Reposted by C Stuart AdamsRobert Rohde @rarohde.bsky.social · 21/03/2026The current heatwave in the US Southwest is utterly destroying many records for this time of year. Phoenix, Arizona has ~90 years of daily temperature data, and yet recent temperatures beat the previous March record by 5 °F (2.8 °C), and would actually tie the record for April. 1020887
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsInstitute of Physics @iop.org · 08/03/2026What inspires someone to pursue physics for life? From discovering general relativity to the encouragement of mentors, women in our community share the moments that shaped their journeys. This #InternationalWomensDay we’re celebrating women advancing physics and inspiring the next generation. 🌟 021255
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 07/02/2026In this week’s Fourier Optics course we shall be looking at spatial filtering – how a pair of lenses performs a Fourier analysis and subsequently Fourier synthesis in the 4f set up. The importance of the f to f set up with a single lens is emphasised. 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 2164
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 01/02/2026The code for generating the quiz (and many other images from the Fourier Optics course) were developed by @etotheipiequals.bsky.social and can be found here: opticsf2f.github.io/Opticsf2f_Co...opticsf2f.github.io6.3. 2D FT of arrays: Exercise — Optics f2f Code Book 161
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsQuanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 29/01/2026The “MaxCut” problem is a fundamental question about graphs with real-world applications, like efficient circuit design. Recently, work on MaxCut helped mathematicians solve a major problem in number theory. www.quantamagazine.org/networks-hol... 1307
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 18/01/2026In this week’s Fourier Optics course we shall be looking at diffraction. The central idea is: decompose an arbitrary light distribution in one plane into a sum of plane waves with Fourier transform to solve the Helmholtz equation for light propagation. 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 2203
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 11/01/2026All the material for the Fourier Optics course this term is from set text #opticsf2f co-authored with colleague @etotheipiequals.bsky.social global.oup.com/academic/pro... Part of the PHYS3721 Modern Atomic and Optical Physics 3 module taught at Durham Physics. 041
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsTobias Franzen @tobifranzen.bsky.social · 06/10/2025Got around to building a little website for my new activity on quantum networking with Yb at @durhamqlm.bsky.social, funded by my EPSRC Quantum Technologies Career Acceleration Fellowship: durham-qlm.uk/research/tec... 182
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsQuantum Light and Matter at Durham University @durhamqlm.bsky.social · 07/10/2025Congratulations to Oliver Hughes on passing his viva. Thesis entitled "Preparation and Coherent Control of a Rydberg Qutrit in a Cold Atomic Ensemble". Supervised by @etotheipiequals.bsky.social and @kjweatherill.bsky.social Seen here with Stuart and internal examiner @ifanghughes.bsky.social 031
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsQuantum Light and Matter at Durham University @durhamqlm.bsky.social · 01/10/2025QLM is hiring! We're looking for a new Assistant Professor in QLM. This position is a theory position. Please find the job description below in this thread. For any academia-related queries, please contact Ifan Hughes (i.g.hughes@durham.ac.uk). We look forward to receiving your application! 175
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 19/09/2025Hot off the press! Our @durhamqlm.bsky.social results in collaboration with group of @sonjafrankearnold.bsky.social in Glasgow have just been published. opg.optica.org/directpdfacc... Atoms, Iasers, big magnets and structured light. What's not to like? 083
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsQuantum Light and Matter at Durham University @durhamqlm.bsky.social · 15/09/2025A strong QLM presence at the recent @instituteofphysics.bsky.social QuAMP 2025 conference in Newcastle. In addition to many contributed talks, @kjweatherill.bsky.social gave an Invited talk "radiofrequency and terahertz sensing and imaging using Rydberg atoms". Both Maddie & Tom won Poster Prizes. 053
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsJoseph Barbier @joseph-barbier.bsky.social · 15/08/2025@matplotlib.org is getting more and more interactivity! "plotjs" converts any existing matplotlib charts to an interactive, web-based version of them, with quite a lot of customization options. Try it out here: github.com/y-sunflower/... More examples: y-sunflower.github.io/plotjs/ 1155
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsZack Labe @zacklabe.com · 07/08/2025It's time! Join me in tracking this year's #Arctic sea ice minimum! Sea ice melt substantially slows every September as solar energy decreases and temperatures drop in the far north. Follow along with the data at zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i... 06621
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsWonder of Science @wonderofscience.bsky.social · 15/07/2025Colored droplets in corn syrup seemingly blended together can be returned to their original state by reversing the direction of mixing, a form of laminar flow called "Stokes flow". Credit: UNM Physics & Astronomy 3135982982
C Stuart Adams @etotheipiequals.bsky.social · 01/07/2025The measurement of CO2 on Mauna Loa began in 1958. In terms of duration, the quality of the data and impact, it is the greatest experiment in the history of science. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles...en.m.wikipedia.orgCharles David Keeling - Wikipedia 020
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsDulwich Quantum Computing @dulwichquantum.bsky.social · 22/06/2025How would you respond if your lab got destroyed by a missile? "I wish that a day will come very, very soon in which Iranian scientists and Israeli scientists will collaborate and work together and perform scientific research for the future of mankind." apnews.com/article/isra... 2267
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsEd Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 20/06/2025The largest number of climate stripes outfits in one place? @cycling4climate.bsky.social organise popular cycling and running events in the Netherlands for #ShowYourStripes day! 415238
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsDaniel Aldana Cohen @aldasky.bsky.social · 16/06/2025Imagine being Hasret Icsen. You pay $1,015/month for a 3-bedroom apartment in a green, mixed-income building full of amenities. When you touch your home, you're touching climate progress. This is Vienna's green social housing. As @NPR explains, we could do it here www.npr.org/2025/06/15/n... 534193
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsSean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 09/06/2025I would love to think that everyone has known for a long time that LLMs aren't going to lead to "general intelligence," but all the evidence suggests there are plenty of people who resist this, so it's good to have a paper from researchers Apple making the point strongly. 1015540
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsDouglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 07/06/2025🧪⚛️ There is a serious disagreement btw experiment and theory in understanding the ionization energy of a particularly excited state of helium. This is one to watch, though caution is always advised, as anomalies like this historically tend to go away. nanoscale.blogspot.com/2025/06/a-pr...nanoscale.blogspot.comA precision measurement science mystery - new physics or incomplete calculations?Again, as a distraction from persistently concerning news, here is a science mystery of which I was previously unaware. The role of approxim... 074
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 04/06/2025New results! Visualizing strongly focused 3D light fields in an atomic vapor arxiv.org/abs/2506.01680 Performed with colleagues at @durhamqlm.bsky.social and @sonjafrankearnold.bsky.social Atoms, lasers, magnets and shaped light! 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 0154
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsJacopo Bertolotti @jacopobertolotti.com · 27/05/2025#PhysicsFactlet A Shack-Hartmann sensor is a simple and widely used device to measure the phase profile of a wavefront (aka "where the light is coming from"). A mini 🧵 1/ #Optics #Physics 14416
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsHelen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 26/05/2025The "Copernican Revolution" - the shift away from thinking that Earth sits at the centre of the universe - took ~200 years. Darwin's The Descent of Man was published in 1871. When will we complete the next revolution - of realising that we're bit players in nature even on Earth? Fig: Bar-On, 2018 45710
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsMartin Bauer @martinmbauer.bsky.social · 25/05/2025Even if you don't care one bit about scientific research, it's important to recognise the value of publicly funding people working on very hard problems and training bright young minds on how to solve them. 35913
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsQuantum Light and Matter at Durham University @durhamqlm.bsky.social · 03/05/2025On Friday 2nd May we held an event to celebrate 30 years since forming the experimental side of the QLM research section and former head of section @etotheipiequals.bsky.social special birthday. Here current head of section @ifanghughes.bsky.social is seen congratulating him. 2123
C Stuart Adams @etotheipiequals.bsky.social · 09/04/2025Discussion on the philosophy behind our recent book on quantum optics. m.youtube.com/watch?v=9k5n...m.youtube.comQuantum Optics interview with Nikola ŠibalićYouTube video by IOP Publishing 160
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsNereide @drnereide.bsky.social · 21/03/20251/2 21 March 1768: mathematician and physicist Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier was born. "The profound study of nature is the most fruitful source of mathematical discoveries." — Joseph Fourier A biography➡️ mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/... 🧪 ⚛️ #mathematicians #histsci 45215
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 16/03/2025This is the last week of Fourier Optics course. We started with Fourier and his idea of building every function from plane waves. We saw some spatial filtering, temporal and spatial coherence, and discussed recent Nobel Prizes in physics. Quite a journey! 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 1161
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 09/03/2025In this week's Fourier Optics course we consider the propagation and focusing of laser beams. 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 1302
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsAnton Akhmerov @antonakhmerov.org · 03/03/2025A common sin of scientific reporting is overstating the impact of research. It is always harmful when someone promises to solve the climate change with a quantum computer. The Microsoft press release news.microsoft.com/source/featu..., however, is especially cynical and bad. 1/2news.microsoft.comMicrosoft’s Majorana 1 chip carves new path for quantum computing - SourceMajorana 1, the first quantum chip powered by a new Topological Core architecture 1216
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 02/03/2025This week's Fourier Optics course features coherence (temporal and spatial). My favourite image (@etotheipiequals.bsky.social) to illustrate these concepts is Young's double slits with white light. 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 3486
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 23/02/2025This week's Fourier Optics course features time-dependent optical phenomena: slow light & fast light. We exploit the variation of refractive index close to an atomic resonance. From Chapter 7 of #opticsf2f written with colleague @etotheipiequals.bsky.social 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 2132
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 16/02/2025In this week’s Fourier Optics course we shall be looking at optical phenomena in the time domain. Rather than looking at monochromatic light diffracting at different angles, we consider different colours propagating along the optical axis. 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 1182
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsStephen Gruppetta @stephengruppetta.com · 09/02/2025Approaching the 2-year mark. The collection of articles is about 100 now, most of them detailed long-form articles If you're interested in Python, do have a look. I'm quite proud of the collection and it humbles me that so many read it regularly And it's free… www.thepythoncodingstack.comthepythoncodingstack.comThe Python Coding Stack | Stephen Gruppetta | SubstackI write the articles I wish I had when I was learning Python programming I learn through narratives, stories. And I communicate in the same way, with a friendly and relaxed tone, clear and accessible... 1102
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 09/02/2025In this week’s Fourier Optics course we shall be looking at one of the key concepts of Fourier optics – how a lens performs a Fourier transform. The importance of f to f is explained. 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 1194
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 02/02/2025In this week’s Fourier Optics course we shall be looking at diffraction from 2D apertures. A quiz to test your understanding of the array theorem. Can you match the apertures to their Fraunhofer diffraction patterns? 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 2367
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsStephen Gruppetta @stephengruppetta.com · 26/01/2025I did try to merge my current work with my past one once or twice. Indeed, this is by far the most wide-read of anything I’ve ever written, in large part because Google places it highly for many searches and several Universities use it as recommended reading thepythoncodingbook.com/2021/08/30/2...thepythoncodingbook.com2D Fourier transform in Python: Create any image using only sine functionsAny image is made up of only sine functions. In this article I'll convince you of this fact by using the 2D Fourier transform in Python 132
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 19/01/2025You can make movies showing the evolution of the diffracted field as done by @jacopobertolotti.com in this #PhysicsFactlet bsky.app/profile/jaco... 1174
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 19/01/2025In this week’s Fourier Optics course we shall be looking at diffraction. The central idea is: decompose an arbitrary light distribution in one plane into a sum of plane waves with Fourier transform to solve the Helmholtz equation for light propagation. 🧪 #physics ⚛️ #optics 💡 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 4262
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 12/01/2025All the material for the Fourier Optics course this term is from set text #opticsf2f co-authored with colleague @etotheipiequals.bsky.social global.oup.com/academic/pro... Part of the PHYS3721 Modern Atomic and Optical Physics 3 module taught at Durham Physics. 0132
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsAndrew Mueller @sansseriff.bsky.social · 22/12/2024Have your @matplotlib.bsky.social plots ever looked a little fuzzy or low-res in @projectjupyter.bsky.social notebooks? Try configuring matplotlib for retina displays with this command 🧪 %config InlineBackend.figure_format = 'retina' 2324
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsDulwich Quantum Computing @dulwichquantum.bsky.social · 18/12/2024Have to admit that this is very cool. arxiv.org/abs/2412.13164 It's time to dump your quantum stocks and buy shares in companies that make mattresses or any other kinds of springs or pendulums! Harmonic oscillators are soon going to fly off the shelves like NVIDIA cards!arxiv.orgFactoring an integer with three oscillators and a qubitA common starting point of traditional quantum algorithm design is the notion of a universal quantum computer with a scalable number of qubits. This convenient abstraction mirrors classical computatio... 1285
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsAriel Levenson @ariel-l.bsky.social · 18/12/2024Knock ! Knock ! My first post "The choice of problems is the primary determinant of what one accomplishes in science" John J. Hopfield Nobel Prize lecture... 3163
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsPeter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 12/12/2024An amazing 7882 people have now filled in Democracy for Sale's survey about money in politics. Can we make it 8,000?? democracyforsale.co.uk/safeguard Thanks!democracyforsale.co.ukDemocracy For Sale - Safeguard DemocracyA survey to make a people-powered plan to safeguard Britain's democracy from leading investigative journalists who write about lobbying and dark money 48560
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsLENS Quantum Gases @lensqgases.bsky.social · 29/11/2024Why just one MOT when you can have two? In Chromium-Lithium lab 6Li and 53Cr are captured in Magneto Optical Traps (MOT). Both are fermionic isotopes, and they are combined to investigate the physics of #ultracold fermionic mixtures. More on #CrLi team: quantumgases.lens.unifi.it/exp/crli 2182
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsJohn Dudley @johnmdudley.bsky.social · 16/11/2024Since Steven Strogatz now has a special chapter on the Kuramoto model, this seems like a good time to retweet my movie of 4 metronomes synchronizing! Pantaleone's derivation of the Kuramoto model from the mechanics of the system is here: pubs.aip.org/aapt/ajp/art... 0207
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsIfan Hughes @ifanghughes.bsky.social · 10/11/2024Very much looking forward to the Rochester lecture later this month. #physics #optics 🧪💡 2245
Reposted by C Stuart AdamsGlen Peters @glenpeters.bsky.social · 26/04/2024To keep below 1.5°C, with a 50-50 chance, would require global CO2 emissions to be zero in ~2038 (orange line). The other scenarios (blue) overshoot to ~1.6°C before going back <1.5°C in 2100 (& they start with a global carbon price in 2020). 1/ 22921
![Polarization profiles and their simulated 3D structures at the
focus. (a) shows examples of the investigated polarization structures,
color coded in purple for radial and yellow for azimuthal polarization
components. From top to bottom: radial Oe , azimuthal Oe [Eq. (2)],
vortices with twofold symmetry Oe2 [Eq. (3)] and vortices with sixfold
symmetry Oe6 [Eq. (4)]. (b) shows the simulated 3D light configurations
for Oe2 at the focus of a lens with NA 0.4. These are displayed in different
polarization bases: Cartesian components (top row); circular and axial
components corresponding to atomic and transitions (middle
row); and radial, azimuthal, and axial polarization (bottom row), highlighting
the conversion of some of the radial input polarization into axial
polarization.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7okh5mmpt6l7z534hnl4usax/bafkreig53fr7ccgywmhnylkhljb2aijepz6kgmnl7rqleoqedlz7q2e7ta)
