iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 14/09/2026

Happy birthday #GW150914! 11 years ago today, we caught our first gravitational wave, and founded a new type of astronomy A decade later, we now have hundreds of observations! 🔭🧪🎂

Classic plot showing GW150914. Filtered data from LIGO Livingston and LIGO Hanford are shown, both show the characteristic signal of a binary black hole. Crucially, data from the two observatories agree, indicating a real signal.

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Last week, I got a chance to see LHCb for the first time (thanks, Dylan, Felicia, and Vava!). What a magnificent detector and what an innovative and groundbreaking experiment, both in terms of hardware and in terms of software / physics analysis.

close-up of one slice of the LHCb velo sub-detector

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Robin Berjon @robin.berjon.com · 07/09/2026

Hey internet people, is inline LaTeX something you'd be interested in? #experimunt

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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 04/05/2026

FWIW: ‘parsec’ is a measure of distance, not time, but that doesn’t make the Millennium Falcon’s Kessel Run any less impressive.

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Asterix Archiv 🐗 @comedix.de · 04/05/2026

Schon gewusst? Im Asterix-Film Mission Kleopatra ist General Chorus mit seinem schwarzen Helm und dem schwarzen Umhang so von hinten zu sehen, dass er an die Figur des Darth Vader aus dem Film #StarWars erinnert. #MayTheFourthBeWithYou #Asterix [1/2]

Mit einem schwarzem Helm und schwarzen Umhang sieht der Zenturio von hinten aus wie Darth Vader.

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Asterix Archiv 🐗 @comedix.de · 04/05/2026

Hat zwar nichts mit Asterix zu tun, aber ich weiß aus sicherer Quelle, dass es eine nicht geringe Fan-Schnittmenge gibt. Und ich finde sowohl das Zitat als auch das Bild einfach nur klasse: "Das Leben genießen du sollst!" #starwars #MayTheFourthBeWithYou

Ein flaches Cocktailglas mit zwei schwarzen Oliven, zwei halben Zitronen und einem Bastumhang. Die Kombiation sieht aus wie Yoda.

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Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz @unimainz.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Gravitationswellen als mögliche Kandidaten für Ursprung der Dunklen Materie: Neuartige Berechnungen erforschen das frühe Universum / Forscher vom #ExzellenzclusterPRISMA ++ beteiligt 👉 prisma.uni-mainz.de/2026/04/01/gr… #Teilchenphysik #DunkleMaterie #Universum #Physik #Gravitationswellen

Veranschaulichung der Entwicklungsstadien unseres Universums und der Phasen, in denen stochastische Gravitationswellen entstehen (Abb./©: Azadeh Maleknejad / Swansea University)

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Exciting new results from the LZ experiment: new constraints on DM–nucleus scattering, a 4.5σ detection of the solar neutrino flux, and a measurement of the weak mixing angle. lz.lbl.gov

Three plots from the LZ paper showing the new results.

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Chris Quigg @chrisquigg.com · 25/11/2025

RIP Bill Bardeen, superb theorist and exemplary colleague.

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Dr Selena Wisnom @lswisnom.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

A halloween cartoon for @newscientist.com

Image: three figures in protective suits watch from behind a screen as a child approaches a door-like mechanical structure in which stands a man. Between them is an amorphous glowing shape.

Caption: Scientists at the institute of halloween studies have succeeded in creating "The treak": a quantum state that is simultaneously trick and treat. It is stable for a millionth of a second before decaying into a half-hearted prank and a mediocre candy bar.

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Marietta-Blau-Institut für Teilchenphysik @mbi-oeaw.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Next Friday we are celebrating the inauguration of the Marietta Blau Institute for Particly Physics! 🤩 🥳 🖍️ Haven’t signed up yet? Now’s the time! ➡️ www.oeaw.ac.at/mbi/veransta...

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Tits McGee @scientits.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

The German company that makes the mechanical ladder used in the Louvre heist has used the image to advertise, with the text 'When you need to move fast' 10/10 response, no notes

Image of the mechanical ladder outside the Louvre

Text below says WENN'S MAL WIEDER SCHNELL GEHEN MUSS (When you need to move fast)

Underneath is more German text which translates as "The Böcker Agilo transports your treasures weighing up to 400kg at 42m/min - quiet as a whisper."

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Kelsey Johnson @profkelsey.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Procrastination takes may forms. Tonight as a service to the astronomical community I offer help with your JWST proposal titles. #JWST 🧪🔭✨

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Fantastic colloquium at @cern.bsky.social today by @fourform.bsky.social on "The end of measurement and the last lab", part of the ongoing workshop on Quantum Simulation & Computation in HEP (indico.cern.ch/event/1488240). Bonus: autocorrect mishap leading to the invention of the "axion horoscope".

Dan Carney explaining a slide on squeezed quantum states at CERN

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Amrei Bahr @amreibahr.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Wissenschaft als Beruf besteht zu 20% aus Wissenschaft & zu 80% daraus, die immer gleichen Informationen (wie viele Drittmittel/Publikationen/Preise/Arbeitsverträge/...) in stets zusätzliche Arbeit provozierenden leichten Variationen in sehr viele unterschiedliche Formulare einzutragen. #IchBinHanna

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LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 26/08/2025

Results from the first part of our fourth LIGO @egovirgo.bsky.social KAGRA observing run are out today! We're pleased to share the largest catalog of gravitational-wave observations with more discoveries of black holes and neutron stars 📰 arxiv.org/abs/2508.18082 🔭🧪⚛️☄️ #GWTC4

New masses in the stellar graveyard plot, showing astronomical observations of black holes and neutron stars. The number of gravitational-wave observations of black holes is overwhelming. The plot is arranged to look nice, the horizontal axis has no meaning, but the vertical one shows masses. We have a significant range of masses from about 1 solar mass to over 200 solar masses for our largest merger remnant. New out today is a neutron star black hole binary GW230518_125908, as well as a lot of binary black holes.

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Florian Aigner @florianaigner.at · 21/08/2025

Verrückter Fakt des Tages: #vfdt Bis zu 400.000 Menschen arbeiteten in den USA am Apollo-Programm, um Astronauten zum Mond zu bringen. Der politische und wirtschaftliche Aufwand war aus heutiger Sicht kaum vorstellbar. Technische Großprojekte heute (wie CERN oder ITER) sind vergleichsweise winzig.

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Sean Eric Fagan @kithrup.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Squintern: The *slowest* meteorite travels at 25,000 miles per hour! Me: No, *all* meteorites travel at 0 miles per hour.

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Adrian Thompson @gooble-gabble.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

We've *gotta* revive this as a pet name for future colliders en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perhaps...

en.wikipedia.org

Perhapsatron - Wikipedia

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Patrick Koppenburg 🐧 @koppenburg.ch · 20/08/2025

RIP Herwig Schopper, CERN director general from 1973 to 1976. He made LEP possible, and thus also the LHC. Not so long ago I worked with him on a book about the scientific discoveries at CERN. Read the interview in the CERN courier about the lessons from LEP cerncourier.com/a/lessons-fr...

cerncourier.com

Lessons from LEP – CERN Courier

The Large Electron Positron collider changed particle physics forever. As the field eyes up the next major collider, former CERN Director-General Herwig Schopper describes what it took to make LEP…

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

How sad to hear that Tom Lehrer has left us. I vividly remember my first big scientific conference – Neutrino 2006 in Santa Fe. At an evening event, members of the Santa Fe Opera sang The Elements Song for us. A brilliant performance. I've been hooked ever since.

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 21/07/2025

This is absurd. The red supergiant Betelgeuse is the bright feature in this image. But that darker blue splotch is a *companion star* that's just been discovered—and it orbits so close to Betelgeuse that it's inside the larger star's outer atmosphere.

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Let me guess: 2007 – $0 2012 – $100 (to the intern who designed it) 2013 – $1,000 2015 – $10,000 2017 – $100,000 2024 – $1,000,000 2026 – $25 (for a ChatGPT subscription)

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CERN @cern.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Theorists' take on Quantum 👩🏻‍🏫👨‍🏫 We recently invited our community #AtCERN to describe quantum. Now, it's the turn of the physicists to share their insights. Hear from Miguel, Wilke, and Irene as they share their perspective on what #quantum is.

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Nikolai Slavov @slavov-n.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

"𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘓𝘢𝘣𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳’𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘦. 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦." -- Steven Chu, Nobel Lecture 1997

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European Research Council (ERC) @erc.europa.eu · 02/06/2025

Planning to apply for #research #funding from the ERC? From the next application rounds, expect changes to the: • proposal structure • evaluation process • extra funding you can request • eligibility for Starting & Consolidator #Grants (from 2027) More 👇 europa.eu/!RPHWvv

europa.eu

Changes to the 2026 and 2027 Work Programmes

With the launch of the competitions for grants under ERC Work Programme 2026 in July of this year, several changes to the submission of applications and the evaluation of proposals will apply. The mai...

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

and publicly funded geologists predicted the disaster, preventing massive loss of life.

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Patrick Koppenburg 🐧 @koppenburg.ch · 29/05/2025

The loss of their village is a tragedy for the inhabitants of #Blatten. But they are alive because geologists saw it coming. It was their worst case scenario. The village was evacuated. Unlike Goldau in 1806. 457 died. Thanks Geology.

Goldau seen from the mountain that collapsed.

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Don’t worry guys, BlueSky can be perfect so long as we all get along. First things first, we just need to agree whether vim or emacs is the better editor.

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Der #Exzellenzcluster PRISMA an der JGU Mainz geht in die dritte Runde!

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

The EU is seeking input on how to protect democracy in Europe. I just responded to the survey at ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/run... (which is open also to non-EU citizens.)

ec.europa.eu

EUSurvey - Survey

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Margaret Harris @drmlharris.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Note: the previous Pope Leo reestablished the Vatican Observatory “so that everyone might see clearly that the Church & her Pastors are not opposed to true & solid science… but that they embrace it, encourage it, & promote it with the fullest possible devotion.” 🧪 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Le...

en.wikipedia.org

Pope Leo XIII - Wikipedia

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Patrick Koppenburg 🐧 @koppenburg.ch · 08/05/2025

Who knew? The LHC is the philosopher's stone. 🧪⚛️

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

In the economy of scarcity that much of European science has been facing for years, every euro is turned around five times, leading to more complicated grant application procedures, tighter rules, and longer decision-making time scales, further reducing the efficiency of the system.

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

The Magnificent Fourteen James Bond 014 – You Only Live Four Times Bruce Semi-Almighty 14人の侍 (14 Samurai)

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nat alison @tesseralis.site · 05/05/2025

30% tariff for the Elven-kings under the sky, 70% tariff for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, 90% tariff for Mortal Men doomed to die, 100% tariff for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

A welcome initiative. It will be important to ensure that not only the financial framework is there, but also that administrative burdens are kept to a minimum. The current tendency to micromanage science stifles innovation and progress.

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Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu · 05/05/2025

Europe’s choice is clear. To put science at the heart of its economy. To become the home of scientific freedom and collaboration. And to welcome talent from all over the world. I’m glad to present the first elements of our Choose Europe Initiative. → europa.eu/!TTbWbJ

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

In many countries, processes are way too slow. Even when there is political will, such changes take years. Though they wouldn't have to if everyone involved was a little more pragmatic. Just look at how long faculty searches take in Europe.

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Sarah Hörst @planetdr.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Sarah’s rules of looking for life with only chemical signatures: 1) the smaller the molecule(s) the more likely they can also be produced by abiotic processes 2) one molecule, if it can be produced by any abiotic process, will never be enough to definitively claim detection of life

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 09/04/2025

The problem with most machine-based random number generators is that they’re not TRULY random, so if you need genuine randomness it is sometimes necessary to link your code to an external random process like a physical noise source or the current rate of US tariffs on a given country.

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CERN @cern.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

The LHC experiment collaborations #AtCERN receive Breakthrough Prize The prize is awarded to ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb, which unite thousands of researchers from more than 70 countries, and concerns the papers authored based on #LHCRun2 data up to July 2024. Read more: home.cern/news/press-r...

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claudius-krause.bsky.social @claudius-krause.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Ich forsche am Institut für Hochenergiephysik @hephy.bsky.social der @oeaw.bsky.social an der Nutzung von künstlicher Intelligenz in der Teilchenphysik. Diese neuen Techniken erlauben uns noch effizienter die riesigen Datenmengen des Teilchenbeschleunigers #LHC zu analysieren und zu verstehen. 1/3

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Joachim Kopp @joachimkopp.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

I'm happy to pass on the announcement of an off-cycle postdoc position (3 years) and a senior research fellowship (5 years) theoretical physics at DIAS, Dublin, Ireland: inspirehep.net/jobs/2901328 inspirehep.net/jobs/2903777

inspirehep.net

INSPIRE

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