Kathryn Harkup (she/her)

a minion from the movie despicable me is standing on a wooden floor with a red light on its head . Alt: A minion is standing on a wooden floor with a red light on its head .

Reminder to anyone who needs it today: you have until midnight tonight to submit books and audiobooks for PLR UK: your future self will thank you when the cheque comes in!

it’s out!😻😻😻
like all her others, it is my favourite book of the year 🐾
(and is currently been devoured accordingly)
#science #chemistry #history #AgathaChristie #books

Killer new book uncovers Agatha Christie's knowledge of toxicology Agatha Christie's murder mysteries are made all the more compelling by the author's personal expertise, reveals Kathryn Harkup's new book V is for Venom

First aid for a wasp sting: a plaster and being brave. First aid for drinking hydrochloric acid … I wrote about V is for Venom by @rotwangsrobot.bsky.social for @newscientist.com, a look at how the poisons of Agatha Christie work for real. www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

If your business model doesn’t work without breaking the law, then you’re not in business.

You’re in organized crime.

Stream Online Monty Python and the Holy Grail Free on Its 50th Anniversary This year, YouTube celebrated its twentieth anniversary, prompting younger users to wonder what life could have been like before it. The fiftieth anniversary of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which ...

Stream Online "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" Free on Its 50th Anniversary

www.openculture.com/2025/05/stre...

Fullwell cross library. A circular building with a central dome of windows and a green canopy roof that is a cross between a circus tent and a Spanish villa. Xanadu meets Seville's islamic architecture. Love it.

Today's office

Cover of the book showing the title inside the curve of an upside down question mark

#AmReading We Are Bellingcat: An Intelligence Agency for the People by Eliot Higgins #BookSky 📚

Cover of the book with an illustration of a moustached man sitting at a desk with pen in hand. On the desk is a miniature street scene with a lamppost, an advertising column, a ballerina and three women walking along in typical turn of the century dress - hats, long skirts - two of them are holding umbrellas.

#AmReading The World of Yesterday: Memoirs of a European by Stefan Zweig

Today in chemistry history graphic on Robert Bunsen and the Bunsen burner. The graphic shows an annotated diagram of the Bunsen burner that highlights its key features.

Happy Birthday, Robert Bunsen! 🎂

He's best known for the eponymous Bunsen burner, which was actually constructed for Bunsen by instrument maker Peter Desaga. It was essential to the discovery of caesium and rubidium through their emission spectra.

www.compoundchem.com/2023/03/31/b...

#ChemSky 🧪

There have been people less than helpful in my journey here. I wanted to acknowledge those too, bc I know I am not unique in this experience. No thank you to the physics study assoc that made me sing songs about how women couldn't study physics without sleeping with the professor, the day I stepped into university life. No thank you to the 5th year physics student that decided to assign me a stripper name within the first minute of meeting me in the physics coffee corner in my first year. No thank you to the technician that was responsible for onboarding me on the use of the cluster in my third year who raised his eyebrows and asked me if that meant I was some sort of computer girl. No thank you to the senior researcher that sent me utterly inappropriate texts after a conference, then proceeded to apologise months later by telling me they had not been meant for me anyway so no hard feelings remain hopefully And no thank you to him for attending every conference I've been to since. No thank you to the people who told me that it was surprising that I was doing a PhD since I was a girl. No thank you to the man who mistook me for a coffee lady at a conference, and after having to correct him two times that I did not work there, responded with you should consider it. No thank you to the researcher that asked me what I was wearing underneath my outfit during a conference. No thank you to the physicist who declared to a room full of other physicists that biologists don't know how to design an experiment. No thank you to the people who have called me scary instead of strong and intimidating instead of intelligent. And finally, no thank you to the exec board of the TU Delft, whose knee-jerk reaction to being held up a mirror about the social safety at the university, was to sue the party holding up the mirror instead of looking at the problems they highlighted. ... You have made me feel like I do not belong in science & I cannot forgive you for that.

A friend included this anti-acknowledgement section on her PhD thesis. She also added the proposition: “Systematic bullying and undermining of girls and women in STEM starts early on and is the reason why they do not stay in science and related fields.”
Absurd we still need to go through this
🧪👩‍🔬

A screenshot of Google's AI Overview answer to the question "is haggis an animal". It says "Yes, the haggis is a small, furry mammal native to Scotland" and goes on to give the typical "asymmetrical legs" details.

The Scottish have won the AI Wars.

Fun Fact: today is Ash Wednesday, named after Ian Holm's character in Alien because he was still tidying up his pancake disaster from the previous day.

Yeah. These looks like very closely inspired Christie take-offs (I mean this in a good way). I'll give them a try.

With thanks in advance

Questions for teachers and parents and readers and writers - what are the young folk reading these days in the whodunit genre? What's going on in the YA murder mystery world?

UK folks, five and a half more hours for this! #authors #artists #books #authorcommunity

#ICYMI: With news about #JamesBond I think you’ll enjoy Ep 222 of Jo Durrant’s Beautiful Universe podcast where I talk to @rotwangsrobot.bsky.social
about book ‘Superspy Science’ & science behind 007 including diamonds

📲 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/j...

💻 jodurrantsbeautifuluniverse.libsyn.com

Granite Noir Aberdeen's unique international writing festival returns with author conversations, talks, workshops and exhibitions.

The fabulous Granite Noir #bookfestival is on again in #Aberdeen 20-23 February. I had a fantastic weekend last year, don't miss! lifeisafestival.wordpress.com/2024/02/29/s... #booksky #crimefiction www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/granite-noir/

#AmReading A Passage to India by E M Forster #BookSky 📚

Also atropine from deadly nightshade or Jimsonweed. Would also dilate pupils as a classic tell

Get a cat and drop some tea in the eye to see if the pupil contracts - opium.

Or simple chromatography as others have said.

Cover of the book showing a young woman with dark hair and downcast eyes looking very sad

#AmReading The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig #BookSky 📚

🎧 Ep 222 of Jo Durrant’s Beautiful Universe podcast is out Weds:

🤩 @rotwangsrobot.bsky.social talks about the science of James Bond in ‘Superspy Science’ inc lasers, volcanoes & gold

☠️ Story of Arsenic @rpharms.com

📲 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/j...

💻 jodurrantsbeautifuluniverse.libsyn.com

Just a photo of a one-dollar bill.

I won't be around for ToxTueday, so you'll have to settle for ToxMonday, instead. Today, I'm posting an experiment I did about 5 years ago with my old lab for some "team building." So what did we do? Look for drugs on money, of course! What did we find? Lots, but you'll have to keep reading:

I saw this on LinkedIn 😂 #chemsky

Happy Public Lending Right Statement Day to those who celebrate!

#AmReading The Trial by Franz Kafka #BookSky 📚⚙️👨‍⚖️📚

Hell is empty,
And all the devils are here.

Your horoscope for today:
Be like a flashlight - illuminate safe paths for others through dark times.

Kathryn Harkup (she/her) (@rotwangsrobot.bsky.social) Writer, Science Communicator and Vampirologist

.@rotwangsrobot.bsky.social I absolutely loved DEATH BY SHAKESPEARE, which taught me a ton about Shakespeare, his world and science. So much ghastly fun.