Will Thomas
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williamthomas.bsky.social
Will Thomas
@williamthomas.bsky.social
1.3K followers 200 following 480 posts
Director of Research in History, Policy, and Culture at the American Institute of Physics. Author of Rational Action: The Sciences of Policy in Britain and America, 1940-1960. Views expressed are my own.
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williamthomas.bsky.social
Sorry for going on about this, but it's fascinating. This is an interesting recollection from @preskill.bsky.social about Stu Freedman's early reaction to an early divergence from the results he got with John Clauser in '72. A wry remark? A nod to Bohm? 🤷https://repository.aip.org/node/129433
October 28, 2025 at 4:29 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
I have about 10 pages on this in my book Rational Action, so I'm excited to see others who get how interesting they are!
October 27, 2025 at 10:58 AM
williamthomas.bsky.social
On the Uncertainty Principle, I just now ran into this gem from Asher Peres's obituary: #HPS
His textbook Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods (Kluwer Academic, 1993) is arguably the modern successor of John von Neumann’s book Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton U. Press, 1955). The uncertainty principle, for which Asher had little use, is relegated to a single entry in the index that points to the same page of the index.
October 22, 2025 at 4:32 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
One does not simply detect a gravitational wave.

Next week, physicists, historians, and philosophers will gather in Potsdam to examine efforts to tackle the two-body problem in general relativity that is behind all those black hole mergers. See who will be there: www.aip.org/history/work... #HPS
Boromir "One does not simply" meme image Conference poster, "In Pursuit of Gravitational Waves: Solving the Two-Body Problem in General Relativity"
October 17, 2025 at 2:11 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
And Martinis? His dad was a refugee from Yugoslavia. repository.aip.org/node/129661
My dad was born in Croatia. As it happened, his father left for the United States shortly before the war. And the family left behind were kind of by themselves over the war and thirteen to seventeen. So, he had a very difficult childhood, and especially the teenage years, and actually never talked about it much. I think he did quite well for having such a difficult time growing up. After the war, his family was trying to get to the United States. Yugoslavia was beginning to close up at the time because of the communist government. In the end, escaped from Yugoslavia and had security people chasing him to make an example of him. In the old country his family fished. So, when he went to Washington state that is what he did with his father and brother. During the off season he came down to San Pedro in California, where he had relatives, and met my mom.
October 7, 2025 at 8:17 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
Congratulations to this year's winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Be sure to check out our oral histories with:

John Martinis: repository.aip.org/node/129661

Michel Devoret: repository.aip.org/node/129778
October 7, 2025 at 12:28 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
Adams, by the way, is fascinating. Not only did he not have a PhD, he had no university education whatsoever. Yet, he rose to become director of the UK's fusion research lab at Culham and a co-leader of CERN. 📷 © CERN #histsci #HPS royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
October 3, 2025 at 2:21 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
I like how the impression here is of the hurricanes approaching the US and basically taking a look and saying, "woah, let's get outta here" www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025...
October 1, 2025 at 2:56 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
After a long hiatus, AIP's postdoc position for historians of the physical sciences is back!

3 years, $77,500 per year + benefits. Work in the Washington, DC area, close to Univ of Maryland. Open to US citizens/permanent residents. Apply by Nov. 15! #histsci

workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...
A green space with bushes and trees and a helix sculpture next to a beige building.
September 30, 2025 at 6:06 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
Good for FYI to point this out, from the latest OSTP/OMB R&D priorities memo. I think it's important to retain the memory that five years ago DEI wasn't even controversial. www.aip.org/fyi/ai-and-q...
Text clip: "The memo appears to reflect the Trump administration’s hard turn against certain STEM education programs and diversity initiatives. An earlier memo published during Trump’s first term overtly called for agencies to prioritize “activities that advance innovation in STEM education and increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM.” This objective is ridiculed in the latest memo, and the Trump administration has pursued an aggressive campaign to eliminate grants, programs, and policies that have even passing connections to DEI."
September 26, 2025 at 10:41 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
I see Peter Baker and the Times are at the bold vanguard of political analysis once again.
September 14, 2025 at 1:22 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
Many thanks to Bob and @yangyangcheng.bsky.social for discussing why they value physics history. Unexpectedly, for both, their interest was sparked by the ongoing presence of the Manhattan Project around them, in Oak Ridge and Chicago, respectively. aip.brightspotcdn.com/89/11/30815e...
August 26, 2025 at 2:56 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
The 2025 AIP Early Career Conference for Historians of the Physical Sciences is now behind us. Many thanks to our hosts at the Federal University of Bahia in Salvador, Brazil. We have a lot of #histsci talent and bonhomie carrying our field into the future.

More info: www.aip.org/history/prog...
A group of about 50 people standing in casual clothing behind letters saying "AIPECC25". The foreground is a square-shaped pool. There is an ocean in the background and blue skies with sparse clouds overhead.
August 19, 2025 at 2:45 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
Also, congratulations to the winners of the 2024 and 2025 IUPAP Early Career Prize in the History of Physics, who will receive their medals at the meeting: my wonderful former AIP colleague Joanna Behrman and Barbara Hof, currently a postdoc at the University of Lausanne www.iuchpp.org/prize
Portraits of Joanna Behrman and Barbara Hof
August 1, 2025 at 2:48 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
During the Red Scare...

-There was a 7-year smear campaign against the head of the Nat'l Bureau of Standards
-INS hoped to revoke Einstein's citizenship
-Fisk University let one of Oppenheimer's students go
-Berkeley lost every theorist on its physics faculty

aip.brightspotcdn.com/89/11/30815e...
July 7, 2025 at 2:14 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
I wrote about physics during the Red Scare in our latest History Newsletter because it is a key example of when US physicists were forced to confront more bare-knuckled forms of politics, as they are now. aip.brightspotcdn.com/89/11/30815e...
July 2, 2025 at 1:45 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
Sixty years ago today, the American Institute of Physics established a "Center for History and Philosophy of Physics," building on four years of pilot efforts. Charles Weiner was director and Joan Warnow led the Niels Bohr Library & Archives. Their work set a model for many efforts to come.
A balding man (Weiner) and a blond, long-haired woman (Warnow), both elegantly dressed, examine sheets of paper in front of a wood and glass display case.
July 1, 2025 at 1:27 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
Good to see the reported Archives II policies are some mixed state of rescinded/clarified, with continued access for all researchers.
June 25, 2025 at 6:36 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
Note also the vague clues in the new parking and visitor access instructions. Researchers have to park in the satellite lot. The bus will drop off at the end of the driveway. Those applying for research cards are there to "establish a legitimate business purpose"
June 24, 2025 at 11:55 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
It was a gravitational spring here at AIP, with our three excellent Trimble lectures:

-Peter Galison on imaging black holes
-Jaco de Swart on the hunt for dark matter particles
-Tiffany Nichols on siting the LIGO gravitational wave detectors

Videos here:
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Three side-by-side images of, respectively, Peter Galison, Jaco de Swart, and Tiffany Nichols lecturing.
June 13, 2025 at 3:53 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
One thing I like doing with these weeklies is casually dropping in references to our amazing collections at the bottom. "Hey guys, if you like that content, check out our 12-part oral history with Werner Heisenberg, conducted by Tom Kuhn and John Heilbron" repository.aip.org/solr-search/...
June 13, 2025 at 2:26 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
After you mentioned Cornog the other day, I searched our oral history collection for mentions, and this anecdote came up an interview with Alvarez, which will no doubt interest you. (If you don't know it already, which would not surprise me!)
"We were very aware that we were dealing with a dangerous toy, and to the best of my knowledge nobody had any radiation damage and no one got cataracts. Bob Cornog once got his hand in an alpha particle beam and got a little burn, about so big; it didn’t last very long. That’s the only radiation damage I know of, whereas there were dozens of cyclotron people who got cataracts from looking into the accelerator tank--getting too much neutrons. How they got too much neutrons I’ll never know after what had happened at Berkeley. When I think of what we did now--fantastic."
May 17, 2025 at 2:31 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
And you can sign up for AIP's weekly and monthly history of physics emails here: www.aip.org/newsletters
May 9, 2025 at 5:28 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
And RSVPs are open to attend our final spring lecture in person in DC: Peter Galison from Harvard University will discuss the place of history and philosophy in the scientific study of black holes. ww2.aip.org/history/pete...
Illustration from Peter Galison's film "Shattering Stars" showing Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in black and white sketch outline atop a staircase of books facing an enormous black hole ringed by white light.
May 5, 2025 at 6:26 PM
williamthomas.bsky.social
White House NSF budget request language. Importantly, Congress rarely gives much direction for how NSF's budget should be allocated among divisions and programs, so they would have to be unusually assertive to overturn some of these plans. Not clear to me what fraction of SBE would be "woke".
"The Budget cuts funding for: climate; clean energy; woke social, behavioral, and economic sciences; and programs in low priority areas of science. NSF has fueled research with dubious public value, like speculative impacts from extreme climate scenarios and niche social studies, such as a grant to the University of Nebraska to create “affinity groups” for bird watchers and a $15.2 million grant to the University of Delaware to develop and evaluate policy interventions to “achieve sustainable equity, economic prosperity, and coastal resilience in the context of climate change.” Similarly, Columbia University received $13.8 million to “advance livable, safe, and inclusive communities.” Funding for Artificial Intelligence and quantum information sciences research is maintained at current levels. ... NSF “Broadening Participation” programs have funded projects such as: “Reimagining Educator Learning Pathways Through Storywork for Racial Equity in STEM”; “addressing White Supremacy in the STEM profession”; and preparing “the next generation of DEI leaders to promote long-term, sustainable racial equity initiatives.” These efforts would no longer receive Federal dollars and all DEI-related programs at NSF are eliminated. ... [For Agency operations] The Budget reduces non-essential programs in NSF, and this reduction to operations aligns with the Agency’s reduced size. "
May 2, 2025 at 2:59 PM