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Julian R. Silverman

@manhattanscientist.bsky.social
859 followers 1.2K following 5.4K posts

⚗️ teaching science @ SUNY Fashion Institute 🧼 researching waste-derived materials 🌈 from RSC Books: How and Why Soap Works #pigments #inks #mordants #paper #gardenindicators sites.google.com/view/sustainable-m…

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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 12h
Part of this project is to focus on sustainability. Because of this we no longer gather acorns, which are food for squirrels and such, and focus on leaves and acorn caps (non food biomass). Despite this we found two weevil larva in the mix 😔. The project is now dedicated to snoots with boots
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 16h
Tis the season to boil acorns and leaves 👀
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 19h
That feeling when you forgot to weigh something 😔
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
FWIW it’s more vanillic acid than vanillin which to me is more marshmallowy
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
The book I’m reading smells so good it’s hard to pay attention. 60 years old, been sitting on a library shelf for over ten years its so warm, soft, and almost sweet.
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Happy to share: docs.google.com/document/d/1... Let me know if you have any questions. It's a fun activity for a group/workshop too
docs.google.com
Dark Matter: Workshop Manual
Dark Matter: Making Ink from Waste Contents: Background 2 Upgrading Waste Resources 2 Distinguishing Pigments, Inks, and Paints 2 Oaks and Metal 3 Evaluating Upcycled Materials 3 ‘Painting’ with Polym...
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Reposted by Julian R. Silverman
C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News) @cenmag.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
"It’s time we rethink what outreach in organic chemistry can look like. We often focus on K–12 students, as we should. But there is another audience we may be overlooking: intellectually curious adults who simply want to learn about our field." #chemsky 🧪
cen.acs.org
Opinion: I gave a chemistry lecture in a bar. It was a revelation
I discovered adults eager to learn. Let's do more to reach them
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
I got both in different arms and realized after sleeping on neither side was comfortable!
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Join me tonight at 7 EST for some hands on soap demos! www.chemedx.org/event/soap-s... Thanks to ChemEd X for setting this all up.
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Someone anyone just needs to confirm we can use this for research and then I can tell my dept my colleagues advised me to get this I remember hearing stories at KU of them bringing theirs to outreach events and having to tell people their jewelry wasn’t gold/silver
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
😂 I hope it’s on prime
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Oh that’s cool. It would be fun to test lots of consumer products. We’ve been trying to track down some skin whitening creams with mercury in them
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I know it would sit in the box a lot but I really think it’s worth the $20k
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Ordered!
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Guns are bad but I really want an XRF gun
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
It’s the season! I’ll have a pumpkin poison spice please Generic poison is fine.
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
It’s the best time of year to collect acorns for making iron gall ink:
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Reposted by Julian R. Silverman
Debbie Gale Mitchell @heydebigale.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
if you would like to preorder the book I would be SO grateful! I drew ~75 images for this book, and (w/ help two artists) I turned one into a Riso print! If you would like a signed book plus a Riso print, you can order from my local indie, Westside books: westsidebooks.com/book/9780262...
A stack of prints with a water molecule rotating generating an electric field that matches the electric field from the microwave light
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Reposted by Julian R. Silverman
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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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Got to break out the muller for the first time to make some paint from scrap iron/oak leaves
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Ending our Sustainability Awareness week with a Science and Math Open House!
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Hidden is my syllabus is the call number for a book that relates to the final project theme. Take a pic with it and you get a point on an exam. I do this so I can learn who the nerds are week one. My student made a video of finding the book and got over 100k likes in TikTok. Win win win?
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Soap making day in lab. 🧼 🫧 🪄
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Who needs a Nobel when you have dynamite colleagues.
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Ethylene brassylate is a synthetic musk But it also sounds like if an aroma compound had a drag persona
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Today was a good day. There was something I could’ve worried about, but I didn’t worry about it and then it turns out I didn’t need to worry at all. 
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Reposted by Julian R. Silverman
Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
There is no NSF leadership. They were removed and never replaced.
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Students avoiding subscripts by making the numbers in chemical formulas smaller fonts. :/
static.klipy.com
Man with Magnifying Glass: Detective Look
ALT: Man with Magnifying Glass: Detective Look
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
!!!
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
😯 The graph only include the top 10 biopharm/chem companies Would love to see them all
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
We had a lovely time in Queens for City of the Forest day. Kids take to tie dye like iron atoms take to tannic acid.
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
😂
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Things like this remind me that you can watch 100 videos online and it’s no replacement for being able to do it yourself
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Prepping for some color mixing. Colored pencils. I clearly don’t know what yellow and black are.
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Reposted by Julian R. Silverman
yprops @yprops.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
#lichen 2026.08
太めの枝を半分覆う鮮やかな黄色の多分コガネゴケ属。もう半分を白黒のモジゴケ類とうっすら緑のメダルゴケ属?
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Yeah I was hoping it’s like vanilla from books and coffee but more likely it’s expired Diet Pepsi and unclean office vents
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I really need to know what the “professor” air freshener smells like.
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Thank you. It really has been.
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
She was the best bun.
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Fun fact your acorn cap might be 0.5% vanillin link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Unlocking the potential of acorn oak cupules as a bio-based feedstock - Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery
Acorn cupules are the structures that originally protect and connect the acorn to the tree. Currently, they are considered a residue of the acorn sector. In the present work, cupules from six Portugue...
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Internet consensus is yes, it’s a lichen. Perhaps with a parasite. Probably not Christmas tree lichen but it looks similar.
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
😆 pick em now. Also having watched the whole series I still wish I knew what it meant
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Foraging for tannins
Acorn caps arranged in the shape of an acorn
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I’m unsure if this is a #lichen?
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
#Lichen and friends
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Lots of #lichen
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Success.
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
:( I hope they behave for everyone’s sake
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
That’s always a fun role to have hopefully some dancing in there too
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Julian R. Silverman @manhattanscientist.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I often feel like I’m looking at Hank Hill and with some of your characters. I love it.
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