Thomas Lin
@7homaslin.com
Super nerd here to spread the joy of learning.
📖 Publisher @quantabooks.org at @simonsfoundation.org
⚛️ Founding EIC @quantamagazine.bsky.social
💼 Prev @nytimes.com, CASW, CUNY J-School
📚 Books https://mitpress.mit.edu/author/thomas-lin-2820/
🚴🏼🎾♟️
📖 Publisher @quantabooks.org at @simonsfoundation.org
⚛️ Founding EIC @quantamagazine.bsky.social
💼 Prev @nytimes.com, CASW, CUNY J-School
📚 Books https://mitpress.mit.edu/author/thomas-lin-2820/
🚴🏼🎾♟️
I always enjoy @ericaklarreich.bsky.social’s math pieces. This is what a Noperthedron looks like:
October 24, 2025 at 6:48 PM
I always enjoy @ericaklarreich.bsky.social’s math pieces. This is what a Noperthedron looks like:
Who else is going to miss the Kids Section? In case anyone at @nytimes is listening: This was one of the best things about getting the weekend paper.
August 30, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Who else is going to miss the Kids Section? In case anyone at @nytimes is listening: This was one of the best things about getting the weekend paper.
Pretty cool that they’re still carrying ALICE AND BOB MEET THE WALL OF FIRE at @powells.bsky.social in Portland. I meant to sign it “Photons = quanta of light” but signed it “Quanta = photons of light” instead. Doh! I blame vacation brain.
August 17, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Pretty cool that they’re still carrying ALICE AND BOB MEET THE WALL OF FIRE at @powells.bsky.social in Portland. I meant to sign it “Photons = quanta of light” but signed it “Quanta = photons of light” instead. Doh! I blame vacation brain.
“To a certain extent, all dictatorships are alike… But Kim Il-sung took the cult of personality to a new level. What distinguished him in the rogues’ gallery of twentieth-century dictators was his ability to harness the power of faith. Kim Il-sung understood the power of religion.” — Barbara Demick
August 6, 2025 at 8:50 PM
“To a certain extent, all dictatorships are alike… But Kim Il-sung took the cult of personality to a new level. What distinguished him in the rogues’ gallery of twentieth-century dictators was his ability to harness the power of faith. Kim Il-sung understood the power of religion.” — Barbara Demick
A nerd’s delight: Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” rewritten in pilish (where length of each word represents a digit of pi) by Michael Keith, as seen in Sarah Hart’s delightful book ONCE UPON A PRIME.
July 9, 2025 at 3:12 AM
A nerd’s delight: Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” rewritten in pilish (where length of each word represents a digit of pi) by Michael Keith, as seen in Sarah Hart’s delightful book ONCE UPON A PRIME.
It's been years since I last looked at GoodReads reviews of ALICE AND BOB MEET THE WALL OF FIRE. This has to be one of my favorites of all time (heartfelt thanks to Clare of Waitsfield, VT, for reminding a crusty old editor why we do what we do): www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
June 24, 2025 at 3:26 PM
It's been years since I last looked at GoodReads reviews of ALICE AND BOB MEET THE WALL OF FIRE. This has to be one of my favorites of all time (heartfelt thanks to Clare of Waitsfield, VT, for reminding a crusty old editor why we do what we do): www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Took this photo in 2016. Wikipedia: “the statue was conceived in 1865… to commemorate… the perseverance of American democracy and the liberation of the nation's slaves….
“…the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.”
“…the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.”
June 22, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Took this photo in 2016. Wikipedia: “the statue was conceived in 1865… to commemorate… the perseverance of American democracy and the liberation of the nation's slaves….
“…the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.”
“…the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.”
Enjoyed this spicy line while rereading Joe Polchinski’s memoir: “… when I took college physics and found out what calculus was really for. (Mathematicians might tell you that it has other uses, but they would be wrong.)”
May 14, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Enjoyed this spicy line while rereading Joe Polchinski’s memoir: “… when I took college physics and found out what calculus was really for. (Mathematicians might tell you that it has other uses, but they would be wrong.)”
And will never forget this event at my all-time favorite independent book store, also in 2019.
April 26, 2025 at 1:58 PM
And will never forget this event at my all-time favorite independent book store, also in 2019.
On this #IndieBookstoreDay, remembering six years ago when I signed copies of our @quantamagazine.bsky.social books at the family-owned Book Bin in Salem and Corvallis, Oregon.
April 26, 2025 at 1:51 PM
On this #IndieBookstoreDay, remembering six years ago when I signed copies of our @quantamagazine.bsky.social books at the family-owned Book Bin in Salem and Corvallis, Oregon.
Don’t the people who are banning books and cutting funding to libraries read books themselves? Don’t their children read books? Our (gen Z and alpha) kids have a closet full of books (plus stacks all around the apartment) and we check out books all the time from The New York Public Library. #booksky
March 19, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Don’t the people who are banning books and cutting funding to libraries read books themselves? Don’t their children read books? Our (gen Z and alpha) kids have a closet full of books (plus stacks all around the apartment) and we check out books all the time from The New York Public Library. #booksky
Accidentally brought a shirt that requires cufflinks to the London Book Fair. So I asked the hotel if they had two extra paper clips.
March 13, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Accidentally brought a shirt that requires cufflinks to the London Book Fair. So I asked the hotel if they had two extra paper clips.
100 years of the New Yorker set against the backdrop of 500 years of Trinity College. It is not lost on me that Isaac Newton used the echoes in Nevile’s Court to calculate the speed of sound and that other illustrious students included James Clerk Maxwell and Srinivasa Ramanujan.
March 9, 2025 at 10:06 PM
100 years of the New Yorker set against the backdrop of 500 years of Trinity College. It is not lost on me that Isaac Newton used the echoes in Nevile’s Court to calculate the speed of sound and that other illustrious students included James Clerk Maxwell and Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Would be good if Google AI could tell the difference between 10^-20 and 10-20.
March 4, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Would be good if Google AI could tell the difference between 10^-20 and 10-20.
A new mathematical model simulates coral polyp growth forms (including massives, cauliflower-like nubs, columns, branches and tables) using only five growth variables. Learn more in @quantamagazine.bsky.social: www.quantamagazine.org/the-elegant-...
February 27, 2025 at 5:25 PM
A new mathematical model simulates coral polyp growth forms (including massives, cauliflower-like nubs, columns, branches and tables) using only five growth variables. Learn more in @quantamagazine.bsky.social: www.quantamagazine.org/the-elegant-...
@mattstrassler.bsky.social on physics vs pseudoscience: “In physics, we accept that we might occasionally fail to recognize something as real in return for confidence that we never mistakenly accept an illusion. That’s how we ensure that knowledge, limited as it might be, remains trustworthy.”
February 26, 2025 at 3:14 PM
@mattstrassler.bsky.social on physics vs pseudoscience: “In physics, we accept that we might occasionally fail to recognize something as real in return for confidence that we never mistakenly accept an illusion. That’s how we ensure that knowledge, limited as it might be, remains trustworthy.”
The cover of @nytimes.com Sunday Opinion section this morning:
February 23, 2025 at 2:04 PM
The cover of @nytimes.com Sunday Opinion section this morning:
Such a fun @quantamagazine.bsky.social video about the big recent proof of geometric Langlands: quantamagazine.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?...
February 21, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Such a fun @quantamagazine.bsky.social video about the big recent proof of geometric Langlands: quantamagazine.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?...
Feels amazing for @quantabooks.bsky.social to join @fsgbooks.bsky.social's family of imprints -- and how cool is it that we get to sit next to @questlove.bsky.social's AUWA BOOKS?
February 20, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Feels amazing for @quantabooks.bsky.social to join @fsgbooks.bsky.social's family of imprints -- and how cool is it that we get to sit next to @questlove.bsky.social's AUWA BOOKS?
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the quote I chose to feature at the beginning of the Quanta math and science books published by the MIT Press in 2018.
February 20, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the quote I chose to feature at the beginning of the Quanta math and science books published by the MIT Press in 2018.
Was looking up why Serena was in the half-time show and got this helpful and completely non-hallucinogenic Gemini overview:
February 10, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Was looking up why Serena was in the half-time show and got this helpful and completely non-hallucinogenic Gemini overview:
When you work at a place that has a lot of physicists and mathematicians.
January 24, 2025 at 6:10 PM
When you work at a place that has a lot of physicists and mathematicians.
And we also introduced the public to Artur Avila, Brazil's first Fields medalist: www.quantamagazine.org/artur-avila-...
January 2, 2025 at 8:42 PM
And we also introduced the public to Artur Avila, Brazil's first Fields medalist: www.quantamagazine.org/artur-avila-...
In 2014, we co-wrote this profile of Subhash Khot, the theoretical computer scientist behind the Unique Games Conjecture: www.quantamagazine.org/a-grand-visi...
January 2, 2025 at 8:42 PM
In 2014, we co-wrote this profile of Subhash Khot, the theoretical computer scientist behind the Unique Games Conjecture: www.quantamagazine.org/a-grand-visi...