Merry Christmas | Happy Thursday

Merry Christmas to my wonderful, interactive, patient readers. It's been a great year over here.
(If Christmas isn't something you celebrate, happy Thursday!)

If you're looking for something holiday-themed - and don't feel like resorting to Google - try these:

Look, I made the tree this year!

Chemistry of Tinsel

Chemistry of Snowflakes

Chemical Aroma of Christmas Trees

Holiday Organic Synthesis

A Chemjobber Tradition - The Letter Home

ScienceGeist's Chemistree

I have a long week coming up, and a merry backlog of topics to write about.

More posts forthcoming!

Dona nobis pacem,
See Arr Oh

Elsewhere...

Retraction Watch guru Ivan Oransky was kind enough to feature my post on Open-Access Corrections.

Science writer Carrie Arnold included my interview as part of a recent story at Science Careers. She's referring to some incidents I laid out in this post from last year.

Winter sun shines through icy trees, Dec 2013

I hear through the grapevine that I'll be part of podcasts at Collapsed Wavefuntion and Chemjobber in the next few weeks. Stay Tuned!

Meanwhile, Elsewhere...

I've been seeing other blogs behind my blog's back. Please don't tell anyone!

First up, do you like art? Like Chemistry? Hop on over to Nat. Chem's Blogroll ($).

Second, I talk about LeBron James promoting soluble polymer breath strips at Chemistry Blog.

Thirdly, check out the latest on the BMS-Inhibitex HCV drug, over at The Haystack.

Note: Back in 1949, we didn't have names or properties for anything beyond element 96!
(We've since added almost 20 more.)
Source: Life Magazine | Lots of Chemists on Twitter

From the Vault: Scientific Humor, Shameless Plugs

I've been dying to use this photo.
Source: Nichelle Nichols

Holidays give you a chance to relax and reflect. Here in the States, we set aside time at the end of May to remember those who've served in our armed forces, past and present. Thanks to them, I'm able to bring you this glance back on my official 13-month blogging anniversary. (Well, 2 days late, but who's counting? Wait, you are? Nuts.)


Yes, back on April 26, 2011, Chemjobber was kind enough to lend me a little space to get this whole 'writting 4 de internetz' thing moving along. Over at The Haystack, Car1`men and Lisa didn't balk when I suggested that my first guest post involve Michael Jordan and Back to the Future. Paul didn't mind me poking a little fun at Wender's expense, and somewhere in July 2011, I had the crazy notion to hang out my own shingle.

Fast forward to late May 2012 - what a ride! I've met a bunch of new friends through Twitter and commenting on other blogs. I've been fortunate enough to appear at, and post on, sites I could have only dreamed of a year ago.

But, best of all? It's been a lot of fun!


To parrot the Ig Nobels slogan, I hope to make you laugh, then make you think. CJ and I goofed around with inflated yields in methods papers. When Breslow published his latest origin-of-life tract, it grew new life in the chemblogosphere as #spacedinos. How about art? Off-the-cuff projects included messing around with #arseniclife, pushing drawing memes, stitching together Easter eggs, "rosetta stone" chemical scribbles, and the 'Leaning Tower of Septa.'

'Olympicene,' viewed by STM.
Just in time for London 2012!
Source: IBM Zurich | U. Warwick

Wordplay? We got you covered. How about cute pharma diminutives? Mobile phone games, the Big Pharma Apocalypse, new chemistry portmanteaux, or silly chemical names? I also love finding molecular inspiration out in the wide world, whether it be on gas stations, at concerts, or imposing iron gates. I've even mused about taking this show on the road, once or twice.

I know I promised not to say anything yet, I'm grateful every day that interesting, excited, friendly readers - like you folks - stop by for awhile. I'll keep writing 'em, if you keep coming back.

Christmas Break, Links, Survey

As we reach the end of Just Like Cooking "Year 1," I wanted to first and foremost thank everyone who dropped in to say hello. I hope you enjoyed it, maybe even learned something, and that my posts prompted some discussion among you and yours.


Brief Survey: What would you like to see as the Blog moves forward? More "everyday chemistry?" More reactions? More structures? More media diatribes? More "deep questions?" Or something I haven't mentioned? 


Please let me know in the comments...thanks!


In case you're up late during the holidays, and want something chemmy to sink your teeth into, here's some link love:


Synthesis of Halichondrin C (seriously, isn't Kishi like 125 years old? Still kickin' though!)
Scalable Enantioselective Total Synthesis of Taxanes (well, we're a few C-H oxidations away from curing cancer here, but it's a stab in an interesting direction)
Paul's "Chemmy" Nominations, 2011


Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Kwanzaa to all readers. Happy New Year, too!

Links and Such

A few recent internet chemistry items for your viewing enjoyment:

Paul is already hard at work predicting October's Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Chemjobber waxes on vacation requirements (or not) in academic labs.



Hey look, nitrogen particles!  Wait, no, that's snow...

Over at Forbes, Matt has a profile of Peter Hirth, the man behind Sutent and Zelboraf.


Ivan Amato chats up horseradish and pain receptors in the Washington Post.

NPR's Morning Edition covered a recent Nature article, but what the heck is a "nitrogen particle"?