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David Abergel

@davidabergel.bsky.social
1.5K followers 221 following 288 posts

Chief Editor of Nature Physics @natphys.nature.com. Former runner 🏃. Wannabe crossfitter 🏋️. Mediocre photographer 📷. Opinions my own. Debate welcomed.

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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 1h
Not sure if this is depressing or a wonderful testament to the advance of human knowledge.
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Peter Seavill @peterseavill.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
There are still a few days left to apply for this role within the @natureportfolio.nature.com If you're interested in sustainable chemistry, go ahead and apply. Deadline: 30th September
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is nice, but the milliKelvin STM peeps are like "atomic resolution at 7K? Pffft!"
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I'm catching up on the #NASCAR action from Bristol this weekend. I'll get to the Hocevar/Blaney thing later, but I have to say that, perhaps this is a European perspective, but M&Ms making a marketing opportunity out of Kyle Busch's death is a bit distasteful to me.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I wrote a research highlight on a paper that observes the long-predicted dipole effect when a current flows past a charged impurity. #physics rdcu.be/kZBGAgMkgYga (free to read)
rdcu.be
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I had to renew my passport and it arrived today and it's the wrong colour and that makes me really sad.
Photo of a dark blue UK passport.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
My contribution was to smuggle the word "ontological" into Nature Reviews Physics.
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Nature Physics @natphys.nature.com · 12/08/2026
We are hiring! We're looking for someone with expertise in optics and/or photonics to come and work with us on a temporary basis. Preferred location is Berlin but Pune is also possible. Please repost! springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/SpringerNatu...
springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com
Interim Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Physics (m/w/d)
Job title: Interim Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Physics Location: Berlin or Pune, 12-month limited contract Application deadline: 26.08.2026 About Springer Nature Springer Nature opens the doors...
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Petty hills that I will die on #39: The correct formulation is "in contrast", not "by contrast".
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CodeRefinery @coderefinery.org · 06/08/2026
We run CodeRefinery workshops twice a year for researchers who code. Hands-on, collaborative, and focused on real research software practices. Next workshop coming up in September: coderefinery.github.io/2026-09-22-w... #RSEng #OpenScience #OpenEducation
CodeRefinery workshop webpage showing dates, workshop information, and key links for livestreams, installation, lesson materials, and participant resources.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Dear authors, please define your acronyms. You tell me that a variable n is the RC, but what is that? Remote control? Roman Catholic? Release candidate? Red Cross? Who's to know!
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
And now I have to complete the most frustrating task of each month, where I must log in to our production database, copy-paste a bunch of DOIs relating to our next issue into a Word document, and then email that document to our production team. I mean seriously.
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Blake C. Stacey @blakestacey.myatproto.social · 30/07/2026
me: [sobbing] England, you can't just call everything a pudding J. J. Thomson: [points at atom] pudding
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Every overseas student benefits the UK - They pay money to the university - They spend money in the local economy - They return home with good feelings about the UK (soft power) - They help subsidise local students - They make the learning environment better It's a real 'win-win'
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
New PB for my front squat this evening. It's about bloody time something went right with my exercising!
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Minor daily irritations #138: The fact that when you're using a tab group in chrome, Ctrl-t opens the new tab outside of that group.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
The ACS/Silverchair/graphical abstracts thing is amusing, but it highlights to me that I don't think I've ever seen a graphical abstract that is actually helpful. And by 'helpful' I mean it tells me what is in the paper without actually reading the paper. Anyone got an example that is good?
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Am sat in a talk and there are three people near me who are taking photos of the slides and who haven't turned off the fake shutter noise on their phone. Ca-chshhhh Ca-chshhhh ca-chshhhh Ca-chshhhh. So annoying!
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Please can someone score before full time so that I can go to sleep.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Could it be that Spain are out-shithousing Argentina???
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Keith Smith @drkeithsmith.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
On the BBC coverage, Wayne Rooney just offered the best punditry of his TV career: “I like a lot of those artists, but I thought it was crap.” 😂
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Please FIFA, don't ever do that again.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
The thing is, a Superbowl halftime show has a theme, a narrative, a message. You might not like a particular year's version, but there is tradition. That show was a mess.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
This halftime show thing is a crime against humanity
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Get on with the game.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
This is so stupid.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Lol. German TV has the play-by-play guy commentating over Madonna.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
The ref, wearing all black, seems to be barely sweating. Android?
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Spain are pressing so well.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
I get that the whole of Europe wants to watch the game, but having the players run around in a heat bowl at 3pm seems pretty harsh. Not to mention the fans with all that beer inside them #dehydration
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Watching the game. It looks hot.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Wait, the world cup final has a half time show??? What kind of nonsense is this?? I get that "football" can be an ambiguous word but this is ridiculous.
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Samuel Moore @samuelmoore.org · 19/07/2026
It's fine to be sceptical about the ability of AI but you have to admit it's really good at adding a ton of busywork to the already stretched academic publishing system.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
My first ever time in Stuttgart this week. Will be at M2S and hope to conduct 😉 lots of super 😉 conversations.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Argentina deserved that.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Squeaky bum time.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Basically the first time the game opened up and there it is.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
This has got 1-0 written all over it. Some scrappy goal off a defender's backside looking the wrong way and everyone will be unhappy.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Watching this in Germany with German commentators and I think it's fair to say that they are basically here for the lols.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Am watching the game because if England have a glorious/ignominious exit from the tournament, I would like to feel entitled to having an opinion about it.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
These days I read a lot of text that seems like it was generated by an LLM. I guess that's fine if efficiency is the main goal. But it all sounds so much the same as itself. Vapid. Pompous. Repetitive. Basically the Boris Johnson of prose. I really wish people would just write. #GetOffMyLawn
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Chris Leonard @hoohar.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Commentator on the England game the other night said Jude Bellingham was "worth his weight in gold". Assuming he is around 75kg, that's around £10m. Not really close to his value. He should have said "worth his weight in crystalline osmium" - £200m.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Catching up on the #NASCAR race from Chicagoland this weekend, and already in stage 1 Todd Gilliland has wiped out Hocevar because he deserves it and SVG took retribution on Austin Hill. Love. It.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
At @natphys.nature.com we recently published a paper that claims to show evidence of entanglement in the strange metal state. Belatedly, we now have a News and Views that unpacks this result and provides some context. ($) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Tangled up in spin - Nature Physics
Neutron scattering measurements on a strongly correlated metal show hints of quantum entanglement in the strange metal state.
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Douglas Cheape @douglascheape.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
They tell me I’m uncultured, but I’ll always recognise a bit of Beethoven.
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 29/06/2026
720 Ollie xkcd.com/3264/
Comic. [Person with short hair and a skateboard talking to another person, with an image of Person 1 on a skateboard going over a bump with a line with two swirls behind him.] PERSON 1: Something weird I’ve noticed is that if I do a 360 ollie, I land backward. I have to do a 720 to land going forward. [caption] Tony Hawk discovers that he’s a spin-½ fermion.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Here in Leipzig, the heatwave was strong enough to melt the Straßenbahn tracks. All services still cancelled! 😬
Tram track running vertically through the frame, showing where the tar used to keep the track in the correct place has melted.Tram track running vertically through the frame, showing where the tar used to keep the track in the correct place has melted.
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Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 28/06/2026
Guys, guys!!! I think I have figured out a solution. I call it "German AC"!
Illustration of Maxwell's demon from Wikipedia
By User:Htkym - Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1625737

Labels have been added: Maxwell's demon is German AC, one gas chamber is inside, the other one outside.
The second panel says: The German AC only lets fast (= hot) molecules pass outside, thus lowering room temperature without creating surplus heat.

Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment to ostensibly disprove the second law of thermo dynamics. From wikipedia:
In the thought experiment, a demon controls a door between two chambers containing gas. As individual gas molecules (or atoms) approach the door, the demon quickly opens and closes the door to allow only fast-moving molecules to pass through in one direction, and only slow-moving molecules to pass through in the other. Because the kinetic temperature of a gas depends on the velocities of its constituent molecules, the demon's actions cause one chamber to warm up and the other to cool down. This would decrease the total entropy of the system, seemingly without applying any work, thereby violating the second law of thermodynamics.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Yeah, but we've got the real Stonehenge.
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David Abergel @davidabergel.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
One of those rare occasions when have actually published a seminal paper… 🙃 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The physical consequences of sperm gigantism - Nature Physics
Fruit fly sperm is substantially longer than the sac in which it is stored. It is now shown that reciprocal pushing between thousands of sperm maintains them in a motile and unentangled state in the s...
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