Patrick Walter

Cambridge

News editor @ChemistryWorld. Tea drinker. #chemistry #science DMs open - send me your story tips/pitches. Views my own, but of course

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Articles

Can scientific curiosity and pressure to work long hours be balanced with well-being?

2 weeks ago | chemistryworld.com | Patrick Walter

Anyone who works in a university is well aware that a long hours culture can be the norm. This can affect everyone from the leadership down to students. There can be a kind of pride associated with pushing oneself to spend longer in the lab, at the office and out at conferences, displaying dedication to one’s chosen field. There are still some researchers who see long hours as a rite of passage, separating the truly committed from those with less endurance.
How to make metal-organic frameworks and cages out of paper

2 weeks ago | chemistryworld.com | Patrick Walter

Chemistry World recently spoke with Ryo Horikoshi at the Okayama University of Science in Japan about his amazing papercraft models of metal-organic frameworks and cages. He told us how rewarding it has been to develop a variety of models to help students learn about them. Not only can students better learn about how these supramolecular constructions assemble from a few basic subunits, they can also make them themselves in class and learn how they’re put together.
‘I worked on it little by little, with the help of a beer’: Making MOFs out of paper

2 weeks ago | chemistryworld.com | Patrick Walter

Chemistry World recently spoke to Ryo Horikoshi, a chemist at Okayama University of Science, about the stunning paper models of supramolecular structures he has been crafting for his undergraduate students. He told us about how he came up with the idea, how he wants to inspire students to love supramolecular chemistry as much as he does and how the models are simple enough to create that anyone can make them with a little time and patience.
They break it, we all pay for it

2 months ago | chemistryworld.com | Patrick Walter

One of GK Chesterton’s most beloved legacies is his Father Brown detective stories featuring the titular priest as its apparently naïve but fiercely intelligent hero. His other enduring legacy is his fence. Chesterton’s fence is the principle that anyone looking to reform a system should understand why this ‘fence’ is there before they attempt to alter or remove it.
Putting research on the chopping block risks mortgaging countries’ futures

Mar 3, 2025 | chemistryworld.com | Patrick Walter

Lean times are ahead for research and universities around the world. Few countries in the global north have escaped growing pessimism in the science sector as university leaders talk of ‘belt tightening’ and the need to ‘make savings’. Meanwhile, funding agencies find their budgets squeezed as countries struggle to deal with stagnating economies. Ottoline Leyser, the outgoing head of UKRI, the main UK research funder, has warned that research budgets ‘will be tight’ for the foreseeable future.
On the brutal cycle of forgetting

Jan 20, 2025 | medium.com | Patrick Walter

Patrick Walter·FollowPublished inOn Writing, Work, And The World·4 min read·--I once told a district instructor I felt like I forgot how to run a classroom every year. This was while we stood in the middle of said classroom, watching my students:Chat when they should be silentSit next to friends they weren’t supposed toAnd goof around on their computersIf that sounds bad, well, that’s because it was.
Materials strategy for UK needs chemistry to succeed and create new industries

Jan 15, 2025 | chemistryworld.com | Patrick Walter

Chemistry and the chemical sector will be ‘absolutely critical’ to driving the UK’s materials industry and meeting major challenges such as net zero and a circular economy, as outlined in a new national materials innovation strategy. Speaking at the launch of the strategy, David Knowles, chief executive of the UK’s advanced materials centre the Henry Royce Institute which oversaw the work, said that it presents a ‘vision for an economy that’s transformed by materials innovation’.
On trust

Jan 6, 2025 | medium.com | Patrick Walter

Patrick Walter·FollowPublished inOn Writing, Work, And The World·5 min read·--Put your hand on a hot stove, and it’s going to hurt. Leave it there long enough, and you’ll cause some serious damage. Take your hand away, and it feels better. This may take some time (and possibly a trip to the hospital), but you and your hand will recover. I don’t often put my hand on stoves, hot or not, and hopefully, you don’t, either. But I do work with and lead people.
On puzzles

Dec 9, 2024 | medium.com | Patrick Walter

Patrick Walter·FollowPublished inOn Writing, Work, And The World·3 min read·--My first puzzle wasn’t even mine — it was my family’s. I don’t remember how often we worked on that 1,000-piece monster spread across our dining room table like the remains of a crumbled castle wall, but I remember what it looked like when we were done. Deep blue ocean water filled with fish of all colors, in particular, a large yellow one. Unfortunately, to say “we” finished the puzzle is a bit of a stretch, though.
On letting difficulty exist

Dec 2, 2024 | medium.com | Patrick Walter

Patrick Walter·FollowPublished inOn Writing, Work, And The World·5 min read·--Back when I was a teacher, I helped coach high school boys’ soccer (football for Europeans) for one year. Admittedly, I didn’t do much, but I pitched in where I could. I even came up with a pre-game ritual I was pretty proud of and the boys looked forward to. I also kind of got thrown out of a game once, but that’s a story for another day.