Lewis MacKenzie
@lemackz.bsky.social
2.9K followers 2.4K following 450 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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lemackz.bsky.social
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
royalsociety.org
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
lemackz.bsky.social
haha! I think we got most of those because my students wrote that! I meant my blue-sky tweets (blurts?)
lemackz.bsky.social
Just excuse all my spelling mistakes - I hadn't had my coffee!
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
gomobel.bsky.social
The connection between Nobel-prize winning MOFs and Mudéjar maybe goes beyond beautiful geometric structures – @davidfairen.bsky.social believes the first ever metal-organic framework could be a compound discovered in my hometown, Zaragoza, in 1973. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/my-a...
My arcane and curious connection to metal-organic frameworks
Fernando Gomollón-Bel uncovers a link between his hometown and the 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry
www.chemistryworld.com
lemackz.bsky.social
@ryanvance.bsky.social check out the thumbnail - thought you would appreciate it :)
lemackz.bsky.social
If anyone wants some numbers on this: a study I led found that ~70% of chemistry YouTube channels are geared towards revision/learning, and that the creators largely do not clearly state their own professional background/qualifications.
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
alomshaha.bsky.social
On train listening to obviously smart teenage boys discussing homework on “how is conflict presented in Romeo and Juliet” and one boy says to another “I’ll send you two good videos on this” and I am not sure teachers are fully aware of how young people revise etc these days.
lemackz.bsky.social
Even circa 2010 my peers studying physics at uni were using YouTube style lectures to prop up cracks in teaching. Got a poor lecturer? No worries... learn from the Harvard/MIT online course. It won't map 1:1 to the learning objectives, but it'll be close enough to help you get through the course.
lemackz.bsky.social
If you want some quantitative data on this, I lead analysis of over 1600 Chemistry YouTube channels, and ~70% are revision/theory based.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
lemackz.bsky.social
@alicefraser.bsky.social scunnered to hear about the extremely crap way you've been treated by your publisher, but I'm so excited about the 'A Passion for Passion' audiobook! I can't wait to buy and listen to it! 🤩🎧
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
allochthonous.bsky.social
🧪⚒️ “the complex organic molecules Cassini detected…are not just a product of long exposure to space, but are readily available in Enceladus’s ocean.”

As ever - these observations show some intriguing chemistry is going on, but that isn’t necessarily life.
Cassini proves complex chemistry in Enceladus ocean
Scientists digging through data collected by the Cassini spacecraft have found new complex organic molecules spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This is a clear sign that complex chemical reactions ...
www.esa.int
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
chemsmith.bsky.social
Benzyl chloroformate is not trivial to come by. Been waiting on an order from Acros. Does anyone know 1. where to get it from fairly quickly and/or 2. alternatives to benzyl chloroformate for making Cbz-protected amines. (Yes it needs to be Cbz protected.) #chemsky 🧪
Page from a supplier stating benzyl chloroformate "not web orderable."
lemackz.bsky.social
Another beautiful #uraniumglass trinket set 🤩
lemackz.bsky.social
I was minding my own business, walking to a wedding in Glasgow whilst wearing a kilt, and a CNN camera crew stopped me outside a fish and chip shop, and asked if they could film my knee 😂
lemackz.bsky.social
It's really incredible that random effects could appear to be a GW chirp! It seems so unlikely, but then again, GW detectors are the most sensitive instruments ever built! 🤓
lemackz.bsky.social
Finally found the back of my knee on Anthony Boudain's Parts Unknown S5 E1
lemackz.bsky.social
I'd love to know more about the false alarm rate. How it's calculated, and how is a candidate eventually deemed to be a false alarm or not?
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
pomarede.bsky.social
#Mars

A swarm of spherical rovers, blown by the wind like tumbleweeds, could enable large-scale and low-cost exploration of the Martian surface.

www.europlanet.org/epsc-dps2025... 🧪 #PlanetSci

Video: field tests with the Tumbleweed Science Testbed. Credit: Team Tumbleweed/Sas Schilten.
lemackz.bsky.social
Does anyone on Bluesky research proteins that are stable at high temperatures? 👀 #science #biosky #chemsky
lemackz.bsky.social
Does anywhere sell sound-proof enclosures for sonic baths?
lemackz.bsky.social
#Nanotechnology never ceases to amaze: stealing plant gubbins and cell membranes, and then combining them with upconversion nanoparticles to repair mitochondira in kidney injury! Controlled by trans-tissue near infrared light #science #nanotech #chemsky #biosky

pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
mathpreu.bsky.social
1🧵
Excited to share my first PhD paper, published in @dev-journal.bsky.social
What if fish gills —often overlook —hold secrets about development, patterning, and function?
We uncovered how early patterning shapes adult gill architecture.
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

#DevBio #Zebrafish
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
emily.space
How much is too much to ask when refereeing a paper?

I don't feel like the authors quite did what I asked them to in the first report, but they've done *some* stuff. Also, some of the new plots show some potential new issues with the paper.

But, I also don't want to be too mean...
Reposted by Lewis MacKenzie
djmarsh24.bsky.social
Celebrating 1st authorships in the group. Congratulations again to 2nd yr PhD student Tali Skipper on her paper out in Cellular Oncology - "Revealing genetic drivers of ovarian cancer and chemoresistance: insights from whole-genome CRISPR-knockout library screens". doi: 10.1007/s13402-025-01102-4 🎉🧪