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Reposted by Michael O’Neill

MehtaLab @mehtalab.bsky.social · 18h

The Mehta Group is recruiting a PhD student in Inorganic Synthesis and Catalysis.
www.chem.ox.ac.uk/sitefiles/me...

We are also taking on students through the iMAT CDT program! www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/g...

If you are interested, apply!

www.chem.ox.ac.uk

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 19h

Dreamt that Tesco started offering a 2-pill pack of paracetamol in the Meal Deal (as the snack).

I honestly think it would be a commercial success, thinking about the profit margins and the shelf space.

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Reposted by Michael O’Neill

Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 18d

Really sensible asks from the IOP here.

Short-term: (1) funding for physics labs; (2) an "early warning" system to identify at-risk Departments; (3) reduce pressures on international recruitment.

Long-term: (4) reform HE funding so that the full cost of teaching Physics can be met.

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 18d

Quarter of UK university physics departments at risk of closing.

Consequence of policies of successive govts, real cut in university income, hard to recruit foreign students.

Science subjects cut as they require heavy investment. Skills shortages will deepen.

Quarter of UK university physics departments at risk of closing, survey finds

Four out of five making staff cuts as physicists say findings are ‘great concern’ for UK’s leadership in important areas

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Michael O’Neill

CCDC Cambridge @ccdc.cam.ac.uk · 12d

From @maxdietz.bsky.social and Simon Aldridge’s group, an example of a main-group tin-carbonyl complex (@science.org).

Above 0 degrees Celsius, this CO complex rearranges to form a tin carbene complex.

🔗 CSD Entry ELAMIR: dx.doi.org/10.5517/ccdc...

#FeaturedStructureFriday #CompChemSky

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Reposted by Michael O’Neill

David Nelson @davidjn.bsky.social · 7d

Solidarity with @leicesterucu.bsky.social colleagues - on strike to protect their institution, their colleagues, and their students

Sandy Kilpatrick @sandykilla.bsky.social · 7d

I don’t want to be on a picket line today. I’d rather be teaching my students or in the lab with @kilpatrickgroup.bsky.social - not standing in the rain outside my own workplace.

But the threat of compulsory redundancies and cuts to @leicesterchem.bsky.social 🇬🇧🥈leaves us no real choice.

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Reposted by Michael O’Neill

Sophie Benjamin @benjaminchem.bsky.social · 7d

Things have got bad in UK HE when a department like Leicester Chemistry is facing these measures. Solidarity to all the staff picketing today.

Sandy Kilpatrick @sandykilla.bsky.social · 7d

I don’t want to be on a picket line today. I’d rather be teaching my students or in the lab with @kilpatrickgroup.bsky.social - not standing in the rain outside my own workplace.

But the threat of compulsory redundancies and cuts to @leicesterchem.bsky.social 🇬🇧🥈leaves us no real choice.

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 7d

Thinking today of Leicester, a Chemistry department with a long-standing reputation for superb teaching.

It is a complete scandal that HE funding is forcing fantastic academics into situations like this.

Sandy Kilpatrick @sandykilla.bsky.social · 7d

I don’t want to be on a picket line today. I’d rather be teaching my students or in the lab with @kilpatrickgroup.bsky.social - not standing in the rain outside my own workplace.

But the threat of compulsory redundancies and cuts to @leicesterchem.bsky.social 🇬🇧🥈leaves us no real choice.

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 8d

I have never once in my entire life got a double bond equivalent calculation correct first time.

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 13d

I don’t have a soundcloud but I am currently reading and enjoying Gwendoline Riley’s “My Phantoms”. Would recommend.

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 13d

Thanks! I am mulling for a little while, I think, but I may well be in touch - this is a very kind offer.

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 13d

Please enjoy today, 25/9/2025, the last square date until 2116 (5^2/3^2/45^2).

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 14d

"I started working on the SFHEA probably around 2 years ago, I did a fair amount of writing, before concluding I couldn’t understand the format and I needed to put it aside."

Extremely relatable. janesecker.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

janesecker.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Michael O’Neill

Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 23d

FT piece on the decline of Chemistry (from January). www.ft.com/content/563f...

Graph showing decline in the number of courses for various STEM subjects, relative to 2020 levels. Chemistry drops the most rapidly, but overall decline is also seen in Biosciences, Physics, and General Sciences.

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 18d

Really sensible asks from the IOP here.

Short-term: (1) funding for physics labs; (2) an "early warning" system to identify at-risk Departments; (3) reduce pressures on international recruitment.

Long-term: (4) reform HE funding so that the full cost of teaching Physics can be met.

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 18d

Quarter of UK university physics departments at risk of closing.

Consequence of policies of successive govts, real cut in university income, hard to recruit foreign students.

Science subjects cut as they require heavy investment. Skills shortages will deepen.

Quarter of UK university physics departments at risk of closing, survey finds

Four out of five making staff cuts as physicists say findings are ‘great concern’ for UK’s leadership in important areas

www.theguardian.com

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 20d

**new blog post** reflections on applying for teaching jobs in 23-24 www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/9/18/applying-for-teaching-jobs

Applying for Teaching Jobs — Michael O'Neill

Some reflections on applying for teaching lectureships in 2023-24.

www.michaeloneill.org

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 21d

Liverpool’s lab induction activity is making soap, so here is my 2025 soap.

A bar of soap which is red on one side and yellow on the other.

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Reposted by Michael O’Neill

INQUEST @inquest-org.bsky.social · 22d

Today, after decades of campaigning by the families of the 97 people unlawfully killed at the Hillsborough Football Disaster, the government will introduce the Hillsborough Law to Parliament.

The families have campaigned tirelessly to ensure future families don’t face the same injustice.

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 23d

Interesting to plot the number of degree programmes like this. Offering "Chemistry with X" seems to have been a central recruitment strategy, and my guess is that some part of the decline here is Universities removing certain pathways.

Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 23d

FT piece on the decline of Chemistry (from January). www.ft.com/content/563f...

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Reposted by Michael O’Neill

Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 24d

Underground Railway, Liverpool, 1894, by Charles Trevor Prescott, 1872-1947 (Walker Gallery). #NorthernArt

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 26d

art

Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 26d

Wade's Rules introductions by textbook:

Weller et al: consider these MOs

Housecroft & Sharpe: consider these structures

Greenwood & Earnshaw: ok so this is how you number the positions on a substituted conjunto-borane

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Reposted by Michael O’Neill

Royal Society of Chemistry @rsc.org · 28d

Threats to chemistry are of significant knock-on effects for skills, innovation and regional growth and risks for the Industrial Strategy. See more in our data pack here: www.rsc.org/policy-and-c...
Watch this space 👀 — we’ll be sharing more on chemistry and #HigherEducation next week. [2/2]

Chemistry higher education data and messaging pack

Key information and data on chemistry provision in higher education

www.rsc.org

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Reposted by Michael O’Neill

Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · Sep 3

**New blog post** I am once again tilting at the 300 lab hours windmill, unfortunately. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/9/3/why-300h-of-labs-needs-to-shrink

Why 300h of labs needs to shrink — Michael O'Neill

An argument for reducing the lab hour requirement of Chemistry degrees.

www.michaeloneill.org

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Michael O’Neill @michaeloneill.org · 29d

Again, a completely reasonable position. I see more value in the Problem Solving students do when they study theory, so I land on the other side.

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