To all friends and ex-colleagues at AstraZenenca, I am so sorry.

This is still too big to grasp. Allow me for now to recycle an anonymous comment posted at Biofind:

“Lions led by donkeys.”

Update Feb 3rd: Proceed directly to Chemjobber’s The Layoff Project. Seriously, the […]

Does this sound remotely familiar? Your new kick-ass synthesis plan requires a highly functionalized benzene, let’s say with 4 or 5 different substituents in defined positions as the key starting material. As you search for it, you find one or two semi-suspicious vendors who say they can deliver it to you in “6-12 weeks”, which […]

… find the money they need! The LOD Project is about $300,000 short for the moment. You must check their page out – now. Then empty your pockets on them!

For reference, here is a nice photography of Nikola Tesla in his laboratory, back in the days when things were not […]

It would be:

Always prioritize people before projects

 
This one is counter-intuitive, at least for me, and I have come learn this one the hard way. I would definitely not call myself a people person (except perhaps… ahem… in an interview situation). I am far more interested in science than I am in […]

Occupy Wall Street is so 2011. The time has come to OCCUPY SCIFINDER.

Anonymous, a loosely organized group with civil disobedience as their hallmark, responsible for a number of crazy things over the years, my favorite being this brawl with a Baptist Church (Bring It!), is evidently headed out of […]

Organic materials in semiconductor applications is a marvelous field. There are a number of awesome devices just around the corner. I think the field of organic semiconductors today is where the pharmaceutical industry was in the ’50s or so, meaning: here be fat and juicy blueberries just waiting to be plucked. Enough talk, already. Here […]

JACS 2011, 133, 13276–13279. (DOI: 10.1021/ja2050343)

What could be more suitable to finish off 2011 with than some serious fireworks?

Also, there is a little more to it than a picture of a sexy structure. Advanced organic compounds as active materials in semiconductor applications, such as OLEDs and solar cells, […]

Two questions to all chemists in all areas worldwide:

1) How would you spend the rest of your life if you suddenly became financially independent for good? Would you still do chemistry? How, where, when?

2) What amount in USD today would be enough to make you absolutely certain that you never ever had to […]

Just out is a new recipe for ynimines from the corresponding free imines.

Org. Lett. ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ol2032152)

Having worked quite a lot with imines, I am familiar with how tricky conversions of this type can be. OK, ynimines are probably not the hottest targets for any application, but if you […]

Ckellz over at New Reactions just posted the most awesome write-up about a new oxidant ‘affectionately dubbed Bobbitt’s Salt’ and its applications in simple, effective and selective oxidations of alcohols to aldehydes, among several other fantastic things. Before you read any further, I urge everyone to check out the original post. […]