Patrick McCarren

Infographic on the chemistry of poppies. The red colour of the common poppy is due to anthocyanin pigments. Other red poppies also contain anthocyanins but the yellow Iceland poppy and alpine poppy contain nudicaulin pigments. The opium poppy has been used in medicine for thousands of years, with the milky opium fluid which contains alkaloids such as morphine used as a painkiller. The common poppy contains different alkaloids, which only have very milld pain-killing properties.

Poppies are a symbol of remembrance on Armistice Day. Did you know that some poppies are also the source of powerful opioid painkillers?

Find out more in this graphic: www.compoundchem.com/2020/11/11/p...

#ChemSky 🧪

Oxygen migration into carbon–carbon single bonds by photochemical oxidation - Nature Synthesis Heteroatom insertions into chemically inert carbon–carbon single bonds are rare compared to their unsaturated analogues. Now, ligand-to-metal charge transfer offers a promising entry point for oxygen ...

Really excited to see this in print - super work here by the wonderful team here from the @uwyoongroup.bsky.social
It was a real pleasure to watch this work evolve from a "what if" discussion to a @natsynth.nature.com paper
I truly appreciate being included #Chemsky

flyer for virtual info session on Stony Brook Chemistry's PhD Program - link to register is in the skeet

If you (or an undergraduate in your life) is thinking about graduate school in Chemistry, I want to share that Stony Brook Chemistry will be holding two virtual info sessions in about 2 weeks on our PhD program! Register: forms.gle/exxMufpr2dLv...

The UC Regents finally released the “settlement agreement” the Trump administration proposed in August. It’s a doozy.

UC alumni, faculty, staff, students, parents, donors—and all citizens of California:

Now is the time to let the UC Regents know you do not want them to sign this bad deal.

The simple machine that visualised atomic orbitals In 1931, Harvey Elliott White developed a device that traced out the shapes of electron clouds by approximating solutions to the Schrödinger equation

In the early days of quantum chemistry, before we had computers to calculate the shapes of electron orbitals, one man invented a mechanical machine that simulated their shapes. My latest column for @chemistryworld.com
www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/the-...

This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings

Skala is now available to everyone!
Why are we releasing it? Because we’re not just aiming to publish a cool paper — we’re on a mission to bring DFT to chemical accuracy using deep learning. And to make real progress, we need the community’s feedback.
#compchem

Deep cuts made to CDC's flagship MMWR publication, a cornerstone of public health CDC staff behind the agency’s flagship publication have been fired amid drastic cuts to the HHS promised by the White House due to the government shutdown, according to five people familiar with the s...

Almost the entire staff of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, known as the “voice of the CDC,” has been laid off, former publication editor-in-chief Charlotte Kent told STAT Saturday.
www.statnews.com/2025/10/11/c...

Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...

Huntington's progression slowed by experimental gene therapy An experimental gene therapy slowed Huntington’s by up to 75 percent in a small clinical trial. While not a cure, it may give patients longer lives.

In reporting this piece on the new trial for a Huntington's treatment, I was struck by one thing in particular:

The joy.

One of my sources wept for joy. He has spent his entire career studying this disease, he said it was the happiest day. www.sciencenews.org/article/hunt...

Trump Is Shutting Down the War On Cancer

Powerful new article in NYT Magazine on cancer research

[Gift Link]

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...

Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media Unlike most nonimmigrant classifications, which are admitted for a fixed time period, aliens in the F (academic student), J (exchange visitor), and most I (representatives of foreign information media...

A proposed new rule would limit international students on F1 or J1 visas to stays in the US of no longer than 4 years. This effectively means that intl. students will no longer come to graduate school here (time to PhD is 5-6 years). You can comment here:

www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

It’s outrageous that Sec. Kennedy is trying to fire the CDC Director — after only a few weeks on the job — for her commitment to public health & vaccines.

The Sen. HELP Committee must hold a hearing with Kennedy & the CDC Director as soon as possible.

Vaccines save lives. Period.

I’m an award-winning mathematician. Trump just cut my funding. The “Mozart of Math” tried to stay out of politics. Then it came for his research.

UCLA Fields Medalist Terence Tao: "This is not a routine policy shift—it is a deliberate dismantling of the institutions, funding, and freedoms that have sustained American science for generations." newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-an-awar... 🧪

Watching this video 10 times has significantly improved my mood.

YouTube video by Amanpour and Company Breakthrough Prize-Winning Biochemist on the Deadly Cost of Funding Cuts | Amanpour and Company

David Liu @harvard.edu beautifully articulates the criticality of basic science funding for developing revolutionary therapeutics like life-saving base editors 👏

youtu.be/8YhJM6zxYDw?...

Nothing says "we're the party of small government that's trying to stamp out government waste" like having US Attorneys investigate the editorial practices of academic journals read by a few thousand people.

Before you meet @francesarnold.bsky.social at #ACSSpring2025, read my profile of her in @cenmag.bsky.social

cen.acs.org/people/award...

Meet Gracie Himes, age 20.

Her goal: Fight cancer by developing new medicines.

On March 3, her dreams were shattered when Trump admin cuts hit West Virginia University, which rescinded her PhD program offer.

www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Pfizer readies its next-generation COVID-19 antiviral A few key molecular tweaks help ibuzatrelvir overcome Paxlovid’s drawbacks

I got to write about ibuzatrelvir (aka Paxlovid 2.0) for this week's issue of @cenmag.bsky.social, in which my colleagues and I contemplate chemistry and the next 5 years of COVID-19. My story is linked here, but I recommend you read the whole package.
cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic...

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USDA eliminates two food safety advisory committees The U.S. Department of Agriculture has eliminated two committees that advise it on food safety, the agency said on Friday, raising concerns about government oversight of the food supply as the Trump administration seeks to downsize the federal bureaucracy and slash costs.

USDA has eliminated two food safety advisory committees for microbiological contamination and meat inspection. Most recently, they had been reviewing regulatory approaches in response to the fatal Listeria outbreak from Boar’s Head meats and fatal Cronobacter contamination in powdered infant formula

Trump Announces ‘Crypto Strategic Reserve’—Here’s What To Know Cryptocurrency prices soared Sunday in the wake of Trump’s announcement.

There’s not enough money to fund cancer research, but there is enough money to stockpile crypto…

www.forbes.com/sites/alison...

This is terrifying.

So - I've actually led Ebola outbreak response at USAID.

This is bunk from Elon. They have laid off most of the experts, they're bankrupting most of the partner orgs, have withdrawn from WHO, and muzzled CDC.

What's left is a fig-leaf effort to cover their asses politically.

The most shameful betrayal of an ally by a U.S. President in modern history.

Three years ago today, Putin's tanks rolled into Ukraine, and Russian aircraft began bombing the country.

Trump is lying. Russia started the war, not Ukraine.

Putin is a dictator, not Zelensky.

Looks like tomorrow will bring votes on a Republican plan to fund tax cuts for the rich by slashing Medicaid.

So this is a great time to contact your Member of Congress.

Judge Blocks Elon Musk’s DOGE Team From Education Department’s Student Loan Databases The American Federation of Teachers, a union representing more than 1.8 million educators, had sued to keep members of Mr. Musk’s government efficiency team out of the Education Department’s systems.

A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order on Monday blocking the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management from disclosing sensitive data to members of Elon Musk’s team and anyone assisting them.