Chemical Mahjong was invented by a Chinese middle school chemistry teacher, and his students got hooked on it.

Today in the classroom:

First year #chemistry is practicing identifying redox reactions from oxidation numbers.

Second year chem is finishing their buffers investigation and doing a bunch of math.

#Webdev is languishing, so I'm trying to help them get this project over the finish line before the long weekend.

#teaching

Do you want to actively support the fight for #climate and environmental justice in Canada?

We welcome researchers of all kinds!

Sign up on our website.
https://researchforthefrontlines.ca/guidelines-for-researchers/

Shape-recovering liquid defies textbooks https://phys.org/news/2025-04-exception-laws-thermodynamics-recovering-liquid #science #biology #physics #chemistry #technology #education #space #engineering

Today in the classroom:

First year #chemistry is exploring oxidation and reduction with a potato battery (Zn + Cu redox). They're also practicing oxidation states.

Second year chem is exploring buffers with a cookbook lab. Tomorrow, they make their own buffer.

#Webdev is putting together their refactored sites based on the large group audit.

#teaching

'Hidden galaxies' could be smoking gun in universe riddle

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-hidden-galaxies-gun-universe-riddle.html

I'll drink to that! Social drinking in the wild
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/apr/21/wild-chimpanzees-filmed-by-scientists-bonding-over-alcoholic-fruit
#news #science #zoology #biology #brain #alcohol #chimpanzees #socialization #chemistry

Some interesting background theory in Grobb's gas chromatography book! I’d heard bits of this story before about whisky and "water of life," but never quite put it together.
#Chemistry #Chemiverse

It's scientifically impossible that COVID-19 started as a result of a lab leak.

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/covid-19-origin-chinese-lab/

pending a preprint on #chemistry in @wdscholia and @wikidata, here's some related work, on CXSMILES in #wikidata, here for functional groups https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2462024#P10718

is there any chemist left here? or did everyone move over to Bluesky? #chemistry

A dinosaur mural hidden away on the side of the Chemistry building of Glasgow University where it faces the Zoology building across a narrow, dead-end lane. I've often wondered if the Chernistry Department even knows it's there!

By the way, before anyone points it out, I know the one with the sail on its back isn't really a dinosaur, but another type of ancient giant reptile!

"Just to get the ball rolling, here’s a few of the more unusual things chlorine trifluoride is known to set fire to on contact: glass, sand, asbestos, rust, concrete, people, pyrex, cloth, and the dreams of children… "
https://gizmodo.com/chlorine-trifluoride-the-chemical-that-sets-fire-to-as-1715935811
#chemistry

John Hartwig, chemist: ‘The situation for science in the United States is terrible, these are the steps of authoritarian regimes to take power’

https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2025-04-05/john-hartwig-chemist-the-situation-for-science-in-the-united-states-is-terrible-these-are-the-steps-of-authoritarian-regimes-to-take-power.html

Potato plants belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). The flowers & young tubers contain compounds called glycoalkaloids, which are poisonous The full grown tubers generally don’t contain enough to cause harm. I’d be long gone if they did. #biology #flowers #photo #food #chemistry #nature