Jesko Sirker
@jeskosirker.bsky.social
Theoretical Physicist at the University of Manitoba, Canada: Theory of strongly correlated quantum systems, non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
Presidential budget is out. Here's NSF. Biggest cut, by amount, is $1 billion, or 66.8%, from MPS (Physics & Math directorate). nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...
May 30, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Presidential budget is out. Here's NSF. Biggest cut, by amount, is $1 billion, or 66.8%, from MPS (Physics & Math directorate). nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
As a physics journalist, it is fairly wild to see the names of the PIs with terminated grants: Misha Lukin, Philip Kim, Lisa Randall, Subir Sachdev, John Doyle...
bsky.app/profile/benn...
bsky.app/profile/benn...
That is a lot of physics suddenly canned.
New: We have the list of ~190 Harvard NSF grant terminations from internal agency sources. About $148 million intended funds killed. Over 1/3 are from the MPS directorate—roughly 75 math and physics grants.
May 15, 2025 at 8:54 PM
As a physics journalist, it is fairly wild to see the names of the PIs with terminated grants: Misha Lukin, Philip Kim, Lisa Randall, Subir Sachdev, John Doyle...
bsky.app/profile/benn...
bsky.app/profile/benn...
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
To the extent that Trump / Vance have a strategic vision for the US-UK relationship, it is not to strengthen the UK. The vision is to weaken Europe by severing UK from the continent. Trump-Vance true "special relationship" is with Russia. Russia desperately fears UK-EU unity 2/x
April 15, 2025 at 12:54 PM
To the extent that Trump / Vance have a strategic vision for the US-UK relationship, it is not to strengthen the UK. The vision is to weaken Europe by severing UK from the continent. Trump-Vance true "special relationship" is with Russia. Russia desperately fears UK-EU unity 2/x
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
3/4. If we accept the idea that moving a person from one place to another undoes rights and disempowers the judiciary, we are endorsing the basic Nazism practice that enabled the killing of millions.
April 15, 2025 at 1:13 AM
3/4. If we accept the idea that moving a person from one place to another undoes rights and disempowers the judiciary, we are endorsing the basic Nazism practice that enabled the killing of millions.
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.
April 15, 2025 at 3:52 AM
Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.
The hope that universities nowadays are more than financial institutions with an attached educational/research department and that there might even be university leaders with some spine is, unfortunately, just not very realistic: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/o...
www.nytimes.com
April 14, 2025 at 2:12 PM
The hope that universities nowadays are more than financial institutions with an attached educational/research department and that there might even be university leaders with some spine is, unfortunately, just not very realistic: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/o...
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
2025 Trump inauguration ceremony vs
2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony
www.youtube.com/watch?v=on5L...
According to quantum mechanics, it is perfectly fine to put scientists on the pedestal and simultaneously also throw them under the bus.
2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony
www.youtube.com/watch?v=on5L...
According to quantum mechanics, it is perfectly fine to put scientists on the pedestal and simultaneously also throw them under the bus.
April 13, 2025 at 11:35 AM
2025 Trump inauguration ceremony vs
2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony
www.youtube.com/watch?v=on5L...
According to quantum mechanics, it is perfectly fine to put scientists on the pedestal and simultaneously also throw them under the bus.
2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony
www.youtube.com/watch?v=on5L...
According to quantum mechanics, it is perfectly fine to put scientists on the pedestal and simultaneously also throw them under the bus.
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
BREAKING: First direct experimental observation of closed timelike curves! The team behind this effort is guaranteed to get both the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics as well as Economy.
data-and-politics.ghost.io/70-million-i...
data-and-politics.ghost.io/70-million-i...
$70 Million in 60 Seconds: How Insider Information Helped Someone 28x Their Money
On April 9, 2025, someone risked about $2.5 million—and walked away with more than $70 million in under an hour.
The trade was simple, but bold: buy a specific kind of option tied to SPY, the exchang...
data-and-politics.ghost.io
April 12, 2025 at 8:46 AM
BREAKING: First direct experimental observation of closed timelike curves! The team behind this effort is guaranteed to get both the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics as well as Economy.
data-and-politics.ghost.io/70-million-i...
data-and-politics.ghost.io/70-million-i...
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
"Die Europäer müssen verstehen: Das ist das Ende der Affäre. Amerika geht unter. Lasst euch nicht von uns mit in den Abgrund ziehen. Ihr müsst euch mobilisieren. Das Schicksal der Welt – ganz buchstäblich – hängt davon ab."
Historikerin Marci Shore verlässt Yale: „Amerika geht unter"
Droht in den USA ein Bürgerkrieg? Die Osteuropahistorikerin Marci Shore und ihr Mann Timothy Snyder verlassen ihre Universität Yale und die USA. Ein Gespräch über die alltägliche Gewalt und die Rolle ...
www.faz.net
April 12, 2025 at 4:47 PM
"Die Europäer müssen verstehen: Das ist das Ende der Affäre. Amerika geht unter. Lasst euch nicht von uns mit in den Abgrund ziehen. Ihr müsst euch mobilisieren. Das Schicksal der Welt – ganz buchstäblich – hängt davon ab."
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
The University of Winnipeg is looking at a serious financial situation. Here is a news story about it. With an inflation increase of 2.7%, a 2% increase in prov funding is effectively a cut. Strike 1. But this is only part of the story. 🧵 (1/7) #mbpoli news.uwinnipeg.ca/budget-updat...
Budget update: UWinnipeg’s 2025-2026 provincial grant allocation | University of Winnipeg News
The University of Winnipeg has received the details of its provincial grant allocation for the upcoming fiscal year.
news.uwinnipeg.ca
March 29, 2025 at 4:16 PM
The University of Winnipeg is looking at a serious financial situation. Here is a news story about it. With an inflation increase of 2.7%, a 2% increase in prov funding is effectively a cut. Strike 1. But this is only part of the story. 🧵 (1/7) #mbpoli news.uwinnipeg.ca/budget-updat...
An absolutely crazy story. One would hope that people put into these roles are capable to learn at least the very basics about how to perform their jobs. What an embarrassment.
American war planning usually takes place in highly secure facilities. But the Trump administration planned its strikes on the Houthis using a group chat—and accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. theatln.tc/IuULQFiY
The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.
theatln.tc
March 24, 2025 at 5:06 PM
An absolutely crazy story. One would hope that people put into these roles are capable to learn at least the very basics about how to perform their jobs. What an embarrassment.
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
March 13, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
BREAKING: In an unprecedented move, the Nobel Prize committee has preemptively awarded the 2025 Physics prize to Microsoft! Read the full citation below. 👇
March 11, 2025 at 8:37 AM
BREAKING: In an unprecedented move, the Nobel Prize committee has preemptively awarded the 2025 Physics prize to Microsoft! Read the full citation below. 👇
An important, excellent speech. One can only hope that Europe finally comes to its senses.
“Washington has become the court of Nero,” Senator Claude Malhuret declared before the French Parliament this week. His speech, whose dark urgency and stark rhetorical force made it a social-media sensation, has been translated and adapted by The Atlantic:
Trump Is Nero While Washington Burns
‘Trump’s message is that being his ally serves no purpose, because he will not defend you.’
www.theatlantic.com
March 9, 2025 at 12:49 AM
An important, excellent speech. One can only hope that Europe finally comes to its senses.
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
Students at the University of Manitoba will be going to classes next week after a potential strike by academic staff was averted early Saturday morning.
U of M classes to continue as strike by academic staff averted
Students at the University of Manitoba will be going to classes next week after a potential strike by academic staff was averted early Saturday morning.
www.winnipegfreepress.com
March 9, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Students at the University of Manitoba will be going to classes next week after a potential strike by academic staff was averted early Saturday morning.
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
Microsoft's extraordinary claim last month—to have created a bonafide topological qubit—was met with caution by many experts. Now, a physicist is raising specific and substantive concerns about a key test that underlies Microsoft's approach. My reporting: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Microsoft quantum computing 'breakthrough' faces fresh challenge
Analysis pokes holes in protocol that underpins Microsoft’s claim to have created the first topological qubits.
www.nature.com
March 7, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Microsoft's extraordinary claim last month—to have created a bonafide topological qubit—was met with caution by many experts. Now, a physicist is raising specific and substantive concerns about a key test that underlies Microsoft's approach. My reporting: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
Ok. Once and for all. Trump is anti Ukraine, anti Democracy, anti Europe and, above all, pro Putin. There can be no more doubt—it’s just a disaster it’s taken so long for people to understand it.
February 28, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Ok. Once and for all. Trump is anti Ukraine, anti Democracy, anti Europe and, above all, pro Putin. There can be no more doubt—it’s just a disaster it’s taken so long for people to understand it.
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Finland’s then-president Niinistö said that the masks had fallen.
If anyone was still clinging onto some kind of hope of Trump coming around on Ukraine, this disgrace of a press conference should make everything clear now.
Trump is anti-Ukraine. Pro-Russia.
If anyone was still clinging onto some kind of hope of Trump coming around on Ukraine, this disgrace of a press conference should make everything clear now.
Trump is anti-Ukraine. Pro-Russia.
February 28, 2025 at 6:31 PM
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Finland’s then-president Niinistö said that the masks had fallen.
If anyone was still clinging onto some kind of hope of Trump coming around on Ukraine, this disgrace of a press conference should make everything clear now.
Trump is anti-Ukraine. Pro-Russia.
If anyone was still clinging onto some kind of hope of Trump coming around on Ukraine, this disgrace of a press conference should make everything clear now.
Trump is anti-Ukraine. Pro-Russia.
Good to see a detailed analysis but who really believed in stable topological regions after seeing these figures which looked nothing like one would expect theoretically?
I regret to inform you of the tragic and permanent scientific death of current Microsoft Majorana claims.
arxiv.org/abs/2502.19560
arxiv.org/abs/2502.19560
Comment on "InAs-Al hybrid devices passing the topological gap protocol", Microsoft Quantum, Phys. Rev. B 107, 245423 (2023)
The topological gap protocol (TGP) is presented as "a series of stringent experimental tests" for the presence of topological superconductivity and associated Majorana bound states. Here, we show that...
arxiv.org
February 28, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Good to see a detailed analysis but who really believed in stable topological regions after seeing these figures which looked nothing like one would expect theoretically?
Reposted by Jesko Sirker
The chaos and confusion of the Trump administration's science policy is taking its toll on early career researchers. Some prospective PhD students I spoke with have had informal offers rescinded as universities reduce or outright halt their programs.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
US universities curtail PhD admissions amid Trump science funding cuts
Nature talks to prospective students left in limbo as some institutes withdraw offers and put applications on hold.
www.nature.com
February 27, 2025 at 6:35 PM
The chaos and confusion of the Trump administration's science policy is taking its toll on early career researchers. Some prospective PhD students I spoke with have had informal offers rescinded as universities reduce or outright halt their programs.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Nature hiding their reservations about the latest Microsoft paper in the review file: "The editorial team wishes to point out that the results in this manuscript do not represent evidence for the presence of Majorana zero modes in the reported devices." worked really well, see the NYT article:
February 20, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Nature hiding their reservations about the latest Microsoft paper in the review file: "The editorial team wishes to point out that the results in this manuscript do not represent evidence for the presence of Majorana zero modes in the reported devices." worked really well, see the NYT article:
Non-hermitian Hamiltonians are used to describe open quantum systems. As in Hermitian systems, topologically protected modes can exist. However, there has been considerable confusion about which modes are protected. We provide clarification in a recent paper in Phys. Rev. Lett. shorturl.at/jdegf
Hidden Zero Modes and Topology of Multiband Non-Hermitian Systems
In a finite one-dimensional non-Hermitian system, the number of zero modes does not necessarily reflect the topology of the system. This is known as the breakdown of the bulk-boundary correspondence a...
shorturl.at
February 5, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Non-hermitian Hamiltonians are used to describe open quantum systems. As in Hermitian systems, topologically protected modes can exist. However, there has been considerable confusion about which modes are protected. We provide clarification in a recent paper in Phys. Rev. Lett. shorturl.at/jdegf