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Vance Williams

@vancew.bsky.social

Professor of chemistry at Simon Fraser University (SFU), materials nerd, lover of science-based art. (he/him)

487 Followers  |  260 Following  |  77 Posts  |  Joined: 14.07.2023  |  2.1562

Latest posts by vancew.bsky.social on Bluesky

I am deeply saddened by this! I had the honor of having him as a professor at Queen’s. He was, beyond all his other accomplishments, a gifted teacher.

25.10.2025 15:35 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Crystals viewed by microscopy.

Crystals viewed by microscopy.

Acetaminophen crystals viewed by polarized microscopy. #tylenol #science

23.09.2025 15:12 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

No grade 13 for me and exclude kindergartenβ€” include all years employed at a university

02.09.2025 16:48 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Strange man with backpack looking excited and/or nervous

Strange man with backpack looking excited and/or nervous

Excited for the first day of grade 49!

02.09.2025 16:39 β€” πŸ‘ 17    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Mint leaves

Mint leaves

Mint leaves under uv light showing red fluorescence

Mint leaves under uv light showing red fluorescence

The night garden. My mint plant during the day and the same leaves at night under UV light. The red color is chlorophyll fluorescence. #fluorescent

10.08.2025 14:44 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Brings back memories!

04.07.2025 22:19 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image Post image Post image Post image

Suspended stone circle II by Ken Unsworth at the AGNSW

01.07.2025 06:30 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Caution sign β€œthrow caution to the wind”

Caution sign β€œthrow caution to the wind”

At the AGNSW #sydney #art

01.07.2025 06:26 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Blue spring amongst verdant green landscape

Blue spring amongst verdant green landscape

Blue spring amongst verdant green landscape

Blue spring amongst verdant green landscape

Blue spring amongst verdant green landscape

Blue spring amongst verdant green landscape

Blue spring amongst verdant green landscape

Blue spring amongst verdant green landscape

Blue Spring walkway #freshwaterspring #aquatic #nature #newzealand #putaruru

25.06.2025 09:14 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Swamp hen (pukeko) grooming itself

Swamp hen (pukeko) grooming itself

Black swan dives while New Zealand scaup looks on

Black swan dives while New Zealand scaup looks on

Swallow flying away

Swallow flying away

Fantail (piwakawaka) in flight

Fantail (piwakawaka) in flight

Today from New Zealand; bird butts of Rotorua! #swan #swallow #fantail #swamhen #birds #wildlife

24.06.2025 09:24 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Steam rising from the ground

Steam rising from the ground

Craters of the Moon, NZ. #steam #steamvents #newzealand

22.06.2025 10:10 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Trump quietly shutters the only federal agency that investigates industrial chemical explosions The Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates large-scale industrial chemical disasters, will close under Trump's orders.

Trump quietly shutters the only federal agency that investigates industrial chemical explosions.

Hazardous chemical accidents happen in the U.S. about every other day. Who will investigate them now?

grist.org/energy/trump...

#Politics #Environment #Chemicals #Pollution #Policy #Industry

20.06.2025 14:37 β€” πŸ‘ 72    πŸ” 41    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 3
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Coalition Files Suit Challenging DOGE Attacks on Congressionally-Approved STEM Programs - Democracy Forward

A coalition of organizations representing educators and researchers (including the @aapthq.bsky.social) has filed a legal challenge to the recent mass termination of grants by the National Science Foundation (NSF). 🎒 πŸ§ͺ 🍎 πŸ‘©β€πŸ”¬ #AcademicSky

20.06.2025 16:48 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2
Kaka (parrot) in a tree

Kaka (parrot) in a tree

Taking some time to appreciate the New Zealand wildlife! #kaka #wellington

18.06.2025 10:27 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Signature Events: Additional Events - The Chemical Institute of Canada Networking coffee breaks Poster sessions Analytical Chemistry New Faculty Discussion Forum Chemistry in Canada 2067 CSC President’s Event ChemiSTEAM – Putting the A(rt) in STEM Inclusion, Diversity, E...

Last day for submissions to this year's ChemiSTEAM competition! For more information and a link, please find details among the #CSC2025 signature events: www.cheminst.ca/conference/c...

09.06.2025 19:38 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Video thumbnail

Making mood rings in the lab. I should lay off the coffee before filming time lapse photos.

06.06.2025 16:38 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The deadline has been extended to 11:59 PM on Monday, June 9!

02.06.2025 14:10 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
[Person with ponytail wearing lab coat hands balloon to another person in front of a springboard, a magnet hanging from above, and then a target] PERSON WITH PONYTAIL to Person 2: Rub this balloon against your head, then go jump past that magnet toward the target on the wall. [caption] Before the bathroom scale was invented, the only way to weigh people was mass spectrometry.

[Person with ponytail wearing lab coat hands balloon to another person in front of a springboard, a magnet hanging from above, and then a target] PERSON WITH PONYTAIL to Person 2: Rub this balloon against your head, then go jump past that magnet toward the target on the wall. [caption] Before the bathroom scale was invented, the only way to weigh people was mass spectrometry.

Mass Spec

xkcd.com/3094/

29.05.2025 19:26 β€” πŸ‘ 3914    πŸ” 467    πŸ’¬ 28    πŸ“Œ 24

This is so stupid.

13.05.2025 19:56 β€” πŸ‘ 22    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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Exercise your right to vote today, Canadians! Own your democracy! πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦πŸ—³οΈ

28.04.2025 11:12 β€” πŸ‘ 12576    πŸ” 1913    πŸ’¬ 205    πŸ“Œ 92
Photomicrograph of a chiral liquid crystal

Photomicrograph of a chiral liquid crystal

Chiral landscape. With teaching over for the year I can turn my attention to research! This polarized microscopy image was captured as part of a study into stimuli responsive chiral liquid crystals #sciart

26.04.2025 15:39 β€” πŸ‘ 22    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
Two flickers mating on a roof

Two flickers mating on a roof

Birds migrating in V formation

Birds migrating in V formation

Signs of spring!

22.04.2025 00:44 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Yes! Great life hack!

18.04.2025 22:44 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Sign pointing to voting station

Sign pointing to voting station

First day of advanced voting! Casting my vote early.

18.04.2025 20:50 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

In the wake of the ongoing disasters with funding streams, I'm seeing lots of folks suggest that scientists turn to social media crowdfunding to fund their research.

For about a decade I held the record for the social media crowdfunded project that got the most funding. I received about $9,000.

14.04.2025 12:53 β€” πŸ‘ 550    πŸ” 86    πŸ’¬ 24    πŸ“Œ 15
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Nicol invents a polarizing prism (1828) I’ve talked a lot about polarization recently, including the story of how the best polarizing material was discovered on accident and how modern polarizers made from that material really chan…

New blog post: Nicol invents a polarizing prism (1828) πŸ§ͺ skullsinthestars.com/2025/04/12/n...

12.04.2025 17:20 β€” πŸ‘ 22    πŸ” 9    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1

This would have a huge impact on particle physics research. βš›οΈ πŸ§ͺ

12.04.2025 17:33 β€” πŸ‘ 42    πŸ” 26    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 1

β€œIt turns out you can’t buy gummy bears because you can’t buy chips from Taiwan”

12.04.2025 13:07 β€” πŸ‘ 223    πŸ” 49    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 3
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By Attacking Science, Poilievre Takes a Page from Trump’s Playbook | The Tyee Professors find this chilling and warn of the costs.

By Attacking Science, Poilievre Takes a Page from Trump's Playbook via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025...

10.04.2025 23:26 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

A tricky thing about modern society is that no one has any idea when they don’t die.

Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.

07.04.2025 04:13 β€” πŸ‘ 63223    πŸ” 13078    πŸ’¬ 1088    πŸ“Œ 586

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