Author Archives: stu

Twitter tips for beginners

Posted on November 28, 2019 by stu

A few months ago I wrote a post for an internal blog at work about getting started with Twitter… I figure enough time has passed that I can now share it with a wider audience. It’s sort of a Twitter-101, … Continue reading →

Posted in Random | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Elements of research

Posted on March 1, 2019 by stu

I’ve seen a few periodic tables doing the rounds on Twitter where people have filled in the elements that they’ve worked with. This is not a new thing — I’ve seen these over the last few years — but with it currently … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Periodic car Scrabble

Posted on February 10, 2019 by stu

Sources: Elements (the periodic table, duh) | Scrabble words | International licence plates

Posted in Fun | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Promethium unbound

Posted on November 21, 2018 by stu

At some point in the last few years I volunteered to write one of the In Your Element essays that appear on the last page of each issue of Nature Chemistry. Anne, the editor who looks after the series, has … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bad blood

Posted on September 24, 2018 by stu

Today marked the first day of the Infected Blood Inquiry here in the UK. It’s not typically front-page news and so you may not know the background to the story, but during the 1970s and 80s, some patients who received … Continue reading →

Posted in Life stories, My story | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Getting into sloe business

Posted on April 4, 2018 by stu

I recently went to the 2018 Spring ACS meeting in New Orleans (#ACSNOLA). It’s a big chemistry conference and not only was I going in order to see some cool chemistry, but I was also asked to give a couple … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Joy provision

Posted on June 30, 2017 by stu

The July 2017 issue of Nature Chemistry is the 100th and the Editorial celebrates this milestone. I decided to have a little fun while writing it and was inspired by this story from @Helena_LB about including song titles from Metallica’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, Publishing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Counting chemists

Posted on April 14, 2017 by stu

There’s a new paper out in PLOS One called A systematic identification and analysis of scientists on Twitter – yay! Being a big fan of science and Twitter, this sounds good. Unfortunately, I became aware of the paper because @Teachforaliving … Continue reading →

Posted in Metrics-y stuff, Random | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Periodic prose

Posted on March 21, 2017 by stu

It is, apparently, #WorldPoetryDay (on Twitter at least) and the question of writing a scientific paper in poetry form cropped up again (it does every now and then). And when it does, I usually end up digging through the dusty … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, History of science, Publishing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

An elemental excursion

Posted on February 19, 2017 by stu

Last December I was fortunate enough to find myself in Sweden for almost a week to join in with the celebrations surrounding the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. It’s hard to put into words just what that was like (although … Continue reading →

Posted in History of science, Life in general | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment