Chris Gorski
@scigorski.bsky.social
News and Strategy Editor at Chemical and Engineering News, especially interested in cross-disciplinary stories.
Signal: @chris_gorski.15 — Views shared here are my own.
Signal: @chris_gorski.15 — Views shared here are my own.
Reposted by Chris Gorski
Journo request: I'm working on a story on life after a cancer diagnosis -- late effects of treatment, working with a PCP on specific health needs, and so on. Looking to speak with people with direct experience and doctors who can share their experience learning to provide care/ make decisions.
February 18, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Journo request: I'm working on a story on life after a cancer diagnosis -- late effects of treatment, working with a PCP on specific health needs, and so on. Looking to speak with people with direct experience and doctors who can share their experience learning to provide care/ make decisions.
Poutine is one of the great dishes out there, it’s just fantastic
But does the KFC poutine squeak? This is a central question, IMO.
One oddity: An A&W restaurant by my college in central Arkansas in 2000 served poutine. The owner similarly was baffled why it wasn't already popular US-wide.
One oddity: An A&W restaurant by my college in central Arkansas in 2000 served poutine. The owner similarly was baffled why it wasn't already popular US-wide.
January 26, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Poutine is one of the great dishes out there, it’s just fantastic
Really proud to be part of the team that put this together cen.acs.org/policy/resea...
January 20, 2026 at 7:52 PM
Really proud to be part of the team that put this together cen.acs.org/policy/resea...
Early in 2025 we started talking about how our team @cenmag.bsky.social could present immersive scrolling stories. This story is what came out of those brainstorming sessions. We've told a broad story about how chemistry research has been funded over the centuries cen.acs.org/policy/resea...
The funds that fueled chemistry: A visual history
Explore a visual tour through the history of chemistry research funding, from alchemy to AI
cen.acs.org
January 20, 2026 at 6:19 PM
Early in 2025 we started talking about how our team @cenmag.bsky.social could present immersive scrolling stories. This story is what came out of those brainstorming sessions. We've told a broad story about how chemistry research has been funded over the centuries cen.acs.org/policy/resea...
Am busy composing alt text for something I'm really excited about publishing next week: "On the left is a man wearing an apron. On the right is a many wearing a top hat and a coat with tails. He’s wearing a monocle and holding a cane."
Why yes, it is about chemistry.
Why yes, it is about chemistry.
January 16, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Am busy composing alt text for something I'm really excited about publishing next week: "On the left is a man wearing an apron. On the right is a many wearing a top hat and a coat with tails. He’s wearing a monocle and holding a cane."
Why yes, it is about chemistry.
Why yes, it is about chemistry.
Great advice applicable to far more than journalism
Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that life is better when you PRESUME WONDER.
Share the thing you think is neat. Listen to the person excitedly share the thing THEY think is neat. Even if you already know it, enjoy their enjoyment of sharing. There's nothing more human. 🧪
Share the thing you think is neat. Listen to the person excitedly share the thing THEY think is neat. Even if you already know it, enjoy their enjoyment of sharing. There's nothing more human. 🧪
December 12, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Great advice applicable to far more than journalism
This essay is incredible. A drop everything and read this piece on learning and thinking
Beautiful writing.
“…close reading is not magic. Its power lies in argument: always vulnerable, nothing simpler and yet nothing harder. And to clarify my stakes: the way that close reading is powerful is that it lays claim to power.”
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
“…close reading is not magic. Its power lies in argument: always vulnerable, nothing simpler and yet nothing harder. And to clarify my stakes: the way that close reading is powerful is that it lays claim to power.”
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
www.bostonreview.net
December 12, 2025 at 6:21 PM
This essay is incredible. A drop everything and read this piece on learning and thinking
Reposted by Chris Gorski
So, remember that MAHA summit 2 weeks ago that @statnews.com broke the news of and @maxkozlov.bsky.social somehow got into for Nature, even though it was closed to the press?
The organizers posted the entire 6.5-hour conference proceedings to YouTube last week.
cen.acs.org/policy/MAHA-...
The organizers posted the entire 6.5-hour conference proceedings to YouTube last week.
cen.acs.org/policy/MAHA-...
At MAHA Summit, the NIH head pushes for research that risks failure
And 4 other takeaways for life scientists from the ‘off-the-record’ Make America Healthy Again conference
cen.acs.org
November 26, 2025 at 3:58 PM
So, remember that MAHA summit 2 weeks ago that @statnews.com broke the news of and @maxkozlov.bsky.social somehow got into for Nature, even though it was closed to the press?
The organizers posted the entire 6.5-hour conference proceedings to YouTube last week.
cen.acs.org/policy/MAHA-...
The organizers posted the entire 6.5-hour conference proceedings to YouTube last week.
cen.acs.org/policy/MAHA-...
Love it when I look at a list of important tasks I jotted on a post-it note. Item 4 full text: "Think about this"
Super helpful past Chris. Well done.
Super helpful past Chris. Well done.
November 13, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Love it when I look at a list of important tasks I jotted on a post-it note. Item 4 full text: "Think about this"
Super helpful past Chris. Well done.
Super helpful past Chris. Well done.
#chemsky, what made you want to be a chemist? How did you overcome a difficult obstacle? What did it feel like to solve a problem you'd been working on for years? I'm editing this series about how life and chemistry interact. Reach me at c_gorski@acs.org, or encrypted at contactcen@protonmail.com
Reading Frankenstein made him want to be a chemist!?! At this year's ACS fall meeting, Victor Olet said this and caught the attention of several of our editors. What a thrill to work with him on this piece about what he's gained by reading the book 25 times cen.acs.org/people/Chemi...
My Chemical Story: How ‘Frankenstein’ made me want to be a scientist
The book is more than a tale of horror; it’s a psychological drama about the drive to develop knowledge and be seen
cen.acs.org
October 30, 2025 at 7:31 PM
#chemsky, what made you want to be a chemist? How did you overcome a difficult obstacle? What did it feel like to solve a problem you'd been working on for years? I'm editing this series about how life and chemistry interact. Reach me at c_gorski@acs.org, or encrypted at contactcen@protonmail.com
Reposted by Chris Gorski
Fifth-Grade Science Paper Doesn't Stand Up To Peer Review
Fifth-Grade Science Paper Doesn't Stand Up To Peer Review
DECATUR, IL—A three-member panel of 10-year-old Michael Nogroski’s fellow classmates at Nathaniel Macon Elementary School unanimously agreed Tuesday that his 327-word essay "Otters" did not meet the r...
theonion.com
October 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Fifth-Grade Science Paper Doesn't Stand Up To Peer Review
The fine print on this entry is interesting: "The content is adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License." grokipedia.com/page/Heterog...
It looks a lot like a copy of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterog...
It looks a lot like a copy of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterog...
October 27, 2025 at 9:23 PM
The fine print on this entry is interesting: "The content is adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License." grokipedia.com/page/Heterog...
It looks a lot like a copy of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterog...
It looks a lot like a copy of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterog...
Working on this with Victor for @cenmag.bsky.social was fascinating
Reading Frankenstein made him want to be a chemist!?! At this year's ACS fall meeting, Victor Olet said this and caught the attention of several of our editors. What a thrill to work with him on this piece about what he's gained by reading the book 25 times cen.acs.org/people/Chemi...
My Chemical Story: How ‘Frankenstein’ made me want to be a scientist
The book is more than a tale of horror; it’s a psychological drama about the drive to develop knowledge and be seen
cen.acs.org
October 27, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Working on this with Victor for @cenmag.bsky.social was fascinating
Reading Frankenstein made him want to be a chemist!?! At this year's ACS fall meeting, Victor Olet said this and caught the attention of several of our editors. What a thrill to work with him on this piece about what he's gained by reading the book 25 times cen.acs.org/people/Chemi...
My Chemical Story: How ‘Frankenstein’ made me want to be a scientist
The book is more than a tale of horror; it’s a psychological drama about the drive to develop knowledge and be seen
cen.acs.org
October 27, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Reading Frankenstein made him want to be a chemist!?! At this year's ACS fall meeting, Victor Olet said this and caught the attention of several of our editors. What a thrill to work with him on this piece about what he's gained by reading the book 25 times cen.acs.org/people/Chemi...
Very happy about today’s little library findings
October 26, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Very happy about today’s little library findings
Reposted by Chris Gorski
cen.acs.org/environment/...
At long last, scientists have figured out what causes will-o’-the-wisps. It’s not ghosts or ghouls, but a newly discovered phenomenon called “microlightning.” Learn more in my latest for @cenmag.bsky.social
At long last, scientists have figured out what causes will-o’-the-wisps. It’s not ghosts or ghouls, but a newly discovered phenomenon called “microlightning.” Learn more in my latest for @cenmag.bsky.social
Spooky will-o’-the-wisps finally explained
A newly discovered molecular phenomenon is responsible for the spectral balls of light seen in swamps and cemeteries
cen.acs.org
October 24, 2025 at 3:53 PM
cen.acs.org/environment/...
At long last, scientists have figured out what causes will-o’-the-wisps. It’s not ghosts or ghouls, but a newly discovered phenomenon called “microlightning.” Learn more in my latest for @cenmag.bsky.social
At long last, scientists have figured out what causes will-o’-the-wisps. It’s not ghosts or ghouls, but a newly discovered phenomenon called “microlightning.” Learn more in my latest for @cenmag.bsky.social
Reading the novel ‘Frankenstein’ made Victor Olet want to be a scientist working in this was so much fun cen.acs.org/people/Chemi...
My Chemical Story: How ‘Frankenstein’ made me want to be a scientist
The book is more than a tale of horror; it’s a psychological drama about the drive to develop knowledge and be seen
cen.acs.org
October 24, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reading the novel ‘Frankenstein’ made Victor Olet want to be a scientist working in this was so much fun cen.acs.org/people/Chemi...
I love this way of thinking about the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I think of the 4th season of “the bear” as having such ordinary moments. It also excels at showing people loving their work and struggling with their boundaries. Not every scene can be so moving, they just have to push ahead
This is less a critique a more of a moment to appreciate that even the most beautiful writing on Earth has moments where it can't live up to itself.
October 20, 2025 at 5:31 PM
I love this way of thinking about the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I think of the 4th season of “the bear” as having such ordinary moments. It also excels at showing people loving their work and struggling with their boundaries. Not every scene can be so moving, they just have to push ahead
I’m at the Baltimore comic con today in a session about the logistics of making a comic. So much of this guidance is applicable for science journalism too. Timelines, what to do first, etc
October 19, 2025 at 3:38 PM
I’m at the Baltimore comic con today in a session about the logistics of making a comic. So much of this guidance is applicable for science journalism too. Timelines, what to do first, etc
Reposted by Chris Gorski
Several employees at the CDC’s Office of Science Quality and Library Services, for example, remain RIF’d. Without those clearances, “CDC can’t publish any scientific documents,” says a recently RIF’d CDC employee. cen.acs.org/policy/regul...
Trump administration reverses course on shutdown layoffs at CDC
More than half of the approximately 1,300 reduction-in-force notices sent to the agency's employees on Oct. 10 were in error, the Department of Health and Human Services determined as it reinstated st...
cen.acs.org
October 16, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Several employees at the CDC’s Office of Science Quality and Library Services, for example, remain RIF’d. Without those clearances, “CDC can’t publish any scientific documents,” says a recently RIF’d CDC employee. cen.acs.org/policy/regul...
Reposted by Chris Gorski
MOFs are pretty darn cool. Here's our story, in @cenmag.bsky.social cen.acs.org/people/nobel...
The 2025 chemistry Nobel goes to MOFs
Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi win the prize for developing metal–organic frameworks
cen.acs.org
October 8, 2025 at 1:11 PM
MOFs are pretty darn cool. Here's our story, in @cenmag.bsky.social cen.acs.org/people/nobel...
From a 2019 interview with Kitagawa -- "it was common sense that organic materials could not make a stable porous structure. People thought we were doing “useless” research because they did not realize the potential of the seemingly trivial space inside the pores." pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Interview with Professor Susumu Kitagawa
CONTENT TYPES
pubs.acs.org
October 8, 2025 at 10:08 AM
From a 2019 interview with Kitagawa -- "it was common sense that organic materials could not make a stable porous structure. People thought we were doing “useless” research because they did not realize the potential of the seemingly trivial space inside the pores." pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Phew, that feedback on the youtube stream stopped #nobelprize
October 8, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Phew, that feedback on the youtube stream stopped #nobelprize
Less than 5 minutes until the announcement of the #nobelprize in chemistry -- our team is ready to report @cenmag.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Less than 5 minutes until the announcement of the #nobelprize in chemistry -- our team is ready to report @cenmag.bsky.social