One of the things they don't tell you about being a PI is how much you'll worry about funding. Actual, deep, visceral worry. It's not so much for *myself* (since I'm funded 9 months), but for students and postdocs. And in this current environment, the worry is only increasing.

Pacifichem Symposium Announcement: Astrochemistry and Astrobiology beyond the Second Period Honolulu, HI, USA 15-20 December 2025 pacifichem.org/technical-prog… This symposium features 20 invited, and 20 contributed, and poster talks.

.Gabi Wenzel et al. detect the radio signatures of two forms of cyanopyrene, a small molecular sheet of carbon, in a cold interstellar cloud known for its rich chemistry. Their findings shed light on the origin and fate of carbon matter in interstellar space: nature.com/articles/s4155…

We detected all three cyanopyrene isomers in the cold dark cloud TMC-1. Their observed abundance ratio of ~2:1:2 reflects the available carbon sites for CN addition to pyrene. 👀 We discuss this further in our recent article appearing in Nature Astronomy today. ✨ #astrochemistry

Those of you who followed our recent detection of 1-cyanopyrene may have wondered about the other two cyanopyrene isomers. In this paper, we report detections of the other two isomers, 2- and 4-cyanopyrene! We discuss what this means for CN addition reactions in TMC-1.

This paper is now available in the final nicely-formatted journal layout, and with my editor's summary. science.org/doi/pdf/10.112… (PDF version, HTML version is in the previous tweet)

The origins of biological homochirality on Earth are not well understood. Moore et al. measure a large asymmetry in the photolysis of the amino acid leucine in p-H2 matrices, providing new clues to this mystery 🧬💫pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ja…

Missing sulfur problem? Solved! Well... 20% of it. New results from our #JOYS collaboration points to sulfur-bearing salt as a possible hiding place of this crucial atom! Work led by Katie Slavicinska.

Dr. 410 is presenting at UBC Chemistry today, "The Molecular Building Blocks of Planets (& Other Star Stuff)." Thanks to Ilsa Cooke for the invitation! It's a beautiful place and a beautiful day to be on the Pacific Coast!

And last but certainly not least: Our detection of the 7-ring PAH cyanocoronene came out today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters! We’re extra excited to see this molecule in high abundance in TMC-1 but don’t understand how it got there! Wanna know more? iopscience.iop.org/article/10.384…

NEW from #AAS246: Largest Aromatic Molecule Found in Deep Space Discovery (using GBT data!) of seven-ring cyanocoronene in a star-forming cloud challenges assumptions about the abundance and formation of complex organic molecules in the universe. greenbankobservatory.org/front-page-new…