In the early days of quantum chemistry, before we had computers to calculate the shapes of electron orbitals, one man invented a mechanical machine that simulated their shapes. My latest column for @chemistryworld.com www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/the-...

A welcome, if belated, awakening to the disconnect between Musk's actions and the stated values of the Royal Society?

"We don't hire smart people to tell them what to do, we hire them to tell us what to do." ERC grantee Jan Lagerwall (quoting Steve Jobs), during this morning's #RIDaysEU discussion of how bottom-up funding, supporting investigator-driven frontier research, helps meet future innovation challenges.

#Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in #Gaza, theUN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory & Israel said in a new report, urging all States to fulfil their legal obligations to end it. ➡️ bit.ly/4mjBAi2

No comment necessary, sadly. www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

"We are told that AI is inevitable, that we must adapt or be left behind. But universities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically." www.ru.nl/en/research/...

Another semester, another small research seminar I am coordinating, this time Tuesdays at 14:30-16:00 (CET/CEST). Please contact me if you’d like to speak about 4D-STEM, ptycho, EELS, or related topics! Previous talks here to give you a flavor: physnano.univie.ac.at/seminar/pres...

Powerful new Banksy mural on the Royal Courts of Justice building shows a judge hitting a protester lying on the ground with his gavel, with blood splattering the placard.

What might seem like a small announcement—it’s just one institution—actually carries substantial weight and has a strong symbolic meaning. @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social, has taken another bold step: it won't renew its Web of Science license. www.uu.nl/en/news/acce...

Academic authors, here's a peek into the black box of journal publishing from an journal editor if you can bear it:

You can see the same cluster shape just copy pasted multiple times lmao

Congratulations to the new generation of ERC grantees!! The AERG looks forward to welcome you in our community. To know more on the AERG activities and how become a member 👉 aerg.eu #ERC

3 @erc.europa.eu Starting Grants, die mit je rund 1,4 bis 1,7 Millionen Euro dotiert sind, gehen an die #univie: Historikerin Eva-Maria Muschik, Mikrobiologin Megan Sørensen & Geschichtssoziologin Agata Zysiak erhalten die prestigeträchtige Förderung für ihre Forschung. Wir gratulieren herzlichst! 🥳

In this piece for Aeon, I argue that, while nanotechnology is now a very real and mature field, a popular early vision of it was an example of what I am calling an "oneiric technology": a fantasy of the sort that Silicon Valley loves. aeon.co/essays/no-su...

The lovely science community on Bluesky (even without the comparison to the abusive mess on X) has been plain for a long time, but it's nice to have it confirmed by numbers. #science 🧪 #Bluesky #community #socialmedia www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Are you an early career researcher? ✨ @circleu.bsky.social offers mobility fellowships (5 - 30 days) to explore postdoc opportunities at partner universities. 🗓️ Extended deadline: Sept 15. More here: 👉 www.circle-u.eu/calls/circle...

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Georgios Varnavides will join the Imaging Physics (ImPhys) department as Assistant Professor, starting on 1 September 2025. He will be leading the the Curious Beams Lab. buff.ly/BnFRzZl #ImagingPhysics #CuriousBeamsLab @gvarnavides.bsky.social

Und auch auf Deutsch. doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Press release from the DLR side of our recent Science article (doi.org/10.1126/scie...) collaboration.

Does someone happen to be knowledgeable about the Wikidata query service? I had a list of my recent publications embedded on my website, but it seems to have broken... query.wikidata.org#PREFIX%20tar...

Twitter is dead.....scientifically speaking. www.southernfriedscience.com/twitter-suck...

Nobel Prize winner Serge Haroche finishing his excellent talk on the laser for the @ercgrantees.bsky.social symposium at the ÖPG-SPS meeting in the @univie.ac.at main ceremonial hall with a famous message of Abraham Flexner that resonates with all those for whom science is more than a profession.

Die Publikation "Diffraction of helium and hydrogen atoms through single-layer graphene" von Carina Kanitz, Jakob Bühler, Joseph J. Robinson, Vladimír Zobač, @mostlyphysics.net, Maxime Debiossac & Christian Brand erschien in @science.org. 👨‍🔬👩‍🔬 Zur Publikation: ⤵️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Beugung atomarer Materiewellen durch einen 2D-Kristall 🔍 Forscher:innen des @dlr-de.bsky.social & der Gruppe von Toma Susi‬ beantworten diese Herausforderung, indem sie die Beugung von Helium- und Wasserstoffatomen bei Kiloelektronvoltenergien durch einschichtiges Graphen demonstrieren. ⚛️ 🧪 Mehr: ⤵️

Just in case there was any doubt, ChatGPT 5.0 still makes up completely random citations that don't exist and should not be used for literature search.

Out today: we have an article in Science demonstrating atom diffraction in transmission for the first time: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... See also accompanying perspective: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... For local Austrian press, see APA news item: science.apa.at/power-search...

The debate around Musk and the Royal Society is just so frustrating. If those who think it is right to retain him as an FRS were to say "Here, despite his having been a direct accomplice to the dismantling of scientific institutions, destruction of scientific data, spreading of...

Motherfucking wind farms…

We are excited to announce the results of the Second Call for Cascade Funding, funded by the European Commission under the CoARA Boost project! 28 projects have been selected for the second round, please see the full details at the following links: 🔗 lnkd.in/e3VgUNxR 🔗 lnkd.in/eAi8DtWy

My first publication for @science.org is this perspective I wrote for a paper I helped review. It turned out quite nicely, thanks also to the extensive copyediting work by the staff. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... (I’ll also tease that I may have some exciting news to share in short order :-)

📢 WE HAVE A NEW NAME We are excited to share that VSC has undergone a slight rebranding and will now operate under a new name: 𝗔𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝗔𝗦𝗖). The name was chosen to reflect the nationwide scope of the consortium - read the official statement here ➡️ asc.ac.at/news/2025/ne...

A true catch for Delft and very happy to have George join us on this side of the Atlantic!

I just got back from the big centenary meeting for quantum mechanics on Helgoland. But this year is also a bicentenary: of Michael Faraday's discovery of benzene. Here I consider what it meant, and why we might celebrate it. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/benz...

Arrival in Helgoland. A bit like arriving in Newquay on a rainy day in March, except that you have to cross the North Sea to get there. It's pretty wild. The conference is going to happen in what is basically the village hall. I hope there's a raffle.

The Helgoland 2025 quantum mechanics centenary meeting kicked off last night at the rather grand Hotel Atlantic in Hamburg, with a dinner followed by historical talks.

Proud to share our latest: In a collaboration between @univie-physik.bsky.social (@univie.ac.at) and @tuwien.at, we showed how individual #platinum atoms can be anchored to #2D MoS2 for #catalysis and #sensing. Article in Nano Letters by @pubs.acs.org physik.univie.ac.at/en/news/news...

Das ist wirklich ein Coup!

The AERG expresses grave concern over the future of fundamental research in Europe in a statement urging European leaders to protect fundamental science by reaffirming the autonomy of the @erc.europa.eu aerg.eu/news/new-sta... Read the full statement 👇 aerg.eu/storage/AERG...

From @eurekalert.bsky.social www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

🎉 Our new Ambassadors for the ERC are here to champion frontier research! Read more about Phoebe Koundouri of the Athens University of Economics and Business, plus the other 31 ambassadors 👉 bit.ly/44bQzp7 #EUresearch #ScienceCommunication #HorizonEU 🌟 #Amb4ERC 🌟 #Science4EU

It pains me to say this, but if you are not a US citizen, you should not attend scientific conferences in the US, visit US institutions, or otherwise travel to our country. Right now it's not worth the risk. Hopefully that will change. If it doesn't, science in the US is sunk anyway.

As the AERG community @ercgrantees.bsky.social grows, the Board of Directors welcomes four new members. Meet Elisabetta Aurino @bettaaurino.bsky.social (SH, Spain), Dragan Mihailovic (PE, Slovenia), Vikas Trivedi @viktri08.bsky.social (LS, Spain) and Johannes Henn (PE, Germany)

5. This is the moment of truth. The metascience community could tout this as a win and fundraise off of it, cementing their legacy as useful idiots. Or they can side with science, boldly speaking out about the bad-faith ways the Trump administration is co-opting their language and momentum.

The top image: The Guardian, July 2016 The article: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... The bottom image: The Guardian, May 2025 The article: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

At the celebration of Anton Zeilinger’s 80th birthday at the gorgeous Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Markus Aspelmeyer delivering the laudatio. www.oeaw.ac.at/detail/veran...

Experiences with Using AI to write papers @elisabethbik.bsky.social

Super proud of this work, which showcases modern scientific publishing for open science 🧪 Inspired by the insights of the interactive CTF widgets, we propose a novel phase-retrieval algorithm which achieves robust information transfer on sub-sampled datasets 🙌 @elementalmicrosc.bsky.social

Excited to share this interactive pre-print investigating the information transfer of phase retrieval techniques in STEM 🔬 Now everyone has an open-access tool to optimise their experimental parameters ✨ Feel free to share and play around with it 🧪 www.elementalmicroscopy.com/articles/EM0...

just over the last 5 weeks, Trump has helped swing elections (against him) in Wisconsin, Canada, Australia, and the Vatican.