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Lewis MacKenzie

Lewis MacKenzie

@lemackz.bsky.social

3K followers 2.4K following 470 posts

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

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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

Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie

Alice Fraser @alicefraser.bsky.social · 2d

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!

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 2d

0.01 seconds before @tpneenan.bsky.social mentions Missy from Doctor Who

a woman says " no i 've not turned good "

ALT: a woman says " no i 've not turned good "

media.tenor.com

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 8d

I kinda love that @frogcroakley.bsky.social's bluesky profile gives me absolutely zero context for who they are. I have no idea what to expect as a listener! Exciting! 🍿

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 14d

Clever assay format - using a pipette tip as cuvette and incubator/reactor!

pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 15d

Wake up babe, a new maths maguffin just dropped

www.quantamagazine.org/first-shape-...

First Shape Found That Can’t Pass Through Itself | Quanta Magazine

After more than three centuries, a geometry problem that originated with a royal bet has been solved.

www.quantamagazine.org

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 16d

Shout out to the sky portal from the 1995 TV movie adaption of Stephen King's "The Langoliers". One of those "so bad it's kinda good" movies.

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 16d

I'm a big Banks fan but remember almost none of the Algebraist from my first read through (apart from the gas giant world of The Dwellers). Time for a re-read!

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 16d

The same compendium also has this story I rememeber well, where women around the world start giving birth to geometeically shaped babies. Basically body horror meets 'Flatland'.

Full story here:

www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-...

The Thing About Shapes to Come - Lightspeed Magazine

Monica’s new baby was like a lot of new babies these days in that she was born a cube. She had no external or internal sexual organs, or for that matter organs of any kind, being just a warm solid fil...

www.lightspeedmagazine.com

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 16d

It's in this compendium. 'The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015`. Now available online here:

www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/help...

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 16d

I recall reading a really interesting short story around a decade ago.

“Help Me Follow My Sister into the Land of the Dead,” by Carmen Maria Macha

It takes the form of a kick-starter page, where the main character is trying to crowd fund a journey to the middle East to go through a portal to Hell!

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 16d

Honorary shout out to the depiction of the Spacing Guild Heighliner in the new Dune movies. The way they depict these colossal ships as somehow bridging two parts of the universe was really beautiful. Are they a ship? Are they a portal? Who cares!

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 16d

I find the 'Puddle Jumper' ships in Stargate to be endearingly naff. Like green Glasgow subway trains, but in space!

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 16d

BTW if anyone can point me to queer analysis of 'The Forever War', because I feel like it's both weirdly simultaneously progressive for its time (1974), yet regressive in other ways... there's A LOT to unpack.

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 16d

In 'The Forever War' by Joe Haldeman, there are instantaneous interstellar jump points/portals called 'collapsars'. The catch is you have to get there via conventional space travel, meaning time-dilation kicks in HARD, thus the main plot device of the book.

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 17d

Also, 3000? Woah! How long did that take to compile?

Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 18d

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...

Perspective
Who gets the spotlight? Disparities in seabird research attention at scientific conferences
Ingrid L. Pollet a b
Alexander L. Bond b c
Jennifer L. Lavers b c d
Highlights
• Decade-long review of >2,950 seabird conference abstracts.
• Over 30% of seabird species are rarely or never featured at scientific conferences
• Several seabirds listed as Critically Endangered have received little or no attention.
• 16 seabird species are over-represented in conferences.
• Southern Hemisphere seabirds require greater research attention.

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 17d

I'm reminded of Bill Bailey saying "Whenever I'm having a bad day, I just think 'at least I'm not a cormoranr'"!

Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie

David ALBERTO @astrolabe-science.fr · 21d

🔭 🧪 #EduSky
A paper conical #sundial
From the Sun's altitude and azimut, this sundial derives solar time, & the position on the map where the Sun is directly overhead.
Here its approx.4:20pm local solar time ; the Sun is approaching the Brazil-Bolivia border.

1/☀️

A paper cone printed on the inside, placed on a wooden floor, and under sunlight. We can see a grid and a map printed. There's a thread crossing the upper opening, holding a very small bead right on the axis of the cone.

Close view from above: the bead, its shadow on the grid lines and the map. The shadow says its approx. 16h20 (4:20 pm), and its near the Brazil-Bolivia border on the map: at the time of this photo the Suns was directly overhead at this place.

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 22d

This building has a strange kind of charisma

(Livingston Tower, University of Strathclyde)

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 23d

It is fun (in a meta way) to think that Tolkien's words/languages basically invoked the entire genre of fantasy in our own world!

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · 25d

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

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · Oct 13

Exciting to hear Ben Ferringa talk! #SHIFTtenerife #chemsky

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · Oct 13

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

Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie

The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · Oct 10

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

Lewis MacKenzie @lemackz.bsky.social · Oct 10

haha! I think we got most of those because my students wrote that! I meant my blue-sky tweets (blurts?)