Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 3h

I think "macroscopic" in this context means that the system doing the tunneling involves very large numbers of particles (what is effectively tunneling in this problem is the phase difference btw the superconducting states on opposite sides of the junction). Try doi.org/10.1016/0003...

Redirecting

doi.org

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 1d

🧪⚛️ The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics - a brief writeup about what is meant here by macroscopic quantum tunneling. nanoscale.blogspot.com/2025/10/2025...

2025 Physics Nobel: Macroscopic quantum tunneling

As announced this morning, the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke , Michel Devoret , and John Martinis , for a ser...

nanoscale.blogspot.com

1 6 18

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 2d

🧪⚛️ Now with blog link goodness: ACS Webinar about plasmonics and "Illuminating the Nano Frontier" this coming Thursday. nanoscale.blogspot.com/2025/10/acs-...

ACS National Nanotechnology Day webinar, Thursday Oct 9

Time for a rare bit of explicit self-promotion on this blog. This coming Thursday, October 9, as part of the American Chemical Society 's a...

nanoscale.blogspot.com

4 9

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 3d

Structural color = nanoscience all around you, all the time.

Museum of Science @museumofscience.bsky.social · 3d

Blue jays are not truly blue, they just look that way. 🪶🧪

Most colors in nature come from pigments that absorb and reflect light, but a blue jay creates its color through structural tricks: microscopic layers and air pockets that scatter blue light back to our eyes.

1 2 3

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 3d

Lots of capital, too many people who all think they're the smartest one in the room, and complete credulity when faced with hype are three contributors.

2

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 4d

🧪⚛️ This coming Thursday October 9 I will be giving a talk as part of the @acs.org American Chemical Society's Nanotechnology Day events. All are welcome! www.acs.org/acs-webinars...

Illuminating the Nano Frontier: From Atomic Antennas to Photocatalysis - American Chemical Society

Douglas Natelson of Rice University will reveal how these atomic-scale emitters couple to engineered nanostructures, and why their strange physics could redefine how we harness light. Dongling Ma of I...

www.acs.org

1 12

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 6d

Here is the text of the administration's would-be compact on higher education. When reading this, remember the context, that this is being put forward in an environment when a single student complaint resulted in multiple job changes within a day at TAMU. www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/u...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

1 2

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 6d

It's the upper-left part of the electron, yes? (I kid, I kid)

1

Reposted by Douglas Natelson

Physghoul 👻 @physgal.bsky.social · 6d

😡 #AcademicSky

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 6d

Trump's higher ed ransom note is here - everyone would have to acquiesce to their unprecedented demands or not be "given priority for grants," plus they can demand "reimbursement" for "violations" www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

A mechanism to enforce fealty. An attack on academic freedom and democracy

1 3

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 7d

🧪⚛️ Nobel prizes next week - time again for the annual speculation thread. nanoscale.blogspot.com/2025/09/annu...

Annual Nobel speculation thread

It’s that time of year again. The physics Nobel will be announced next Tuesday, and the chemistry prize on Wednesday. Who will it be this ...

nanoscale.blogspot.com

5 5 17

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 9d

@jaketapper.bsky.social , when are you going to start questioning potus’s mental fitness? Just in the last two days we had the weird AI q-anon medbed video and the claim that Portland is literally in flames. What does it take?

1 2 5

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 9d

🧪⚛️

Zahra Fakhraai @zahrafakhraai.bsky.social · 9d

This is a terrible thing to do. They pulled the rug from under the feet of the most talented American students, all the while claiming they want to give Americans the opportunity by banning international scientists. PLEASE contact your lawmakers. This is hurting our best students.

‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry

The announcement comes months later than usual, leaving many would-be applicants stranded

www.science.org

1 18 31

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 9d

🧪⚛️ A very pretty demonstration of fluid dynamics in electrons in graphene - a hydraulic jump! nanoscale.blogspot.com/2025/09/flui...

Fluid mechanics of electrons

Condensed matter physicists often speak of the "electronic fluid" in conductors, and we use a lot of vocabulary that makes analogies between...

nanoscale.blogspot.com

1 3 20

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 12d

🧪⚛️. Come on, NSF leadership!

Jason Williams @jasonwilliamsny.bsky.social · 12d

Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment.

The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

An Open Letter to U.S. STEM Leadership on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io

1 5

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 13d

Whaaaaaaaat?!

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 16d

@orinkerr.bsky.social , some 4th amendment thoughts?

Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 17d

An important piece about the vulnerability we face in a world that is increasingly surveilled and authoritarian. Politicians want to address crime, but this administration will hopefully teach local politicians that surveillance doesn't prevent crime and comes at a much larger cost to residents.

Opinion | The N.Y.P.D. Is Teaching America How to Track Everyone Every Day Forever

New tools allow law enforcement agencies to track us at an unimaginable scale.

www.nytimes.com

2

Reposted by Douglas Natelson

Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 17d

630 9.5K 34K

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 18d

🧪⚛️ Nothing like visas and immigration policy and their impact on academic research to spur a calm, rational discussion, I'm sure. nanoscale.blogspot.com/2025/09/h-1b...

H-1B visas and academia

Sorry to talk politics. In now-classic fashion, there was a just-before-close-of-business-Friday announcement by the executive branch yester...

nanoscale.blogspot.com

1 7 11

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 18d

🧪⚛️. Stand back, folks! A lunar 3He mining startup just got the backing of “Big Dil Fridge”! gizmodo.com/moon-helium-...

Moon Helium Deal Is the Biggest Space Resource Grab Yet

Quantum cryogenics manufacturer Bluefors is betting big on Interlune, a startup that aims to extract Helium-3 from the lunar surface by 2028.

gizmodo.com

1 3 9

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 18d

bsky.app/profile/mbkp...

Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 28d

Update on the Texas A&M professor / cell phone video situation: the professor has been fired by the A&M president
president.tamu.edu/messages/an-...

This afternoon, following full consideration of the facts related to this situation, I directed the Provost to terminate the professor involved, effective immediately. Please understand that these decisions were mine alone and were not
made lightly. While I cannot provide all the details at this time, I will share the following facts.

1 1

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 19d

Is this basically the end of faculty governance at TAMU? Who will take on an administrative role, knowing that a single student complaint can up-end your career?

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 19d

(Why didn't they continue up the chain to the Provost?) Then the president of the university was compelled to resign, because people in the state government (Dan Patrick) thought that the above approach was *insufficiently harsh*.

2 1 1

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 19d

How will Texas A&M operate administratively from now on? Following the complaint of a single student about course content, within less than a day: a faculty member was terminated, the department chair was removed from that role, and the dean of arts and sciences was removed from that role.

4 3 7

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 26d

Time for me to bang my drum again. Only high energy theory is a corrupt establishment, not all of physics! (I kid, I kid.)

Douglas Natelson @nanoscaleviews.bsky.social · 26d

Highlights of the last half-day of the DOE Experimental Condensed Matter Physics PI Meeting 2025: nanoscale.blogspot.com/2025/09/doe-...

DOE Experimental Condensed Matter Physics PI Meeting 2025 - Day 3 and wrap-up

A few more interesting tidbits from the concluding half-day of the DOE ECMP PI meeting: Dmitri Basov showed some of the remarkable experim...

nanoscale.blogspot.com

1 1 1