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Roland Pease

@peaseroland.bsky.social

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · Mar 5

In the latest issue of Private Eye (thanks to a friend for sharing) -
"So farewell then, Science in Action..."
Wishing I could tell EJ Thribb that reports of the programme's demise are premature, but that may depend on support from outside the BBC. ☹️

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Reposted by Roland Pease

Flo Débarre @flodebarre.bsky.social · 13h

Congrats @mclellanlab.bsky.social !

www.macfound.org/fellows/clas...

Jason McLellan

Characterizing and engineering viral protein structures to develop vaccines for infectious diseases.

www.macfound.org

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 14h

Indeed. Many I'm already following, and now a few more.

Reposted by Roland Pease

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 18h

TBH I've always regarded this stuff as an offshoot of supramolecular chemistry, as per these pages from the review I wrote with Jean-Marie Lehn in 2000.

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Derek Lowe @dereklowe.bsky.social · 18h

A Chemistry Nobel that many had anticipated: metal-organic frameworks! Writeup coming on the blog later this morning:

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 was awarded jointly to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi "for the development of metal–organic frameworks"

www.nobelprize.org

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 18h

Alex @stuffandpiffle.bsky.social points out that at the end of the interview "Nostradamus" Pease flagged up the certainty of a Nobel prize one. (But it wasn't a difficult call)

Reposted by Roland Pease

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 20h

It was only a question of time. One of those Nobels that was always inevitable, and hugely deserved.

Nature @nature.com · 20h

BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal-organic frameworks”

Stay tuned for more.
#NobelPrize

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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 18h

God, I probably did handle that paper but for once I can't quite remember. He wasn't at the Paris meeting - an oversight by us, for sure. But that "crystal engineering" stuff of the 90s using coordination chemistry was very much in the same spirit. Jim Wuest may have been in Paris - I'll check.

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 18h

Interesting to see how, like yesterday's quantum prize, Omar's work was only slowly picked up on - 10 citations in 1996 - including one from Fraser - though 3440 today.

Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 19h

Did you handle Omar's 1995 paper? I imagine so.
In which case you've been on this topic longer than any of us.
And was he at the ('96?) Paris nano conference?
Otherwise I think I picked up on developments a decade later. He brought a sample into the studio c 2008; Andrea S helped me dispose of it ☹️

Reposted by Roland Pease

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 20h

Because there's so much awful stuff to write about, I decided to write my latest column for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social about something interesting and removed from all that: the discovery of a blue pigment in a Neolithic artefact.
www.thenewworld.co.uk/philip-ball-...

How did cave artists get a brand new pigment?

The discovery of traces of a blue pigment on a stone shaped into a shallow dish at a Palaeolithic site in Germany is quite a find

www.thenewworld.co.uk

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 19h

They also quote the lovely Roald Hoffmann, surely one of the dominating, guru-like, figures in chemistry.

Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 19h

Ha ha . @philipcball.bsky.social - great to see John Maddox cited high up in the advanced info from the #NobelPrize committee. "It remains a scandal..." must have been one of his go-to phrases in our time at Nature.

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 20h

Omar was last on Science in Action a year ago, with an exceptional Organic Framework compound that gobbles up oodles of CO2 from the free atmosphere.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 20h

Yay ... A long favourite of mine Omar Yaghi gets the chemistry #Nobelprize

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 20h

If the idea was to mark the centenary of Quantum Mechanics, surely go for the big conceptual breakthrough of quantum computing - Bennett, Deutsch ++ or or ...
Themselves now ageing...
It is, after all, what all the commentary is defaulting to.
#Slow #Nobels

Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 20h

John Clarke, the senior of yesterday's laureates said "To put it mildly, it was the surprise of my life. I’m completely stunned.”

And on reflection me too. Wasn't macroscopic quantumness already celebrated with the more timely 2001 Bose condensate prize (1995 papers)?

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 21h

But of course, as any good empiricist might predict, 3 days before the big #R4Today revelation, was the the #Mail creation.

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 21h

I know I shouldn't, but hearing the French "scientist" on Today talking repeatedly about God and "The Big Bong" raised a big smile.
But what were they smoking in the #R4Today editorial office to call Michel Bollore a scientist? Here's his Google Scholar footprint. He's a business man.

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 1d

That said, remember the nutjob cultists who killed themselves thinking Hale-Bopp heralded a UFO fleet.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%...

Heaven's Gate (religious group) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 1d

The erosion of basic science in the US?

Meg Schwamb @megschwamb.bsky.social · 1d

Sad to see the University of Washington Astronomy Department has suspended graduate admissions for the 2026-2027 Academic Year. astro.washington.edu/graduate-adm...

Graduate Admissions | Department of Astronomy | University of Washington

The Department of Astronomy has suspended graduate admissions for the 2026-2027 Academic Year. General Information for applying to UW Astronomy Graduate Program. Applications must be submitted using ...

astro.washington.edu

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 1d

Some seismology reading for tomorrow.

Dr. Alice-Agnes Gabriel @inseismoland.bsky.social · 1d

Do Coupled Megathrusts Rupture?

In our new preprint, Bar Oryan and I present
the first global analysis of the relationship between kinematic geodetic coupling and earthquake slip models across 12 subduction zones and 61 megathrust earthquakes.

eartharxiv.org/repository/v...

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Reposted by Roland Pease

European Space Agency @esa.int · 1d

☄️ 🔭 #3I/ATLAS comet update!

On 3 October, our ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) turned its eyes towards interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passed close to Mars.

Read more: esa.int/Science_Expl...

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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 1d

2012 Nobel laureate John Gurdon has died. His work was central to both the development of animal cloning and the possibility of reprogramming cells to a different state. A giant of cell and developmental biology.
www.magd.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS (1933-2025) | Magdalene College

Magdalene College is deeply saddened to announce the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS, who served as Master of the College from 1995 to 2002.

www.magd.cam.ac.uk

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Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 1d

It makes a change from blaming the Chinese.

Roland Pease @peaseroland.bsky.social · 1d

@angelarasmussen.bsky.social breakdown of the fights over culling the H5N1-infected flock here:

rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/last-stand...

Last Stand in Bird Flu Ostrich Land

The BC ostrich convoy enters the "find out" stage of FAFO and so have we all

rasmussenretorts.substack.com