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ChemSpider

1,624 karma · joined April 26, 2020

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ChemSpider··on We made Playwright 2x faster and 80% more token efficient
If agents need to run on the desktop or logged into a user's real browser, the alternative would be Ui.Vision MCP. But stagehand is designed for backend use, so apples and oranges.
ChemSpider··on Pixel Watch 5
"insulin resistance trends" - whaaaaat? how would they do THAT? That would be huge for so many people, including diabetics, obese people or women with PCOS (PCOS alone affects more than 10% of women of reproductive age)

Is that measurement accurate? Like, a person starts taking Metformin -> and a few days later the watch detects a drop in insulin resistance?

ChemSpider··on Why skilled workers come to Germany and then leave again
>(because you shouldn’t move a small town if you are non white)

Where does this rule come from? It does not match my experience.

ChemSpider··on Mistral AI Acquires Emmi AI to Create the Leading AI Stack
"Early 2025: First enterprise contracts secured" "Today: Powering Fortune 500 engineering teams" - I guess that is all that is publicly available for now.
ChemSpider··on Mistral AI acquires Emmi AI
Built what you want to use yourself. AI for engineering and physics sounds like the perfect product a company like ASML (Mistral investor) could use.
ChemSpider··on Mistral built a $14B AI empire by not being American
Yes and they are open about it. That is why they are building their own data centers in Paris and other places.
ChemSpider··on Nobel Prize in Physics 2025
What does a Physics prof at Berkely earn these days? In Germany it would be around 10K€/month (lets ignore all tax etc stuff, just ballpark figure)
ChemSpider··on Real-time CO2 monitoring without batteries or external power
The challenge with CO2 monitoring is the sensor, not the electronics. Sensor accurracy and service life are key information.

It is easy to create a low power chemical CO2 sensors with a service life of a few weeks/months. Obviously not pratical for real world applications. So critical data is missing in this press release.

ChemSpider··on America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain
"it is the exact contract in force for May 2025." - No, it is not. That is your mistaken thinking.

In 2025, TV-L 13 starts with 4629€ a month and goes up to 6580€ (= 78K€+), depending on experience.

Indded, the raw tax difference is substantial. But the social benefits, health insurance, vacation days,... need to be considered for a complete comparison. But that was never the topic of discussion.

ChemSpider··on America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain
You are good with insulting, but weak on math.

Even with your 2022 data/source, I get a salary that is >=Harvard.

And if you look at the latest 2025 salaries the difference is even more striking and in favor of Germany:

https://www.jobs-beim-staat.de/tarif/tvoed-bund_e13

But according to you, how much does a German Postdoc earn per year, in US$?

ChemSpider··on America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain
So you are saying the average German Postdoc salary is NOT >= Harvard salary?

What numbers do you have in mind?

ChemSpider··on America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain
We have 2025, not 2022. So it is certainly not current. Inflation is a thing! ;-)

My data (see above) is from the same source ("Tarifvertrag"), but from 2024.

I am really surprised that PhD/PostDocs earning more (or at least same) in EU than the US is controversial. I tought everyone knows that.

ChemSpider··on America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain
Did you actually read the page you linked??? It supports exactly what I wrote. Just keep in mind that the latest salary data there is for 2022.

The postdoc salaries I quoted are for 2024, of course.

Source: https://www.research-in-bavaria.de/what-salary-does-a-postdo...

"Most doctoral positions and some postdoc positions will be categorized as TV-L 13, which can range from about €4630 to €6580 (gross monthly salary). The exact salary is determined by your years of experience."

-> €6000*12 -> 72K Euro, ~US$ 80K

And that is without including the various social benefits.

> The highest possible salary anyone in the university gets is 96k Euros.

That is wrong, too. But not the topic of my post.

ChemSpider··on America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain
You think of CEO salaries. PhD students and PostDocs earn more (or at least equal) in most of Europe compared to even the US top universities.

Harvard Postdoc salary: $67,600

Germany Postdoc salary: ~$80,000 plus benefits like health insurance

ChemSpider··on The end of compounded GLP-1 drugs leaves many patients in a ‘lose-lose’ position
500 US$ = 442 euro. Does that include the higher doses? Than it is actually cheaper than in Europe.

15mg Zepbound is 489 euro in Germany for a month (4 shots).

ChemSpider··on Mistral OCR
Interesting. But no mistral on it yet?
ChemSpider··on Mistral OCR
"World's best OCR model" - that is quite a statement. Are there any well-known benchmarks for OCR software?
ChemSpider··on US Cloud soon illegal in EU? US punches first hole in EU-US Data Deal
In my main job we provide SaaS services. We get more and more requests for "EU located" services.

A new trend I see is that some customers even rule out using EU located servers that are owned/run by US companies (such as the AWS Dublin or Franfurt locations).

ChemSpider··on Jürgen Schmidhuber – Can All-Purpose Robots Fuel a Comeback?
Honest question: What major German company is in a 20,000 pop town in the middle of nowhere?

And if so, would that mean life in such a town is worse than in a comparable small town somewhere in the middle of the US?

Indeed, salaries are better in the US, especially AI jobs salaries.

But you also need less savings in the EU due to a much better social security system, e. g. free healthcare in case you get unemployed, free university (that alone saves you > 100K US$/kid),...

ChemSpider··on Jürgen Schmidhuber – Can All-Purpose Robots Fuel a Comeback?
I disagree. The main downside of moving to Germany - or any other EU country except Ireland - is the need to learn German (or French etc) if you want to fully participate in daily life. Other than that, the quality of life is better compared to USA. Example: EU Bluecard better than H1B and Greencard, health care, public safety, public transportation, walkable cities,... even now, I would recommend Berlin over San Fransciso - especially if you plan to start a family.

If there would be a magic pill that enabled anyone to learn a new language instantly, that would be the end of the US and UK as major immigration destinations.

ChemSpider··on German economy contracts 0.2% in 2024 in second consecutive annual slowdown
The German car industry is completely outdated and very, VERY conservative. This includes Bosch. I would never work there.

The VW board even fired the CEO (Herbert Diess) because he wanted to make too many changes at once. The German car industry is a hopeless case, except maybe BMW.

ChemSpider··on German economy contracts 0.2% in 2024 in second consecutive annual slowdown
Stable Diffusion main author is now doing BlackforestLabs, valued 1B?

Biontech is swimming in money and using it to foster its main goal, finding better cures for cancer.

My main point was that I can think of only two success stories.

ChemSpider··on German economy contracts 0.2% in 2024 in second consecutive annual slowdown
Important new developments in Germany in the last 10 years? Interesting question, I can think of two right now:

- Stable Diffusion at Heidelberg University

- Biontech/Pfizer covid vaccine in Mainz

- What else?

ChemSpider··on GLP-1 pills are coming, and they could revolutionize weight-loss treatment
Which one worked best for you?
ChemSpider··on Show HN: AI dub tool I made to watch foreign language videos with my 7-year-old
Dubbing in Germany is horrible and pervasive. Even in the news and interviews. Subtitles are cheaper and better.

As others have said, it is better to expose kids (that can read) to the original language plus subtitles.

So in other words, your solution while technically great is pedagogical not wise. A typical geek approach to a problem ;)

ChemSpider··on Northvolt has launched a commercial sodium-ion battery for static energy storage
From the article: The development comes much sooner than most industry observers expected to see this technology. The Swedish battery maker emphasized that the cells will be free from lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite.
ChemSpider··on COP28: Countries launch declaration to triple nuclear energy by 2050
That is not correct. Once the energy cost goes below a certain level, it simply is no longer important compared to other factors like human resources, tax, infrastructure,... .

Example: If the kWh/h costs 2 cent in Germany and only 1 cent in country X, that 100% difference would not matter, even for the most energy hungry industries.

ChemSpider··on COP28: Countries launch declaration to triple nuclear energy by 2050
For Europe (the continent and the EU) it totally makes sense to have a common grid - as it has already now. Nuclear in France, solar in Spain,... this diversity has served Europe well in the last decades.

But you are right. Those who are against windmills always mention nuclear as alternatives, but you can bet 100% they would be even more against a nuclear reactor in their neighborhood.

ChemSpider··on COP28: Countries launch declaration to triple nuclear energy by 2050
Germany bets its future on solar, wind and H2. That will be interesting experiment. Who will have the lower cost/kWh in the end?
ChemSpider··on Automa – Automate the browser by connecting blocks
Visually a very nice UI! From a feature point of view, is there a difference to existing open-source web automation tools like selenium ide or ui.vision?
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