I’m off to Holland for a week; being given the grand-tour by my girlfriend.  More total synthesis action on my return – starting with Amos Smith’s synthesis of Sorangicin A.  Neat stuff.  However, that post ish not yet rready…

Fellow Brits!  Time to raise your heads from newspapers documenting the slow-motion car-crash that is Gordon Brown’s career, and petition the government!  Why?  Because the EPSRC are planning to change the process of applying for funding.
Apparently, they want to blacklist researchers who apply for funding but are unsuccessful in their application in more than 75% of cases.  Most academics get the odd proposal refused, so the average failure rate is 65-85% – meaning many would be black listed.  Please consider signing the petition (created by Prof. Joe Sweeny):
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/UKScience/
This proposal …

Many of you will have noticed that I have a forum on this site; if you haven’t, it’s accessible from the link above. However, I’ve a had a bit of trouble with spammers, so I’d closed new regisrations for quite a while. Since then, though, I’ve opened up registration again, and hope things clean up a little.
So if your got something on your mind, chemistry or not, then head on over!

It’s that time to put the mag-sulphate down, and pack-up those TLC plates… or in the Burton Group’s case, move labs. Yup, the new location of Burton Towers is in Oxford’s CRL, having packed up the lab and moved it all through this week. Even the little NMR tubes. And how swish are our new labs . Here’s a few more interesting photos:

So now it’s time to go on our seasonal hiatus, and for me to thank you all for reading and contributing to …

As the very observiant among you will have noticed (not “yepyep” then… okay, I’ll give it a rest now… ), I’ve added a few more blogs to the links. The chemical blogging scene has taken-off hugely in the last few months, and I’m really glad to see that the topics covered are incredibly diverse. I’m picking any one blog out in particular for praise, go get your own opinion. So where did I find them? All these lovely people have linked to my page, one way or another. And …

As the more observant of you may have noticed, there’s a new navigation link above. That’s right, we’ve got Forums now! Yes, you now have your own place to rant about how great David Gin is, how James La Clair is a Bad Man, and how Corey invented the wheel. [1]
I’m not trying to step on Mitch’s feet (he’s doing a great job), we just need an area more attuned to the needs of the totally synthetic chemist. Somewhere where sarcasm, wit, great chemdraw skills and a complete inability to count quaternary centres [2] is …

Sorry folks, but there’ll be no new posts for the next week or so, as I arrange internet access at my new address. Y’see, I’m on a placement in industry now, so no dossing about on the internet at work time to work in the evenings. Normal service will return ASAP, but for now, do check out:
Two new syntheses of Clavosolide A: DOI: 10.1021/ol0611705, DOI: 10.1021/ol0611752.
And as mentioned by our dedicated team of commentators, Gin’s synthesis of Nominine: DOI: 10.1021/ja062543.