Monday – 22nd April

So #RealTimeChem Week is underway! Much in the vein of the 24 favourite tweets of #RealTimeChem day, I’ve decided to highlight my favourite tweets of each day. I’ve also decided to give out awards to aforementioned tweets, with the three best tweets of the whole week winning a prize, which you can find out about on the FAQ!

These awards are ordered into Ag (10 winners), Au (7 winners) and Pt (3 winners). Within these categories they are in no particular order.

So without further ado, onto the awards.

Monday, monday, monday. It’s generally a slow day of the week for chemistry and to be brutally honest it was a slowish start to #RealTimeChem week. Not in terms of numbers, I’m always impressed by the number of people who join in, but in some respects it’s to be expected that the best chemistry isn’t going to happen on a Monday, when everyone is just getting into gear.

                 Silver Award                 

Renée is a long time RealTimeChem supporter and this is the first of many cups of coffee drunk during RealTimeChem week and I love the mug!

https://twitter.com/reneewebs/status/326092574521696258

 Luke may not have had a good start to #RealTimeChem week, with the first piece of smashed glassware of the day, but it’s a pretty spectacular break.

A somewhat artistic look at marking from the camera lens of Laura Jane. I hope the rest of that student’s questions got just as many ticks!

Mags Lum – I am jealous of your personal set of glassware – having left the lab I now I have none. 😥

https://twitter.com/ScientistMags/status/326266835945267200

Dr. X must know I’m a sucker for a good old “mysterious” tweet, that makes chemistry sound fantastical and magical.

Kat Badiola is one of the best RealTimeChemmers around, you should follow her blog, which is one of the best examples of open science around. We’ve all had something stinky/toxic/horrid in our fume hood that we just leave for later, and left for our “future self”.

You can always trust Vittorio to come up with something humourous. Dewars seemed to be a thing this Monday.

Sarah sums up the drama of Undergraduate labs quite succinctly. Anyone remember a UG lab session where something didn’t break/catch fire/explode? …Oh just me then?

Tom promises he’s still a chemist. I’m inclined to agree. Only a chemist puts a setup like that together.

Three Fortnights gives us three fortnights worth of wisdom. I’ve chosen this because at least 10% of my lab time was searching for the right adaptor….

https://twitter.com/Threefortnights/status/326363444867633153

                 Gold Award                   

Michelle from the Dickinson Nanomechanical Research Lab, shows that not all chemistry is conducted in a fume hood.

Penny Higgins is a geochemist by trade and she made many tweets on Monday (as she does almost everyday!), showing you her process is great up close detail. This is just one example:

Matthew provides one of the few vines of the day. Not as spectacular as he would like, but it’s showing chemistry as it is, and that’s what #RealTimeChem is all about (click for the video).

https://twitter.com/katmatcher/status/326397645788704769

Orange + blue = green? Martin Schroder’s research group at Nottingham show off their new MOFs and get some unexpected colours.

Dr. Neil does exactly what we all do in the laboratory. Make do and mend! You’d think it was World War II…

David Nutt is chosen as a representative of the many lecturers who joined in on the day, who can probably emphasise….

It’s always good to see a young aspiring chemist show such enthusiasm for the subject. If RealTimeChem can inspire even a single young person to choose chemistry, it’ll have been worth while. ΔD tweeted some nice stuff from his high school labs, and deserves this award wholeheartedly.

              Platinum Award               

The Grumpy Chemist wins top prize for the day for the prettiest crystals of the day! We all love a good crystal.

Come on that enthusiasm for new safety gloves is infectious isn’t it? Albano tweeted various #RealTimeChem throughout the day, but this one is just good fun.

A fun game from Chemist Hulk for #RealTimeChem week, who has guessed the glassware in the Hulk’s #RealTimeSmash?