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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 7h

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

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 · 03/08/2026

This brings back fond memories: me, Kelly & Fraser.

A Borromean embrace between myself, Fraser Stoddart and Kelly Chichak (who led the effort to make the molecular Borromean rings)

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 03/08/2026

I mean, if such a review did exist, I think it should have a figure like this:

An image showing three different ways to interlock three different rings (each image contains a red, a blue and a green ring). The title at the top says 'Nanoscale Borromean Rings – Cantrill et al.'

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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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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 29/05/2026

There is also this one: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monumen...

A statue of a mouse knitting a DNA double helix; it’s made of metal and sits on a stone plinth in front of a pale building

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 28/05/2026

And another. I hope one of the questions isn't 'What is a double helix?'

The cover of a book called Knowledge Quiz: Biology; it has what is meant to be a red double helix on a pale green background. Problem is that the strands of the helix don't actually cross...

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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 · 12/04/2026

Dessert wine wasn’t bad either…

A tall Alsace style 375 ml bottle of wine sitting on a table next to a wine glass filled with a small amount of the wine. The wine is a deep golden brown colour. The label on the wine says: SELECTION DE GRAINS NOBLES, TOKAY PINOT GRIS 1994, FURSTENTUM, by Albert Mann. The cork, which came out in one piece, sits in front of the bottle and the glass.

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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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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 · 25/03/2026

Tangential, but reminds me of a debate amongst the editorial team at @natchem.nature.com about whether we would asterisk-out letters in the F word in this post www.nature.com/articles/nch... - I think the vote went 3-2 to not do that (I was one of the '3')... #chemsky

Screenshot of a paragraph from an article in Nature Chemistry that reads:

Dr Rubidium, an analytical chemist who blogs at the Journal of Are You Fucking Kidding, contrasted several cases of homicide by the paralytic agent succinylcholine with its medical use in life-saving tracheal intubations (http://go.nature.com/bFQFv6). Although that post was shockingly free of swear words, an ode to tetracyanoethylene (TCNE) on Carbon-Based Curiosities was as vulgar as it was informative (http://go.nature.com/AmOzuB). Long-time blogger Excimer noted that “even the chemical industry is starting to shy away from chemicals” before proudly hailing applications of TCNE in the synthesis of the first organic ferromagnet and as a “highly efficient unicorn killer.”

The words 'Journal of Are You Fucking Kidding' are highlighted in blue.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 22/03/2026

Exactly the same article (same text, same authors) published in a range of journals at roughly the same time. Number of citations correlates (somewhat) with impact factor of the journal it was published in. Except in Croatia...

A slide called: 'Clinical trial registration: Looking back and moving ahead'; on the left are a list of journals listed with their impact factors and number of citations the named article received in that journal. On the right is a plot of numbers of citations vs impact factor.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 05/03/2026

Once a chemist, always a chemist, I guess. I suppose that’s #Chemsky right there…

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 02/03/2026

This is the Daily Mirror coverage...

Page 11 of the Daily Mirror from Oct 30, 1964. Headline reads 'Nobel prize for a wife from Oxford'; a picture of Dorothy Hodgkin appears on the left hand side of the page.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 28/02/2026

There are worse ways to spend a Saturday lunchtime than going to a local auction house and winning a couple of lots…

Two sets of 12 bottles of red wine, each sitting in their original wooden cases. The two cases are next to each other.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 04/02/2026

Some wine-tasting notes are wild! Gunpowder, fart & rhubarb… 🫣 #winesky

Wine tasting notes that say:

• Daniel Sage, Nyctalopie 2020, Gamay & Pinot Noir:
Lightly fizzy with notes of gunpowder, fart (yes, fart), and rhubarb.
This is completely insane juice
Holy hell, it's delicious. Soif for days with a wild acidity.
Juicy, vibrating, energetic

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 24/01/2026

Hosted my first blind wine tasting - wines 1-6 were blind; 7 and 8 were Jura gems in the interlude and 9 (Vin de Constance) was a surprise addition bought by a friend!

9 bottles of wine lined up in a row on a green tablecloth

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 10/12/2025

At roughly this time 9 years ago I was at a banquet with the King of Sweden… #ChemSky #ChemNobel

Me and Fraser dressed in white tie before the Nobel Ceremony of 2016 kicked off

The stage for the Nobel Prize ceremony in 2016

Dessert at the Nobel Prize banquet in 2016

A view down the main table at Nobel Prize banquet in 2016

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 25/11/2025

Oh, this is gonna be a good e-mail... 🤣

A screengrab of an opening to an e-mail that reads, 'Dear Scantrill,'

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 09/11/2025

Haven’t travelled to the US for a while, but it appears my towel theory still holds based on this NYC hotel room. If you wake up in a random hotel room not knowing where on Earth you are, if the biggest towel in the room is smaller than the TV, you’re probably in the US…

A towel draped over a TV, held on by a couple of plugs and a neck pillow. The towel is slightly wider than the TV (just), but it is not as tall.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 07/11/2025

Nov 7th is the birthday of both Lise Meitner & Marie Curie. Of the 13 chemical elements named directly after real people (not mythological figures) only two are named after women: meitnerium and curium (the latter of which is named in honour of both Marie & her husband) #chemsky 🧪

A black & white picture of Lise Meitner sat on a chair while holding a book. There is a bookcase in the background

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 24/10/2025

Not the most difficult game of ‘find the odd one out’ that I’ve ever played…

A window through which you can see a conference table in an office room. There are four lines of writing on the window which, top to bottom, read:

Private Offices
Coworking
Meeting Rooms
Happiness

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 23/10/2025

Happy Mole Day everyone - here's my favourite thing related to the mole. 'A mole of moles' courtesy of @xkcd.com what-if.xkcd.com/4/ #ChemSky

Circles showing that a mole of moles makes a sphere slightly larger than our moon

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 21/10/2025

Question for the few #Jura wine geeks on here (including @winklorch.bsky.social) - this vin jaune was aged for 12 years without topping up?! Is that usual for #ganevat #vinjaune. I know Tissot does a 12 year one, but this surprised me!

A picture of a wine label on the back of a bottle of vin jaune that reads:

ARBOIS

APPELLATION ARBOIS CONTROLÉE

Vin Jaune

2005

Ce vin issu du cépage Savagnin cultivé sur un sol de marnes irisées, a été élevé plus de 12 ans sans ouillage, juste protégé par son voile. et ses levures indigènes.

MIS EN BOUTEILLE PAR
SAS Anne et Jean-François GANEVAT
LA COMBE - F39190 ROTALIER - FRANCE
15%vol

PROQUIT DE FRANCE / PRODUCT OF FRANCE
CONTENT DES SUITES / CONTANS SURTES

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 13/10/2025

‘Economics Nobel prize won by researchers who showed how science boosts growth’ by @philipcball.bsky.social in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Screenshot that reads:

The award "underlies the importance in investing in science for innovation and long-term economic growth", says economist Diane Coyle of the University of Cambridge. "It's great to see the Nobel prize recognize the importance of this topic," adds innovation policy researcher Richard Jones of the University of Manchester, UK. "It's important that economists understand the conditions that lead to technological progress," he adds. The winners, says Coyle, "have long been on people's list of potential candidates".

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 12/10/2025

Good friends, good wine, good night!

Four bottles sitting on a table; the three on the left are all empty; a Ganevat trousseau from the Jura, a pomerol and a Sauternes. The last one is a half-empty bottle of prunelle de Troyes.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 08/10/2025

Last bit of MOF stuff for the day… this is one of my very favourite cover lines from back when I was the Chief Ed of @natchem.nature.com… - was incredibly fitting for the paper too (rdcu.be/eJ4zt by @randallsnurr.bsky.social and co-workers) #chemsky 🧪

The cover of the Feb 2012 issue of Nature Chemistry. A series of connectors in various colours are connected with short straight rods. Off to the side is a pile of different coloured connectors. The main cover line is: Every MOF you make.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 08/10/2025

Time to break out this pic of me being strangled by a future #Nobel Laureate in 2017… #Chemsky #chemnobel…

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 08/10/2025

It’s #chemnobel day. For me, and for quite a few other people who spent time in the Stoddart group, it will hit somewhat differently this year. Seems the right time to share a couple of passages from the eulogy I gave at Fraser’s funeral earlier this year.

A screenshot of text that reads:

Fraser lived his life at a hundred miles an hour. But it wasn't always the best thing for him or for those closest to him. In an interview following the award of the Nobel Prize in 2016 he recalled his time growing up on a farm and said that that had instilled in him the work ethic of a honeybee. Nobody would doubt that he had that. He also talked about having the strength of a horse and the hide of an elephant; what he didn't mention is that he could also be as stubborn as a mule. He did things his way and was rarely persuaded to do otherwise.

This bloody-mindedness undoubtedly contributed to his incredibly successful career. While those who didn't really know him will measure his contributions through the prizes he won, his real professional legacy is not those prizes, it is the people who passed through his lab and shared in his scientific journey. Yes, he changed science, but he changed lives too - including mine and many of those here today. I learned a lot from Fraser: some chemistry, how to make slides for presentations, how to always include a noun after the word 'this', and a few random Scottish words that I'm still not convinced he didn't just make up.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 01/10/2025

It’s October 1st. Stop it.

A picture of a chocolate Santa on a supermarket shelf

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 18/09/2025

For those gin connoisseurs who don’t want any of that inorganic or supramolecular gin nonsense. I mean, if you’re not drinking gin ‘tuned at the molecular level’, can you even bear to look at yourself in the mirror?

A bottle of Linden Leaf gin ‘8’, described on the label as ‘Organic Molecular Gin’

The back of the gin bottle, with the following text on the label:

LINDEN LEAF

8

Organic Molecular Gin

Linden Leaf gins are crafted and tuned at the molecular level. We combine the art of distillation with the very latest science and technology m.

Gin 8 is refreshing and summery, with complex citrus overtones. It is an exquisite blend of 8 exotic botanicals, including Kaffir lime, yuzu and grains of paradise, layered over a core of subtle, organic juniper. Enjoy it neat, on ice, paired with a gentle tonic, or in the very finest cocktails.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 17/09/2025

Labour MPs posting about the Hillsborough Law being laid before Parliament – including Nick Thomas-Symonds on X/Twitter. In this spirit, can one of the Labour MPs on here get Nick to answer questions he's being asked on X/Twitter about the #contaminatedblood scandal & interim payments for estates?

A Twitter/X post from Nick Thomas-Symonds about the Hillsborough Law which says:

No more cover-ups. No more lies.

We're putting a legal duty on public servants to tell the truth.

The Hillsborough Law will create a culture of honesty in the public sector and make sure no-one faces an injustice like the Hillsborough disaster again.

----

A picture in the tweet has a black bacground and on it is white text (below a torch) that says: Labour is delivering the Hillsborough Law to ensure truth can never be concealed by the state again.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 05/09/2025

I have the best friends (thank you, you know who you are 😀)

Screenshot of a WhatsApp message that reads: I may or may not have just bought you more gin, sorry but the label looked too cool 😂😂😂

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 28/08/2025

I’ve seen worse sunsets…

The sun setting below the cloud deck in Teide National Park. In the foreground are rocks and small brush plants. Mt Teide, a volcano can be seen in the distance on the left and clouds can be seen on the right. The distant island of La Palma can be seen peeking through the cloud.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 27/08/2025

Tonight I did not enjoy drinking >>>

A bottle of white wine on a table. The name on the label is ‘ALONE’

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 14/08/2025

The not-quite Borromean rings of Fontainebleau (if you closed the circles they would be Borromean rings). I’m forever cursed to see interlocking in patterns in things…

Fancy wall decorations in Chateau Fontainebleau featuring an interwoven pattern of crescent-type shapes in the centre. If each shape were completed into a circle, it would have the same topology as the Borromean rings.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 11/08/2025

Current status: (Graphic content warning: includes my feet 🫣)

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 09/08/2025

Pupillin - where (some of) the roads are named for grapes! #jura #jurawine

A street sign on a stone wall - the sign reads ‘Rue du Chardonnay’; in the top-left of the sign is a schematic picture of a bunch of grapes.

A street sign on a stone wall - the sign reads ‘Rue du Ploussard’; in the top-left of the sign is a schematic picture of a bunch of grapes.

A street sign on a stone wall - the sign reads ‘Rue du Savagnin’; in the top-left of the sign is a schematic picture of a bunch of grapes.

An old rusted sign attached to a building; a red bunch of grapes with some green leaves can still be made out in the centre of the sign.

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Stu Cantrill @stuartcantrill.com · 07/08/2025

In the Stephane Tissot shop in Arbois when this stack of books is delivered… cc @winklorch.bsky.social

A stack of Jura Wine books on a wooden cupboard with wine bottles in the background.

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