Andrea Chlebikova

I'll miss my official "Welcome to bye-fellowship at Catz" dinner this evening as I'll be in London watching Operation Mincemeat, but I've managed to pop in for lunch and a cuppa at least!

Published on Mole Day, nice, ha!

Are you a UK state school Year 12 student studying A level Maths, with either Further Maths, Biology, Physics, Chemistry or Computer Science (or equivalent)? ⚛️ Our STEM SMART programme by @cambridgep... TikTok video by Cambridge University

Applications for the STEM SMART programme are open for Year 12 (or equivalent) state school students until the 31 October 2025.

Watch our video: www.tiktok.com/@cambridgeun...

Read more and apply: www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/stem-smart

#EduSky #SciSky

Please enjoy today, 25/9/2025, the last square date until 2116 (5^2/3^2/45^2).

Selfie of me in front of display featuring various old laboratory equipment.

Celebrating Faraday's birthday at his lab ⚗️ #RealTimeChem #ChemSky #SciSky

The Home Office claiming there is no evidence that one moved to the UK with one's parents, as a child, hits rather close to home...

(Lest a team turn up at my door, I did, after many stressful months, get the decision to deny me permanent residence overturned and indeed am now a British citizen.)

It's been another successful STEM SMART residential this year, hosted in our new RDC building this time. Thanks to everyone who supported the event: the students really appreciated it!

Some great murals!

Very relieved!

Just checked, and over the last couple of months I appear to have received at least 10 messages from HMRC (via various means) suggesting I fill in my 24/25 tax return early but not a single reminder to pay today...

Six transactions ranging from .02 to 15.44 pounds all dated 31 Jan 2025 and labelled as repayment supplement, brackets interest.

I think they do pay interest when you pay them early. And then it shows up as lots of random-seeming small amounts of money (one of these is 2p!) on the paperwork. I've given up understanding the details, to be honest...!

White text on green background saying "payment complete"

Sorted now, phew.

Absolute life saver, I completely forgot! Glad I checked Bluesky 😅

And the money! 😂

The fun thing is that one of the suggestions is also a chemistry word (katión means cation!).

Can confirm this is correct Slovak.

Identifying compounds by looking at them under a light microscope is a great on-screen chemistry skill 👌

But then we also slightly carelessly talk about energy measured in wavenumbers in chemistry, and in those contexts I would happily call all of those conversions unit conversions.

They're all listed as "conversion factors" in our undergrad data book. teaching.ch.cam.ac.uk/files/DataBo...

Depends on how strict you are being with the terminology, I guess.

For chemists, it's common to scale from molecular to molar scale, say eV to kJ/mol, and I wouldn't hesitate to call that a unit conversion, even though the new dimensionality then technically includes N^(-1).

A really enjoyable event every year.

Great to meet so many new teachers as well as seeing returners again. Lots interested in chemistry this year: hope the keenest ones enjoyed the detour to @stcatharines.bsky.social to see the orbitals exhibit 😀

Have a well-deserved summer break!

#ChatChemistry

Do you have experience teaching science at secondary/sixth form? Come join us at Isaac Science as a project biologist, chemist or physicist!

We're a small, friendly team and the work is very rewarding.

#iTeachPhysics #ChatPhysics #iTeachChem #ChatChemistry #iTeachBio #ChatBiology #SciTeachUK #UKEd

Photo of tables with an Isaac Physics branded table cloth. Two staff members are standing behind the tables with a banner in the background. There are Isaac books and leaflets on the tables, a laptop, and a bowl of apples.

First Cambridge Open Days with Physics based in the new RDC building have been a success, though the weather has been rather too hot... Thanks to everyone who stopped by, and good luck to everyone planning to apply!

Congratulations to the 47 students who attended the 2025 Senior Physics Challenge on an excellent week of quantum mechanics problem solving and experiments!

#iTeachPhysics #EduSky #ChatPhysics

Periodic Tower of Elements | LEGO® Ideas "Unleash Your Creativity: Craft the Universe’s Building Blocks with the 3D Periodic Tower of Elements! Dive into a world where chemistry, physics, and architect…

Everything would be awesome if we could build the Catz periodic spiral in LEGO! A design has been created & needs 10k votes before LEGO will consider it so let's get voting at ideas.lego.com/proje.... Learn about the original: caths.cam.ac.uk/abou... @chemlibcam.bsky.social‬ ‪@chemistryworld.com‬

Looks about 5/6 (0.83-ish), so I reckon so.

Are the 2020s plotted pro rata?

Learning Coordinator (STEM):Beamish Museum Co Durham

The Beamish Museum (County Durham) is advertising for a Learning Coordinator (STEM): www.jobtrain.co.uk/beamishmuseu...

🏛️🎓

Euro notes contain a pigment which includes (very appropriately!) the rare earth metal Europium. It glows red under UV light.

On this week's Rare Earth on BBC Radio 4 we dug deep into the environmental benefits & costs of rare earths and other critical minerals. Do listen!
www.bbc.co.uk/progra...

Why do we need either when we can say that our opinions diverge 😅

Photo of inside of Royal Horticultural Halls building (a very large hall) with tables set up throughout the hall and "UK Maths Trust" and "Team Maths Challenge" banners set up at the front. A few people are continuing to set up the hall.

In #MathsToday, it is time for the UKMT Team Maths Challenge National Final! Good luck to all the teams taking part 🙂

🥽Goggles or 👓 safety specs – how are they labelled in your classroom or lab?
edu.rsc.org/endpoint/do-...
#iteachchem