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Oliver Steinbock

@osteinbock.bsky.social
327 followers 555 following 209 posts

Chemistry professor studying chemical self-organization and far-from-equilibrium processes. Opinions are my own and not the views of FSU.

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Reposted by Oliver Steinbock
John Kane @johnkane.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In today's Tea for Teaching podcast, @osteinbock.bsky.social joins us to discuss how he has used AI tools to create music, providing multimodal content to assist students in learning thermodynamics. @chemistryfsu.bsky.social @cyberthread.bsky.social teaforteaching.podbean.com/e/chemistry-...
teaforteaching.podbean.com
Chemistry and Music | Tea for Teaching
Providing students with multimodal content can increase student learning, but creating such material can be costly and time consuming. In this episode, Oliver Steinbock joins us to discuss how he has ...
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Kenneth Showalter passed away on June 4th. Ken was a leader in the field of nonlinear dynamics. We remember some of his accomplishments in this short paper that just appeared in Chaos: doi.org/10.1063/5.03...
Photo of Ken Showalter sitting on a bench in a forest.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
new ACS logo dropped
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Playlist of our AI Bootcamp lectures: youtube.com/playlist?lis... Five posted, more to come 🎥🤖😀
youtube.com
FSU AI Bootcamp 2026 - YouTube
Introductory lectures to Artifical Intelligence and its foundations, applications, and impact on chemical research and education. All lectures were part of F...
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Lecture videos of the AI Bootcamp @chemistryfsu.bsky.social are now on YouTube (link below). Our event will continue on Wedn 08/19, covering copyright, misinformation, AI alignment, AI in natural product research, career planning with AI & a panel discussion with experts from industry and academia.
Photo of Department Chair Wei Yang opening the first AI Bootcamp at FSU in the Kroto Lecture Hall.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Our AI Bootcamp is starting tomorrow, Thursday 08/06, at 9:00 am 😀🤖 The first day includes introductory and LLM-use lectures, hands-on activities, and a guest talk on autonomous labs by Elias Nakouzi (PNNL). @wenzhulab.bsky.social See you in CSL1003.
FSU AI Bootcamp poster in garnet&gold colors, showing a cute robot saying "Everyone is welcome". Dates and registration QR code. Organizers: Wen Zhu and Oliver Steinbock
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Reposted by Oliver Steinbock
C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News) @cenmag.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Using artificial intelligence to generate catchy lyrics and music, a Florida State University chemist created a playlist of songs to assist students in learning about thermodynamics. cen.acs.org/physical-che... #chemsky 🧪
Using AI songs to learn physical chemistry.
Musical format aims to make concepts and equations easier to grasp and remember.
by Victoria Atkinson.
A collage of images showing faces, mathematics, and other symbols related to thermodynamics.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Expanding objects with a "hard" interface can form patterns if the selection of the breach sites has an age bias. In this new Phys Rev Res paper by Amari Morris, we show that for chemical gardens, this bias follows stretched exponentials that approach scale-free power laws. doi.org/10.1103/t5gt...
Photos of two chemical garden patterns in a Hele-Shaw cell with central injection of CoCl2 solution into a silicate solution.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Do stains of dried urine reveal chemical composition? Our new paper "Machine Learning-Enabled Image Analysis of Complex Chemical Mixtures: Synthetic Urine Droplets as a Test System" looks into this question ... doi.org/10.1021/acs....
doi.org
Machine Learning-Enabled Image Analysis of Complex Chemical Mixtures: Synthetic Urine Droplets as a Test System
Dried droplet deposits encode compositional information through evaporation-driven self-organization, offering a potential low-cost sensing modality for chemical analyses. Here, we evaluate the feasib...
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
suno.com/playlist/54cedc03-3e60-4788-9558-7e4cace69e03 (free playlist) rdcu.be/fqlkC (free article link)
rdcu.be
Making chemistry sing with AI
Nature Reviews Chemistry - Artificial intelligence (AI) opens up classroom creativity, enabling students and instructors to generate chemistry-themed songs with ease. This playful approach may...
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Reposted by Oliver Steinbock
Nature Reviews Chemistry @natrevchem.nature.com · 25/06/2026
dlvr.it
Making chemistry sing with AI
Nature Reviews Chemistry, Published online: 25 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41570-026-00849-0Artificial intelligence (AI) opens up classroom creativity, enabling students and instructors to generate chemistry-themed songs with ease. This playful approach may enhance engagement, support memorization of complex concepts, and prompt critical reflection on the role of generative AI in education.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Turn-of-the-century impressionist painting? Wakulla Springs, Florida -- today. #Renoir #Seurat
unprocessed,uncropped photo of Wakulla Springs that looks a bit like a painting
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
New preprint. Machine learning can predict chemical composition from simple photos of dried drop stains, but does it still work for complex mixtures like synthetic urine? We collected 70,000 images and tried it ... doi.org/10.26434/che...
doi.org
Machine Learning-Enabled Image Analysis of Complex Chemical Mixtures: Synthetic Urine Droplets as a Test System | ChemRxiv
Dried droplet deposits encode compositional information through evaporation-driven self-organization, offering a potential low-cost sensing modality for chemical analysis. Here, we evaluate the feasibility of inferring solute concentrations and pH from ...
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Our recent APL Machine Learning abstract as a slow K-pop song 🎶 🇰🇷🎵 Enjoy!! suno.com/s/mUwia4C6uu...
APL ML Abstract screenshot: Image-based identification of solutes from dried drop stains offers a low-cost, scalable alternative to traditional chemical analysis, enabled by artificial intelligence and annotated image libraries. While recent advances in robotic droplet imaging have facilitated the collection of such datasets, experimental acquisition remains a key bottleneck. Here, we explore whether synthetic image generation can supplement or replace real data in the context of salt classification. Using Stable Diffusion with low-rank adaptation, we generate 133 000 synthetic images from as few as N = 1–128 experimental images per salt across seven common inorganic solutes.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Scientific Reports might benefit from some LLM reviewers ... no current LLM would have approved this paper.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
I believe this photo is AI-generated www.yahoo.com/news/article...
yahoo.com
Fact Check: Image Of Bodies Wrapped In White Fabric Does NOT Show Mass Funeral Of Minab School Strike's Victims In Iran
Does a viral image actually show the funeral of the children killed during the U.S.-Israel attack? No, that's not true: It contains multiple artifacts characteristic of AI. The account that was the so...
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
I see that makes sense. Thanks!
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
Also, if NIH believes in the merit of their rankings, shouldn't the curve be more sigmoidal? Looks like review percentiles only explain about half of the funding decision variance.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
how does this line up with a steady NIH budget? Applications increased? Bigger grants?
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
... ergo, older scientists should get longer grants ... everything else is cruel :)
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
you can see the demon doing a lot of information processing 😅 (and work) ... that's where the "paradox" is resolved
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
New preprint posted on ChemRxiv: "Charge-Selective Adsorption of Organic Molecules in Microfluidic Mg(OH)2 Precipitate Membranes" chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10....
chemrxiv.org
Charge-Selective Adsorption of Organic Molecules in Microfluidic Mg(OH)2 Precipitate Membranes | ChemRxiv
The porous mineral structures of alkaline hydrothermal vent chimneys have been proposed as natural concentrators of dissolved organic molecules, potentially addressing the longstanding dilution problem in deep-sea origin-of-life hypotheses. Here, we use ...
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
It's a bit perplexing, but I agree. I believe the biggest trap is giving out lecture notes. Coming to class & taking handwritten notes is the 1st step toward learning the material. Downloading the pdf's for possible future consumption is not, but it does feel good (equiv. to us downloading papers).
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
New paper on arXiv arxiv.org/abs/2602.07183. We show that the aging of precipitate membranes and chemical gardens controls pattern formation by favoring growth at freshly formed regions. This time dependence follows stretched exponentials that transition to a scale-free power law.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
great idea!
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
Marangoni convection meets chemical waves in the BZ reaction, where small pillars cause flower-like patterns. New paper from a collaboration with Azam Gholami, Detlef Lohse, and others. advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Symmetry Breaking in Chemical Systems: Engineering Complexity Through Self‐Organization and Marangoni Flows
We show that solutal Marangoni flows in thin films climbing the outer surfaces of hydrophilic obstacles break circular Belousov-Zhabotinsky waves into striking flower-like patterns. Evaporation-drive....
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Reposted by Oliver Steinbock
Wen Zhu Lab @wenzhulab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Today in our #RareDiseaseThursday spotlight: Argininosuccinate synthetase deficiency (ASSD), a urea cycle disorder caused by pathogenic variants in ASS1, impairing the conversion of citrulline+aspartate to argininosuccinate. This leads to long-term neurological damage.
PDB 2NZ2
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Some thoughts on grading ... if you want to see how ThermoTutor is doing it, check out thermo-tutor.qwyzzee.com #HigherEd #Chemistry #STEM #college #thermodynamics #pchem
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
My photo is in Discover magazine! Looks great 😀
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Reposted by Oliver Steinbock
Wen Zhu Lab @wenzhulab.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Congrats Wen! 🎉🎉➡️FSU chemist earns $2.1 million NIH grant to investigate molecular causes of disease: news.fsu.edu/news/science...
news.fsu.edu
FSU chemist earns $2.1 million NIH grant to investigate molecular causes of disease
A Florida State University researcher has received a multi-million-dollar grant to investigate the role enzymes — which influence nearly every process in
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Over the past summer, I built an AI-powered learning platform for thermodynamics students. It’s called ThermoTutor. Here’s a short manifesto on what it does and why I think it’s useful: thermo-tutor.qwyzzee.com
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
And Einstein's dissertation? Basically physical chemistry! 😊 “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions” estimated molecular radii and Avogadro’s number from sugar diffusion and viscosity. From macroscopic measurements to molecular insight ... classic pchem move.
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Reposted by Oliver Steinbock
thermotutor.bsky.social @thermotutor.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Quick introduction to ThermoTutor. Get personalized thermodynamics tutoring with instant feedback and follow-up conversations. This 3-minute demo shows how ThermoTutor works, from problem selection to grading to asking follow-up questions. #chemistry #studyhelp #pchem
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Reposted by Oliver Steinbock
Wen Zhu Lab @wenzhulab.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) uniquely powers both the TCA cycle & electron transport chain. SDH mutations cause SDH deficiency, disrupting energy metabolism & leading to developmental delays. #RareDiseaseThursday
PDB: 8GS8
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Reposted by Oliver Steinbock
Wen Zhu Lab @wenzhulab.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
KARS1 encodes lysyl-tRNA synthetase. Biallelic KARS mutations cause KARS syndrome, a severe disorder that affects multiple organs, particularly the nervous system. #RareDiseaseThursday
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Our new paper describes a synthetic "cell" that moves over superhydrophobic surfaces. It consists of an H2O2 drop and a chemical garden tube that spins like a propeller or orbits around a large internal O2 bubble; bursting causes repeating cm-scale motion. @softmatter.rsc.org doi.org/10.1039/D5SM...
doi.org
Co-motion of catalytic tubes and host droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces
The ability to convert chemical energy into directed motion is a defining feature of living systems and a central goal in the design of synthetic active matter. Here, we report a self-propelling syste...
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
great photo!
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Reposted by Oliver Steinbock
Bryan Kudisch @bkudisch.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
The abstract submission deadline for our symposium is TODAY! Submit your abstract at sermacs-swrm2025.abstractcentral.com/submission before it’s too late; I hope to see you all in sunny Orlando this October!
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Reposted by Oliver Steinbock
Wen Zhu Lab @wenzhulab.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Congratulations to Julia and Adwaith for completing the 2025 Young Scholar Program and research symposium. It was a joy having you both in lab and we are very proud of you!
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
I always enjoy GRCs. And if you criticize GRCs for being mainly in the US ... well, it's a US org and they do have several international sites (Italy, Switzerland, HK, Spain ... UK in the past). I think the science is awesome and, at ~$1300 for 5 days incl. fees, food, room, it's a great deal.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
I agree it's complex and there are many layers to it. But then look at Nat Comm which published >10,000 papers last year, probably absorbing >$70m alone. Contrast this to the 2nd most cited paper ever that wasn't peer-reviewed at all ... The current system needs a fundamental overhaul, not tweaking
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
In 2024, Elsevier net profits alone were $4 billion. For reference, the NSF budget (with staff salaries and everything) was $9 billion that year. PS: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... gives a 17-paper average. Yes, multiple PIs contribute, but unis also subsidize from overhead etc.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
Or look at it from the other side ... wouldn't science be better off if the enormous profits of Nature, Elsevier et al. were spent on students, postdocs, and actual research? If a PI or university wants to buy "prestige", the money should come from other sources
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
Published data indicate 10-20 papers/R01. Also, with the same argument, you can justify many other poor 1-5% decisions, burning through a lot of precious research money. I suspect that w/o this attitude, lab equipment would be cheaper, conference fees and overhead lower, OA/APCs <= $500 ...
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
I disagree. First of all, this is a matter of principle. Second, if you publish 10 papers on a grant that's $100k, and with overhead $150k. Even $75k is way too much. If you have big grants that allow you to not pinch every penny, congrats, but it does not apply to the majority of scientists.
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Well, it did in this case :) See my other post
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
o3 also wrote: "I have published on chemical information processing and DNA strand-displacement kinetics." << who knows, might be true 😅
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
Is this what you meant? My prompt was "write a fair and honest referee report for the following paper" + a recent paper from my group (tex) with inserted "secret white instructions". It wrote an okayish report (I'd say no impact of insertion), and when prompted again about ethical issues ...
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Oliver Steinbock @osteinbock.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
why would a lazy referee use API?
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