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Thomas Bourke

@thomasbourke1

Quantum Optics PhD student at Cambridge homepage: https://thomasbourke1.github.io

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14.11.2024
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Latest posts by Thomas Bourke @thomasbourke1

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Say hi if you spot me at #QuantumShowcase25 today in London!

07.11.2025 11:33 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Lastly, consider watching some of his films this week. My favorites include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, Three Days of the Condor, The Sting, Jeremiah Johnson, and All Is Lost.

Rest in peace to a man who has given us much.

16.09.2025 18:49 πŸ‘ 2148 πŸ” 113 πŸ’¬ 60 πŸ“Œ 6

Great piece in the WSJ

12.09.2025 11:48 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Ners, France β˜€οΈ Enjoying some poolside reading despite the current heatwave.

30.06.2025 18:07 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

go.bsky.app/75SvR2M - Who am I missing?

~got bored this afternoon, do forgive me. But on a serious note would love to know who I haven't discovered on here yet (or mistakenly omitted due to the sheer amount of people)

23.06.2025 20:24 πŸ‘ 30 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 21 πŸ“Œ 3
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He's right. "Nothing short of devastating"
By @holdenthorp.bsky.social @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

05.06.2025 20:41 πŸ‘ 682 πŸ” 238 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 26

Grant Sanderson's new video is a beautiful animation that I wish existed when I first heard about Grover's algorithm!

01.05.2025 17:24 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Title:
SOME GRAMMATICAL VOICES FOR USE IN SCIENTIFIC WRITING

ACTIVE VOICE
e.g.
Our team collected samples and then we tested them.

CLICKBAIT VOICE
e.g.
We collected some samples...
You won't believe what happened next!

PASSIVE VOICE
e.g.
Samples were collected and tested.

HAIKU VOICE
e.g.
Quiet science lab.
Workers arrive with samples.
The testing begins.

PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE VOICE
e.g. We did all the collecting and testing.
No need to thank us.
Just doing our job.

CONSPIRACY VOICE
e.g.
Mysterious "Samples" were harvested and covertly "tested" by so-called scientists.

Title: SOME GRAMMATICAL VOICES FOR USE IN SCIENTIFIC WRITING ACTIVE VOICE e.g. Our team collected samples and then we tested them. CLICKBAIT VOICE e.g. We collected some samples... You won't believe what happened next! PASSIVE VOICE e.g. Samples were collected and tested. HAIKU VOICE e.g. Quiet science lab. Workers arrive with samples. The testing begins. PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE VOICE e.g. We did all the collecting and testing. No need to thank us. Just doing our job. CONSPIRACY VOICE e.g. Mysterious "Samples" were harvested and covertly "tested" by so-called scientists.

My latest @newscientist.com cartoon

28.04.2025 10:09 πŸ‘ 5043 πŸ” 1923 πŸ’¬ 73 πŸ“Œ 100
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Quantum Messages Cover City Distances Via Telco Lines Toshiba sent QKD keys more than 250 kilometers

>250km quantum key distribution! wow

spectrum.ieee.org/quantum-key-...

23.04.2025 18:42 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Why β€˜de-extinct’ dire wolves are a Trojan horse to hide humanity’s destruction of nature Extinction is, for the time being, forever – and a symptom of our global economic system.

'What’s the problem? Well, pretty much everything. These aren’t species returned from extinction.'

@oxfordgeography.bsky.social's Dr Richard Grenyer argues that extinction is, for the time being, a symptom of our global economic system ⬇️

15.04.2025 09:22 πŸ‘ 113 πŸ” 45 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 9

welp guess I gotta check this out

07.04.2025 15:43 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Lmao

04.04.2025 09:43 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Sorting out the confusion on quantum computing utility Understanding quantum computing's pace of progress is not an easy task. Recent months have complicated it with contradictory messages. CEOs like Jensen Huang (Nvidia) and Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) estima...

Fantastic post for understanding the technology readiness level (TRL) of quantum computing www.oezratty.net/wordpress/20...

29.03.2025 11:40 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Inside arXivβ€”the Most Transformative Platform in All of Science Modern science wouldn’t exist without the online research repository known as arXiv. Three decades in, its creator still can’t let it go.

Modern science wouldn’t exist without the online research repository known as arXiv. Three decades in, its creator still can’t let it go.

27.03.2025 10:04 πŸ‘ 732 πŸ” 207 πŸ’¬ 9 πŸ“Œ 27

P.S. Photo is a radar photo taken by the Sentinel-1C satellite of northern Chile.

23.03.2025 14:57 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Sunday afternoons β˜€οΈ

23.03.2025 14:54 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Visiting the Cavendish Laboratory ✨

22.03.2025 18:30 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

a very important thread

19.03.2025 21:34 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Quantum Speedup Found for Huge Class of Hard Problems | Quanta Magazine It’s been difficult to find important questions that quantum computers can answer faster than classical machines, but a new algorithm appears to do it for some critical optimization tasks.

It’s been difficult to find important questions that quantum computers can answer faster than classical machines, but a new algorithm appears to do it for some critical optimization tasks. @stephenornes.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/quantum-spee...

17.03.2025 15:13 πŸ‘ 27 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Spring growth

Male kingfisher down on Hackney Marshes this morning sat amongst new leaves in the warm sunshine.

I think he has a partner as he was interacting with a female just before this.

#LondonBirds #kingfisher #kingfisher #hackney #riverlea #ukbirds #birds #hackneymarshes

16.03.2025 21:18 πŸ‘ 41 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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The physicists David PΓ©rez-GarcΓ­a (left) and Toby Cubitt designed a quantum material whose behavior can capture any calculation possible for a Turing machine. β€œIt started as a joke. Then we started to cook up ideas,” PΓ©rez-GarcΓ­a said. buff.ly/SKLsRk0

13.03.2025 20:04 πŸ‘ 33 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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Ten books to understand the world we're now in Trump’s second term is on track to be more damaging than his first.

New post just out

Ten books to help understand the world we're now in.

Five recommendations on the US/Trump/Musk and five on Europe and the rest of the world.

(This one is free to read)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

16.03.2025 08:59 πŸ‘ 244 πŸ” 81 πŸ’¬ 31 πŸ“Œ 12
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RNA xkcd.com/3056

26.02.2025 14:58 πŸ‘ 17840 πŸ” 2559 πŸ’¬ 154 πŸ“Œ 171
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Frosty canal walk

30.01.2025 16:07 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Superconductivity in 5.0Β° twistedΒ bilayer WSe2 - Nature We report superconductivity, in a limited region of displacement field and density, in 5.0° twistedΒ bilayer WSe2 with a maximum critical temperature of 426 mK, establishing that moirΓ© flat-band superconductivity extends beyond graphene structures.

Nature research paper: Superconductivity in 5.0Β° twisted bilayer WSe2

https://go.nature.com/3PLNLGx

22.01.2025 20:14 πŸ‘ 17 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
David Lynch smirking in an interview

-Believe it or not, Eraserhead is my most spiritual film.
-Elaborate on that.
-No.

David Lynch smirking in an interview -Believe it or not, Eraserhead is my most spiritual film. -Elaborate on that. -No.

16.01.2025 18:25 πŸ‘ 23153 πŸ” 4110 πŸ’¬ 152 πŸ“Œ 185
A single 1” tall splitgill mushroom grows off the end of a broken branch, upturned so it’s underside can be viewed against a brown forest background 

All photos by me

A single 1” tall splitgill mushroom grows off the end of a broken branch, upturned so it’s underside can be viewed against a brown forest background All photos by me

Here is a nice mushroom

01.01.2025 14:12 πŸ‘ 30451 πŸ” 1573 πŸ’¬ 648 πŸ“Œ 110
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a girl in a blue kimono looks up at the stars ALT: a girl in a blue kimono looks up at the stars
28.12.2024 01:16 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Exclusion Principle xkcd.com/3027

21.12.2024 04:15 πŸ‘ 4522 πŸ” 379 πŸ’¬ 38 πŸ“Œ 23
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One of my favourites from my Cessna flight over the river deltas in Iceland back in June.

#iceland #aerialphotography #nature #fujifilm

21.12.2024 09:10 πŸ‘ 369 πŸ” 24 πŸ’¬ 16 πŸ“Œ 3