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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 11h

Thanks for the support!

Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 11h

We Argentinians are very resilient and resourceful, but after years of almost no funding, no scholarships, almost no candidates, it's getting hard. And we still have at least two more years of this! 7/7

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 11h

This is so backwards!! They remove the funding, vilify scientists, pay lousy salaries and terrible scholarships and then pretend that we suddenly come up with industry partners to develop new technologies?? With what?? 6/n

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 11h

My colleagues and I have many ideas which could perhaps lead to tech transfer, and some perhaps to products. But to test and develop those ideas takes years, a lot of people, and funding orders of magnitude higher than we have rn. 5/n

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 11h

Without people starting their PhDs there is going to be a huge generational breach that is going to propagate over generations. There is also a freeze on hiring support staff of any kind (admin, technical, maintenance, etc). So how are groups going to deliver on these applied science projects? 4/n

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 11h

There has been a reduction both in PhD and PD scholarships, but also on people interested in pursuing science. PhD scholarships in some cities like mine are not enough to live unless your parents or someone support you. Many labs are very empty. 3/n

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 11h

My guess is that people will try to claim they are now doing applied science and technology, and we will see a lot of money wasted on failed attempts by people who have a resume but have no real applied science experience. 2/n

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 11h

Our govt announced (after rescinding all the grants that were assigned and not opening new calls for 2 years) that they are going to fund projects with applications that can be translated to products. Basically no more basic science, only tech startup money. 1/n

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 12h

Posting again! Homemade UV filter using FeCl3, PVA and glycine. For taking pictures of fluorescent solutions. #science #diy #chemistry

youtu.be/Oyt2jbwTyuE

DIY UV filter using Iron trichloride and PVA gel

YouTube video by Prof Nicolas

youtu.be

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 2d

A short video demonstrating a simple UV filter based on PVA and Fe(III) salts.
#realtimechem #chemsky

youtu.be/Oyt2jbwTyuE

DIY UV filter using Iron trichloride and PVA gel

YouTube video by Prof Nicolas

youtu.be

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 2d

Now I suddenly want to start working in MOFs. I have prepared tetracarboxyphenylporphyrin, but couldn't purify it it was too insoluble in DCM and the like and impurities were too soluble in MeOH/H2O. I will have to revisit it.

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 3d

Is it possible to fix a distance or an angle during the optimization? Could be a good way to run a very fast surface scan as guess for later DFT optimization. Or even perhaps automate it for an initial and final value and number of steps.

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 3d

Great! So this is similar to the optimization it had, but in real time?

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 5d

I'm an Argentinian. There is zero chance that Milei government will get re-elected. It's a disaster on all sides, they ran out of money to keep the peso tied down and no amount of US$ will be enough. Same story as all right wing govts only faster.

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 5d

My choice starter word finally worked in wordle. First time I do it in one guess!

Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 6d

Saturday morning working a little before the family wakes up. I have my own revisions to finish but I decided to procrastinate! #science #chemsky

Picture of my laptop showing pending review action in ACS account. I'm Lao holding a mate cup with the mate "straw". I'm sitting on the couch and a plant can be seen in the background.

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 7d

Excuse the mess!

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 7d

I made an UV filter for taking photos of red fluorescence in my corroles,so I can avoid the violet shine and have better sensitivity. Still needs some tweaking as it was somewhat opaque. But filters really well!
#realtimechem #chemsky

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 22d

This is not red cabbage! These are all #corrole solutions! Beautiful colours made by Gianella at our lab! #realtimechem #chemsky #science

8 viales with solutions ranging from purple to green to brown, from different corroles.

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 25d

Ok I will test that next time I record. Thank you!

Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 25d

The other thing, which I'm not sure why it happens, is that while screen recording my camera freezes while animating stuff in Avogadro. It doesn't happen with other software. Is it possible the animations in Avogadro are more demanding?

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · 25d

Thanks! I forgot to check the newest version. I see the resolution of the iso surface seems higher than that of the atoms. It is quite alright actually. I couldn't change the shininess of the orbitals, which changed by itself when I changed the colours.

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · Sep 7

New video on orbital plotting with @avogadro.cc
It's a short one, I like the plots but couldn't find how to change several settings.
#chemsky #compchem #science

youtu.be/q6NuntAZdIw

Avogadro2: How to plot molecular orbitals and save images

YouTube video by Prof Nicolas

youtu.be

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · Aug 17

As an EPR spectroscopist we are gonna have a problem!

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Nicolas @nicolasn.bsky.social · Aug 16

Did some cleaning in the backyard. We had a non functioning orchard, made on top of a pile of construction debris from when our house was built. I never grew anything there and finally started to clean it up. We also rented a container for a lot of junk.

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