Leigh Krietsch Boerner
@leighkboerner.bsky.social
4.5K followers 790 following 37 posts
journo on enviro policy, pollution, chemicals, plastics, & other stuff for Chemical and Engineering News. Data ♡er. Recovering chemist and Wirecutter editor. Posts belong to just me and certainly not my employer, the American Chemical Society. She/her/Dr
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Reposted by Leigh Krietsch Boerner
bethanyhalford.bsky.social
The @cenmag.bsky.social science team was up early this morning to report on this year's #ChemNobel. Check out Prachi Patel's excellent story on the prize.
cenmag.bsky.social
It’s a material world after all. And this year’s #NobelPrize in Chemistry has been awarded to researchers who created a family of materials that could help solve some of humanity’s most critical problems. Read more: cen.acs.org/people/nobel...

#ChemNobel #Chem #Chemistry #chemsky 🧪
The 2025 chemistry Nobel goes to MOFs
Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi win the prize for developing metal–organic frameworks
leighkboerner.bsky.social
eggshell, oyster, nail, garage: things you don't want to swallow
nytimes.com
How did you do in Connections today? Players must select four groups of four words without making more than three mistakes. nyti.ms/4q21rOu
Game board for The New York Times "Connections" puzzle, showing 16 light-colored squares with words/phrases.
leighkboerner.bsky.social
the world needs this content
maris.bsky.social
It happened. Last night I was feeling despair about a lot of different things and I realized I needed to enlist my dog’s help to make me feel better.

I present to you Maggie the Pug as Cher Pugowitz.
Maggie the Pug is majorly, totally, butt crazy in love with Josh. She’s wearing Cher’s classic yellow plaid ensemble.
Reposted by Leigh Krietsch Boerner
Reposted by Leigh Krietsch Boerner
betsyladyzhets.bsky.social
COVID-19 data are limited this week due to the government shutdown, but we are not entirely without information on how the disease is spreading. Many independent dashboards as well as state and local sites continue to offer info. (1/3)
thesicktimes.org/2025/10/07/n...
The Sick Times COVID-19 trends graphic. Text reads:
"COVID-19 data are limited this week due to the government shutdown, now the second time that vital disease surveillance has been interrupted since Trump took office in January. The CDC has not updated the majority of its COVID-19 and respiratory disease data pages since September 26.

Still, we are not entirely without information, largely thanks to independent data services and researchers. The CDC did update a handful of national-level COVID-19 metrics last Friday. WastewaterSCAN and Biobot Analytics have continued sharing wastewater surveillance data on their regular update schedules. And epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers (whom I recently interviewed) combed through state health department websites to report state-level trends."
Reposted by Leigh Krietsch Boerner
cenmag.bsky.social
Denise Okafor, a biochemist at Penn State and one of C&EN's Talented 12, will be speaking at the #CENT12 Symposium on Monday, August 18 in Washington, DC. RSVP here: connect.discoveracs.org/talented-12-...

Read more: cen.acs.org/biological-c...
Denise Okafor
leighkboerner.bsky.social
my in-person recordings of Tuesday's announcement:

Lee Zeldin's remarks youtu.be/aozqFnwPk_o

Chris Wright's remarks youtu.be/WjGWoyBaNms

Q&A at the end youtu.be/ItcKtov6pSM

(I did record the whole event but in the interest in time and internet speed, only uploaded these sections)
leighkboerner.bsky.social
Yesterday at a semi-truck warehouse in the middle of nowhere Indiana, Lee Zeldin annouced that the EPA is trying to recind the regulatory basis to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. I was there. Here's my story for @cenmag.bsky.social: cen.acs.org/policy/regul...
EPA rejects key finding underpinning US climate rules
Energy secretary cites new DOE report on climate change by known climate denialists to justify repeal
cen.acs.org
leighkboerner.bsky.social
that would be great, honestly. Sometimes I wonder if the senior people know that their salaries are easily available public knowledge.

There's a decently large HQ building, but I've never seen the CEO's office. I got to use the head of publication's office for a few days once-that was pretty sweet
leighkboerner.bsky.social
I didn't say that the EPA's proposal didn't get coverage. Of course it did, it's quite a big deal! The EPA sent out multiple press releases about it. I was saying that the event itself, the live coverage of the announcement, was very out of the way and kept pretty quiet
leighkboerner.bsky.social
But my point is that the EPA was going out of their way to keep live coverage of this announcement under the radar
leighkboerner.bsky.social
Indianapolis's city limits go a very long way outside of the metro area. There's literally farmland inside city limits. So even though this warehouse was in Indy, it was out in the middle of nowhere. The announcement was not streamed, but I took video. I'm working to get that up and will share it.
leighkboerner.bsky.social
I reached out to Michael Abboud, Associate Administrator of the Office of Public Engagement at the EPA before I left to make sure he'd let me in. He seemed surprised to hear from me, and that I was in the Indianapolis area.
leighkboerner.bsky.social
I'm guessing there were maybe 30-40 people seated during the announcement, and another 20-30 standing behind? The media was mostly local TV news crews. I believe I was the only national news person there. I found out where the announcement was at 10:30 am and jumped in my car 20 min later.
leighkboerner.bsky.social
This was the setup before the speakers got here. The announcement took place in this warehouse-ish section of the Kenworth of Indianapolis semi dealership. It was 92 C outside and the space was only kind of air conditioned. Those are red, white, and blue semis in the background
leighkboerner.bsky.social
Yesterday at a semi-truck warehouse in the middle of nowhere Indiana, Lee Zeldin annouced that the EPA is trying to recind the regulatory basis to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. I was there. Here's my story for @cenmag.bsky.social: cen.acs.org/policy/regul...
EPA rejects key finding underpinning US climate rules
Energy secretary cites new DOE report on climate change by known climate denialists to justify repeal
cen.acs.org
leighkboerner.bsky.social
"... rather than a purely quantitative measure of significance resting on the absolute volume of emissions from a source category." This is buried down in the proposal on page 62.

to sum up: the EPA says that the amount of GHG emissions shouldn't be determined by the number of actual emissions
leighkboerner.bsky.social
to quote the proposal, “The EPA now proposes to adopt a statutory interpretation that is centered on the impacts and effects of statutory policy considerations in determining whether a source category’s contribution is significant..."
leighkboerner.bsky.social
To quote the story, "The EPA suggests that the definition of a significant emissions should be determined by "the impacts and effects of statutory policy considerations" rather than by a quantitative measure of volume of GHG emissions."
leighkboerner.bsky.social
In the proposal for GHG emissions, the EPA is arguing that what power plants put out in the US is not 'significant.' But what the agency is suggesting constitutes 'significant' doesn't rely on a number at all.
leighkboerner.bsky.social
why are men so emotional
aric-advocates.bsky.social
Must See: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and #EPA Chief Lee Zeldin got into a shouting match over agency grant cancellations during a Senate hearing. thehill.com/policy/energ...
leighkboerner.bsky.social
Grad students will need to start cutting their pH strips into quarters instead of into halves I guess
science.org
The U.S. research community needs to learn how to thrive with less money from the federal government.

That was the blunt message from Michael Kratsios, science adviser to President Donald Trump and head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. scim.ag/4k0EIiv
Trump’s science adviser defends funding cuts as a chance to ‘revitalize’ U.S. science
Michael Kratsios says DEI has led to a loss of public trust in universities
scim.ag
Reposted by Leigh Krietsch Boerner
Reposted by Leigh Krietsch Boerner
kvasquez.bsky.social
ATTN #ChemSky: It's time to nominate folks for C&EN's Trailblazers 🎉

This year, we'll be featuring disabled chemists & chemical engineers, and highlighting their research and how they make their workspaces more accessible!

Nominate someone here by June 4: cenm.ag/nominatetrai...

#DisabledInSTEM
C&EN's Trailblazer Logo on an orange background