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Michelle Francl

@michellefrancl

Latest book Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea https://books.rsc.org/books/monograph/2162/SteepedThe-Chemistry-of-Tea Professor of Chemistry, Bryn Mawr College & Adjunct Scholar, Vatican Observatory.

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Latest posts by Michelle Francl @michellefrancl

When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.

03.03.2026 12:10 👍 9470 🔁 4118 💬 77 📌 164

I'm constantly trying (/failing) to get this point across.

If you're a trained expert in a field, then it may be worthwhile to question the scientific consensus of your peers.

If you're not, the scientific consensus is absolutely the best you can do and it's arbitrary foolishness to disregard it.

24.02.2026 16:04 👍 3759 🔁 853 💬 54 📌 50

So far my institution hasn’t called it. Lecture in person tomorrow (already prepped) or something more suitable for a virtual class?

22.02.2026 20:55 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
How Universities Are Shutting Out Disabled Students and Staff | The Walrus Some administrators treat accommodations as a favour—and those requesting them as problems

It can be exhausting to navigate the need for accommodations, and it can feel as if you are simultaneously far too visible and entirely invisible thewalrus.ca/how-universi...

18.02.2026 18:37 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Opinion | Drink coffee to prevent dementia? It’s not so far-fetched. Why coffee and tea may protect your brain’s health.

Tea, too! Both caffeinated beverages also appear to be linked to a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease. Caffeine, not just fueling my students‘ late night study sessions. wapo.st/4rUaxwW

17.02.2026 23:04 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Qapla' (success!)...I think. We'll see what the copy editor has to say about a standfirst in Klingon!

16.02.2026 18:19 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

naturally - L-theanine must speak Sanskrit? and caffeine just bellows -- a total molecular bully!

16.02.2026 18:11 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

But can you do all the voices in the tea book?? 😂 Are the Chet Gecko books still around? I enjoyed the double meanings that only the parents would get -- and I love a good mystery...

16.02.2026 14:52 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Dankon!

15.02.2026 00:49 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
This infographic titled "The Women of the Periodic Table" highlights ten women and their contributions to element discovery. A central periodic table marks specific elements in green and orange, with lines connecting them to names and portraits. Featured scientists include Marie Curie (polonium, radium), Marguerite Perey (francium), and Clarice Phelps (tennessine). It traces history from early pioneers like Harriet Brooks to modern teams including Dawn Shaughnessy and Darleane Hoffman.

This infographic titled "The Women of the Periodic Table" highlights ten women and their contributions to element discovery. A central periodic table marks specific elements in green and orange, with lines connecting them to names and portraits. Featured scientists include Marie Curie (polonium, radium), Marguerite Perey (francium), and Clarice Phelps (tennessine). It traces history from early pioneers like Harriet Brooks to modern teams including Dawn Shaughnessy and Darleane Hoffman.

Today is the #InternationalDayOfWomenAndGirlsInScience 👩‍🔬 This graphic highlights women of the periodic table, the elements they discovered, and the two elements named after women.

Plenty more graphics on women in chemistry here: www.compoundchem.com/category/wom...

#ChemSky 🧪

11.02.2026 16:50 👍 108 🔁 66 💬 3 📌 2

As long as it leaves the caffeine molecule untouched (which it does)…

09.02.2026 18:26 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I think it helped sell the book, so no real regrets! But I did learn how microwaving affects the molecular composition of tea when writing the book…so the never microwaving crowd isn’t wrong (though I admit to being in the microwaved tea is better than no tea at all or cold tea).

09.02.2026 18:12 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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The Biggest British-American Tea Kerfuffle Since … Well, You Know (Published 2024)

This! (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2024/01/24/w...

09.02.2026 17:08 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

But nothing like the international incident salt in tea provoked!

09.02.2026 16:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Sweet taste of heavy water - Communications Biology Ben Abu, Mason and colleagues use molecular dynamics, cell-based experiments, mouse models, and human subjects to determine that, unlike ordinary water, heavy water tastes sweet to humans, but not mic...

There’s an interesting paper about why it tastes sweet www.nature.com/articles/s42...

08.02.2026 22:20 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 2
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The weight of water While writing a piece for Nature Chemistry about the hidden depths of the periodic table (the more than 3000 isotopes that could be stack...

I have tasted it. It is sweet! cultureofchemistry.fieldofscience.com/2019/03/the-...

08.02.2026 22:19 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Would tell the deacon that as soon as you open the bottle the D2O is exchanging with H2O in the air, so it's already a mix.

08.02.2026 22:10 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

It's all around a deep question, what makes water, water, at least as far as the sacramentals go?

08.02.2026 22:07 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Somehow I don't think the blessing gets attached to individual molecules?

08.02.2026 22:05 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

People are radioactive and we bless them? Not sure that's a downcheck.

08.02.2026 22:02 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I had almost forgotten this existed..and I guess it doesn't anymore!

05.02.2026 22:25 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

TIL about Ostwald, his Nobel, and constructed languages - and his fight with van 't Hoff over the language his Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie should use for abstracts. Spoiler, it wasn't German. Also lots of chemists with skin in this game in the early 20th century. Who knew? #chemSky

05.02.2026 14:33 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1

Thanks - there were a couple of things on there I hadn’t run across yet!

03.02.2026 01:16 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Do you know if there is any of it extant?

02.02.2026 23:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Not that I’ve found!

02.02.2026 23:29 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Nothing in Klingon so far, Hamlet yes, but no science.

02.02.2026 23:21 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

To be fair it wasn’t exactly a decade. More like 14 years! Which I also don’t believe.

02.02.2026 22:37 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

..that is the question!!

02.02.2026 22:18 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Absolutely! "Se'vIr lIngDI' tamlertej, tlhIngan Hol QaQ law' DIvI' Hol QaQ puS." Right??

02.02.2026 22:17 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

So will Nature Chem let me use Klingon in my next Thesis?

02.02.2026 22:02 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 1