Many young people seem to think that an academic career is a great idea in 2026. This is your periodic reminder that a lot of people (often in an invisible manner) serve the system as cheap labour until they are exhausted and fall out. When choosing a career, do not look at how well the top 1% do. It is likely you won't be in the top 1%. Look at how well the median person does. You may not care about having a high income and lots of employment opportunities when you are 19 or 21... but by the time you are 31 or 41, you may feel differently. Importantly: watch where the crowd is going, and DO NOT necessarily follow. Economics dictate that your conditions are likely better if you go where the supply of jobs far exceeds the demand for jobs. Also, make sure you get good sources of information. Do not trust the ads and the often repeated mantras. Look for hard facts. Be critical. Have beers with people who speak the truth. Pay attention to details.

With so little money to go round, the costs of competing for grants can exceed what the grants are worth. When that happens, nobody wins. go.nature.com/49yk1rk

By "this" i mean reducing a carboxylic acid to an aldehyde. Preferably a bis-carboxylic acid. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs…

An estimated success rate below 2.5%. Is this really sustainable @EUeic @HorizonEU? 🫠🫠🫠

My editorial @ACSEnergyLett goes one step further than the 2022 editorial on “fewer sandwich papers” by asking if we should publish fewer papers (and start fewer new journals)🤔🤗👇 I also propose a modified H-index pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs…

In the footsteps of Louis Pasteur. Pauline is reaaaally patient with separating her product from the starting material 👍😀💪 @pauline_pfister @JuricekLab @UZH_Chemistry @UZH_Science @UZH_en @UZH_ch