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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

Managed to sneak my way in (late) to Michael Mann's "Science under Siege" talk at the Crick today. Very good and with constant reminders that there is everything to fight for - doom is a strategy by those who want you to give up, not a future.

Michael Mann in front of a slide with a picture of Sam Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings saying "There's some good in the world, Mr Frodo and it's worth fighting for. "

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

My son came home with COVID. I was vaxxed last Saturday. The next few days will be interesting.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

It's been a pretty bonkers week which including touching the third rail with some very senior people, trying to keep teaching on the rails, and spending quality time with three of the finest gentlemen from UCL Estates I have the privilege of working with - […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Glyn Barrow, Marek Rutkowski and Richard Frost looking at AHU01 that serves XLG2 and realising that the pressure sensor has failed.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

And we're off! #UCLChemAirPoll is off to the races with 250 students, 33 schools and 67 primary school classes scattered right across the London. First class to explain the ideas and to get our students to think about how to deliver a lesson in a primary […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A map of London showing this year's schools that we will be visiting.

A diffusion tube attached to a lamp-post in Camden.

A collage of photos showing one of the lessons taking place in a classroom in a beautiful Victorian school somewhere in London.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

Why the hell did I not know that "Uncle" Jim Al-Khalili is this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lecturer! These are going to be great and very <ahem> timely! www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures

Screenshot of the RI website for the Christmas lecturers showing Professor Jim and his shining pate, with an hour glass there to hint at the topic.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

In the Gods at the Royal Institution waiting for Carlo Rovelli to see what all the excitement is about….kick off in 3 mins.

The Faraday lecture theatre seen from above.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

KLAXON: We are recruiting for our #AirPollution project We are sending first year undergraduates into Year 5 and 6 classes across London to talk about air pollution and measure NOx pollution. If you know of an interested school, get in touch […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A picture from the lab showing the calibration solutions used in the determination of how much NOx each tube has collected while the tube was open to the air in London.

A diffusion tube attached to a Camden lamp-post collecting NOx.

Four students in a primary school classroom getting children to think about what makes up air.

A black and white map marked with locations around a London school where the plan is to put diffusion tubes.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026

Tonight is my last as course organizer of CHEM001x, that I've taught on for about 30 years (all but one section…) and run for at least 25. It's been my sandpit for trying things out, and about 10,000 students have taken the module. It brings me delight to […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

The opening slide of the CHEM001x handout 2025/6 with a diagram of a membrane with a protein embedded within it and a cartoon of people queuing for "Answers" the road forking between "simple but wrong" and "complex but right". Most people heading to the former.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026

Experimental scientist! Does anyone know how to service one of the Swagelok SS-4H bellows valves?I’ve got one that leaks and am wondering if I can strip it down a replace the seal. Anyone done this?

Side view of a Swagelok bellows valve with a green handle

Top view of a steel valve with a green handle emblazoned with company name.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/08/2026

I suspect that this will prove to be a rare violation of @ianbetteridge ’s Law of headlines. From the FT.

FT headline:
Driverless vehicles - Will robotaxis clog up Britain's cities?

Autonomous vehicles present a new challenge for those trying to reduce urban congestion

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/08/2026

Now this is what a Public Service Broadcaster should be doing! Worth the license fee right there. (Apologies for the offensive photograph)

BBC seeks to
subpoena Trump's
family members in
Panorama

The BBC has sought to subpoena members of Donald Trump's family for documents and testimony as it defends against the US president's $10bn (£7.4bn) defamation lawsuit against the broadcaster.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026

I finally screwed up the courage to get my eclipses done. And my friend Stefano U liked the results. #eclipse #phoarr #hot #enhanced

Two bald men, one projecting two images of the eclipse onto his chest using binoculars, the other pointing at the impressive pair.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

Well fancy that. From FT: “The non-dom population remained broadly unchanged . . . suggesting many internationally mobile individuals chose to stay rather than make immediate decisions about relocating,” he added.

FT headline: “Data suggest fears of non-sim exodus overblown”

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/07/2026

Message for the day – Commit a random act of maintenance! Listen to it, look at it, wipe it, clean it, lube it, brush it, tighten it, grease it, turn it, check it, test it, sweep it, mop it, paint it, tape it, sand it, tweak it, tune it, adjust it, wash it […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Fight entropy! Commit a random act of maintenance today.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/07/2026

I had the enormous pleasure yesterday of giving a talk at the 13th annual Microscale conference, 13ISMC26. I was invited by the legendary Bob Worley (late of CLEAPSS) who has been developing an incredibly wide range of beautiful practicals that students can […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Thermochemistry done in a calorimeter made from a pipette bulb, a 3D printed acrylic cylinder and a digital probe thermometer.

A laminated sheet with embedded squares of a thermochromic spiropyran compound with which to test sun cream and different kinds of glasses for UV absorption.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/07/2026

This could be Count Binface's big chance. C'mon Clacton. Given the shocking waste of money of having to run a by-election the least you can do is to elect someone sensible. #Garbage

Farage by-election gambit undercut by rivals' refusal to participate.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/07/2026

Hello London! Our annual #UCLChemAirPoll project lives again. We are sending first year undergraduates into Year 5 and 6 classes across London to talk about air pollution and measure NOx pollution. If you know of an interested school, get in touch […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

The calibration solutions used to quantify the amount of NOx collected in each diffusion tube lined up, ready for measurement during the analysis stage of the determination. Each beaker contains solutions of different shades of pink.

Two of our students presenting a lesson in a school in Hackney.

A home-made diffusion tube attached to a lamp post near Gillespie Primary School in Islington.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026

Absolutely phenomenal talk this morning @ucl by Kathryn Paige Harden about the Genetics of "Vice", a fabulous coda to the great debate at the Council of Carthage of 418, where Pelagianism was cast out as heresy and Augustine became top dog. Is sin born or is […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Prof Harden leaning elegantly against the lectern as she waits for questions, in front of a screen showing the cover of her book "The Genetics of Vice".

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/06/2026

So if I understand correctly, Mandelson was a venal, corrupt backstabbing individual who should never have been appointed and whose advice was deeply flawed and corrupted by conflicts of interest. But now his every statement about Starmer is considered to be […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Guardian headline:
Mandelson described Starmer’s No 10 operation described as ‘beleaguered and bereft’ in published files Peter Mandelson's unfiltered remarks to cabinet officials are made public in hundreds of pages of documents relating to his appointment as US ambassador .

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/05/2026

Lovely exhibition inspired by The Second Law by the Japanese artist Reijiro Wada. The man does things to titanium that will make you marvel. At the Anglo Japanese Davies Foundation in Regent’s Park. #free #microstates #entropy #Boltzmann #titanium

A titanium plate coloured by heat treatment using a blowtorch

Thousand of heat treated titanium cubes laid out in a rectangle with multicoloured surfaces.

The poster for the exhibition with a portrait of Wada-san and his rectangle of titanium cubes.

A closeup of the multicoloured titanium cubes one removed to show the structure

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/05/2026

Catching up with a pile of old newspapers, I find @MarcAbrahams staring out of the 23 April edition of Le Temps. It’s a great paper with smart journalists and little clickbait. IgNobels excepted, of course. 😜 A very good interview with trenchant comment on […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Front page of Le Temps with a photo of Marc Abrahams in the top left corner. He is described as “mélange brio humour et science”

The back page of Le Temps with a large photograph of Marc Abrahams looking dapper and the headline “Mission improbable” (in French)

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/05/2026

Every so often there is a hilarious detail amid the never ending car-crash that is the Trump “administration”. “I was at an industry meeting this week, and I can tell you one of the biggest concerns was that we might see diesel prices [in the US] go to $10 […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

FT headline:
Donald Trump's Iran war
leaves US with sharpest fuel
shock in G7

Petrol and diesel prices are rising more
swiftly in America than other major
economies including the UK and Canada

Average petrol prices on Friday hit $4.39 a gallon, according to the motoring group AAA.

With a photo of a US gas station.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/04/2026

Exam question idea: “Using the quantities listed on the label calculate the pH of the buffer solution in this enema bottle.” Thoughts? #chemistry #teaching #applications #academic #enema

An enema bottle containing a clear liquid with the masses of phosphate and biphosphate on the label.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/04/2026

One of the many reasons why we have ethics committees to help us think through some of our experiments. #safety #learning #history #ethics #LOL

Two images of an experiment taken from a 1960s report . A male head with very dark glasses, sitting in a box. In front of one of the lenses is a rifle.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/04/2026

Caption competition, anyone? For the historians “Roll over, Arrhenius”.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/04/2026

As I listen to @helenczerski talking about soil I am very struck by the builders’ rubble being used in UCL’s new planters in Gordon Street. There is “structure” there. Apparently the areno plans to add an organic component […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A wooden planter filled with ground up concrete and brick.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/04/2026

I had the enormous pleasure tonight of being invited to a dinner where I not only heard @drsimevans talk about the challenges and choices facing the UK as it attempts to hit its net zero targets. But I also got to sit next to him. Poor man. But it was a rare […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Simon evans standing in front of a screen showing the remarkable collapse of the UK’s carbon intensity over the past century, from over 1000 g/kWh to around 100 g/kWh today.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/04/2026

Antonio Spadaro is a Vatican spokesman who knows how to hit Mr Trump where it hurts. From the FT which reports Trump’s latest rantling (a neologism that is the mix of rant and ramble that has become his hallmark)

“The attack is a declaration of impotence,” Spadaro said. “When political power turns against a moral voice, it is often because it cannot contain it. . . Unable to absorb that
voice, power tries to delegitimise it. Yet in doing so, it implicitly acknowledges its
weight.”

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/04/2026

A unnamed Iranian official quoted by the Tasnim news agency in Tehran sums up the state of play. America’s Suez.

“The US has so far made errors in its
negotiating calculations, similar to its
mis-steps in military assessments,” the
official said. “Iran is not in a hurry.”

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/04/2026

Last night I spotted this little gas canister at the top of our stairs, refrigerant for some of our chillers or heat pumps on the roof. 21 kg of R-410a. Read the label: 44 tonnes of CO2e . One false move by an installer, or slow leaks and it’s released - the […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A canister of di fluoromethane/ pentafluoroethane mix R-410a with the label emblazoned 21 kg and 43.85 tonnes CO2 equivalent.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/03/2026

Hmm. Not sure that this FT magazine headline has aged all that well.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/03/2026

Sunday lunchtime. Wind is strong. The sun is out. Carbon emissions are low. 25 g/kWh.

Screenshot showing energy mix of UK grid, currently 94% low emission.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/03/2026

An old friend invited me to the dress rehearsal of Siegfried at Covent Garden this afternoon. It is a spectacular environmentally-grounded production, brilliantly sung (Siegfried!! Whoa! Andreas Schager transcends the Heldentenor) and stunningly staged and […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

The cast list for the production (too long to transcribe)

The floral hall at Covent garden opera house

The interior of the theatre with red velvet seats and gilded gslleries

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/03/2026

La chimie crée son objet. An absolutely outstanding talk by Jonathan Clayden about how organic chemistry has developed and evolved over the past 50 years at the Royal Society of Chemistry Historical Group today. Very thought-provoking analysis of how […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Joanthan Clayden points to a slide with Marcellin Berthelot's sentence La chimie crée son object.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/03/2026

I love the FT but this op-ed by Daniel Yergin is just blatant fossil industry propaganda. No reference to renewables, let alone mention of how oil price shocks lead to shifts - I’m thinking of Pakistan where the Russian oil price shock has led to an […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

FT headline: is the nightmare scenario for global energy here?

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/03/2026

@wind-watch.org @drsimevans It's pasrt of the the reason why the UK has managed to reduce its grid emissions. The steam generated in a gas turbine is a lot hotter than what you can get from powdered coal. So you can get to around 50% with "combined cycle, and […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

The Drax power station seen from a railway line.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/03/2026

Wow. The UK grid's carbon intensity dropped to 39 g CO2e/kWh.

UK grid intensity plot for 1 March 2026 showing intensity dropping from about 180 at 6:30 pm on 28 Feb to 39 g/kWh at 2 pm.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/02/2026

Public institutions having to grovel to under-taxed rich dudes is how you end up with Epstein scenarios. Discuss. Use both sides of page if necessary.

Headline from the FT:

British Museum

Bayeux Tapestry to be sponsored by Belarus-born hedge fund billionaire
British Museum’s deal with Igor Tulchinsky thought to be worth £5mn

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/02/2026

If you are in NW Italy I urge you to go and see an OUTSTANDING exhibition of photos taken in Svalbard by Stefano Unterthiner at Forte di Bard: A Window on the Arctic (Una finestra sull'artico). They are extraordinarily lyrical and deeply moving, capturing the […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

The postert from STEFANO UNTERTHINER's Una Finestra Sull'Artico.
31 OTTOBRE 2025 | 3 MAGGIO 2026
FORTE DI BARD. VALLE D’'AOSTA - a porthole looking out over an arctic sea with ice and snow in the background.

A photograph from the exhibition projected onto a screen - water covered with plates of ice, an icy landscape of mountains in the background. On the right Ed Hawkins visualisation of rising temperatures consisting of coloured stripes going from blue on the left to red on the right.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/02/2026

Some wag in the FT comments section said this, a reminder that dictatorship often ends in grim violence.

A commenter at the FT said this:

If you delete "banner of" in the headline, you get something rather delightful. Something that may be on the menu in the future.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/02/2026

The personality cult strengthens. Show trials will no doubt begin soon. For a first hand account of the trials in the time of Stalin, read Fitzroy McLean’s Eastern Approaches.

FT HEADLINE: USJustice Department hangs banner of Donald Trump at Headquarters, with photo of the building and armed guards in camouflage in the foreground.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/02/2026

Polenta is chiral. Clockwise stirred doesn’t mix with anti-clockwise, esp if done with the left hand. Something for @lowqualityfacts to ponder. #polenta #chirality #food #carboloading

A pot of anti-clockwise bright yellow polenta showing the creaminess that comes of using a wooden spoon held in the left hand.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/02/2026

Just given a schools talk in Bristol which brought together phenolphthalein, the Western Bongo, hydrogen peroxide, Alan Turing ,and a poor little bunny going round and round in a blender into a 30 minute slot in the programme. My work is done. Time to find a train.

An image showing a computational system for identifying individual bongos by using the width and separation of the stripes on their sides, and the white patches on their cheeks.

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/01/2026

Three tickets have been sold for "Melania". That's more than I expected, but what do I know about movies? I won't even link to the Guardian article.

Headline: Melania documentary struggles in UK cinemas as Vue admits sales are ‘soft’.
Subheading: Only one ticket sold for premiere of film about US first lady at Vue's flagship London branch as insiders question launch strategy

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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/01/2026

For those not on LInkedIn, here is a sample of the brilliance of Patrick Gathara who holds up a mirror for those of us in the "old world". #trump #tribalism ALT text had to be truncated. Sorry.

One man has been killed in violent clashes between anti-government protesters and forces loyal to US strongman Donald “Papa Don” Trump, as the oil-rich, banana-exporting republic shows fresh signs of unraveling. It was the second fatality in as many weeks as the brutal far-white regime cracks down on nationwide demonstrations demanding an end to abductions by masked secret police.
The shooting came just days after the aging autocrat delivered a rambling, incoherent speech at the traditional annual gathering of Caucasian bloc elders in the holy town of Davos, Switzerland - the highest city in sub-Scandinavian Europe, where pilgrims flock at the start of each year hoping to receive divine wisdom. During the address, Papa Don promised not to invade neighbouring Greenland, a move analysts warned could have ignited ethnic conflict across the bloc, a region long steeped in ancient tribal hatreds. Already fighting between Russian and Ukrainian Slavs, a savage conflict now entering its fifth year, has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in what observers describe as unrestrained tribal bloodletting.
With parliamentary elections looming in November, analysts fear the violence in the United States - the most populous and influential country in the bloc - will intensify, further destabilising the volatile region. Concerns are also mounting over the security of the country’s illicit nuclear weapons stockpile, which was meant to have been dismantled under the terms of the NPT.

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