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Andy Napper

@quantumdot2.bsky.social
310 followers 321 following 114 posts

Professor of Chemistry, Shawnee State University. Real Ale fan. Chemistry nerd. Power BI, SharePoint, and Power Platform geek.

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Reposted by Andy Napper
Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 27/08/2026
The lab is a mysterious place--where some people have "magic hands," and some experiments just won't work. Here's my story about the unspoken knowledge of science, and the struggle to share it. Gift link: nyti.ms/3UccF7Z
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Matt Reed @deandad.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The challenges of inheriting disenchanted employees (h/t @christinenowik.bsky.social ) www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
insidehighered.com
Inheriting the Disenchanted
Persistence matters.
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C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News) @cenmag.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Each month, ChemReels features science communicators diving into chemistry subjects you've been curious about, with all the technical detail intact. Join Maciek Majdecki as he guides us through the incredible science of chromatography: #chemsky 🧪
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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
An unapologetically angry post about what’s being done to US science:
science.org
The Current Crisis: What's Happening to Science in America
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Marie van Staveren @chemdrv.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Okay major self-nerd-alert but I gotta share this because it combines plants and chemical safety and apparently those are two of my favorite things. Near the end of episode 51 he talks through an herbicide label. He goes through signal words, planthropologypodcast.com/listenandcon...
planthropologypodcast.com
Listen and Connect — Planthropology
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Brendan @chemscrapes.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
I don't know who needs to hear this today...but you are doing great! Just drink heaps of water and take a stroll. This has been a ChemScrapes community announcement! #chemsky #chemchat
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Dave Palmer @davepalmerusask.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
The time has come, The College said, To empty your own trash. It's now ev'ry professor's job, For we are low on cash. There will still be a custodians So don't have any fear That you will have to mop the floors At least until next year.
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Adrian Tchaikovsky @aptshadow.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
This Thursday I'm at the Leeds Waterstones Christmas evening - they'll have a bunch of authors from around the area. If you're in town, come along and get a book signed! www.waterstones.com/events/water...
waterstones.com
Waterstones Leeds Christmas Late Night Shopping Evening! | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones
Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Waterstones Leeds Christmas Late Night Shopping Evening! today.
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Darrell R @darrellsr.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
We keep learning the same lessons, again and again. // “A buzzy school promised to transform education. Parents say their children suffered. - WIRED” www.wired.com/story/ai-teach…
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DBAKevlar @dbakevlar.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
The national museum of Prague has one of the most impressive stone and mineral exhibits I’ve seen!
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Wyn - Power BI & Excel @wynhopkins.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
If I see anyone else saying you don’t need to learn Excel formulas anymore thanks to the new =COPILOT then I will do absolutely nothing except cry silently into the abyss.
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Christine Dell'Amore @cdellamore.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Sorry summer but I'm over you -- already thinking about fall. Loved this story about the chemistry of pumpkin spice by @carmendrahl.bsky.social for @cenmag.bsky.social. And now I know what cinnamic aldehydes are! cen.acs.org/articles/92/...
cen.acs.org
What’s pumpkin spice flavor, and why do we fall for it every autumn?
The popular latte and treat seasoning contains no actual pumpkin, but it boasts plenty of food chemistry
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kurtsh @kurtsh.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
For @seafury.bsky.social. 😜 Original post: aus.social/@dgar/115044...
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Kerry Kole @merrykerry.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
📌👇
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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Tons of people have "PhD-level" intelligence. The fun secret is that you don't have to be all that smart to earn a PhD. You just have to be willing to work yourself into the ground for years on end. Also...PhD's often seem extra smart 'cause you generally encounter them on their chosen terrain.
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Matt Reed @deandad.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
It’s good to be back! www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
insidehighered.com
So, Did I Miss Anything?
“Confessions of a Community College Dean” author Matt Reed returns to his column at Inside Higher Ed.
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Darrell R @darrellsr.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Too pissed to comment. // Trump requests 93% cut to Appalachian Regional Commission. Ohio would take a huge hit. • Ohio Capital Journal ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/07/15/t…
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Ask a Manager @askamanager.org · 09/07/2025
askamanager.org
the unclassified gym clothes, the risky use of Excel, and other weird reasons you’ve been scolded at work
Last month we talked about the weirdest things you’ve ever been scolded for at work, and here are 15 of the most ridiculous stories you shared. 1. The unclassified materials I work for a Department of Defense contractor, have a clearance, and once had a two-drawer safe in my office, for storing classified documents. Our […] The post the unclassified gym clothes, the risky use of Excel, and other weird reasons you’ve been scolded at work appeared first on Ask a Manager.
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Thomas House @tah-sci.com · 08/07/2025
The data journalists were so busy wondering if they could do something they never stopped to think if they should. www.theguardian.com/news/datablo...
Visualisation of different causes of food poisoning showing people vomiting, with the length of the vomit proportional to the number of cases.
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MꙬse Allain @mooseallain.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Graph of British Rivers
A map showing South West England and Wales, labelled "Graph of British Rivers". Two river courses are shown, labelled 'Wye axis' and 'Exe axis'. 

Does anyone read these descriptions, or am I wasting my time?
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Kerstin Neuhaus @microtopico.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Yesterday, I gave a lecture on "Microscopy in Battery Research" covering the basics of SEM, TEM and AFM 🔋🔬. I love to have some things to show around, so I took a 3D-printed model of an AFM cantilever and some real cantilevers to compare. What the students liked most 1/2
A tungsten wire SEM cathode
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Andy Napper @quantumdot2.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Shopping for a reading lamp on Amazon. This one looks good… but what the heck does this description even mean? 🤯
A floor lamp from Honeywell, with a (to me) nonsensical description: “Optikprocessor ensures that every beam is a note in nature’s symphony, while SICLS orchestrates the ambiance, adapts to life’s dance. … Liguilator is the maestro of hues, painting with the palette of soul.”
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Andy Napper @quantumdot2.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
@deandad.bsky.social My RSS feed reader showed a bunch of your IHE articles as "updated". Are you coming back? 🤞 (Hope so—missed your distinctive voice!)
RSS feeds showing "Confessions of a Community College Dean" as being "unread" from Inside Higher Education.
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Andy Napper @quantumdot2.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
TIL: You can order up to six free posters directly from the Nobel Foundation! Be the talk of the dept when your package from the Nobel Prize folks gets delivered. 🤣 #Chemistry www.kva.se/en/prizes/no...
kva.se
Nobel posters 2024 - Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien
Nobel posters 2024
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Courtney Shannon @cshannonpdx.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
#gis #cartography #gischat
Terrible Maps:
The Mercator projection on a sphere - interesting choice

Photo of SPALDING basketball with the globe as Mercator projection (Canada and Greenland look huge).
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Joey Cherdarchuk - Obumbratta @obumbratta.com · 15/05/2025
What is #dataviz animation good for? An updated thread with examples.
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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
The lasting damage that the Trump administration is doing to US science is barbaric. But more and more of the general public is hearing about it and just how bad it is:
science.org
The Continuing Crisis, Part XIII: Lasting Damage
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Jeff “Now I am become AI Slop” Weir @insightsmachine.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
Brilliant vis as well as an important takeaway by @chezvoila.com “Remember, a chart doesn't have to be understood in 3 seconds. It should reward the effort you put into understanding it.” Damn strait! Simple viz can have good ROI; but so can complex and/or time consuming vis.
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Andrew Feight, Ph.D. @andrewfeight.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
No surprise these cuts are hitting Appalachia hard, but politically you gotta wonder how well this is going to go over with some of his base in the region. Nothing more dangerous than an Appalachian betrayed.
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Andy Napper @quantumdot2.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
OMG - such a perfect remake of the Powers of Ten video by CGP Grey. How did I miss this three years ago?! “Metric Paper…” www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUF5esTscZI
A honey bee overlaid with A4 paper proportioned rectangles
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Kristyna Ferris @data-dragoness.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Does anyone have a good lip reading app or software? Dad officially cannot talk and that would allow us to still communicate before we get eye gaze devices
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Andy Napper @quantumdot2.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
“The ethical case for resisting AI” chuckpearson.wordpress.com/2025/01/… It’ll be interesting to see how ChatGPT and its ilk disrupts the world of (online) homework in chemistry and other STEM fields. Challenging days lie ahead
Text Shot: I knew the gig was up when a student submitted correct answers to randomly generated percent yield and limiting reagent stoichiometry problems – the historic stumbling block in developing understanding – and submitted those correct answers 68 seconds after first seeing the problems. 

That student didn’t do the problems by themself, or even with the help of an expert tutor. Again, these chemical equations and mass amounts were randomly generated. Something technological had to be helping. 

And that’s how I used Chat-GPT for the first time myself, throwing my own ethical and moral concerns to the site, and input a randomly generated homework problem of my own to be solved.Decorative-two students looking at a laptop
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Gianluca Sartori @spaghettidba.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
media.tenor.com
a man in a helmet with the words " this is the way " behind him
ALT: a man in a helmet with the words " this is the way " behind him
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David Eldersveld @dataveld.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
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Michelle Francl @michellefrancl.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
In Philly we would say "wit" meaning "with cheese"; in a note to @naturechemistry.bsky.social Allan Blackman thinks chemists should demand the same when it comes to fonts: "wit" serifs. rdcu.be/d5pIA #chemsky
rdcu.be
The font of chemical knowledge
Nature Chemistry - The font of chemical knowledge
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Matt Reed @deandad.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Terrific piece by Ashlea Lantz on the need to end the sub-minimum wage for people with disabilities. And I can personally attest that Em's coffee is great! www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinio...
desmoinesregister.com
We can do better than paying pennies to people with disabilities, like my sister | Opinion
My sister Em's shop "isn’t just a source of income for her; it’s a source of pride, purpose, and community impact," writes Ashlea Lantz.
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Morgan (AskANeuroscientist) @askaneuroscientist.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
A fun 🧪 fact as we approach New Years celebrations: The reason you need to pee more when drinking is because alcohol inhibits vasopressin. Like all hormones, vasopressin has a lot of roles. One thing it does (under normal circumstances) is prevent your kidneys from sending urine to the bladder(1/4)
media.tenor.com
a man laying in bed with the words " i am the master of my own bladder " above him
Alt: Sheldon from the Big Bang theory, laying in bed with the words " i am the master of my own bladder " above him
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Andy Napper @quantumdot2.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
“The Sinclair ZX81” As someone who remembers the ZX81 fondly, and spent a lot of time typing in programs on a TI-99/4A - this comment about the Apple Pencil really hit home to me how far we’ve come. www.metafilter.com/206917/The-Sincl…
Text Shot: Even the first Apple Pencil has a 32mhz 32 bit cpu w 64k, which almost certainly blows any home computer around at the time of the spectrum out of the water - it’s kind of crazy how much computing power is just casually sloshing around in everyday objects now
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Andy Napper @quantumdot2.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
“Standards for Graphic Presentation” Hard to believe these data-viz recommendations are >100 years old! 📊 infowetrust.com/project/1915-standa…
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Alejandro Montenegro @aemonten.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
A consequence of blindly evalutating people by citation counts
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Andy Napper @quantumdot2.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
“Interacting With History - Info We Trust” Some gorgeous looking charts and history here! Who knew small multiples were this old? (1630) infowetrust.com/project/history-ess…
An interactive timeline of infographics.
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Andy Napper @quantumdot2.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Interviewer: Can you explain this gap on your CV? Chemist: Yeah, 57 mV - was dealing with a reversible redox couple for a while #Chemsky
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Gav Armstrong @nchemgav.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
And if you followed me on twitter you'll know that I really don't like rainbow colour plots. Please don't use them #chemsky. They can be visually misleading (e.g. they create artificial boundaries in the data) and I think should feature only 2 or 3 colours. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The misuse of colour in science communication - Nature Communications
The accurate representation of data is essential in science communication, however, colour maps that visually distort data through uneven colour gradients or are unreadable to those with colour vision...
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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
You don’t see many such head to head trials (generally only happens in large markets), and when you do it’s often because the company is reasonably sure of the outcome.
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Andy Napper @quantumdot2.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
“Alissa Eckert on designing the ‘spiky blob’ Covid-19 medical illustration” I always wondered about the creation of *that* image. Fascinating back story! www.wallpaper.com/design/design-eme…
Coronavirus illustration from the CDC
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Andy Napper @quantumdot2.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
“Mexican Cartels Lure Chemistry Students to Make Fentanyl - Criminals turn college campuses into recruitment hubs, recruiting chemistry students in Mexico with big paydays.” Holy cow! www.nytimes.com/2024/12/01/w... #Chemistry #ChemSky
nytimes.com
Mexican Cartels Lure Chemistry Students to Make Fentanyl (Gift Article)
Criminals turn college campuses into recruitment hubs, recruiting chemistry students in Mexico with big paydays.
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