Joseph Moran

Had a great visit at McGill Chemistry in my home town of Montréal. Thanks to Thomas Preston for hosting, Janine Mauzeroll for the invitation, and everyone else for their time.

Yes, indeed! First time in Hawaii and at this conference.

The jet lag helped the family get up early on Tuesday and we made it to the top of Diamond Head just after sunrise.

Enjoying science and (occasional) sun at
@pacifichem.bsky.social Thanks to Yoshiyuki Kageyama and Neal Devaraj for organizing the session on "Frontiers in Dynamic Supramolecular Chemistry: Towards Practical Functions".

We are on a roll with hiring here at @uvic.ca Chemistry! Experimental chemistry research programs of all types are in scope. See Saurabh's note below for details/advertisement link!

(and don't let his self deprecation fool you - he's already made faculty meetings 20% more inspiring! 🙃)

Quest to find another Earth brings renowned researcher home to Toronto | CBC News Canadian astronomical research is getting a big boost with the return of Sara Seager to Canada after around 20 years at MIT. Her research includes looking for life in the clouds of Venus and searching...

Great news for astrobiology in Ontario and Canada!

www.cbc.ca/news/science...

Congrats, Job!

They say grad students start to resemble their chemicals.

Very creative, Jack!

Happy Halloween!

Yes! I have been advocating for this viewpoint for years.

10 days left to apply. A view from my 13 min bike commute downtown - not always possible in North America!

Past and present collide as @rjmayer.bsky.social and @yannickgeiger.bsky.social, now both leading groups of their own, meet @noeminogal.bsky.social at @esor2025.bsky.social in beautiful Padova.

A great start to @esor2025.bsky.social in beauitiful Padova today. An introduction by our conference chair @leonardprins.bsky.social

Yes, unfortunately not for me either, as much as I'd like it to be. Chem Twitter/X 2017-2023 was wild. Almost no engagement now on either platform.

Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Catalyst Design - Ottawa, Ontario (CA) job with University of Ottawa, Ontario CANADA | 12844053 The University of Ottawa invites applications for a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Sustainable Catalyst Design. The successful candidate wil...

@uottawa.ca is hiring a Full Professor and Tier 1 CRC in Sustainable Catalyst Design. Ability to teach inorganic and organometallic chemistry especially welcome. Comes with dedicated funding, teaching reduction, and substantial startup funds. Ottawa is a great place to live!

tinyurl.com/bdcm5hw6

At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery | Quanta Magazine After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture.

www.quantamagazine.org/at-17-hannah...

This was a great kick-off and I wish the team much luck moving forward!

Et pour terminer la journée, Joseph Moran nous parle de l'origine du métabolisme.

@gregoiredanger.bsky.social @pauline-poinot.bsky.social @ytrolez.bsky.social

@moranlabchem.bsky.social

In the Interdisciplinarity in Organic Chemistry symposium at #CSC2025.
Started out with @moranlabchem.bsky.social telling us about the metabolic origins of life, and now hearing from Eda Kilic from @theprattgroup.bsky.social about organelle targeting dyes.

Organic chemistry is so cool 🥰

What better to do on the morning of #CSC2025 than explore some Ottawa trails with @leitchlab.bsky.social, @nelsonyslam.bsky.social and @hoflab.bsky.social ?

At the dawn of life, did metabolism come first? Some scientists propose that in the beginning, geochemistry gave way to biochemistry — with no genetic material necessary. Only later did RNA and DNA appear.

At the dawn of life, did metabolism come first? Some scientists propose that in the beginning, geochemistry gave way to biochemistry — with no genetic material necessary. Only later did RNA and DNA appear.

Was a JSP Fellow more than a decade ago and it was so critical to integration of this Canadian (who barely knew anyone on the continent) into the European scene. Thank you, @swisschemistry.bsky.social

It feels strange to be in Switzerland in April/May for something other than the #Burgenstock meeting, but it was a pleasure to be the external speaker at the last retreat of the NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering in Grindelwald.

"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?" "Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.

I check the little screen, I check the big screen, I check the watch screen, I check the tablet screen. I check the screen that reminds me of the good times, I check the screen that reminds me of the better times.

Spraying of water microdroplets forms luminescence and causes chemical reactions in surrounding gas Spraying water microdroplets causes an electrical discharge between oppositely charged droplets that enables chemical reactions.

Things are moving fast on this topic. Zare's team observes "microlightning" between charged droplets using a high-speed camera. The charges build up during the spraying process itself. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Peptide catalysis: Trends and opportunities Peptides are highly selective organocatalysts, with intrinsic modularity allowing precise control over structure and function. Advances in peptide synthesis, biotechnology, and cheminformatics will en...

🎉 Big day for our group: our first publication is out!
Tom did a fantastic job highlighting current trends & opportunities in peptide catalysis — now published in Chem Catalysis (open access). Huge congrats, Tom!
www.cell.com/chem-catalys...

At the dawn of life, did metabolism come first? Some scientists propose that in the beginning, geochemistry gave way to biochemistry — with no genetic material necessary. Only later did RNA and DNA appear.

Some scientists propose that in the beginning, geochemistry gave way to biochemistry — with no genetic material necessary. Only later did RNA and DNA appear.

✍️ Viviane Callier

From cutting-edge materials to the origins of life, plus how climate change affects everything—from mountain peaks to your plate—learn about the discoveries that are shaping our future. Don’t miss our New Professor Lecture! 🌍🔬

✨ www.uottawa.ca/faculty-scie...

Thank you for the kind highlight of our work. There is so much more to come.

Reaction network arising from the La3+-catalyzed reaction of glyoxylate and pyruvate, including non-detected intermediates with the most probable routes represented by arrows requiring either one or both of the reactants are shown. Some can be deteced by GC-MS others only by NMR, some by both.

Influence of Rare-Earth-Elements on Prebiotic Reaction Networks Resembling the Biologically Relevant Krebs Cycle | ChemRxiv - doi.org/10.26434/che... by @joguti.bsky.social is our groups first contribution to the OoL field! We would love some feedback #chemsky 🤓🧪