Professor of Chemistry
University of Chicago
Single-Atom Skeletal Editing
(Interspersed with doomposting and AI skepticism)
Husband, Dad, Crossword Addict
http://levingroup.uchicago.edu
Mark Levin
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P.S. If you liked my commentary please read my op ed:
chicagomaroon.com/52978/viewpo...
Wow - that one broke containment.
Sorry, I do actually like reading the Atlantic, the writing is good, and I appreciate hearing both sides of an issue.
And anyways this piece from @cwarzel.bsky.social is still one of my favorite things I've ever read about AI: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
I can say with certainty that OpenAI cannot afford this. To do this before IPO is like putting a gun to your head and trying to ransom someone. Customers must be flipping their shit at their current token bills. And according to SemiAnalysis OpenAI lets you burn $14k of tokens on a $200 a month plan
I did a thing: chicagomaroon.com/52978/viewpo...
I am particularly proud of this classification scheme, which I hope will become a blueprint for the field as people continue to go after these important C-to-N replacement reactions!
This is an insane piece. To acknowledge that data centers use 40% of any state's electricity without mentioning the impacts to climate change is malpractice. And the "whoopsie" tone about noise is the cherry on top.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
I would classify myself generally as skeptical of review articles, but (with obvious bias) I am hopeful that this one is unusual, in a good way! We tried to put in one place a bunch of important ideas that have been driving the lab's thinking recently.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Had a great time talking to @chrislhayes.bsky.social for his AI End Game series on MSNow, covering the AI bubble, the SaaSpocalypse, the end of tech's era of hypergrowth, and the underlying economic fragility of data centers and the greater AI industry.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mn-...
Mrs Dalloway said that she would Instacart the flowers herself www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/b...
how to tell your district is fair www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Recent advances have made possible the replacement of individual atoms within a molecular skeleton while preserving the integrity of the surrounding framework. These skeletal editing reactions are emerging as powerful tools for molecular optimization, as they directly mirror tactics central to structure–activity-relationship studies and therefore have the potential to accelerate progress in discovery chemistry settings. This review introduces a comprehensive framework for categorizing atom replacement reactions in aromatic systems, while also delineating strategies that enable these transformations. Important heuristics related to shape-conservation are discussed, including notions of skeletal rotation, introduction of vestigial substituents, and retrosynthetic simplicity. Examples of reactions which obey these principles are analyzed, focusing first on C-to-N replacement in aromatic systems (“benzene to pyridine” and related reactions) before moving to other classes of aromatic and aliphatic replacement reactions.
Faculty have a responsibility to protect classrooms as a training ground for thinking, and proliferating LLMs endanger this core mission of the University.
Faculty have a responsibility to protect classrooms as a training ground for thinking, and proliferating LLMs endanger this core mission of the University.
chicagomaroon.com
Three years in, one of AI’s enduring impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing it.
OpenAI is considering drastic price cuts to compete with Anthropic. OpenAI cannot under any circumstances afford this pay cut. This is fundamentally insane.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
This is an insane piece. To acknowledge that data centers use 40% of any state's electricity without mentioning the impacts to climate change is malpractice. And the "whoopsie" tone about noise is the cherry on top.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
This is an insane piece. To acknowledge that data centers use 40% of any state's electricity without mentioning the impacts to climate change is malpractice. And the "whoopsie" tone about noise is the cherry on top.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
