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Stu Cantrill

@stuartcantrill.com
7.3K followers 2.1K following 975 posts

Husband, Dad, PhD, pedant, former Chief Ed of @natchem.nature.com, now Editorial Director at @NaturePortfolio.nature.com. Wine, chemistry, publishing, words & snark. Views ranty, but all mine. #ContaminatedBlood victim (affected). He/Him

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 6h
One week today, let's see if I (kinda) go 2 for 2 on #chemnobel...
A screenshot of my Bluesky post about the ChemNobel last year, that reads: 

#NobelPrize week starts tomorrow & the #chemnobel is Wednesday… used to be so much Nobel chat on Tw*tter, but that is not replicated here, alas. Anyway, for the record, I think MOFs will win at some point (maybe this year maybe not). Balasubramanian & Klenerman a good bet for next-gen sequencing too

Post was published 18:37 on Oct 5th
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 31/08/2026
I had the privilege of sitting next to Prof. Yonath at lunch during a two-day symposium (in Namur I think). She told the best stories… such a loss #chemsky
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 31/08/2026
You bastard, @iandunt.bsky.social - making me spend more money on books…
A picture of the book, ‘The Making of the English Working Class’ by E. P. Thompson. The cover is black and white and shows masses of people in the foreground with factories in the background.
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 27/08/2026
So, to remember the names of the Great Lakes, it’s no longer HOMES, but SHAME. How appropriate 😂
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Alexandra Petri @petridishes.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
the year is 2027. gas costs $83 and lettuce is at war with us. however every location on every map now says AMERICA
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 08/08/2026
0 for 2
A railing that has a sign that says ‘no bikes’ - but there are bikes. And a sign that says ‘no signs’ but…
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 25/07/2026
It’s a #ganevat kind of evening #jurawine #poulsard
A glass of red wine sitting on a table outside; next to it is the bottle in front of which sits the cork and the red wax that was covering the top of the bottle. The wine is a poulsard from Domaine Ganevat ‘Les Chalasses Vieille Vigne’ The back label of a wine bottle noting that it is a Cotes du Jura Poulsard from 2022 from Domaine Ganevat
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 25/07/2026
Impressive.
A sign saying ‘Signed by the author’ next to a copy of the New Testament & Psalms with a red cover.
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Ha ha! Discuss. Legislation www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Edw2/7/0...
legislation.gov.uk
A Statute forbidding Bearing of Armour (1313)
A STATUTE forbidding Bearing of ARMOUR
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 01/07/2026
I do love this representation of #WorldCup matches, but it’s giving me nightmarish flashbacks of redrawing dendrimers in ChemDraw… 😱 #Chemsky
A circular World Cup bracket with round of 32 games around the outside working their way in towards the final. Countries represented by their flags.
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CERN @cern.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
François Englert (1932 – 2026) It is with great sadness that we announce that Belgian theoretical physicist, François Englert, has passed away at the age of 93. Read more: home.cern/francois-eng...
François Englert during a visit to CERN in 2014 (Image: CERN)
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 17/06/2026
That's at least 2 journals I've now seen on social media celebrating their impact factor of 0.something... A good day to drag up this post: stuartcantrill.com/2016/01/23/i...
stuartcantrill.com
Imperfect impact
The problems with impact factors are well known – I could give you a long list of things to read that explain why, but just start with this blog post from Stephen Curry and go from there. I have a …
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 17/06/2026
'In a binary world' from @natphys.nature.com This is fascinating!! 'These issues are not merely academic curiosities; rockets have fallen from the skies as a result of inattentive digital representations of numbers' www.nature.com/articles/s41... #chemsky 🧪
nature.com
In a binary world - Nature Physics
The International System of Units is defined in terms of seven physical constants. Ensuring that computers can understand their values exactly as we do is not as trivial as it might seem, say Cristhia...
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 15/06/2026
From one of the many PR emails I'm getting about the government social media ban. Obviously this is from someone selling this technology. But stop to think about just how utterly dystopian this is: *constant* video surveillance of all online activity, for everyone.
To keep our children truly safe, technology platforms need to be installing fused biometrics - combining voice and facial signals – to be 100 per cent certain that the person using the platform is the account holder. This also continuously verifies the person throughout the session preventing any tech savvy child from being able to work around restrictions.
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Barbara Ciani @drbciani.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
...and during these challenging moments the community comes together in support of each other. Thank you to everyone that is signing our Open Letter in support of Chemistry at Sheffield, Nottingham Chemistry and Physics. savesheffieldchemistry.netlify.app nottinghamchemistry.github.io/Open_Letter/
savesheffieldchemistry.netlify.app
An Open Letter
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
BTW Vanta black is not actually the blackest black ever. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Black diamonds - Nature Materials
Nature Materials - Black diamonds
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Barbara Ciani @drbciani.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I am lost for words at what is happening at Sheffield and other Universities. If you think you adding your contribution can help, please sign.
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Alex Duff @duffofbrentford.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
If you only want to read 2 paragraphs of World Cup media today, here they are: Via tompeck.bsky.social
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 10/06/2026
Except the @royalsociety.org because they are 100% behind everything M*sk does. Well, I assume that’s the case until they say otherwise.
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 10/06/2026
📣 Calling all chemists/catalysis peeps! 📖 Ever considered working in scientific publishing as an editor? ✅ If yes, @natcatal.nature.com is hiring! 📍Shanghai, Beijing, Milan or Pune 📅 Deadline: July 12 🙏 Reposts appreciated 🧪 #Chemsky springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/SpringerNatu...
springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com
Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Catalysis
Title: Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Catalysis Locations: Shanghai, Beijing, Milan and Pune – hybrid working model Application Deadline: July 12, 2026 (Candidates will be considered as they apply...
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 02/06/2026
"...there are also broad prohibitions against any use of federal funds for collaboration with a whole list of countries, starting with China. Any use at all – paper publication charges, travel, reagents, doesn’t matter." Yikes! The continued dismantling of US science... #Chemsky 🧪
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Scott Bagley @bagphos.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Even Neil Garg’s cyclic allenes are like … Ummm no thank you
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 02/06/2026
One for #Chemsky! Congrats @profdaveleigh.bsky.social 👑 (couldn't find a sash, so a crown will have to do 😉)
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 28/05/2026
I mean, this cover doesn't fill me with confidence...
The cover of a book called Maths Skills for A Level Biology (@nd Edition) that has a green double helix that is overlayed with lots of numbers. Problem is, the helix is left-handed.
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 21/05/2026
The ad includes 'chemical physics', so I'm gonna go ahead and flag to #Chemsky just in case...
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 19/05/2026
"But most of those in authority would not accept there had been any such disaster, let alone inquire why it had happened" #ContaminatedBlood #NotAnAccident
news.sky.com
Infected blood inquiry chair says scandal 'not like other disasters' during memorial service
A memorial service was held in St Paul's Cathedral to remember those affected by the infected blood scandal.
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 12/05/2026
Want to stay close to science, but you've decided the lab isn't right for you? Have you considered a career in editorial? Well, if you have a background in biomedical engineering or biomaterials (or materials science more generally - see linked ad) then your next job could be at Nature Materials!
springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com
Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Materials
Job Title: Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Materials Locations: Shanghai, Beijing, Milan or Pune - hybrid working model Application Deadline: June 2nd, 2026 About Springer Nature Springer Nature is...
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Geoff Hutchison @geoffhutchison.net · 11/05/2026
I heard this evening about the passing of Mark Ratner #chemsky Mark was many things - a scientist, an educator, a mentor - a mensch - in all the meanings He always said that the best thing about science were the people that do it.
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Mark Miodownik @markmiodownik.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
New Banksy
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Yamuna Krishnan @krishnanyamuna.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Pro-tip: Before I submit my proposal, I read it again, but after 2 glasses of wine on an empty stomach. Places where it isn't totally clear to you in that state, it not going to be clear to the reviewer. Edit that bit.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 18/04/2026
Growing knowledge, growing yield: British wine-making comes of age
theguardian.com
Growing knowledge, growing yield: British wine-making comes of age
Changing climate, new techniques and a homegrown study programme have all helped drive a UK viticulture boom
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Nonia Pariente @npariente.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
This is WILD (& microbes rock 🎸) “These findings […] revealing a protein-templated mechanism for sequence-specific DNA synthesis.” Take that, central dogma! 🧪 “Protein-templated synthesis of dinucleotide repeat DNA by an antiphage reverse transcriptase” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Science | AAAS
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Michael Baym @baym.lol · 17/04/2026
I’m looking for an automated way to read others’s scientific data without giving credit or acknowledgement, and also claim full credit for insights from it. And I want it to have a fitting name OAI: say no more
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Nature Reviews Computing @natrevcomputing.nature.com · 16/04/2026
Nature Reviews Computing, which will publish leading Review-type articles from all of computer science and its applications, is now open for proposal submissions! 💻 While most of our content is commissioned, we welcome proposals too. Find out more here: go.nature.com/4sYJodc
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Nature Mechanical Engineering @natmecheng.nature.com · 13/04/2026
🚀 Nature Mechanical Engineering is now open for submissions!🚀 We aim to provide a highly impactful platform for mechanical engineers across the full breadth to publish and discuss the most significant advances within the community. Join us and submit your work today! go.nature.com/41m4syn
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Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · 13/04/2026
Thank you #NobelLaureate Jack Szostak for sharing these thoughts, which many US scientists and physicians resonate with newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-a-nobel...
newsletter.ofthebrave.org
I’m a Nobel Prize-winning immigrant. I can no longer recognize this country.
Attacks on science and immigrants are destroying America.
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 12/04/2026
Prepping wine for dinner later (celebrating another trip around the sun). This wine is made from grapes picked a few months after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Put in bottle early in 1976, it’s been there for 50 years - until today. #jura #jurawine #vinjaune #chateauchalon
A bottle of chateau chalon from 1969 sitting on a table outside in the sunlight. This picture shows the front of the bottle with a slightly damaged label. The wine level is mid shoulder and there is a yellow wax cap.A bottle of chateau chalon from 1969 sitting on a table outside in the sunlight. This picture shows the back of the bottle with a slightly damaged triangular label. The label notes that the grapes were harvested in 1969 and then the wine was bottled in 1976.A close-up of the top of the bottle (and cork) after the wax cap has been removed and the top of the bottle cleaned up.A picture of the opened bottle, with fragments of the wax cap and the cork (which came out in one piece!) sitting between the two prongs of an ah-so wine opener.
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 11/04/2026
Just your average day at the local garden centre…
The restaurant area of a garden centre through which is wondering someone in a large inflatable dinosaur costume…
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 10/04/2026
I think the port has lost a little of its fruit…
A bottle of port from 1985 sitting on a table next to a conical flask filled with an amber liquid (the port); the somewhat shrivelled cork sits in front.
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Erin Kissane @kissane.myatproto.social · 09/04/2026
“Even more troublingly, other researchers say, the fake papers were then cited in peer-reviewed literature. Osmanovic Thunström says this suggests that some researchers are relying on AI-generated references without reading the underlying papers.”
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 09/04/2026
I mean, some of the physical chemistry papers used to read to me like they were written in Klingon… <ducks in case @nchemgav.bsky.social throws something> 😂
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Dutchy Patrick @dutchiepatrick.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
It’s not even satire….👏👏👏
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 07/04/2026
Three of the last 6 bottles of wine I’ve bought are Rieslings - including this one, and no, I didn’t buy it because it’s almost like ‘Jura’; although one of the Rieslings was vinified in the Jura (from Alsace grapes)… 🙂
A hand holding a bottle of wine resting on the arm of a sofa, with a TV in the background. On the wine label it says ‘YURA’
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 04/04/2026
Well this is a delightful little story about how the penalty shootout came about and what may well have been the first official one... www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...
bbc.co.uk
Looking back at when football introduced penalty shootouts
No-one knew what to expect at football's first official penalty shootout - and no-one wanted to go down in history as the first to miss.
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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
It's a talent for a newspaper or a journalist to make oneself more ridiculous than the utter ridiculousness of the story being covered
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
It must suck when your copyright is stolen. Oh, wait... 👀
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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 30/03/2026
Fancy a career in scientific publishing? We're looking for an Associate/Senior Editor with expertise in device engineering to join the Nature Research Cross-Journal Editorial Team. Can be based in Shanghai or Pune. Closing date: April 15th. springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/SpringerNatu...
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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
in 2016 a group of strangers in Kazakhstan saved a dog from drowning by forming a human chain to reach him. they just unveiled a statue commemorating the event and I'm genuinely about to start sobbing
photo showing the rescuers saving the dog, next to the statue commemorating themcloseup on the base of the statue, showing a dog and a man in a ball cap the top of the statue, where the person at the top of the slope has his hand outstretched so the viewer can "help" pull him up
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Jason Sanford @jasonsanford.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
I agree 100% with Steven Vickers that authors will be falsely accused of using AI in the coming years. In particular, authors like myself whose works were stolen to train AI systems are at risk. When we write in our own unique styles, AI trained on us will quite likely flag us as using AI.
Author Steven Vickers wrote on Threads, "To confirm, this '100% AI generated' passage is the opening of Chapter 5 from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I think authors are going to get screwed in these AI witch hunts."
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Nature Chemical Engineering @natchemeng.nature.com · 10/03/2026
Our latest Editorial examines the need for both feasibility assessments and technical innovations to advance emerging technologies such as CCUS. It's also part of our new Collection on CCUS technologies, which you can find here: nature.com/collections/... #ChemSky www.nature.com/articles/s44...
nature.com
The future of carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies - Nature Chemical Engineering
Carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies have attracted substantial attention as a potential approach to climate mitigation. In this Editorial, we examine the need for both feasibility ass...
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