John Travers
@jctravs.bsky.social
RAEng Chair in Emerging Technologies and Professor of Physics at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh. Ultrafast optics, solitons, hollow fibres.
https://lupo-lab.com
https://lupo-lab.com
Reposted by John Travers
if you see this post, your actions are:
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
I’ve never donated to Wikipedia before but I set up a small monthly donation as a fuck you to the world’s richest psychopath.
Elon Musk takes aim at Wikipedia
Musk has denounced Wikipedia as "Wokepedia" on X and urged people not to donate to the platform.
www.newsweek.com
December 26, 2024 at 12:03 PM
if you see this post, your actions are:
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
- if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this
- if you don't have a spare buck, just repost
your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive
Reposted by John Travers
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
Reposted by John Travers
Code is Just, all three seasons, as heavily requested, is finally out in a compiled PDF and ePub for easy reading. Price is whatever is reasonable for you, including zero. 1720541891659.gumroad.com/l/qkali
Code is Just — The Compiled Edition
A record of the British home computer revolution — and my place in it. First told live on Twitter in 2021, now compiled, complete, and yours to keep.Code is Just began as a live Twitter thread in 2021...
1720541891659.gumroad.com
October 25, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Code is Just, all three seasons, as heavily requested, is finally out in a compiled PDF and ePub for easy reading. Price is whatever is reasonable for you, including zero. 1720541891659.gumroad.com/l/qkali
Reposted by John Travers
October 3, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by John Travers
If you love supercontinuum (and who doesn't!) check out our forward-looking Perspective in EPL which is free to read. Thanks @jctravs.bsky.social Thibaut Sylvestre, Alex Heidt, Roy Taylor, Goery Genty iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
September 9, 2025 at 12:42 PM
If you love supercontinuum (and who doesn't!) check out our forward-looking Perspective in EPL which is free to read. Thanks @jctravs.bsky.social Thibaut Sylvestre, Alex Heidt, Roy Taylor, Goery Genty iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
Reposted by John Travers
If you are applying to a PhD, don't use an LLM in composing your proposal.
If you are doing a PhD, don't use an LLM to do the writing and reading and thinking for you.
Sorry, I am going to die on this hill.
If you are doing a PhD, don't use an LLM to do the writing and reading and thinking for you.
Sorry, I am going to die on this hill.
July 31, 2025 at 9:52 AM
If you are applying to a PhD, don't use an LLM in composing your proposal.
If you are doing a PhD, don't use an LLM to do the writing and reading and thinking for you.
Sorry, I am going to die on this hill.
If you are doing a PhD, don't use an LLM to do the writing and reading and thinking for you.
Sorry, I am going to die on this hill.
Visit my group's post-deadline talk at CLEO/Europe-EQEC to find out what's been consuming an enormous amount of our time, energy and money(!) lately.
Nikoleta Kotsina will present TW-scale optical attosecond pulses and sub-3 fs DUV pulses with more than 170 µJ of energy!!
🧪💡⚛️😎
Nikoleta Kotsina will present TW-scale optical attosecond pulses and sub-3 fs DUV pulses with more than 170 µJ of energy!!
🧪💡⚛️😎
June 23, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Visit my group's post-deadline talk at CLEO/Europe-EQEC to find out what's been consuming an enormous amount of our time, energy and money(!) lately.
Nikoleta Kotsina will present TW-scale optical attosecond pulses and sub-3 fs DUV pulses with more than 170 µJ of energy!!
🧪💡⚛️😎
Nikoleta Kotsina will present TW-scale optical attosecond pulses and sub-3 fs DUV pulses with more than 170 µJ of energy!!
🧪💡⚛️😎
Congratulations to @nickkarpowicz.bsky.social and co-authors! This is a major contribution to our field.
I am still digesting the details, but this is a wonderful piece of work!
I am still digesting the details, but this is a wonderful piece of work!
www.nature.com/articles/s41... Our research on measuring the field of pulses that compress themselves below a femtosecond, just published in Nature Photonics (open access)
Field-resolved attosecond solitons - Nature Photonics
Combining attosecond metrology and soliton dynamics in hollow-core fibres, the generation of attosecond laser pulses from the deep-ultraviolet to the near-infrared regime and the measurement of attose...
www.nature.com
June 14, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Congratulations to @nickkarpowicz.bsky.social and co-authors! This is a major contribution to our field.
I am still digesting the details, but this is a wonderful piece of work!
I am still digesting the details, but this is a wonderful piece of work!
Reposted by John Travers
🎉New paper! doi.org/10.1364/OE.5... 📝
We look at how different numbers of capillaries affect the guidance properties of hollow core fibres, enabling the guidance of ~ 50 modes in the near-infrared. Some cool fibres in here that guide the visible and ultraviolet #science #optics #photonics
We look at how different numbers of capillaries affect the guidance properties of hollow core fibres, enabling the guidance of ~ 50 modes in the near-infrared. Some cool fibres in here that guide the visible and ultraviolet #science #optics #photonics
June 13, 2025 at 3:00 PM
🎉New paper! doi.org/10.1364/OE.5... 📝
We look at how different numbers of capillaries affect the guidance properties of hollow core fibres, enabling the guidance of ~ 50 modes in the near-infrared. Some cool fibres in here that guide the visible and ultraviolet #science #optics #photonics
We look at how different numbers of capillaries affect the guidance properties of hollow core fibres, enabling the guidance of ~ 50 modes in the near-infrared. Some cool fibres in here that guide the visible and ultraviolet #science #optics #photonics
Reposted by John Travers
If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow.
The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
June 3, 2025 at 9:02 PM
If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow.
The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
Reposted by John Travers
Why are my lasers so expensive?
May 25, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Why are my lasers so expensive?
Reposted by John Travers
Our optica paper, "Tunable megawatt-scale sub-20 fs visible pulses from a fiber laser source", is out!
Happy to have been a part of this during my time at Heriot-Watt
opg.optica.org/optica/fullt...
Happy to have been a part of this during my time at Heriot-Watt
opg.optica.org/optica/fullt...
Optica Publishing Group
opg.optica.org
May 22, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Our optica paper, "Tunable megawatt-scale sub-20 fs visible pulses from a fiber laser source", is out!
Happy to have been a part of this during my time at Heriot-Watt
opg.optica.org/optica/fullt...
Happy to have been a part of this during my time at Heriot-Watt
opg.optica.org/optica/fullt...
Reposted by John Travers
Announcing a PhD position starting October 2025, on Applications of Machine Learning in Ultrafast Nonlinear Fibre Optics. The advertisement will be out soon, but my email is easy to find, so please send me a CV if interested. Experience in experimental & numerical photonics highly desirable!
April 21, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Announcing a PhD position starting October 2025, on Applications of Machine Learning in Ultrafast Nonlinear Fibre Optics. The advertisement will be out soon, but my email is easy to find, so please send me a CV if interested. Experience in experimental & numerical photonics highly desirable!
Reposted by John Travers
Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.
April 15, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Even accepting the premise that AI produces useful writing (which no one should), using AI in education is like using a forklift at the gym. The weights do not actually need to be moved from place to place. That is not the work. The work is what happens within you.
Reposted by John Travers
The @uniofbath.bsky.social Optical Fibres group is hiring! They are looking for a Professor and two Lecturers to join. If bespoke optical fibres could benefit your research, this is an opportunity. More info: www.bath.ac.uk/research-gro...
February 26, 2025 at 10:51 AM
The @uniofbath.bsky.social Optical Fibres group is hiring! They are looking for a Professor and two Lecturers to join. If bespoke optical fibres could benefit your research, this is an opportunity. More info: www.bath.ac.uk/research-gro...
Reposted by John Travers
A Brief History of Kids Today Have Too Much Freedom
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February 21, 2025 at 11:48 PM
A Brief History of Kids Today Have Too Much Freedom
🧵
🧵
Reposted by John Travers
Traditional multi-mode #optical fibres are straightforward, but the same is difficult to achieve in hollow core fibres. We report anti-resonant hollow core optical fibres guiding at least 50 spatial modes in the infrared (~5-fold improvement ). #science #photonics #research
arxiv.org/abs/2501.12996
arxiv.org/abs/2501.12996
January 23, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Traditional multi-mode #optical fibres are straightforward, but the same is difficult to achieve in hollow core fibres. We report anti-resonant hollow core optical fibres guiding at least 50 spatial modes in the infrared (~5-fold improvement ). #science #photonics #research
arxiv.org/abs/2501.12996
arxiv.org/abs/2501.12996
Reposted by John Travers
An embarrassment of riches
January 22, 2025 at 5:36 AM
An embarrassment of riches
Reposted by John Travers
Our recent paper in @opticapubsgroup.bsky.social Optics Letters presents the first relativistic plasma-mirror high harmonic generation on a liquid-sheet target.
This is a real game changer for plasma mirrors !
Persistent kHz-rep.-rate with unprecedented stability.
doi.org/10.1364/OL.5...
This is a real game changer for plasma mirrors !
Persistent kHz-rep.-rate with unprecedented stability.
doi.org/10.1364/OL.5...
Continuous relativistic high-harmonic generation from a kHz liquid-sheet plasma mirror
We report on continuous high-harmonic generation (HHG) at 1 kHz repetition rate from a liquid-sheet plasma mirror driven by relativistic-intensity near-single-cycle light transients. Through precise c...
doi.org
January 8, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Our recent paper in @opticapubsgroup.bsky.social Optics Letters presents the first relativistic plasma-mirror high harmonic generation on a liquid-sheet target.
This is a real game changer for plasma mirrors !
Persistent kHz-rep.-rate with unprecedented stability.
doi.org/10.1364/OL.5...
This is a real game changer for plasma mirrors !
Persistent kHz-rep.-rate with unprecedented stability.
doi.org/10.1364/OL.5...
Reposted by John Travers
A warm and wonderful recognition of Wilson Sibbett written by friend and colleague Roy Taylor in the latest issue of Nature Photonics. I am unsure about access options so (lower resolution) screenshots are below. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
January 8, 2025 at 9:53 AM
A warm and wonderful recognition of Wilson Sibbett written by friend and colleague Roy Taylor in the latest issue of Nature Photonics. I am unsure about access options so (lower resolution) screenshots are below. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by John Travers
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new MSc in Quantum Technologies at Heriot-Watt University's Edinburgh campus.
www.hw.ac.uk/study/postgr...
www.hw.ac.uk/study/postgr...
MSc Quantum Technologies
www.hw.ac.uk
January 7, 2025 at 2:06 PM
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new MSc in Quantum Technologies at Heriot-Watt University's Edinburgh campus.
www.hw.ac.uk/study/postgr...
www.hw.ac.uk/study/postgr...
Reposted by John Travers
I'm hiring! Please share!
I'm seeking a talented and motivated scientist to lead a research programme developing ultrafast light-source technologies in collaboration with a major player in the semiconductor lithography sector.
Come and join my group at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland!
I'm seeking a talented and motivated scientist to lead a research programme developing ultrafast light-source technologies in collaboration with a major player in the semiconductor lithography sector.
Come and join my group at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland!
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics in Gas-Filled Fibres
The project is expected to lead to significant technological progress and high-impact scientific publications in the areas of ultrafast and nonlinear optics.
enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com
December 17, 2024 at 3:43 PM
I'm hiring! Please share!
I'm seeking a talented and motivated scientist to lead a research programme developing ultrafast light-source technologies in collaboration with a major player in the semiconductor lithography sector.
Come and join my group at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland!
I'm seeking a talented and motivated scientist to lead a research programme developing ultrafast light-source technologies in collaboration with a major player in the semiconductor lithography sector.
Come and join my group at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland!
Reposted by John Travers
Make sure you use an ultrashort pulsed potato masher when preparing your Christmas dinner #physics #nonlinearoptics
December 23, 2024 at 12:50 PM
Make sure you use an ultrashort pulsed potato masher when preparing your Christmas dinner #physics #nonlinearoptics
I have two 3.5 year PhD positions available in my group (worldwide eligibility). Please share!
I'm seeking motivated and capable PhD candidates who wish to work on state-of-the-art ultrafast light source science and technology.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
I'm seeking motivated and capable PhD candidates who wish to work on state-of-the-art ultrafast light source science and technology.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
December 18, 2024 at 10:56 PM
I have two 3.5 year PhD positions available in my group (worldwide eligibility). Please share!
I'm seeking motivated and capable PhD candidates who wish to work on state-of-the-art ultrafast light source science and technology.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
I'm seeking motivated and capable PhD candidates who wish to work on state-of-the-art ultrafast light source science and technology.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
I'm hiring! Please share!
I'm seeking a talented and motivated scientist to lead a research programme developing ultrafast light-source technologies in collaboration with a major player in the semiconductor lithography sector.
Come and join my group at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland!
I'm seeking a talented and motivated scientist to lead a research programme developing ultrafast light-source technologies in collaboration with a major player in the semiconductor lithography sector.
Come and join my group at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland!
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics in Gas-Filled Fibres
The project is expected to lead to significant technological progress and high-impact scientific publications in the areas of ultrafast and nonlinear optics.
enzj.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com
December 17, 2024 at 3:43 PM
I'm hiring! Please share!
I'm seeking a talented and motivated scientist to lead a research programme developing ultrafast light-source technologies in collaboration with a major player in the semiconductor lithography sector.
Come and join my group at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland!
I'm seeking a talented and motivated scientist to lead a research programme developing ultrafast light-source technologies in collaboration with a major player in the semiconductor lithography sector.
Come and join my group at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland!