Anya Grushina

In the past month or so, I've had a lot of good time: I got to visit the Singh Nanotechnology Center at U Penn, to have a nice 10 days in Ecuador, to attend the CMi day at EPFL and CAM workshop in Halle. Next up: ICEM in Brno, and then it's going to get a bit more relaxed until September, hopefully

Very much enjoying the 9th Thermal Probe Workshop at Heidelberg Instruments Nano, which still feels like home to me 🤍

Nothing special, just me and my pot going to a Swiss Semiconductor Industry Day.

Our daycare sometimes offers us to take the food that they otherwise want to throw away, and yesterday they made way too much risotto, and I'm giving back the pot before going to listen to the industry gossip.

Occasionally, that happens to my picture gallery ❤️‍🔥🤣

Yay, I made my first meme!!!

Seriously, I think every time someone reposts about the brand-new state of matter, a physicist dies somewhere.

#majorana #majorana1 #quantumcomputer #qubit

Lab is always home.

As I am taking pictures of some Imina nanoprobers, I'm giving in to nostalgia.

These instruments (and an EBL machine, a wet bench, a 14T magnet, and a 250mK fridge) + literally 6 kilometres of skotch tape is what my PhD is made with.

Exiting the microscopy room

Couldn't not share

If the last couple of years taught me anything, then it's this: "I'll just figure out how to brew coffee at home and save on going to a café" isn't saving neither time, nor money, but occasionally does produce good coffee. Not reproducibly though.

Last weekend, I was in Paris, and as I was trying to find the exit from Les Halles station, I found an interesting-looking mural featuring an even more interesting formulae. While I still need to check what it is all about, I thought I'd share it here.

#mysteriousmysteryofmysteries

Something cute to start the week!

I didn't even know there were blue geckos!

@profrachelgan.bsky.social I'm very glad you liked it! It's such a good illustration how literally anything can influence the outcome of pretty much anything in life, no matter how tight one tries to control everything. I am actually amazed they figured that one out!

@profrachelgan.bsky.social there you go! Now it's officially my favourite nanofab story 🤣

And then I had so much coffee I thought I'd explode (it was my 4th that day) 🤣🤣🤣

For the next coffee, I asked him to choose again, and not to tell me the flavours.

And it was a very clear bergamot!

Actually, the coffee tasted more like an earl grey than anything!

And I was right!!! Though subtler lemongrass and sirupy notes evaded my nose.

Also, the barista asked if he could choose a coffee for me, and if I liked strawberry. I said yes, and indeed I could feel the strawberry flavour. But would it be there if he didn't tell me?

So the cafe is in Bern, I live in Zürich, and usually go there to meet my manager who lives in Friebourg, while our actual office is in Cugy, a village close to Lausanne.

That's just life in Switzerland 🤣

So I happen to have a favourite specialty coffee shop (Friend or Foe in Bern).

It's in a cool basement around the corner from where Einstein is believed to have had his special relativity Eureka moment. The barista is a perfect example of Latino hospitality. And the coffee is outstanding.🧵

This is awesome!!!

Searching for you here was literally the first thing I did, Orad! Long time no see 🫶🏼

The hilarious book I'm currently reading. There's also a fascinating story of a nanofab built over indigenous burial site, and shaman fixing a yield issue, let me know if I should post the snapshot of that, too.

Was trying to take passport pictures of my older son yesterday 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

At least now we have bespoke WhatsApp stickers for the family chat.

Some context: I'm a HUGE fan of GB, I owe half of my PhD to them, and the other half to DongKeun Ki, "my" postdoc who saw me through those 5 years.

I was training for my first-ever full marathon this April. At some point, my knee started kind of hurting. I decided to give it some rest. But the next day, I went to a Gogol Bordello / Dropkick Murphys concert. And now my knee is kind of hurting more, and I think that 42k is not happening in April.

On the 30th of December, my friends and I hiked to a nudist beach close to Tarragona, Spain, — no kids, no husbands, no dogs.

There, I found a human pelvic bone.

As we waited for the police, we had lovely tea with croissants, looked for fossils, and had a great cold plunge.

Living the best life.

Hello, world! It took me years to get here, but I made it.

I wish I did it before because people have the most hilarious bios ever. I'm so hyped!

I tried to make mine as serious as possible.