Andrew (Andy) Stewart

theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art

#AI #ChemSky

The humanist meaning of life with A C Grayling 🔍

A 107-Year-Old Irish Farmer Reflects on the Changes He’s Seen During His Life (1965) Talk to a clear-headed 107-year-old today, and you could expect to hear stories of adolescence in the Great Depression, or — if you're lucky — the Jazz Age seen through a child's eyes.

www.openculture.com/2025/09/a-10...

Comic. [Building with large sign in front of it[ SIGN: Welcome to the *Biology Department* It has been [changeable sign: 3] days since we discovered something existentially horrifying about bugs that makes you question your whole reality

Biology Department

xkcd.com/3140/

Euphemia Haynes was born #OnThisDay in 1890. Haynes was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics, and worked throughout her career to make education more equitable. #WomenInSTEM https://bit.ly/3VeLRkF

YouTube video by The Royal Society The ethical science of Kathleen Lonsdale | The Royal Society

Explore the ethical science of Kathleen Lonsdale with Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell FRS with our film on her life and work:
#WomenInSTEM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwcf...

How politics works

From the new Private Eye, out now.

3-panel comic. (1) [two people laying on the grass on a curved surface, oriented vertically] PERSON 1: I don’t like being stuck to this orb, but I guess falling off would be worse. (2) [the surface has rotated slightly] PERSON 2: I wouldn’t mind if it pulled a little less hard, though. I have places to be. I shouldn’t just lie around in the grass. (3) [the surface has rotated a little further] PERSON 1: Maybe the pull will weaken if you wait a little longer. PERSON 2: Good idea. I’ll give it another five minutes.

Pull

xkcd.com/3136/

“I’m not sure I want to give way to the right”

From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

That’s a wrap on ECM35! But it doesn’t end here: visit our booth one last time for IUCr 2026 highlights, sneak peek previews, and ways to stay engaged all the way to Calgary.

See you there!

#ECM35 #IUCr2026 #NextStep #StructuralScience

#ICYMI: The Herald Scotland reports that prior to the construction of a new housing development in Guardbridge, Fife, archaeological excavations uncovered traces of some 10,000 years of local history. (via. Archaeology Magazine)

💻️: https://tinyurl.com/yem4cw9y

Ure’s steam bath A heating device from a fan of heated disputes

What's the oldest bit of kit regularly used in your department? Andrea Sella's search turned up some over 50-year-old steam baths. He tells the story of their inventor.

Experimental determination of partial charges with electron diffraction - Nature An experimental method is used to assign partial charges based on crystal structure determination through electron diffraction, applicable to any crystalline compound.

Nature research paper: Experimental determination of partial charges with electron diffraction

go.nature.com/3UBdgwX

‘Computing is a Black people’s thing’ Passionate about making smaller and more efficient semiconductors, physicist Sonia Guimarães is a relentless voice for equity in Brazilian science.

"I love to tell people is that computing is a Black people’s thing"

Passionate about making smaller and more efficient semiconductors, physicist Sonia Guimarães is a relentless voice for equity in Brazilian science.

go.nature.com/4oxew1E

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.

I wrote an op-ed on the world-class STEM research ecosystem in the United States, and how this ecosystem is now under attack on multiple fronts by the current administration: newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-an-awar...

Morphine analogues kill pain with fewer negative side effects Redesign of the potent painkiller's core prevents breathing suppression and reduces addiction-related behaviours in mice

A simple skeletal edit produces a morphine analogue that kills pain but has fewer negative side effects.

Enough of the billionaires and their big tech. ‘Frugal tech’ will build us all a better world | Eleanor Drage Titans like Musk would love us to believe innovation means top-down solutions that only enrich the wealthy. In fact, we all have the power, says Eleanor Drage, research fellow at Cambridge University

This is well worth a read.
Some glad someone is championing that most impactful technology is cheap and easily obtainable.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

#tech @goodrobotpod.bsky.social

"Physics writes equations, humanities talk about emotions. But the world is one” says Carlo Rovelli.
Sean Carroll's Bayesian approach relies on computer scientist and philosopher Judea Pearl's breakthrough that taught AI systems to distinguish correlation from causation.
@seanmcarroll.bsky.social

I was explaining to my Ukrainian colleague the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’. She told me the equivalent in Ukrainian is ‘The only free cheese is in the mousetrap’ - which is so much better

Getting good at human tasks 'What do you mean you had to lock the NMR with an oscilloscope and shim the magnet by hand?'

Just as scientists no longer have to spend time shimming NMR magnets or inserting samples by hand, thanks to autoshim routines and autosamplers, one day we will look back at the things we do by hand now and marvel at how far we've come. #ChemSky #ScienceSky

Best flight ever !! 😂🐕

ThePhageCollectionProject

The Phage Collection Project will be at the #SummerScience Exhibition this coming week, visit the Royal Society to find out more about the world of phages and play your part to tackle antimicrobial resistance: www.phage-collection.org

#volumeEM #electronmicroscopy #imagingdata

Wonderful event, great to see and interact with so many amazing talented technicians and the rest of the @ucl.ac.uk community.
Also gained a new appreciation for how nice a setting UCL East has in the Olympic park.

Part one of today's UCL Open Day. Big crowds. very busy. We have six demonstration stations to talk about ocean acidification and carbon dioxide, fluorescence, magnetism and superconductivity, use of microwaves in synthesis, and the smells of organic compounds.
Fun for all the family. #chemistry

Andy Stewart and Luna Jiang pictured, but the stand was showcasing #electronmicroscopy work from UCL faculties of Life Sciences, Brain Sciences, Medical Sciences, Engineering, MAPS and Social and Historical Sciences.

Royal Society prize winner returns award in protest over Elon Musk Andrea Sella is latest scientist to express dismay over UK science academy’s refusal to criticise tech billionaire

@sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

www.ft.com/content/8778...

Amazing colleague performing amazing acts while others are too afraid to act or speak.

This tiny device can shrink dangerous blood clots. It’s called the ‘milli-spinner’ and its invention was partly an accident…

Royal Society prize winner returns award in protest over Elon Musk Andrea Sella is latest scientist to express dismay over UK science academy’s refusal to criticise tech billionaire

Andrea’s principled stand reveals once again the failure of @royalsociety.org to stand by its own principles. They really have misjudged to moment – and the momentousness of Musk’s damage to the fabric of US science.
on.ft.com/4dVzoef