Ben Bellenie
@chemb.bsky.social
280 followers 240 following 300 posts
Medicinal chemist at ICR London. Lots of proteins being degraded around these parts. I’ll write something more interesting here when I have time, so never. Views my own
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Reposted by Ben Bellenie
nickwrightdata.ntw.app
Can confirm the letters turned to mush upon the ground would, in fact, re-assemble into the missing spots on the tree. Fantastic (even if they didn't)!
Reposted by Ben Bellenie
amagire.bsky.social
"of course ChatGPT is full of errors when it comes to my specific area of professional or technical expertise, that's why I only use it for other stuff, where I can't tell if it's bullshit or not"

📰🗞💥
Wow. You sure about closing that London site, MSD?
cenmag.bsky.social
$100,000 H-1B visa fee could be too high for chemistry employers

New fee could have a chilling effect for foreign workers in small companies and academic labs. cen.acs.org/careers/empl... #chemsky 🧪
$100,000 H-1B visa fee could be too high for chemistry employers
New fee could have a chilling effect for foreign workers in small companies and academic labs
cen.acs.org
Reposted by Ben Bellenie
Being owned and financed by a nation state unfair to other teams - Me
“Fixture schedule unfair to Man City - Silva”
Reposted by Ben Bellenie
naomialderman.bsky.social
I love London so much. So much.

Did you know that London has the lowest level of ethnic violence of any city of comparable size in the world?

Multiculturalism has in fact worked here. They just don’t want it to be true because we happen to have a Muslim mayor.
london.gov.uk
In London, hate will never win.
Reposted by Ben Bellenie
profaliceroberts.bsky.social
Two very important graphs.
Net migration reached record levels in 2023 - and has since halved.
The vast majority of arrivals comprises students and workers.
Arrivals in small boats and asylum seekers - less than 5%.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Ben Bellenie
Reposted by Ben Bellenie
davidnir.com
Breaking news consumer's handbook
awful news - thoughts to friends and ex colleagues at MSD. Had no inkling from the outside that this was likely, seemed like the job market was generally picking up slightly in the UK
Reposted by Ben Bellenie
xkcd.com
Dimensional Lumber Tape Measure

xkcd.com/3138/
Comic. Dimensional Lumber Tape Measure. [mockup of “2x4” piece of wood showing the dimensions as 1½“ by 3 ½“] Dimensional lumber sizes are tricky. A “2x4” is actually 1½“ by 3 ½“, and a “1x8” is ¾“ by 7⅛“. [two tape measures: one is labeled 12’, the other 12’*] If you know someone into carpentry or woodworking, get them our *dimensional lumber tape measure*. [A “normal tape measure” with even increments and a “dimensional lumber tape measure” with increments at different lengths for each inch] *Don’t tell them you got it*—just leave it in their toolbox. They’ll appreciate the surprise when all their measurements work out!
Don’t leave it unguarded, those competitive intelligence folks will be unpicking the tape …!
Love this! great science, a great team of people with shared goal and yes, some stubbornness too are always needed!
jasmeenoberoi.bsky.social
Research is never a solo effort.
It takes teamwork. It takes belief. It takes collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and communities.
We know what it takes to beat blood cancer.
#BloodCancerAwarenessMonth
@bloodcanceruk.bsky.social @sussexbcr.bsky.social @sussexcancer.org 🩸
Blood cancer awareness month. Image from Blood Cancer UK campaign. "It takes Science and Stubbornness".
The lab book write up is going to be fun. Like the old tissue paper extraction from the surface of the fume hood. “The biphasic mixture was distributed over a large flat surface and absorbed onto a cellulose matrix. Product was eluted from the cellulose with DCM and evaporated…”
Come and work with @andreascarpino.bsky.social and develop your in silico chemistry skills working on @icr.ac.uk cancer drug discovery projects. Learn stuff, discover new cancer medicines, what’s not to like :-)
This came up when we updated our risk assessments too - take note, TMS-diazomethane is less likely to kill you spectacularly but more likely to kill you in a boring way…
nathhawkins.bsky.social
Wikipedia article for TMS diazomethane says it’s safer than diazomethane - when I did the risk assessment we estimated that it was at least 3-4 orders of magnitude more toxic than diazomethane, toxic by all routes of administration and probably permeates nitrile gloves #ChemSky
two men in yellow coveralls are standing next to each other with the words let 's cook written on the bottom
Alt: two men in yellow coveralls are standing next to each other with the words let 's cook written on the bottom
media.tenor.com
Tl;dr why can’t LLMs count?!?
Using copilot to reformat NMRs and check count the number of hydrogens. It’s like dealing with a lazy teenager. After the first few it starts cutting corners and not counting properly and I have to give it a telling off. Why has copilot been programmed to be like a shoddy coworker? #chemsky
That’s helpful - I also had good previous experience with the EZ-2 and that is pretty much the use case we are looking at it for. They are expensive for an academic group though!
Thanks - that’s helpful! Any issues with solvent bumping (eg with aqueous solvent mixtures)? Genevac make a big play about their vac control method reducing this.
Reposted by Ben Bellenie
#ChemSky - any experience with different models / brands of centrifugal evaporator (Labconco, Genevac, Speedvac, others…) ? We’re doing more plate and vial based parallel chem and evaporation is often the bottleneck. I last used a Genevac in about 2013 so I am out of date…other suggestions welcome!
It probably seems to work really well when you use it sitting outside in the sunshine in Greece, but when you bring home 6 bottles and try it, it’s a bit disappointing.
#ChemSky - any experience with different models / brands of centrifugal evaporator (Labconco, Genevac, Speedvac, others…) ? We’re doing more plate and vial based parallel chem and evaporation is often the bottleneck. I last used a Genevac in about 2013 so I am out of date…other suggestions welcome!