In the late 1980s, as I recollected here[cite]10.59350/g4j62-4xk50[/cite] the equipment needed for real time molecular visualisation as it became known as was still expensive, requiring custom systems such as Evans and Sutherland PS390 workstations.

On 24th January 1984, the Macintosh computer was released, as all the media are informing us. Apparently, some are still working. I thought I would give my own personal recollections of that period. In fact, the Mac reached UK stores via a dealership only in 1985.

Geoffrey Wilkinson first reported his famous work on the hydrogenation catalyst that now bears his name in 1965[cite]10.1039/C19650000131[/cite] and I met him at Imperial College around 1969 and again when I returned there in 1977.

First, a very brief history of scholarly publishing, starting in 1665[cite]10.1098/rstl.1665.0001[/cite] when scientific journals started to be published by learned societies.

Zosurabalbin[cite]10.1038/s41586-023-06873-0[/cite],[cite]10.1093/ofid/ofad500.1754[/cite], is receiving a great deal of attention as a new class of antibiotic which can target infections for which current treatment options are inadequate.

2023 has been a long year in which a lot happens. Two EU projects ended (RiskGONE and NanoSolveIT; more about that in a later post), our group leader Chris Evelo will retire this year, the ELIXIR Toxicology Community started (see this post), the new WikiPathways website launched (see this post), and a lot, lot more.

In Wednesday’s post, I wrote that “traditional physical organic chemistry is barely practiced today,” which attracted some controversy on X. Here are some responses: “POC has evolved in many directions and its concepts are widely used, e.g., in host-guest chem, org syn, materials sci, drug discovery.” - Bill Jorgensen “There is still a lot of absolutely gorgeous classical phys org done with organometallic and enzymatic reactions.

In this post, I’m trying something new and embedding calculations on Rowan alongside the text. You can view the structures and energies right in the page, or you can follow a link and view the full data in a new tab.

(Previously: 2022) #1. Tony Fadell, Build #2. Giff Constable, Talking To Humans #3. Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Doing Hard Things #4. Dale Carnegie, How To Win Friends And Influence People Sounds Machiavellian, but actually quite wholesome: a “dad book,” as my friend

I will approach this example of a molecule-of-the-year candidate – in fact the eventual winner in the reader poll – from the point of view of data.