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Tom Rivlin

@tomrivlin.com
149 followers 105 following 184 posts

Vienna-based former Londoner. Quantum postdoc in TU Wien's @quitphysics.info group. (Running their bsky account!) Previously Weizmann, UCL, Imperial. Science writer for SciShow, bylines with PBS Space Time, New Scientist. H/h

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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 2h
Imagine being such a prolific slopposter on arXiv that being rate-limited to two submissions a month is already enough to hinder you blog.arxiv.org/2026/10/01/u...
blog.arxiv.org
Fair Moderation, Equitable Access, and AI: arXiv’s Updated Rate Limit Policy
arXiv, and the scientific community at large, are facing a watershed moment. Scholarly publishing is currently changing at a rapid pace, and we are seeing a…
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Reposted by Tom Rivlin
Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 25/09/2026
Good quote from an article talking about the inevitable dumbing down of society in the AI age
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 26/09/2026
Four years apart. The first was very shortly after I moved to Vienna haha
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 25/09/2026
...except it's not, it's an excerpt from one of Plato's dialogues and it's about the consequences of the invention of writing sites.uni.edu/fabos/semina...
sites.uni.edu
Plato, The Phaedrus – a dialogue between Socrates and Phaedrus written down by the pupil of Socrates, Plato, in approximate
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 25/09/2026
Good quote from an article talking about the inevitable dumbing down of society in the AI age
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 19/09/2026
Brilliant blog post by @3blue1brown.com on "motivated explanations". Lots here to think about for mathematicians (and judging by some papers in quantum info that I read, physicists have a lot to learn here too...) terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/09/18/i...
terrytao.wordpress.com
If math is more than proof, we need to better celebrate the rest of it
[This is a guest post by Grant Sanderson. This blog post was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI. — T.] A sentiment echoing throughout the mathematics communit…
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 15/09/2026
Finally found someone putting it into words in the way that rings most true for me
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 11/09/2026
One month since we submitted this to arXiv. Just counted how many spam emails I received after this came out that invited me to speak at fake conferences or submit the manuscript to bogus pay-to-win journals. The number was 45. And still rising...
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 08/09/2026
Really really sucks that the "Millennium problem solved" headline has to be overshadowed by this ugly drama behind it. Everyone involved should be extensively interviewed to get to the bottom of this...
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 03/09/2026
Finally, someone decided to answer the age-old question, what if we made a video game, but instead of making it bad, we made it good? www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqBq...
youtube.com
City Transport Simulator 2026 - Vienna Announcement Trailer | PS5 Games
YouTube video by PlayStation
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 26/08/2026
Hardly surprising given it's Luxembourg... All joking aside it is a brilliant piece, kudos to the writer for getting so many prominent people to earnestly discuss whether there's capitalism in space, alongside the devs reminiscing about the creative process behind the game.
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 26/08/2026
Legend www.vice.com/en/article/a...
vice.com
An Oral History of Tim Curry’s Escape to the One Place Uncorrupted by Capitalism
How an unforgettable performance in Red Alert 3 became legend.
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 26/08/2026
www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Sq...
youtube.com
Tim Curry is escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism.
YouTube video by geoff EXE
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 17/08/2026
But the real pleasure from working on this paper was doing so as an effective second supervisor to the lead author, Katja. My first proper experience of the joys of mentorship, and it was very satisfying!
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 17/08/2026
The idea is for the particles to 'measure' the position of an impurity by being attracted towards it, so by observing them, you can tell where the impurity is. The paper deals with how well this works in practice for different Hamiltonian parameters
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 17/08/2026
New preprint! Continuing on our work of describing quantum measurements as a dynamical, unitary process, here we apply these principles to numerical simulations of a more realistic many-body system -- a lattice of hopping particles arxiv.org/abs/2608.11319
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 14/08/2026
"so, does it, like, stand for British Independent Nationalists or something?" "No mate it stands for Bin"
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 14/08/2026
Sorry but "BIN: 26.7%" is objectively so, so, so, so, so funny
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 13/08/2026
Worth the effort
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 12/07/2026
Just watched The Sheep Detectives. It was flocking good. Unbleatable. It really had the chops. (And I'm not just saying that cos my brother worked on it hehehe)
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 10/07/2026
Basically the same opinion for season 2. Was it good? No. Would I recommend it? No. But did I enjoy it? Would I watch more? Sure, yeah
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 09/07/2026
All those years of German classes worth it to appreciate how funny Graf Mülltonnengesicht sounds hahaha
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Atlas Shvitzed @therafischwartz.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Unfortunately, a stunned Paris is how they all got into this whole mess to begin with
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 02/07/2026
Science has been so absolutely victorious in becoming the basis of what counts as truth in our society that even enemies of scientific consensus must couch their attacks in scientific language. Asking people "do you trust science?" doesn't test what you think it tests
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 02/07/2026
"Of course I trust science! This guy on TikTok explained perfectly to me that the science actually says pasteurised milk is bad. He showed me all the studies that prove it, interviewed all the scientists saying it. I trust what the science says! I always trust scientists!"
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 25/06/2026
Anyway yes I just stepped outside and oh fuck it's so hot I'm melting
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 25/06/2026
Funny how three different iconic shots from T2 can be used in different ways to signify "oh fuck it's so hot I'm melting"
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 21/06/2026
Tallinn is absolutely peak. Really enjoyed it here. Probably the best European old town experience I've ever had. I recommend the surprisingly high-effort medieval restaurant Olde Hansa. It has authentically old-timey food and vibes. Super fun.
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 17/06/2026
A Cutt Above? Cost-Cutting? Cutts' Corner? Many possibilities
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 17/06/2026
It must have been a deliberate choice to not call your newsletter something like "Cutting Edge Science" or "The Cutt Through", right? If you're not against name-based puns, maybe here go for something like "Director's Cutts" or "Cutts' Directory"?
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 16/06/2026
If you're interested in learning more, I wrote a SciShow episode about this! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONSW...
youtube.com
Can We Describe The Whole Universe With A Single Number?
YouTube video by SciShow
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 01/06/2026
Ah that's a good point I hadn't considered that. It's unlikely though, I rarely need to type the full password in. I did do a virus check on my devices just now to be safe, so thanks for the suggestion.
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 31/05/2026
Just had a scary moment where someone had guessed the master password I use for my password manager. It's fine now, they still needed a code from my email address so they couldn't get actual access (and I've now reset the password), but still concerning! I thought I'd set a strong password!
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 27/05/2026
I truly, honestly, genuinely have been reading Morning Spoilers almost without fail for over 15 years. So I think I have some right to say: what the f- is this?
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 22/05/2026
Had a lot of fun this week doing a Pint of Science talk with my colleague Phila! I think we did a good job with the challenge of explaining quasiprobabilities in quantum mechanics to a general audience!
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 21/05/2026
Whatever intuitions you formed three years ago when you first heard of ChatGPT (and the people boosting it...), you really should be updating them. I'm but a humble physicist but I'd even say this story is the Deep Blue-Kasparov moment for mathematics
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 20/05/2026
New SciShow! This one was wild to write. I changed my mind on what the story was even about multiple times. What even is a unit? A constant of nature? A law of physics? I thought I knew before writing this script, now I'm not so sure! Find out for yourself here: youtu.be/ONSW0a6ihKI?...
youtu.be
Can We Describe The Whole Universe With A Single Number?
YouTube video by SciShow
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 17/05/2026
A lovely weekend away from Vienna, despite the rain yesterday
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 15/05/2026
Tune in on Tuesday to see the video that Pepe Silvia'd me more than anything I've ever worked on.
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 04/05/2026
Budapest is great in general btw. So much neat stuff around, fun vibes. Still loads I want to do next time I visit
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 04/05/2026
Bit of a physicist pilgrimage in Budapest today. Wild fact: Wigner, von Neumann, Teller, and Szilard... all giants of 20th C. physics, all major players in the Manhattan project, all Jews born in the same Budapest district... the first three even went to the same school at about the same time
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 03/05/2026
This but it's thirty not thirty-five and also I'm not an old man yelling at a cloud I swear
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 03/05/2026
Yeah I've basically become radicalised on this recently. Pretty much of the opinion that Everything Bad in the World can be explained by The Bad Black Rectangle and short-form video specifically. Ban social media for under 14s, and over 14s too tbh
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 25/04/2026
Despite working at the Atominstitut for over three years, before this week I'd never seen the reactor while it was in operation. Because the power and radiation output is so low, I reckon this must be as close as it's possible to get to Cherenkov radiation almost anywhere in the world
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 17/04/2026
Great piece. I do scicomm and I'm fine "just" telling fun science stories to the science-enthusiast public... But I know many scicommers want their work to positively impact the world, and there are definitely many bad ideas floating around about how to achieve that. Glad someone's talking about it
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 15/04/2026
I'll be giving a talk with my colleague Phila at a Pint of Science event next month in Vienna! We're planning some cool stuff, it should be fun! pintofscience.at/event/trust-...
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 14/04/2026
Time to share one of my top 10 favourite videos of all time: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRsO...
youtube.com
Steamed Hams Inc. ♪
YouTube video by NPCarlsson
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Tom Rivlin @tomrivlin.com · 14/04/2026
et tu, Google?
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The Onion @theonion.com · 06/04/2026
NASA Announces Plan To Put Moon On Mars By 2040 theonion.com/nasa-announces-plan-to…
NASA Announces Plan To Put Moon On Mars By 2040
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Reposted by Tom Rivlin
Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
This is really good from @seamas.bsky.social
Moreover, such arguments mean engaging with this question in purely vulgar terms, to deploy a miser's algebra in assessing points on a balance sheet, and the returns on investment they imply. At the risk of losing my reputation as a dead-eyed cynic whose heart has been calloused by the evils of the world, I do hold within myself an optimism about space travel that supersedes matters of cost and capital. I think there is value - moral, philosophical, intellectual value - in exploring the one universe in which we find ourselves, and to so as deeply as we can. To gaze at distant stars from Earth, and gaze back home from as close to those stars as
we can get.
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