Predrag Cvitanović

‘A sobering preview’: extreme heat now affects one in three people globally, study finds Rising temperatures making it hard even for young, healthy people to safely do normal physical tasks in many regions

The Heat Will Kill You First

New Tool for Sculpting Single Photons Researchers can adjust the frequency and bandwidth of single photons inside an optical fiber, which will be useful for future quantum networks.

Researchers have shown how the frequencies and bandwidths of individual photons can be tuned over a wide range inside a short length of standard optical fiber. They anticipate that their technique will be useful in future quantum computing and communications networks.

The reductions in the number of new and competing renewal R01s by topic (based on simple searches in NIH Reporter).

The cuts are across the board: Cancer down 24%, Alzheimer down 45%, Obesity down 29%, Child by 21%.

Transgender was down by 84% but represents only a small number of grants.

Condensed-matter physics pioneer and Nobel laureate Anthony Leggett dies aged 87 – Physics World Leggett made Nobel-prize-winning contributions to the theory of superfluidity in the 1970s

#RIP Tony Leggett. He was a great physicist, winning the 2003
Nobel Prize in Physics. He contributed to several fields of physics, just look at his papers: journals.aps.org/search/resul...

He was also an outstanding & thoughtful referee for decades.

physicsworld.com/a/condensed-...

Humanity heating planet faster than ever before, study finds Researchers identify sharp rise to about 0.35C every decade, after excluding natural fluctuations such as El Niño

It doesn’t matter whether the rate of global warming is increasing. It’ll never cease to amaze me that people don’t care that it’s happening at all. It should be the most alarming thing ever.

Graph of award probability of R35 and R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. As is apparent, 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success. Data source: https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/302

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.

What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.

Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

More women in leadership positions: This chart shows the development within the Max Planck Society from 2019 to 2025 among directors, independent research group leaders, group leaders, postdocs, and PhD candidates.

We can do it! The positive trend in #womeninscience leadership positions within the Max Planck Society continues. All figures in detail 📈➡️ www.mpg.de/26233321/app... #idw2026

Black-and-white formal portrait of Alva Myrdal (1902–1986), the Swedish diplomat, sociologist, politician, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She is photographed against a dark background, resting her chin thoughtfully on her left hand, which displays a large, ornate ring. Her expression is calm, wise, and slightly introspective, with deep-set eyes, fine lines of age, and a gentle smile. Her silver-gray hair is styled in a soft, voluminous updo typical of the mid-20th century, and she wears a dark tailored jacket or dress with a simple collar, along with a distinctive metal wristwatch on her left arm. Alva Myrdal was a pioneering figure in social policy, women's rights, and international disarmament. With her husband Gunnar Myrdal, she co-authored the influential 1934 book Kris i befolkningsfrågan (Crisis in the Population Question), which shaped Sweden's progressive family and welfare policies. She served as Sweden's Minister for Disarmament and Church Affairs (1966–1973), headed UNESCO's social science department, and played a key role in the United Nations. In 1982, she shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Alfonso García Robles for her lifelong work on nuclear disarmament and peace advocacy through organizations like the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and Pugwash Conferences. Known for her intellectual rigor, feminist principles, and commitment to global justice, she remains an icon of principled leadership in diplomacy and social reform.#AlvaMyrdal #NobelPeacePrize #Disarmament #SIPRI

Alva Myrdal was a Swedish sociologist, diplomat & a prominent leader of the disarmament movement. She shared the #Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 (w/A. Robles) "for their work for disarmament & nuclear and weapon-free zones." #WHM

It's International Day for #Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Awareness.

How Stand Up For Science is trying to 'pull every lever' to win over the public Stand Up For Science has become a formal organization and adopted a new strategy that's more confrontational with grassroots tactics

Real change takes a movement that goes into the public square, and as @cdelawalla.bsky.social explains, the public square has expanded & requires moving beyond business-as-usual engagement. More on @standupforscience.bsky.social and its strategic calculus:

www.statnews.com/2026/03/06/s...

This middle part of the thread points to specific examples of potential/ongoing automation of ideology-driven evaluation, i.e., using tools to screen for alignment with administration priorities. There are significant implications here for oversight of what is unfolding with NIH grants & reviews.

Pathways to a career in quantum: what skills do you need? – Physics World Matin Durrani reports from the Careers in Quantum event at the University of Bristol, UK

Matin Durrani reports from the Careers in Quantum event at the University of Bristol, revealing the main messages for those who want to join the burgeoning quantum-tech sector. 🧪⚛️

physicsworld.com/a/pathways-t...

Quantum memories could help make long-baseline optical astronomy a reality – Physics World Single-photon interferometry achieved over 1.5 km

Quantum-entangled sensors placed over a kilometre apart could allow interferometric measurements of optical light with single photon sensitivity, say physicists. 🧪⚛️ ow.ly/9EGZ50YoXKG

Isolating the Effect of Dimensions on Electrons A new layered material enabled researchers to document a dramatic change in metallic electron behavior as the material goes from 3D to 2D.

Theorists expect Anderson localization to set in more readily in two dimensions than in three. Now researchers have demonstrated that tendency directly by progressively removing a crystal's atomic layers until only one remained.

Roger Penrose's 1965 diagram from his seminal paper, "Gravitational Collapse and Space-Time Singularities". It was a key part of the work that earned him the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics, representing the evolution of a star's gravitational collapse into a black hole and the subsequent formation of a

"We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to enquire. We know that the wages of secrecy are corruption."
J. R. Oppenheimer

Was a great job - here is my nephew Hallur in our renovated attic apartment - running up and down 6 story staircases. In the old Copenhagen almost no building has an elevator.

Det sidste brev_EN subs YouTube video by PostNord i Danmark

It's two months, and I still miss it
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z82W...

A key point amidst a thread that resonates with what many in the science community want: *clear* answers and a return to evidence- and independent expert-driven decision making.

Still Fascinated by Physics | UW College of Arts & Sciences "The questions are long-term questions," emeritus professor Marshall Baker says of his theoretical physics, which he is still pursuing at age 91.

Here is Marshall Baker at 91
artsci.washington.edu/news/2023-11...

We have lost Marshall Baker
phys.washington.edu/memoriam

Black and white photo of Lise Meitner. She is standing in what appears to be a greenhouse, as there are several large plants behind her. Meitner is wearing a dark dress and blouse, with a high collar and hat. She is looking to the left of the photographer, with her hands clasped in front of her.

Physicist Lise Meitner was born #OTD in 1878. She discovered fission in uranium with Otto Frisch, and was the first person to understand both its mechanics and implications. A thread! (1/n)
🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

Image: Atomic Heritage Foundation (photographer unknown)

Confronting Covid's Wake: Quantitative Approaches to Confront (Re)emerging Pathogens Friday Feb 27, 2026, 12pm, Gilmber 390

For those at UVA this Friday, I will be giving a noon Biology seminar on Confronting Covid's Wake: Quantitative Approaches to Confront (Re)emerging Pathogens, spanning models of asymptomatic spread to assessing remerging risks amidst a national measles outbreak.

bio.as.virginia.edu/upcoming-sem...

1941 ad from GA Power promoting streetcars in Atlanta.

1941 ad for Atlanta streetcars:

"All of the people in all of the automobiles out in the stream of traffic could have been accommodated in the one street car."

WTF happened that we don't promote transit like this anymore?

The same BYO algebra mesh topology implementation from yesterday being used with CGA2D/CGA3D to make computing Delaunay and Voronoi triangulation easy and dimension agnostic. The code is the same for 2D and 3D, just parameterized with functions from the two algebras.
#geometer #geometricalgebra

Outstanding post.

Fact and data driven with clear exposition.

Read it!

A vintage sepia-toned portrait photograph of Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann taken in 1932, at around age 44. She is posed formally against a softly draped curtain backdrop, gazing directly at the camera with a calm, intelligent, and composed expression. She has short, neatly waved dark hair and wears a simple, elegant dark blouse or dress with a light-colored V-neck insert or scarf tied loosely. The photographer's signature, "Nachtwey 1932," appears in the lower right corner in a flowing script. The image captures her poised and thoughtful demeanor during the early years of her groundbreaking career in seismology, before her landmark discovery of Earth's solid inner core in 1936. #seismology

Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann fundamentally changed our understanding of the Earth's interior by discovering its solid inner core in 1936. Often referred to as 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘳𝘵 due to her incredible ability to interpret complex seismic records by hand.

She died #OTD in 1993 #WomenInSTEM

Graphs are maximally expressive for higher-order interactions We demonstrate that graph-based models are fully capable of representing higher-order interactions, and have a long history of being used for precisely this purpose. This stands in contrast to a commo...

New on the arxiv:

“Graphs are maximally expressive for higher-order interactions”

arxiv.org/abs/2602.16937

We clarify central misconceptions in the recent literature on "higher-order networks".

w/ @piratepeel.bsky.social , @manlius.bsky.social, and @thilogross.bsky.social

Explainer 🧵: 1/N

Postdoctoral Fellows in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience

The Grossman Theory Center at UChicago has postdoc openings in computational and theoretical neuroscience.

Application deadline April 4, 2026.
neuroscience.uchicago.edu/grossmancent...

A classic black-and-white portrait photograph of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer, taken in a classroom or lecture setting. She stands in front of a large chalkboard filled with handwritten nuclear physics equations, nuclear mass data, and element symbols (including notations like I¹²⁹, Cr⁵², and various alpha, beta, and gamma values). Goeppert Mayer has a thoughtful, focused expression as she gazes upward slightly, with her lips pursed in concentration. She wears a patterned dress with short-sleeved matching jacket with a geometric black-and-white design, a pearl necklace, and her hair styled in soft curls. In her hands, she holds a wooden slide rule.

Theoretical physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer died #OTD in 1972.

She shared the 1963 #Nobel Prize in Physics (w/Wigner & Jensen) "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure." She was the second woman to win a Nobel in #physics. (Who was the first?)

#WomenInSTEM

Nobel chemistry laureate Frances Arnold: ‘Whole swaths of science are just going to die on the vine’ The Caltech professor on using AI to harness the power of enzymes — and what US funding cuts could mean for research

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...