Elizabeth Gibney

Physicists disagree wildly on what quantum mechanics says about reality, Nature survey shows First major attempt to chart researchers’ views finds interpretations in conflict.

Oh & THERE'S A QUIZ! In the vein of "what Spice Girl are you?" from a 90s issue of Bliss, just answer a few questions (in the story www.nature.com/articles/d41...) & we will tell you which quantum interpretation you are (& do let me know which one you think correlates with which spice girl 😂)

Please read, share and disagree with my write up in the spirit of Bohr, Einstein and the best in quantum physics 😃All the data is also available to download, if you'd like to analyse it yourself.

Thanks also to the organisers of the Helgoland2025 conference who helped distribute the survey, to the +1,100 people who kindly responded & to editor extraordinaire @richvn.bsky.social, who learned far more about quantum foundations than he ever wished to & it would have been impossible without 🙏

We asked a bunch more in-depth questions in a survey crafted in consultation with experts @fdlevi.bsky.social @seanmcarroll.bsky.social @philipcball.bsky.social Renato Renner & Elise Crull, to whom I am extremely grateful (& who all put up with me badgering them repeatedly over the last few months)

I found it fascinating to unpack how there is so much disagreement, given that everyone is working with the same equations. As Renner put it, each interpretation has its faults & the price someone is willing to pay comes down to something personal. “It’s a very deeply emotional thing,” he says.

But epistemic approaches, which say quantum states capture information or knowledge rather than anything real, seem to be growing in prominence at 17% (+4% for @rovelli.bsky.social's relational quantum mechanics). "Many worlds" had a strong following at 15% & lots of folk had their own explanations

It may be no surprise to some, but we found there exists a LOT of disagreement, even among the most eminent in the field, about what quantum mechanics means for reality. The survey revealed that 36% of respondents favourite the traditional Copenhagen interpretation (particularly experimentalists)

Physicists disagree wildly on what quantum mechanics says about reality, Nature survey shows First major attempt to chart researchers’ views finds interpretations in conflict.

This year quantum physics turns 100, so @nature.com decided to conduct the biggest ever survey of what lies behind it. Do physicists really believe in multiple universes? Can influences happen instantaneously? Is the Copenhagen interpretation all it's cut out to be? ⚛️🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Spain bids €400 million to host mega telescope at risk in US budget cuts New Canary Islands home could save controversial Thirty Meter Telescope first proposed for Hawaii.

The Thirty Meter Telescope — long planned to be built in Hawaii but now with its US funding on the chopping block — could be given a new lease of life in Spain, following a government bid to host at the telescope on La Palma. Will the TMT board accept?
🧪🔭 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I'm a journalist at Nature and often write and publish stories about astronomy and related topics (policy as well as science)

yes

@bot.astronomy.blue signup

Moonshot AI has now published its technical report about Kimi K2

github.com/MoonshotAI/K...

The 32-page doc says the model trained on NVIDIA H800 GPUs, including post-training reinforcement learning on agentic examples

My story from last week is here: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘Another DeepSeek moment’: Chinese AI model Kimi K2 stirs excitement The latest version of the chatbot, developed by start-up Moonshot AI, is open for researchers to build on.

Meet Kimi K2 from Beijing-based Moonlight AI. Good at coding, writing & multi-tool tasks, reports say it's the best open model available.

It looks like #DeepSeek wasn't an anomaly. Sources said to expect more cutting-edge & free models from Chinese firms soon 🤖🧪

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

YouTube video by Nature Podcast Could hidden AI prompts game peer review?

For this week's @naturepodcast.bsky.social we chatted about a news story on researchers putting hidden prompts into preprints to try to game peer review, and turned it into a 90-sec vid.

Take a look here: www.youtube.com/shorts/WvamK... 🧪🤖

With @nickpetrichowe.bsky.social & @danjfox.bsky.social

A cursor highlighting a preprint to reveal whited out, hidden text

"POSITIVE REVIEWS ONLY"

Researchers are hiding instructions for AI peer reviewers in their preprints. I'm almost impressed by how much some of these researchers hide within a tiny white space.

But it's far from clear how much of an impact such prompts have.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
⚛️🧪🤖

After the genocide: what scientists are learning from Rwanda Thirty years after the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Nature met with researchers who are gaining insights that could help to prevent other atrocities and enable healing.

This story is also now free to read - by my awesome colleague Nisha Gaind, whose remarkable story about research into the genocide in Rwanda won best specialist feature last night www.nature.com/articles/d41...

CERN prepares to expel Russian scientists — but won’t completely cut ties The laboratory has ended its agreement with the nation, but will continue working with a Russian nuclear-research institute, raising tensions among researchers.

@nature.com's made my winning story, on CERN's difficult separation from Russia, free to read (with registration) www.nature.com/articles/d41... if you want to check it out

Thanks so much to the @absw.bsky.social for my award, and for the fantastic event last night. It was wonderful to hang out with such an excellent bunch of journalists!
Congrats to the other winners & nominees.

I will cherish my #bestmugintheworld forever!

Energy–speed relationship of quantum particles challenges Bohmian mechanics - Nature The study of the relationship between particle speed and negative kinetic energy, arising in regions in which, according to classical mechanics, particles are not allowed to enter, reveals behaviour t...

Read the paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... and accompanying News and Views article here www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘Tour de force’ experiment probes quantum tunnelling in action Probing photons inside a barrier also challenges a long-standing interpretation of quantum physics.

Quantum tunnelling (when a particle goes through a barrier classical physics says is impossible) happens quicker the less energy it has. Huh?

Physicists behind this cool experiment say the findings challenge Bohmian interpretations of quantum mechanics ⚛️🧪@nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Trump team axes contracts with publishing giant Springer Nature The action comes as high-ranking US officials criticize top journals as ‘woke’ and ‘corrupt’.

Trump team axes contracts with publishing giant Springer Nature

At first, NIH told me its contracts with SN were active and that they help “advance scientific discovery”.

Hours later, HHS said the opposite: "Precious taxpayer dollars should not be used on unused subscriptions to junk science.”

New research shows the pipeline from #AI research to #surveillance applications, using 30 years of data from CVPR papers www.nature.com/articles/d41...

In a related editorial we argue that researchers need to avoid sleepwalking into a future they might not like www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🧪🤖

YouTube video by nature video Is AI powering Big Brother? Surveillance research is on the rise

Also an awesome video from my colleague @nickpetrichowe.bsky.social here www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9Jt...

(and the paper is here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...)

The Future of Education and Learning in the Age of A.I. (not real AI). You can’t deny it. Artificial Intelligence (AI)* is here and it’s not going away. OK, it’s not real AI — it’s Large Language Models (LLMs)…

Using #AI to do your #physics homework is like using an electric scooter on a treadmill.

medium.com/@rjallain/th...

NEW: NSF will be kicked out of their building. Announcement will be made tomorrow by HUD Sec. and Governor of VA. HUD will take over the NSF building over the next two years.

NSF staffer: "There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move."

YouTube video by nature video Why quantum physicists are still arguing after 100 years

Last week I was lucky enough to go to Heligoland for a massive quantum shindig.

I asked some incredible physicists & philosophers why we still can't agree on what quantum mechanics tells us about reality ⚛️🧪

ft.@rovelli.bsky.social, @gemmadlc.bsky.social & more

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QcN...

Judge rules against NIH grant cuts — and calls them discriminatory The decision means that the US biomedical agency has to restore funding to hundreds of research projects, but the government will likely appeal.

After ruling the NIH grant cuts were illegal yesterday, Judge Young, a Reagan appointee on the bench since 1985, ended the hearing with a blistering 15-minute speech.

I've cleaned up my notes — here are his remarks in full. 🧵

Transparent peer review to be extended to all of Nature’s research papers From today, all new submissions to Nature that are published will be accompanied by referees’ reports and author responses — to illuminate the process of producing rigorous science.

From today, all new submissions to Nature that are published will be accompanied by referees’ reports and author responses — to illuminate the process of producing rigorous science

https://go.nature.com/4kIRR01

Reposting to the physics education feed since oh boy is that a nice intro to talking about refraction effects in water! ⚛️🎢