Margaret Harris
@drmlharris.bsky.social
Science journalist at Physics World magazine (@physicsworld.bsky.social). Also available as @DrMLHarris@mastodon.social. All views on science, politics, history, nonsense, etc. my own. DM for Signal contact info.
A fun tidbit in this article about #quantum information and game theory. Apparently LLMs, like humans, find it harder to write stories back-to-front. That's normal for us, but weird for computers, because the two tasks ought to be informationally equivalent. (1/2) ⚛️🧪 physicsworld.com/a/playing-ga...
Playing games by the quantum rulebook expends less energy – Physics World
New form of quantum advantage emerges from study of game theory and quantum information
physicsworld.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:31 PM
A fun tidbit in this article about #quantum information and game theory. Apparently LLMs, like humans, find it harder to write stories back-to-front. That's normal for us, but weird for computers, because the two tasks ought to be informationally equivalent. (1/2) ⚛️🧪 physicsworld.com/a/playing-ga...
Q: What can you do with a clock that only "ticks" when an electron randomly tunnels through a double quantum dot?
A: More than you might expect!
Fun story about entropy & the second law of thermodynamics in the #quantum world by @annademming.bsky.social 🧪⚛️ physicsworld.com/a/researcher...
A: More than you might expect!
Fun story about entropy & the second law of thermodynamics in the #quantum world by @annademming.bsky.social 🧪⚛️ physicsworld.com/a/researcher...
Researchers pin down the true cost of precision in quantum clocks – Physics World
Trade-off between precision and entropy production lies in measurement process
physicsworld.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Q: What can you do with a clock that only "ticks" when an electron randomly tunnels through a double quantum dot?
A: More than you might expect!
Fun story about entropy & the second law of thermodynamics in the #quantum world by @annademming.bsky.social 🧪⚛️ physicsworld.com/a/researcher...
A: More than you might expect!
Fun story about entropy & the second law of thermodynamics in the #quantum world by @annademming.bsky.social 🧪⚛️ physicsworld.com/a/researcher...
Reposted by Margaret Harris
@nasawatch.bsky.social's @keithcowing.bsky.social was on the case before anyone else- the demolition of Goddard Space Flight Center began right before the government shutdown, with a memo dated September 22
NASA Goddard Begins To Disassemble Itself
this memo was sent to GSFC-DL-ALL from GSFC-Communications today at 2:12 PM
nasawatch.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:41 PM
@nasawatch.bsky.social's @keithcowing.bsky.social was on the case before anyone else- the demolition of Goddard Space Flight Center began right before the government shutdown, with a memo dated September 22
Reposted by Margaret Harris
Goddard spacecraft engineer: "I think it just kind of speaks to the atmosphere of the agency and the nation, where people are like, 'Well, laws don't matter for the people at the top anymore.'"
NASA is sinking its flagship science center during the government shutdown — and may be breaking the law in the process, critics say
"There is just a general acknowledgement that a lot of what is happening is illegal…"
www.space.com
November 4, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Goddard spacecraft engineer: "I think it just kind of speaks to the atmosphere of the agency and the nation, where people are like, 'Well, laws don't matter for the people at the top anymore.'"
I haven’t seen it mentioned on here yet, but a school board race in my Kansas hometown ended with a book-banning, health-education-denying, trans-folk-insulting “Moms for Liberty” incumbent losing out to a career educator/former Democrat state rep, and I love that for both of them.
November 5, 2025 at 2:28 PM
I haven’t seen it mentioned on here yet, but a school board race in my Kansas hometown ended with a book-banning, health-education-denying, trans-folk-insulting “Moms for Liberty” incumbent losing out to a career educator/former Democrat state rep, and I love that for both of them.
More of this type of AI application, please.
Google's DeepMind model (GDMI), which started releasing forecasts in June, has been utterly crushing the performance of traditional weather models.
(Of particular embarrassment, the US's most "mainstream" forecast model, the GFS (AVNI), performed *awfully* - often *double* GDMI's track error)
(Of particular embarrassment, the US's most "mainstream" forecast model, the GFS (AVNI), performed *awfully* - often *double* GDMI's track error)
November 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM
More of this type of AI application, please.
Reposted by Margaret Harris
If we're starting another quantum hype cycle, I need people to understand that there are pretty much just two practical problems we *know* have an exponential speedup on a quantum computer. These are:
1. Breaking the internet
2. Being quantum
A few other problems have a smaller speedup, or none
1. Breaking the internet
2. Being quantum
A few other problems have a smaller speedup, or none
November 4, 2025 at 7:26 AM
If we're starting another quantum hype cycle, I need people to understand that there are pretty much just two practical problems we *know* have an exponential speedup on a quantum computer. These are:
1. Breaking the internet
2. Being quantum
A few other problems have a smaller speedup, or none
1. Breaking the internet
2. Being quantum
A few other problems have a smaller speedup, or none
Reposted by Margaret Harris
If you have a loved one who's been "doing their own research" on TikTok (or, really, anywhere) about whether the Earth is round, you could try showing them this article instead. ⚛️🧪🔭 physicsworld.com/a/fighting-f...
Fighting flat-Earth theory – Physics World
Rachel Brazil explores ways in which the physics community can best combat unscientific thinking, such as the belief the Earth is flat
physicsworld.com
October 31, 2025 at 2:22 PM
If you have a loved one who's been "doing their own research" on TikTok (or, really, anywhere) about whether the Earth is round, you could try showing them this article instead. ⚛️🧪🔭 physicsworld.com/a/fighting-f...
If you’ve ever tried mixing oil & water, you’ll understand how the Rayleigh-Taylor instability develops. The fluids separate, forming an interface that does weird things if poked in the right way.
Turns out the same thing happens when the fluids are #quantum. 🧪⚛️
physicsworld.com/a/quantum-fl...
Turns out the same thing happens when the fluids are #quantum. 🧪⚛️
physicsworld.com/a/quantum-fl...
Quantum fluids mix like oil and water – Physics World
Rayleigh-Taylor instability responsible for mushroom clouds appears in a two-component BEC
physicsworld.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:34 PM
If you’ve ever tried mixing oil & water, you’ll understand how the Rayleigh-Taylor instability develops. The fluids separate, forming an interface that does weird things if poked in the right way.
Turns out the same thing happens when the fluids are #quantum. 🧪⚛️
physicsworld.com/a/quantum-fl...
Turns out the same thing happens when the fluids are #quantum. 🧪⚛️
physicsworld.com/a/quantum-fl...
Reposted by Margaret Harris
A halloween cartoon for @newscientist.com
October 31, 2025 at 11:27 AM
A halloween cartoon for @newscientist.com
If someone set up an E-bay account using my work email address and listed an (innocuous) item for sale on it, all without my knowledge or permission, then on a scale of 1-10, how worried should I/my workplace’s IT department be about it?
October 30, 2025 at 12:17 PM
If someone set up an E-bay account using my work email address and listed an (innocuous) item for sale on it, all without my knowledge or permission, then on a scale of 1-10, how worried should I/my workplace’s IT department be about it?
Brb gotta go collimate my butter laser
Today's extremely cursed research rabbit hole: apparently the biological things people have made into lasers include:
Cicada wing
Egg white (goose, which is clearer than chicken)
Potato
Chicken meat
Peacock feather
Vitamin B2
Olive oil
Spinach
Coral
Sunflower oil
Butter
Bone
Human organs
Bull semen
Cicada wing
Egg white (goose, which is clearer than chicken)
Potato
Chicken meat
Peacock feather
Vitamin B2
Olive oil
Spinach
Coral
Sunflower oil
Butter
Bone
Human organs
Bull semen
October 29, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Brb gotta go collimate my butter laser
Reposted by Margaret Harris
That’s Elon Musk, Fellow of the Royal Society, I’ll have you know. Because the Royal Society can only seem to come up with throat-clearing noises as a response to these sorts of statements instead of actually throwing him out.
Elon Musk: "It is time for the English to ally with the hard men, like Tommy Robinson, and fight for their survival or they shall surely all die" 29th October 2025. 2 million views in its first hour.
October 29, 2025 at 11:22 AM
That’s Elon Musk, Fellow of the Royal Society, I’ll have you know. Because the Royal Society can only seem to come up with throat-clearing noises as a response to these sorts of statements instead of actually throwing him out.
Speaking as a woman in physics, I quite enjoyed the analysis in this thread. ⚛️
Anyway, the most pertinent information in assessing the veracity of the twat cannon post is that pelvic floors squeeze involuntarily when you laugh.
And now let's talk about physics.
And now let's talk about physics.
October 28, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Speaking as a woman in physics, I quite enjoyed the analysis in this thread. ⚛️
Reposted by Margaret Harris
The way the Today show has interviewed two separate white tourist families about the Jamaica storm in the last 15 mn, but not one of the hundreds of thousands of dual citizens or Britons with Jamaican relatives tells you all you need to know about immigrant representation in this country’s media.
October 28, 2025 at 7:21 AM
The way the Today show has interviewed two separate white tourist families about the Jamaica storm in the last 15 mn, but not one of the hundreds of thousands of dual citizens or Britons with Jamaican relatives tells you all you need to know about immigrant representation in this country’s media.
The Great Bathroom Horror has dogged @epballou.bsky.social since the Bush administration. Last month, after literal decades of gaslighting nonsense about “condensation” causing persistent damp/leaks/floods, her landlord was legally forced to make a proper repair. This thread shows what they found.
Bluesky won't let me DM a photo to @drmlharris.bsky.social so I'll just show everyone.
This is the bathtub they book out of my upstairs neighbor's apartment a couple weeks ago.
Gee, I wonder why that was leaking.
This is the bathtub they book out of my upstairs neighbor's apartment a couple weeks ago.
Gee, I wonder why that was leaking.
October 27, 2025 at 9:07 PM
The Great Bathroom Horror has dogged @epballou.bsky.social since the Bush administration. Last month, after literal decades of gaslighting nonsense about “condensation” causing persistent damp/leaks/floods, her landlord was legally forced to make a proper repair. This thread shows what they found.
Alternative headline: Physicists Fed Up With Thinking About Cats In Boxes, Now Moving On To Frogs Instead 🐸🧪⚛️
Low-energy electrons escape from some materials via distinct “doorway” states, according to a study done by physicists at Austria’s Vienna Institute of Technology. 🧪⚛️ ow.ly/Zkgf50XgijP
Doorway states spotted in graphene-based materials – Physics World
Low-energy electron emission spectra depend on sample thickness
ow.ly
October 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Alternative headline: Physicists Fed Up With Thinking About Cats In Boxes, Now Moving On To Frogs Instead 🐸🧪⚛️
Reposted by Margaret Harris
(if anyone would like to maybe start some sort of campaigning or pressure group of and on behalf of immigrants with ILR and settled status in Britain then I would be interested in helping, or indeed trying to get it off the ground myself, email in bio, etc)
October 22, 2025 at 9:55 AM
(if anyone would like to maybe start some sort of campaigning or pressure group of and on behalf of immigrants with ILR and settled status in Britain then I would be interested in helping, or indeed trying to get it off the ground myself, email in bio, etc)
Fascinating result!
Proud of the work I published with @djphysicswebb.bsky.social . Gender Gap in intro physics is eliminated when employing retake exams because women do better on the FIRST try - suggesting exam STAKES (not differences in preparation/understanding) explain gender gap. 🧪 link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/...
High-stakes exams inflate a gender gap and contribute to systematic grading errors in one introductory physics series
A study in introductory physics suggests high-stakes exams are causing a gender gap, rather than measuring it.
link.aps.org
October 22, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Fascinating result!
Reposted by Margaret Harris
Oh my GOD.
October 20, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Oh my GOD.
Experimentalist's maxim:
“I’m not surprised it worked. I’m always surprised how hard it is to *get* it to work. Making it look and do exactly what you design it to do – that’s the really hard part.”
- Simon Gröblacher in this @annademming.bsky.social piece:
physicsworld.com/a/single-pho... 🧪⚛️
“I’m not surprised it worked. I’m always surprised how hard it is to *get* it to work. Making it look and do exactly what you design it to do – that’s the really hard part.”
- Simon Gröblacher in this @annademming.bsky.social piece:
physicsworld.com/a/single-pho... 🧪⚛️
Single-phonon coupler brings different quantum technologies together – Physics World
Waveguide-style approach promises to pair the versatility of phononic quantum technologies with the tight control of photonic ones
physicsworld.com
October 20, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Experimentalist's maxim:
“I’m not surprised it worked. I’m always surprised how hard it is to *get* it to work. Making it look and do exactly what you design it to do – that’s the really hard part.”
- Simon Gröblacher in this @annademming.bsky.social piece:
physicsworld.com/a/single-pho... 🧪⚛️
“I’m not surprised it worked. I’m always surprised how hard it is to *get* it to work. Making it look and do exactly what you design it to do – that’s the really hard part.”
- Simon Gröblacher in this @annademming.bsky.social piece:
physicsworld.com/a/single-pho... 🧪⚛️
Reposted by Margaret Harris
“I’m not surprised that it worked. I’m always surprised how hard it is to get it to work” says Simon Groeblacher at TU Delft “Making it to look and do exactly what you design it to do – that’s the really hard part.”
Here the effort paid off...
physicsworld.com/a/single-pho... #quantum
Here the effort paid off...
physicsworld.com/a/single-pho... #quantum
Single-phonon coupler brings different quantum technologies together – Physics World
Waveguide-style approach promises to pair the versatility of phononic quantum technologies with the tight control of photonic ones
physicsworld.com
October 20, 2025 at 9:31 AM
“I’m not surprised that it worked. I’m always surprised how hard it is to get it to work” says Simon Groeblacher at TU Delft “Making it to look and do exactly what you design it to do – that’s the really hard part.”
Here the effort paid off...
physicsworld.com/a/single-pho... #quantum
Here the effort paid off...
physicsworld.com/a/single-pho... #quantum
Reposted by Margaret Harris
Sumo stars goofing about at tourist locations seems a more fun way to celebrate England than any number of flags.
The thousand year old sport is kicking it in front the thousand some year old monument. #londonsumo #stonehenge
October 19, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Sumo stars goofing about at tourist locations seems a more fun way to celebrate England than any number of flags.
As a pale person with at least two older relatives who've had skin cancers removed from their face, I'd totally use this. Obvs I wear a daily SPF moisturizer and long clothing when practical, but I seldom put sunscreen on my hands unless I'm going out for an entire day and idk how bad that is.🤷
A flexible and wearable sensor that allows the user to monitor their exposure to ultraviolet radiation has been unveiled by researchers in South Korea. 🧪⚛️ ow.ly/2CpZ50Xcmjh
Wearable UVA sensor warns about overexposure to sunlight – Physics World
Device is flexible and transparent to visible light
ow.ly
October 17, 2025 at 10:09 AM
As a pale person with at least two older relatives who've had skin cancers removed from their face, I'd totally use this. Obvs I wear a daily SPF moisturizer and long clothing when practical, but I seldom put sunscreen on my hands unless I'm going out for an entire day and idk how bad that is.🤷