Jake Yeston
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jakeyeston.bsky.social
Jake Yeston
@jakeyeston.bsky.social
6.4K followers 2.7K following 4.3K posts
Editor at @science.org, shepherding chemistry papers; views here are my own; he/him
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jakeyeston.bsky.social
black and white cat scowling on the dinner table
November 6, 2025 at 11:02 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Dogwood tree
October 18, 2025 at 5:07 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Lots of great chemsky content in @science.org this week, including a remarkable porphyrin nanobelt from the Saywell and Anderson groups 🧪

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
ball-and-stick and line structures of a porphyrin nanobelt
October 16, 2025 at 6:14 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
My favorite self-devised cocktail—equal parts Ceylon arrack, St George NOLA coffee, and Carpano bianco
brown cocktail with a sphere of ice in a glass in front of bottles of Carpano bianco vermouth, St George NOLA coffee liqueur, and Ceylon Arrack, which I brought home from Singapore last year.
October 13, 2025 at 12:00 AM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Quantum mechanics of a macroscopic variable, published by today’s laureates in @science.org in 1988. In addition to the science, it’s remarkably lucid writing

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🧪
ARE MACROSCOPIC DEGREES OF FREEDOM GOVERNED BY quantum mechanics? Our everyday experience tells us that a classical description appears to be entirely adequate. The trajectory of the center of mass of a billiard ball is predicted wonderfully well by classical mechanics. Even the Brownian motion of a tiny speck of dust in a drop of water is a purely classical phenomenon. Until recently, quantum mechanics manifested itself at the macroscopic level only through such collective phenomena as superconductivity, flux quantization, or the Josephson effect. However, these "macroscopic" effects actually arise from the coherent superposition of a large number of microscopic variables each governed by quantum mechanics. Thus, for example, the current through a Josephson tunnel junction and the phase difference across it are normally treated as classical variables.
October 7, 2025 at 10:58 AM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Sukkie
front view of a sukkah—an 8’x8’x8’ wooden hut with a green nylon tarp wrapped around 3 sides and crepe myrtle branches on top
October 5, 2025 at 9:19 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Wait what? What??!!
NYT Spelling Bee won’t take caponata despite taking every other type of stew
September 29, 2025 at 9:40 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
🤝
black and white cat staring up from a chair
September 21, 2025 at 8:21 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
In @science.org this week from Simon Aldridge's group, CO is a sneaky thief: binds unexpectedly to tin at low temp, then steals both its ligands to make a carbene 🧪

chemsky

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Crystal structures of CO bound to a diboryl tin complex on the left, and a tin carbene on the right with the borons migrated to C and O
September 12, 2025 at 3:29 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Solidarity
black and white cat
September 12, 2025 at 12:08 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Physicists today getting a taste of my suffering
NYT spelling bee doesn’t accept “magneton” as a pangram
August 10, 2025 at 12:43 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Is this Huntley Meadows creature a muskrat or a small beaver?
A brown hairy creature with a narrow snout on the upper left, half submerged in murky water amidst some tall reeds at Huntley Meadows in Fairfax, VA
August 4, 2025 at 2:14 AM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Ok you’re right! Bozic is the importer. The producer is Prijedorčanka, Prijedor in Bosnia
Bottle of clear apricot brandy with an orange label that’s a little hard to see but says “kajsijevača, produced and bottled by Prijedorčanka, Prijedor, Bosnia and Hercegovina
August 3, 2025 at 10:00 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
very fancy mai tai
Mai tai in a beige ceramic mug with mint on top in front of bottles of turbinado syrup, Latitude 29 orgeat, Cointreau, Rhum JM vsop and Hampden Great House rum
August 2, 2025 at 1:03 AM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Jonathon Beves puts the challenge in perspective

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Although the method of Wachsmuth et al. may seem straightforward, it involves highly specific reactions to generate a desired mechanically interlocked molecule. Each molecular thread must have an optimal length that allows it to be wrapped around the motor but not too long to cause unwinding as the motor rotates. The two alkene units must also be exactly positioned to connect a desired path so that the introduced entanglement is not lost by closing of the ring. Moreover, both the ring-closing reaction and cleavage reactions must occur faster than unraveling (or slipping) of the motor. Thus, precise control of the thermal kinetics of the motor is required.
July 31, 2025 at 6:13 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
I put this up at the old place in 2019 when we did our Periodic Table anniversary special issue, with my own added lyrics for all the post-Nobelium elements

chemsky
July 27, 2025 at 8:55 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
staring contest (photo by my 12yo daughter)
A screen porch with a dark brown table, pink/blue/orange striped table cloth and beige cushioned bench in the foreground. In the upper right is a black and white cat seen from the back, staring down at a deer seen from the front, below in the grassy yard next to the trunk of an oak tree, staring intently back up at the cat
July 17, 2025 at 7:58 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Marian Burros plum torte recipe
A delicious looking golden brown fluffy cake in a springform pan with a few round purple plum slices peeking out the top
July 10, 2025 at 1:06 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
An excerpt from a Langston Hughes poem about Columbia, relevant today for many reasons

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47880/...
Being me, it will not be white. But it will be a part of you, instructor. You are white— yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That’s American. Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that’s true! As I learn from you, I guess you learn from me— although you’re older—and white— and somewhat more free. This is my page for English B. Copyright Credit: Langston Hughes, "Theme for English B" from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. Copyright © 2002 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.
July 4, 2025 at 3:24 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
More haggis, this time at the Stirling Castle café

It’s like a better version of a kasha knish honestly
half a haggis roll (dark brown stuff in a puff pastry) with some lettuce and cucumbers in tomatoey dressing in front
June 30, 2025 at 8:36 AM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Folks these Irish doughnuts were at a *highway rest stop*

also they were yeast doughnuts🤩
several rows of luscious fancy-looking chocolate and caramel covered doughnuts labeled “nutella ring” and “happy hippo”
June 25, 2025 at 12:49 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
I really liked this exhibit
“Gathering Ground” exhibition description at the Tate Modern
June 25, 2025 at 9:38 AM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
The Alexandria Choral Society St. Mary’s Church of Ireland [in Dungarvan] 24 June 2025, 7 pm. Program includes Hark, I hear the harps eternal (Alive Parker), If ye love me (Tallis), O lux beatissima (Helvey), Lift thine eyes (Mendelssohn), Sea fever (Brinsmead), Freedom (from Judith Clurman’s Washington Women), Meet me here (from Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard), Let the life I’ve lived speak for me (Gwyneth Walker), Take me to the water (Dilworth), Red is the rose, Wild mountain thyme, Let the river run (Carly Simon), Shenandoah, Temporal (Diana Saez), The storm is passing over, Irish blessing, Unclouded day The Alexandria Choral Society, Christ Church Cathedral [Dublin] 26 June 2025, 1:30 pm. Repertoire is a small variation of what’s in the first poster’s alt text. The Alexandria Choral Society, Dundee Parish Church 29 June 2025, 4 pm. Repertoire is a small variation of what’s in the first poster’s alt text. The Alexandria Choral Society, Saint Giles Cathedral [Edinburgh] 30 June 2025, 1:30 pm. Repertoire is a small variation of what’s in the first poster’s alt text.
June 20, 2025 at 3:00 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Not sure how long you’re in town but Alexandria Choral Society* is on tour there next week and will be performing in that church on June 26 at 1:30!

*(with a Fairfax interloper or two)
concert announcement for The Alexandria Choral Society at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin on 26 June 2025 at 1:30 pm (would type out the set list here if it weren’t 11pm in England —mostly folk songs, spirituals, a little classical)
June 19, 2025 at 9:54 PM
jakeyeston.bsky.social
Coming up on Wednesday morning, there’s a collaborative virtual @science.org and Westlake symposium on 2D Materials and Devices featuring Letian Dou, Kin Fai Mak and Jeehwan Kim!
Two-Dimensional Materiald and Devices Symposium Wednesday June 18 8-10 am EDT Headshots of the speakers, Drs. Letian Dou, Kin Fai Mak & Jeehwan Kim with a QR code to register
June 16, 2025 at 8:28 PM