Alex J. Stirk

Taken me so long to get to this point of owning my own board, but it's here! Torq 9'1". All waxed and ready to go on its maiden voyage!

TIL that you can get hydrochloric acid like this. I have no idea why we bought this. It’s giving boxed wine / to-go vibes.

To all of those going to ICCOSS '25. Just know that I'm extremely jealous and dying of envy.
I hope none of your projector adaptors work and they reschedule it to a more convenient date for me.

New Stirk just dropped. She's so little! Mom is doing great. Looking forward to taking a break from chemistry for a little bit!

🔗Medieval Chainmail meets Modern Materials! Our 2D [c2]daisy chain polymer (think: molecular-scale armor!) self-assembles into chainmail-like networks, achieving shape-shifting superpowers under stimuli.
⚡️ Breakthrough for soft robotics & smart textiles! #MaterialsScience
👉https://rdcu.be/ehOa6

This is great work. Some in the Loeb group back between 2013-2017 were trying ever so hard to get reliable daisy chains to work. It mostly the imidazole templating route. There's an MSc thesis from 2015 that a lot of work was done on this. Glad to see that daisy chains are sill of interest!

Cursed chemdraw.

I miss this field a lot.😞

Molecular machines won a Nobel prize nine years ago, but we still can’t decide what one is World authority on chemistry nomenclature aims to clean up molecular machine terminology

www.chemistryworld.com/news/molecul...

So far, so good. I had it on the maximum 650 rpm with two 3 mm balls and no breakages. I broke one vial though when I stuffed in 10 × 3 mm to see what the limit would be.

Het. An adaptor for a planetary mill! Retsch now sells them. Pretty cool!

Not if you have a high throughout system. Just using normal HPLC vials in an adaptor.

SUMMONING #Mechanochemistry

I saw one reported as "a speed equivalent to a shaking frequency of 10 Hz.". Which converts to 600 rpm. The limit on my mill is 650 rpm, so that seems very high!

Anyone else use a planetary mill for cocrystals?
I'm seeing a wide range of rpm/solvent volume/ball loadings. Anyone have a magic combination?

Remember those patterns? Our article is finally out on @naturecomms.bsky.social and you can read what disordered marvels caused them! Thanks to @nchampness.bsky.social @ellamschmidt.bsky.social & all the great scientists I joined in this journey 🎆
#MOF #crystallography #totalscattering #3DdeltaPDF

Missed this the first time around!

🇨🇦 Come be our colleague! @uottawascience.bsky.social is hiring a supervisor for our X-Ray Core Facility, with new high end equipment coming soon. Ottawa is a beautiful place to live. Please share widely!

10 days left to apply: uottawa.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/uOttaw...

I'm not sure I agree, but I do think there is a point here. One could argue that experts in areas from public health to economics to (gasp) political science have been too confident that the public should follow their recommendations because they are 'right'. But that's an odd form of democracy. 4/n

Don't let your memes be dreams. With enough BuLi, anything is possible.

So, hear me out:

What an incredible loss for the crystallography community and science in general. Prof Sheldrick was truly a giant and such a nice person. May he rest in peace 🕯️

Working-class creatives don’t stand a chance in UK today, leading artists warn Exclusive: Analysis by the Guardian shows a third of major arts leaders were educated privately

Not just artists. Scientists too. Has anyone questioned about who can actually afford to move and do graduate school/post-docs now?

Yes scholarships exist, but sometimes the upfront moving cost is too much.

www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

English is a terrible, yet fantastic language. Many opinions!

Trying to convince the MS Word auto correction that plurals exist.

Ok. Now I've seen it corrected as a possessive and non-possesive.
Do you say:"pKas", "pKa's" or pKas'"
In the context of: "their low pKas led to..blah blah".

Complex structures arising from the self-assembly of a simple organic salt - Nature Frank–Kasper phases are observed in small organic molecules from the crystallization of fampridine hydrochloride into two distinct structures, indicating that complex self-assembled structures can ari...

We are looking for a PhD candidate in Chemistry @UNamur! 🧪 The project focuses on NMR and X-ray crystallography of complex crystalline phases of simple salts, building on our Nature 2021 work: doi.org/10.1038/s415....
🔗 Apply here:
euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/316363
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/41...

Supramolecular Chemistry in Metal–Organic Framework Materials This review highlights synergies between reticular chemistry and supramolecular chemistry. The role of supramolecular interactions in determining framework…guest interactions and attempts to understa...

Delighted to see this review published. We discuss two of my favourite areas of chemistry, MOFs and supramolecular chemistry – what could be more interesting! Thanks to @eugemiguel.bsky.social , @georgiaorton.bsky.social and Danielle Schier. doi.org/10.1002/adma.202414509

Cartoon representation of a MOF showing various supramolecular interactions and components, including linker-bound metals and catenanes.

Our latest review is out on two of our favourite topics! Here we discuss 'chemistry beyond the framework', highlighting the role that Supramolecular Chemistry plays in Metal–Organic Framework Materials.
doi.org/10.1002/adma... @nchampness.bsky.social