Lewis MacKenzie
@lemackz.bsky.social
Upconversion nanoparticles, optical biosensors, chiral spectroscopy, scicomm, blood oxygen | bass player | uranium glass collector
Group website: www.mackenzie-lab.org
he/him | Glasgow | Expect typos
Group website: www.mackenzie-lab.org
he/him | Glasgow | Expect typos
Pinned
Lewis MacKenzie
@lemackz.bsky.social
· Aug 19
Very excited to announce that I will be a Royal Society University Research Fellow (URF)! This will enable me to expand my team and purchase the specialist equipment required to make upconversion nanoparticles easier to synthesize and to develop them as biomedical research tools. #ChemSky
I've upgraded one of my uranium glass cabinets with USB powered UV spotlights #uraniumglass #fluoresence
December 27, 2025 at 3:28 PM
I've upgraded one of my uranium glass cabinets with USB powered UV spotlights #uraniumglass #fluoresence
New fluorescent demigorgon just dropped
Felt a little festive at the microscope this morning for #FluorescenceFriday 🎄
Here’s the nervous system of a juvenile sea star ⭐️
Green = acetylated tubulin, red = nuclei
Happy holidays!
Here’s the nervous system of a juvenile sea star ⭐️
Green = acetylated tubulin, red = nuclei
Happy holidays!
December 24, 2025 at 12:59 PM
New fluorescent demigorgon just dropped
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
@realmsunknown.bsky.social deep dive this week is Christmas!
Sci fi and fantasy that has Christmas themes or anti Christmas themes! Tell me your faves.
Sci fi and fantasy that has Christmas themes or anti Christmas themes! Tell me your faves.
December 23, 2025 at 12:19 AM
@realmsunknown.bsky.social deep dive this week is Christmas!
Sci fi and fantasy that has Christmas themes or anti Christmas themes! Tell me your faves.
Sci fi and fantasy that has Christmas themes or anti Christmas themes! Tell me your faves.
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
This is rad. 🧪
Take a journey through time down a new NSF COLDEX ice core borehole just completed by the team in #Antarctica!
If you’re at #AGU25 stop by the COLDEX booth in the Exhibit Hall to talk to COLDEX team members from across the 15-institution center funded by NSF! @agu.org Follow us on IG @ coldex_stc
If you’re at #AGU25 stop by the COLDEX booth in the Exhibit Hall to talk to COLDEX team members from across the 15-institution center funded by NSF! @agu.org Follow us on IG @ coldex_stc
December 15, 2025 at 2:37 AM
This is rad. 🧪
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
Comedian Robin Ince quits as host of BBC’s Infinite Monkey Cage
Comedian Robin Ince quits as host of BBC’s Infinite Monkey Cage
Ince says he resigned after fallout with executives because some of his views had been considered ‘problematic’
The comedian and author Robin Ince has resigned from his role as co-host of the long-running BBC Radio 4 podcast The Infinite Monkey Cage after a fallout with BBC executives over “problematic” opinions and what he described as a lack of “obedience”.
Ince, who has co-presented the popular science show alongside Prof Brian Cox for 16 years, posted on social media that his personal views, aired outside the BBC, “have been considered problematic for some time” and he “felt he had no choice but to resign”. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 13, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Comedian Robin Ince quits as host of BBC’s Infinite Monkey Cage
Big scenes in the Stranger Things finale when it turns out the big bad was Maxwell's Demon
December 12, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Big scenes in the Stranger Things finale when it turns out the big bad was Maxwell's Demon
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
The @realmsunknown.bsky.social guest for this week is @joznorris.bsky.social! The subgenre deep dive will be Choose Your Own Adventure.
Give us your recommendations, whether it’s books, games, tv, movies or “other”!
Give us your recommendations, whether it’s books, games, tv, movies or “other”!
November 28, 2025 at 10:05 PM
The @realmsunknown.bsky.social guest for this week is @joznorris.bsky.social! The subgenre deep dive will be Choose Your Own Adventure.
Give us your recommendations, whether it’s books, games, tv, movies or “other”!
Give us your recommendations, whether it’s books, games, tv, movies or “other”!
Sunset from my office in Glasgow - you can spot Tinto and High Street train station
November 25, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Sunset from my office in Glasgow - you can spot Tinto and High Street train station
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
Looking for some help! I'm putting together materials for a postdoc workshop on writing cover letters and abstracts for general journals like Science, Nature, PNAS. Any advice, tips, or resources to share? I will compile and share back! 🧪😀
November 24, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Looking for some help! I'm putting together materials for a postdoc workshop on writing cover letters and abstracts for general journals like Science, Nature, PNAS. Any advice, tips, or resources to share? I will compile and share back! 🧪😀
Light-activated pain-free drug delivery into skin using #upconverison nanoparticle constructs - exciting work! This specific application is for IVF drug release.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Upconverting Nanoparticle‐Loaded Microneedles for Near‐Infrared Responsive Delivery of Gonadotropins to Increase Success of In Vitro Fertilization
This paper describes the development of an upconverting particle-integrated microneedle patch that can release the hormone leuprolide when the patch is exposed to near-infrared light. This system rep...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Light-activated pain-free drug delivery into skin using #upconverison nanoparticle constructs - exciting work! This specific application is for IVF drug release.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
I tried an even harder example on Gemini Pro image generation and this is quite scary/amazing. I asked for a microscopy image of around 20 HeLa cells, GFP tagged 20% nuclear, 10% membrane, +1 nuclear staining, + overlap. Image below and prompt in the following post.
November 21, 2025 at 5:32 PM
I tried an even harder example on Gemini Pro image generation and this is quite scary/amazing. I asked for a microscopy image of around 20 HeLa cells, GFP tagged 20% nuclear, 10% membrane, +1 nuclear staining, + overlap. Image below and prompt in the following post.
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
Bad antibodies are a major roadblock in biomedical research, harming reproducibility and wasting resources.
The International Antibody Validation Meeting was created to fix it.
Watch the talks from the 5th Antibody Validation Meeting (2025)
tinyurl.com/AntibodyVali...
#Integrity #reproducibility
The International Antibody Validation Meeting was created to fix it.
Watch the talks from the 5th Antibody Validation Meeting (2025)
tinyurl.com/AntibodyVali...
#Integrity #reproducibility
5th International Antibody Validation Meeting - YouTube
Listen to talks from the speakers at the 5th AbVal meeting, held in Bath on the 9-11th September 2025.
tinyurl.com
November 22, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Bad antibodies are a major roadblock in biomedical research, harming reproducibility and wasting resources.
The International Antibody Validation Meeting was created to fix it.
Watch the talks from the 5th Antibody Validation Meeting (2025)
tinyurl.com/AntibodyVali...
#Integrity #reproducibility
The International Antibody Validation Meeting was created to fix it.
Watch the talks from the 5th Antibody Validation Meeting (2025)
tinyurl.com/AntibodyVali...
#Integrity #reproducibility
Cool use of hybrid upconversion nanomaterials!
Researchers have developed micrometer-scale micromotors that glide through the air on convection currents and could one day be used for gas-phase heterogeneous catalysis, aerosol toxin detection and pollution control.
Read the story: https://bit.ly/4idJvgr
#technology #micromotors 💡 ⚛️ 🧪
Read the story: https://bit.ly/4idJvgr
#technology #micromotors 💡 ⚛️ 🧪
November 21, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Cool use of hybrid upconversion nanomaterials!
Trio of yellow Victorian (1870s) uranium glass vases in string directional daylight. The green fluorescence can be seen even in this bright sunlight! #uraniumglass
November 20, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Trio of yellow Victorian (1870s) uranium glass vases in string directional daylight. The green fluorescence can be seen even in this bright sunlight! #uraniumglass
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
The subgenre deep dive for this week’s @realmsunknown.bsky.social is Villain-as-hero.
@tpneenan.bsky.social is our guest and he just watched the new Predator movie where one of the ruthless murder-monsters is Our Cool Protagonist.
Let me know your favourite villain as hero texts!
@tpneenan.bsky.social is our guest and he just watched the new Predator movie where one of the ruthless murder-monsters is Our Cool Protagonist.
Let me know your favourite villain as hero texts!
November 9, 2025 at 7:16 PM
The subgenre deep dive for this week’s @realmsunknown.bsky.social is Villain-as-hero.
@tpneenan.bsky.social is our guest and he just watched the new Predator movie where one of the ruthless murder-monsters is Our Cool Protagonist.
Let me know your favourite villain as hero texts!
@tpneenan.bsky.social is our guest and he just watched the new Predator movie where one of the ruthless murder-monsters is Our Cool Protagonist.
Let me know your favourite villain as hero texts!
Clever assay format - using a pipette tip as cuvette and incubator/reactor!
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
October 28, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Clever assay format - using a pipette tip as cuvette and incubator/reactor!
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
Hey seabird folks - have you ever thought "*ANOTHER* talk about ?!" So did we.
So we reviewed 3000 conference abstracts to see which species get the spotlight. Huge work from @ingridpollet.bsky.social with me and @seabirdsentinel.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
So we reviewed 3000 conference abstracts to see which species get the spotlight. Huge work from @ingridpollet.bsky.social with me and @seabirdsentinel.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 25, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Hey seabird folks - have you ever thought "*ANOTHER* talk about ?!" So did we.
So we reviewed 3000 conference abstracts to see which species get the spotlight. Huge work from @ingridpollet.bsky.social with me and @seabirdsentinel.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
So we reviewed 3000 conference abstracts to see which species get the spotlight. Huge work from @ingridpollet.bsky.social with me and @seabirdsentinel.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
This building has a strange kind of charisma
(Livingston Tower, University of Strathclyde)
(Livingston Tower, University of Strathclyde)
October 20, 2025 at 4:46 PM
This building has a strange kind of charisma
(Livingston Tower, University of Strathclyde)
(Livingston Tower, University of Strathclyde)
What an awesome conference week for #SHIFTtenerife! I can highly recommend it for anyone into lanthanide luminescence and upconversion! Excellent science, a wonderful community, and beautiful location! #chemsky
October 17, 2025 at 5:50 PM
What an awesome conference week for #SHIFTtenerife! I can highly recommend it for anyone into lanthanide luminescence and upconversion! Excellent science, a wonderful community, and beautiful location! #chemsky
Very excited to be at the #SHIFT conference in Tenerife! Going to be lots of lanthanide and upconversion talks, as well as a big speech from Ben Ferringa this morning! #chemsky
#SHIFTtenerife
#SHIFTtenerife
October 13, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Very excited to be at the #SHIFT conference in Tenerife! Going to be lots of lanthanide and upconversion talks, as well as a big speech from Ben Ferringa this morning! #chemsky
#SHIFTtenerife
#SHIFTtenerife
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
There's still time to apply for our Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships. This scheme offers a first step into an independent research career for outstanding early career scientists who require flexible working circumstances.
#RSGrants
https://bit.ly/4h1hzf3
#RSGrants
https://bit.ly/4h1hzf3
October 10, 2025 at 12:45 PM
There's still time to apply for our Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships. This scheme offers a first step into an independent research career for outstanding early career scientists who require flexible working circumstances.
#RSGrants
https://bit.ly/4h1hzf3
#RSGrants
https://bit.ly/4h1hzf3
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
The connection between Nobel-prize winning MOFs and Mudéjar maybe goes beyond beautiful geometric structures – @davidfairen.bsky.social believes the first ever metal-organic framework could be a compound discovered in my hometown, Zaragoza, in 1973. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/my-a...
My arcane and curious connection to metal-organic frameworks
Fernando Gomollón-Bel uncovers a link between his hometown and the 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry
www.chemistryworld.com
October 10, 2025 at 9:27 AM
The connection between Nobel-prize winning MOFs and Mudéjar maybe goes beyond beautiful geometric structures – @davidfairen.bsky.social believes the first ever metal-organic framework could be a compound discovered in my hometown, Zaragoza, in 1973. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/my-a...
If anyone wants some numbers on this: a study I led found that ~70% of chemistry YouTube channels are geared towards revision/learning, and that the creators largely do not clearly state their own professional background/qualifications.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
October 10, 2025 at 9:40 AM
If anyone wants some numbers on this: a study I led found that ~70% of chemistry YouTube channels are geared towards revision/learning, and that the creators largely do not clearly state their own professional background/qualifications.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...