital infrastructure." a thin leg down at the bottom is labelled "A project some random person in Nebraska has been thanklessly maintaining since 2003."
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
"They don’t know" meme template. "They don’t know that there is a long history of humans inserting eels into various orfices"
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
This is an open-faced sandwich.
The structure of CpCo(CO)2, "a catalyst for the synthesis of pyridines" (Wikipedia)
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
One night a year… all chemistry hot takes are valid.
Movie poster for The Purge
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Cursed knowledge
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
My hot take is: if you want to promote Chemistry as "The Central Science", don’t complain when someone who is "not a real chemist/not doing real chemistry" wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work in a field that draws upon chemistry principles. I suspect I’ll be tapping this sign in a year’s time
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Ryan Stauffer @ryanswx.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Haha, this fucking sucks.
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Neil Withers @neilwithers.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
And here's a link to that Le Monde article www.lemonde.fr/archives/art...
lemonde.fr
Le Nobel de chimie volé à Henri Kagan
Le Monde.fr - 1er site d’information sur l’actualité. Retrouvez ici une archive du 16 octobre 2001 sur le sujet Le Nobel de chimie volé à Henri Kagan
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The Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Sometimes my wife and I like to send each other text messages as though they’re democratic fundraising messages, and I believe she has produced the jewel of the form.
, it's
and I
have some personal news to share with you.
Being a mom is one of the greatest joys of my life, and I feel deeply that we should have salad tonight
This year has been challenging in many ways, and I have immense gratitude for the kindness and support of family, community, and people like you who have continued to stand by me through everything. It means the world, and I wanted you to be among the first to know that squash is in the oven and kale is in the fridge.As many of you are aware, ve been navigating one of the most challenging periods of my day while waiting for dinner.
Facing baseless federal hunger brought on by not eating since lunch, fighting for the working kids of this country, and now caring for a mean toddler and helping him grow up in a world that isn't always easy. But it has also reminded me exactly why I do this work and who I do it for.
I will never stop working to eat dinner. I will never stop fighting for what is right, even when there is also some feta in the fridge. And I will never stop being so very thankful that you are by my side in this important work and that there is tahini in the pantry for dressing
With love and gratitude,
stop to end
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Ken Schwencke @schwanksta.com · 06/10/2026
A year ago, @propublica.org told you immigration agents had detained more than 170 U.S. citizens. We’ve updated our count, and we’ve got all the receipts. The tally: At least 506 citizens detained. Sometimes held at gunpoint, handcuffed, or even deported. projects.propublica.org/american-cit...
projects.propublica.org
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Canadian Gen X here: my parents sent me off to walk to kindergarten by myself at age 4.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
We lived next door to our small town’s movie theatre. Its doors not only had the movie posters but also screenshots. I walked by it every morning, and the graphic content for horror films was surely illegal by today’s standards (gore, dismemberment etc.)
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
1980: ads for both The Fog and The Shining, especially the latter.
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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Great chance to post my all-time favorite headline
The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off
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Kara Yorio @karayorio.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
"State law in Arkansas doesn’t require much to open a private school, nothing about teacher skills or what kids learn. But it does require that all schools display an American flag, and we wanted to follow the rules." Unbelievable story. Also, immediately ordering the ProPublica Academy pencils.
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Order Rodentia @orodentia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
‘Humour makes us Cree, makes us human’: Kent Monkman’s first public sculpture is a condominium for beavers on Toronto’s waterfront www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/09/30/k...
theartnewspaper.com
Kent Monkman’s first public sculpture is a condominium for beavers on Toronto’s waterfront
The permanent commission for the new Lassonde Art Trail reflects on the past, present and future of North America with Monkman’s characteristic quirky twists
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Nope Octopus Scurries
Alt: Nope Octopus Scurries
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
this would be an incredible film if you started it with all the normal serial killer hunting tropes
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maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes every woman has been harassed, many assaulted. But every woman has also experienced invisible loss from moments she avoided harassment. She felt a space becoming unsafe, so she left, while men stayed on. And in leaving, she lost: opportunities, experiences, learning, promotions, even simply fun.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I was listening to French CBC in the car and they were covering this story. I am terrible at interpreting spoken French, but I did catch « Sac à Dos » and « Reine de la Corpulence ».
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Coach Jerry (referee 🔵) @gopher33j.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
1.) Go to america.gov 2.) type “hello” 3.) type “play Minecraft” 4.) watch the ai’s reality implode ------------ AI is cooked. This is wild.
america.gov
America.gov
Find answers from official government sources and clear next steps for the services you need with America.gov.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
static.klipy.com
You Guys Wanna Start a Fight? Meme
ALT: You Guys Wanna Start a Fight? Meme
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Harry C. Merritt @harrymerritt.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Studies show that students value authenticity from their professors, so I demonstrate this by logging into the Microsoft Authenticator® app to verify my authenticity several times a day
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The Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃 @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
As a professor, most of what I do is log in to things
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Robyn Swirling @rswirling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
After being raped by a man on my hall sophomore year, I couldn’t leave my dorm room for weeks and failed several classes. I had to take out student loans so I could retake those credits. We almost never talk about the financial toll of campus sexual assault on survivors.
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Michael Spicer @michaelspicer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Most TV is just this now.
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Al Sweigart @alsweigart.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I've redesigned my Scroll Art website. Scroll art is made from program loops and print() to generate endless, scrolling animations. They are suitable for beginners learning to program, but can grow into boundless sophistication and creativity. scrollart.org
scrollart.org
The Scroll Art Museum
Programmer art that begins in the terminal.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
But also when oven-dry is not dry enough.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Actually, the GOW-MAC GCs we have in our chem major’s labs use tractor feed chart recorders, and cutting the peaks out and weighing them was one option. The other was using height-times-peak-width-at-half-height for area.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
In my undergrad biochem lab (ca. 1990), we used beakers of benzene on the open bench.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Lucky me, it was a routine activity throughout grad school.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
So, that’s a driving force for nerfing labs.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
or "if you tighten that too much it will break", or "hot things can burn you". My old-man hypothesis is that sheltered kids that don’t get a wide range of experiences with various activities don’t develop as much the "spidey sense" that what they are about to do is bad.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I think we have a Gen X/survivorship bias. There’s lots of educational yet dangerous stuff we did as kids! Wood shop, welding, home electrical wiring, cleaning engine parts in a varsol vat. But it seems in recent years students come in without"common sense" hands-on instincts like "glass is fragile"
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I have students hand-plot their T vs. vol. best-fit curves for the distillation experiment.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Actually, Bunsen burners are used in a safer version of the rainbow experiment: institute.acs.org/acs-center/l...
institute.acs.org
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
None of my organic labs have gas lines anymore. After undergrad, I only used Bunsen burners for flame-drying glass apparatus, and pulling TLC spotters from Pasteur pipettes (one of my favorite lab tasks). Biochem types still use flame for sterilization, e.g. Petri dishes.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Holy shit, this ad! I cannot imagine the impetus for pardoning this guy. But I’m not even sure it matters. Kind of along the lines of that Roger Marshall ad. If you’re explaining you’re losing.
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Free Radical @freeradical1.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I didn’t think you were, and hope I didn’t come across that way either. It’s a case of common knowledge in a field not being common knowledge to people that take advantage of that field. See also: organic chemists bewildered by an NMR spectrum that’s an example of a "well-known" second-order effect.
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