Mark Peplow
@markpeplow.bsky.social
Science journalist. https://www.markpeplow.com/
Reposted by Mark Peplow
Motherfucking wind farms…
July 30, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Motherfucking wind farms…
Reposted by Mark Peplow
Today I argue that the industrial strategy really is a break with the past. Hands off as far as possible, hands on as far as necessary.
Hands on
Understanding Labour’s industrial strategy
open.substack.com
July 4, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Today I argue that the industrial strategy really is a break with the past. Hands off as far as possible, hands on as far as necessary.
Reposted by Mark Peplow
Chemists have woven entangled nanocarbon structures that boast some of the most fiendishly complicated shapes. Dubbed “perplexanes,” they represent an entirely new topological class of molecules. cen.acs.org/synthesis/Pe... #chemsky 🧪
‘Perplexanes’ achieve mind-bending molecular topology
Zirconium helps to weave entangled nanocarbon cages in high yields
cen.acs.org
June 11, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Chemists have woven entangled nanocarbon structures that boast some of the most fiendishly complicated shapes. Dubbed “perplexanes,” they represent an entirely new topological class of molecules. cen.acs.org/synthesis/Pe... #chemsky 🧪
Reposted by Mark Peplow
When is a knot not a knot? Enter perplexanes, molecules my mind is not meant to understand.
Read @markpeplow.bsky.social's latest in C&EN:
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Pe... @cenmag.bsky.social
Read @markpeplow.bsky.social's latest in C&EN:
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Pe... @cenmag.bsky.social
June 10, 2025 at 3:30 PM
When is a knot not a knot? Enter perplexanes, molecules my mind is not meant to understand.
Read @markpeplow.bsky.social's latest in C&EN:
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Pe... @cenmag.bsky.social
Read @markpeplow.bsky.social's latest in C&EN:
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Pe... @cenmag.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark Peplow
Well this couldn’t have come at a better time www.bbc.com/news/article...
Scientists at Loughborough University create 'world's smallest violin'
The violin is smaller than a human hair and has "laid the groundwork" for future research.
www.bbc.com
June 5, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Well this couldn’t have come at a better time www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Mark Peplow
“A Busy, Busy Day at the Airport”
By Ruben Bolling
Genius. Click in.
By Ruben Bolling
Genius. Click in.
June 5, 2025 at 6:18 AM
“A Busy, Busy Day at the Airport”
By Ruben Bolling
Genius. Click in.
By Ruben Bolling
Genius. Click in.
Reposted by Mark Peplow
“So it was like, okay, how can we figure out a way to capitalize on these user habits while also making the major labels happy? Which is not the same thing as figuring out [how to] use technology to make it easier for people to support artists,… the people whose work they are listening to.”
Music Is Too Important To Be Left To The Marketplace
A Conversation with Liz Pelly
dadadrummer.substack.com
May 28, 2025 at 12:13 AM
“So it was like, okay, how can we figure out a way to capitalize on these user habits while also making the major labels happy? Which is not the same thing as figuring out [how to] use technology to make it easier for people to support artists,… the people whose work they are listening to.”
Reposted by Mark Peplow
Sascha Feldmann’s group at EPFL @feldmannlab.bsky.social probes the fundamentals of light, charge, and symmetry to boost solar photovoltaics, build energy-efficient electronics, and develop quantum information technologies. Read more: cen.acs.org/materials/ph...
#CENT12 #chemsky 🧪
#CENT12 #chemsky 🧪
May 25, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Sascha Feldmann’s group at EPFL @feldmannlab.bsky.social probes the fundamentals of light, charge, and symmetry to boost solar photovoltaics, build energy-efficient electronics, and develop quantum information technologies. Read more: cen.acs.org/materials/ph...
#CENT12 #chemsky 🧪
#CENT12 #chemsky 🧪
Reposted by Mark Peplow
I've taken a look at why the driving test system has collapsed in the UK.
Who is to blame? A badly-run public body with poor IT? A lack of test examiners on low wages? Enterprising and ruthless touts selling on £62 tests for £500? Or ill-prepared learner drivers?
Who is to blame? A badly-run public body with poor IT? A lack of test examiners on low wages? Enterprising and ruthless touts selling on £62 tests for £500? Or ill-prepared learner drivers?
May 25, 2025 at 8:54 AM
I've taken a look at why the driving test system has collapsed in the UK.
Who is to blame? A badly-run public body with poor IT? A lack of test examiners on low wages? Enterprising and ruthless touts selling on £62 tests for £500? Or ill-prepared learner drivers?
Who is to blame? A badly-run public body with poor IT? A lack of test examiners on low wages? Enterprising and ruthless touts selling on £62 tests for £500? Or ill-prepared learner drivers?
Reposted by Mark Peplow
They’re here! Introducing the Talented 12 Class for 2025. These early-career scientists are taking on big global #chemistry challenges.
Meet the 2025 Class: cen.acs.org/people/profi...
#CENT12 #chemsky🧪
Meet the 2025 Class: cen.acs.org/people/profi...
#CENT12 #chemsky🧪
May 23, 2025 at 5:52 PM
They’re here! Introducing the Talented 12 Class for 2025. These early-career scientists are taking on big global #chemistry challenges.
Meet the 2025 Class: cen.acs.org/people/profi...
#CENT12 #chemsky🧪
Meet the 2025 Class: cen.acs.org/people/profi...
#CENT12 #chemsky🧪
Reposted by Mark Peplow
Ever wanted to curate a mix or showcase your taste? Good news! With the new Bandcamp Playlists Beta, you can create and share playlists from the music in your Bandcamp collection. They're digital mixtapes powered by your support as a fan. Head here to get started:
Bandcamp Playlists
Like digital mixtapes.
bandcamp.com
May 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Ever wanted to curate a mix or showcase your taste? Good news! With the new Bandcamp Playlists Beta, you can create and share playlists from the music in your Bandcamp collection. They're digital mixtapes powered by your support as a fan. Head here to get started:
Reposted by Mark Peplow
One cool artist delivered to your inbox, every week. Couldn't be easier. Sign up for Bandcamp Notes. bandcamp.substack.com
Bandcamp Notes | Substack
Discover new music and directly support the artists who make it. Click to read Bandcamp Notes, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.
bandcamp.substack.com
May 13, 2025 at 6:19 PM
One cool artist delivered to your inbox, every week. Couldn't be easier. Sign up for Bandcamp Notes. bandcamp.substack.com
Reposted by Mark Peplow
Writes @katherinejwu.com: “Extracting oneself from a maelstrom of jargon can require a writer to step outside their comfort zone and interrupt, which takes a certain kind of nerve and grit.” Here’s how. 🧪
Come Again? How to Steer Scientist Sources Away from Jargon - The Open Notebook
Navigating an interview with a scientist doesn’t just take prep and good interviewing skills. The hurdles can be psychological, too, requiring reporters to summon the nerve to interrupt and admit hole...
www.theopennotebook.com
May 13, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Writes @katherinejwu.com: “Extracting oneself from a maelstrom of jargon can require a writer to step outside their comfort zone and interrupt, which takes a certain kind of nerve and grit.” Here’s how. 🧪
Reposted by Mark Peplow
Want to influence international chemistry nomenclature? Here's your opportunity: www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/take... #ChemSky #ScienceSky
Take two polls to help Iupac define molecular machines
An Iupac committee wants your input to guide its recommendations for key terms in the field
www.chemistryworld.com
May 9, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Want to influence international chemistry nomenclature? Here's your opportunity: www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/take... #ChemSky #ScienceSky
Reposted by Mark Peplow
With NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya dismissing my reporting as "false" and "spreading rumors" hours before releasing a policy that confirmed said "rumors," I feel compelled to respond.
Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
May 6, 2025 at 12:15 PM
With NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya dismissing my reporting as "false" and "spreading rumors" hours before releasing a policy that confirmed said "rumors," I feel compelled to respond.
Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Mark Peplow
Reposted by Mark Peplow
Another week, another cool molecule to write about for @cenmag.bsky.social. This one is an in-plane metallo-annulene from Haiping Xia and coworkers.
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Os...
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Os...
Osmium ensnared in a hydrocarbon ring
Chemists make new class of planar organometallic compounds
cen.acs.org
April 30, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Another week, another cool molecule to write about for @cenmag.bsky.social. This one is an in-plane metallo-annulene from Haiping Xia and coworkers.
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Os...
cen.acs.org/synthesis/Os...
Reposted by Mark Peplow
The NSF is in a crisis. its director is out, hundreds more grants have been cut, and it is staring down catastrophic budget cuts and layoffs. Our reporting:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Hundreds more NSF grants terminated after agency director resigns
Sethuraman Panchanathan abruptly leaves helm of US funding agency after Elon Musk’s DOGE arrives.
www.nature.com
April 25, 2025 at 8:01 PM
The NSF is in a crisis. its director is out, hundreds more grants have been cut, and it is staring down catastrophic budget cuts and layoffs. Our reporting:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Mark Peplow
In their latest work, Eric J. Schelter and his colleagues have shown that 4f orbitals can play an essential role in guiding the reaction of a molecule attached to a lanthanide. cen.acs.org/materials/in... #chemsky🧪
Lanthanide orbitals spring a reaction surprise
Not known for their outgoing nature, 4f orbitals have been caught steering a reaction for the first time
cen.acs.org
April 23, 2025 at 6:58 PM
In their latest work, Eric J. Schelter and his colleagues have shown that 4f orbitals can play an essential role in guiding the reaction of a molecule attached to a lanthanide. cen.acs.org/materials/in... #chemsky🧪
Reposted by Mark Peplow
2nd find at used bookshop yesterday: 1818 edition of Jane Marcet’s groundbreaking “Conversations on Chemistry,” which inspired Faraday toward a scientific career. 🧪 Note that Marcet’s name doesn’t even appear here. #ChemicalHistory
April 23, 2025 at 12:35 PM
2nd find at used bookshop yesterday: 1818 edition of Jane Marcet’s groundbreaking “Conversations on Chemistry,” which inspired Faraday toward a scientific career. 🧪 Note that Marcet’s name doesn’t even appear here. #ChemicalHistory
Reposted by Mark Peplow
An exclusive @nature.com analysis sees the first real signs of a US science brain drain (by our excellent careers team) ⚛️🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exclusive: a Nature analysis signals the beginnings of a US science brain drain
A trawl of job views and application data suggests jobseekers are looking abroad as the Trump administration’s cuts to science take hold.
www.nature.com
April 22, 2025 at 7:13 PM
An exclusive @nature.com analysis sees the first real signs of a US science brain drain (by our excellent careers team) ⚛️🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Mark Peplow
Just saw this in the Sun's piece:
Lead scientist Professor Nikku Madhusudhan said “there is no mechanism in the literature that can explain what we are seeing without life”.
🤔 erm..... really hoping he's been misquoted here as there is lots in the literature to provide alternative explanations
Lead scientist Professor Nikku Madhusudhan said “there is no mechanism in the literature that can explain what we are seeing without life”.
🤔 erm..... really hoping he's been misquoted here as there is lots in the literature to provide alternative explanations
April 17, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Just saw this in the Sun's piece:
Lead scientist Professor Nikku Madhusudhan said “there is no mechanism in the literature that can explain what we are seeing without life”.
🤔 erm..... really hoping he's been misquoted here as there is lots in the literature to provide alternative explanations
Lead scientist Professor Nikku Madhusudhan said “there is no mechanism in the literature that can explain what we are seeing without life”.
🤔 erm..... really hoping he's been misquoted here as there is lots in the literature to provide alternative explanations
Reposted by Mark Peplow
An astonishing headline reporting on new observations from a team led to Nikku Madhusudhan claims they’ve found ‘hints of life’ on a planet orbiting a dwarf star some 124 light years away. What’s going on? (1/n) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭 🧪
Promising hints of life found on distant planet K2-18b
Scientists find new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.
www.bbc.co.uk
April 17, 2025 at 3:24 AM
An astonishing headline reporting on new observations from a team led to Nikku Madhusudhan claims they’ve found ‘hints of life’ on a planet orbiting a dwarf star some 124 light years away. What’s going on? (1/n) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🔭 🧪
Reposted by Mark Peplow
The ethanol technology firm LanzaTech has received a takeover offer of 2 cents per share from one of its investors. Carbon Direct says the offer, which is at about a tenth of LanzaTech’s current stock price, may be the only thing that keeps LanzaTech from going bankrupt. cen.acs.org/business/fin...
LanzaTech gets lowball takeover offer
Potential buyer says that purchase would be an alternative to bankruptcy
cen.acs.org
April 11, 2025 at 8:46 PM
The ethanol technology firm LanzaTech has received a takeover offer of 2 cents per share from one of its investors. Carbon Direct says the offer, which is at about a tenth of LanzaTech’s current stock price, may be the only thing that keeps LanzaTech from going bankrupt. cen.acs.org/business/fin...
Reposted by Mark Peplow
One of my very first columns, twenty years ago, was about the daftness of eliminating bilateral trade deficits.
We hired a babysitter to look after Baby Harford (who has now long since grown up and left home).
Bilateral trade deficit with babysitter. Sad!
timharford.com/2005/12/a-tr...
We hired a babysitter to look after Baby Harford (who has now long since grown up and left home).
Bilateral trade deficit with babysitter. Sad!
timharford.com/2005/12/a-tr...
A trade deficit with a babysitter
The Undercover Economist – FT Magazine, 10 December 2005Cheap foreign labour has recently made inroads into the economy of Family Harford. My wife pays a student, “Sally”, to look after the i…
timharford.com
April 4, 2025 at 7:15 AM
One of my very first columns, twenty years ago, was about the daftness of eliminating bilateral trade deficits.
We hired a babysitter to look after Baby Harford (who has now long since grown up and left home).
Bilateral trade deficit with babysitter. Sad!
timharford.com/2005/12/a-tr...
We hired a babysitter to look after Baby Harford (who has now long since grown up and left home).
Bilateral trade deficit with babysitter. Sad!
timharford.com/2005/12/a-tr...