Toma Susi

The debate around Musk and the Royal Society is just so frustrating. If those who think it is right to retain him as an FRS were to say "Here, despite his having been a direct accomplice to the dismantling of scientific institutions, destruction of scientific data, spreading of...

Motherfucking wind farms…

I should of course add that the paper itself is super interesting and well worth a read if you are in the field!

We are excited to announce the results of the Second Call for Cascade Funding, funded by the European Commission under the CoARA Boost project!

28 projects have been selected for the second round, please see the full details at the following links:
🔗 lnkd.in/e3VgUNxR
🔗 lnkd.in/eAi8DtWy

Minuscule vibrations, uncovered Computational imaging resolves atomic vibrations at picometer scale

My first publication for @science.org is this perspective I wrote for a paper I helped review. It turned out quite nicely, thanks also to the extensive copyediting work by the staff.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

(I’ll also tease that I may have some exciting news to share in short order :-)

📢 WE HAVE A NEW NAME

We are excited to share that VSC has undergone a slight rebranding and will now operate under a new name: 𝗔𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝗔𝗦𝗖).

The name was chosen to reflect the nationwide scope of the consortium - read the official
statement here ➡️ asc.ac.at/news/2025/ne...

A true catch for Delft and very happy to have George join us on this side of the Atlantic!

There is also the portability of the grant to consider: one big advantage of ERC is that money follows the person, and it gives individuals leverage to get positions in an institution they want to go to.

It’s a systemic issue, as these things always tend to be…

They strive to have balance of genders but there are no quotas. The excellence of the proposal and the PI are the only criteria.

As for quotas for institutions, maybe, but I question whether 1 is correct or too tight…

Sure, but how would you enforce that?

While that is a desirable outcome, how to get there is not simple. Politicians would _love_ to meddle in how the ERC money is distributed, and its independence is a rare and precious thing in the EU landscape that needs to be constantly defended…

Benzene’s 200-year legacy of transformation As we celebrate the anniversary of benzene's isolation, we must remember that scientific centenaries carry additional agendas

I just got back from the big centenary meeting for quantum mechanics on Helgoland. But this year is also a bicentenary: of Michael Faraday's discovery of benzene. Here I consider what it meant, and why we might celebrate it.
www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/benz...

Arrival in Helgoland. A bit like arriving in Newquay on a rainy day in March, except that you have to cross the North Sea to get there. It's pretty wild. The conference is going to happen in what is basically the village hall. I hope there's a raffle.

The Helgoland 2025 quantum mechanics centenary meeting kicked off last night at the rather grand Hotel Atlantic in Hamburg, with a dinner followed by historical talks.

Perfect Landing in the Atomic Lattice – New Paths for Improved Catalysis and Gas Detection An innovative combination of methods enables the precise localization of individual atoms in ultrathin materials. | New publication in "Nano Letters".

Proud to share our latest: In a collaboration between @univie-physik.bsky.social (@univie.ac.at) and @tuwien.at, we showed how individual #platinum atoms can be anchored to #2D MoS2 for #catalysis and #sensing. Article in Nano Letters by @pubs.acs.org

physik.univie.ac.at/en/news/news...

Das ist wirklich ein Coup!

The AERG expresses grave concern over the future of fundamental research in Europe in a statement urging European leaders to protect fundamental science by reaffirming the autonomy of the @erc.europa.eu
aerg.eu/news/new-sta...

Read the full statement 👇
aerg.eu/storage/AERG...

The ”immune system” of a safe and equal Europe is in danger, according to researchers The International non-profit Association of ERC Grantees (AERG) expresses grave concern over the future of fundamental research in Europe in statement in which it urges European leaders to protect fun...

From @eurekalert.bsky.social

www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

🎉 Our new Ambassadors for the ERC are here to champion frontier research!

Read more about Phoebe Koundouri of the Athens University of Economics and Business, plus the other 31 ambassadors 👉 bit.ly/44bQzp7

#EUresearch #ScienceCommunication #HorizonEU 🌟 #Amb4ERC 🌟 #Science4EU

It pains me to say this, but if you are not a US citizen, you should not attend scientific conferences in the US, visit US institutions, or otherwise travel to our country.

Right now it's not worth the risk.

Hopefully that will change. If it doesn't, science in the US is sunk anyway.

As the AERG community @ercgrantees.bsky.social grows, the Board of Directors welcomes four new members.
Meet Elisabetta Aurino @bettaaurino.bsky.social (SH, Spain),
Dragan Mihailovic (PE, Slovenia),
Vikas Trivedi @viktri08.bsky.social (LS, Spain) and
Johannes Henn (PE, Germany)

5. This is the moment of truth.

The metascience community could tout this as a win and fundraise off of it, cementing their legacy as useful idiots.

Or they can side with science, boldly speaking out about the bad-faith ways the Trump administration is co-opting their language and momentum.

Top half of image: July 2016 Guardian article by Simon Jenkins titled: “ignore the prophets of doom: Brexit will be good for Britain”. Bottom half of image: May 2026 Guardian article by Simon Jenkins titled “From the day Britain left the EU, this reset was inevitable. What a pointless waste of time, money and effort”

The top image:
The Guardian, July 2016
The article:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The bottom image:
The Guardian, May 2025
The article:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Finishing up with the third part of Händel’s Messiah with a period ensemble and choir.

At the celebration of Anton Zeilinger’s 80th birthday at the gorgeous Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Markus Aspelmeyer delivering the laudatio.

www.oeaw.ac.at/detail/veran...

You get to respond to grant reviews? Without getting a no and having to resubmit? Sounds wonderful!

Experiences with Using AI to write papers
@elisabethbik.bsky.social

Super proud of this work, which showcases modern scientific publishing for open science 🧪

Inspired by the insights of the interactive CTF widgets, we propose a novel phase-retrieval algorithm which achieves robust information transfer on sub-sampled datasets 🙌

@elementalmicrosc.bsky.social

Evaluating the Transfer of Information in Phase Retrieval STEM Techniques - Elemental Microscopy Evaluating the transfer of information in various phase retrieval STEM techniques using analytical and numerical methods.

Excited to share this interactive pre-print investigating the information transfer of phase retrieval techniques in STEM 🔬

Now everyone has an open-access tool to optimise their experimental parameters ✨

Feel free to share and play around with it 🧪

www.elementalmicroscopy.com/articles/EM0...

Alternative take on the ‘jealous girlfriend’ meme with the ‘lady in red’ as Medusa and the oogling boyfriend being turned to stone.