Tom Rivlin
@tomrivlin.com
Vienna-based former Londoner. Quantum postdoc in TU Wien's @quitphysics.info group. (Running their bsky account!) Previously Weizmann, UCL, Imperial. Science writer for SciShow, bylines with PBS Space Time, New Scientist. H/h
Pinned
Tom Rivlin
@tomrivlin.com
· Jul 30
Emergence of Classicality in Wigner's Friend Scenarios
The Wigner's Friend (WF) thought experiment concerns quantum measurements by a 'superobserver' of an observer measuring a quantum system. Variations on the setup and its extended versions have seen a ...
arxiv.org
New preprint! Really excited about this. It's some of my best work ever, IMO: an analytic and numerical study of the Wigner's Friend problem(s) with a specific model of the measurement process and a decohering environment.
arxiv.org/abs/2507.21221
arxiv.org/abs/2507.21221
Another banger SciShow episode that I wish I could take credit for but sadly had nothing to do with. (Though stay tuned for an upcoming one of mine on a similar topic!)
youtu.be/-gp7AbYD9NI?...
youtu.be/-gp7AbYD9NI?...
How to Make Fair DnD Dice from ANY Shape
YouTube video by SciShow
youtu.be
October 28, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Another banger SciShow episode that I wish I could take credit for but sadly had nothing to do with. (Though stay tuned for an upcoming one of mine on a similar topic!)
youtu.be/-gp7AbYD9NI?...
youtu.be/-gp7AbYD9NI?...
Anyway yes Hades II good
I watched a video on YouTube called something like "Top 10 beginner tips for playing Hades II" and the next day the YT algorithm started showing me videos with tumbnails and titles containing end-game spoilers 🤷
October 20, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Anyway yes Hades II good
Nice article on this from New Scientist with some interesting updates on the research that's happened since my video on it came out www.newscientist.com/article/2498...
October 15, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Nice article on this from New Scientist with some interesting updates on the research that's happened since my video on it came out www.newscientist.com/article/2498...
Reposted by Tom Rivlin
Congrats to the three new physics Nobel laureates, who helped lay the groundwork for superconducting quantum computing. As always, nobelprize.org has a great technical summary of the results that won the prize and the wider research context
www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physi...
www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physi...
Nobel Prize in Physics 2025
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 was awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electri...
www.nobelprize.org
October 7, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Congrats to the three new physics Nobel laureates, who helped lay the groundwork for superconducting quantum computing. As always, nobelprize.org has a great technical summary of the results that won the prize and the wider research context
www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physi...
www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physi...
I watched a video on YouTube called something like "Top 10 beginner tips for playing Hades II" and the next day the YT algorithm started showing me videos with tumbnails and titles containing end-game spoilers 🤷
October 6, 2025 at 10:16 AM
I watched a video on YouTube called something like "Top 10 beginner tips for playing Hades II" and the next day the YT algorithm started showing me videos with tumbnails and titles containing end-game spoilers 🤷
66 hours and 100% completion later... yeah it's damn good. For sure sometimes too hard in frustrating silly not-fun ways, but overall yeah I had a blast
Silksong good
September 29, 2025 at 3:06 PM
66 hours and 100% completion later... yeah it's damn good. For sure sometimes too hard in frustrating silly not-fun ways, but overall yeah I had a blast
The plot of Silksong can be a bit confusing for newcomers, but I think I've cracked what it's about:
🧵Thread
🧵Thread
September 24, 2025 at 1:12 PM
The plot of Silksong can be a bit confusing for newcomers, but I think I've cracked what it's about:
🧵Thread
🧵Thread
Reposted by Tom Rivlin
Does our Research Unit endorse the view expressed by our employee here that "so much quantum tech is way over-hyped"? 🤔🤔🤔🤔
New from me at @scishow.bsky.social! In news stories, why do quantum computers look like a 'steampunk chandelier'? Well, turns out: that's not the computer!
(But that's all just setup for my rant at the end about how so much quantum tech is way over-hyped 👀👀👀)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhou...
(But that's all just setup for my rant at the end about how so much quantum tech is way over-hyped 👀👀👀)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhou...
Quantum Computers Look Like Chandeliers. This is Why.
YouTube video by SciShow
www.youtube.com
September 23, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Does our Research Unit endorse the view expressed by our employee here that "so much quantum tech is way over-hyped"? 🤔🤔🤔🤔
New from me at @scishow.bsky.social! In news stories, why do quantum computers look like a 'steampunk chandelier'? Well, turns out: that's not the computer!
(But that's all just setup for my rant at the end about how so much quantum tech is way over-hyped 👀👀👀)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhou...
(But that's all just setup for my rant at the end about how so much quantum tech is way over-hyped 👀👀👀)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhou...
Quantum Computers Look Like Chandeliers. This is Why.
YouTube video by SciShow
www.youtube.com
September 23, 2025 at 12:09 PM
New from me at @scishow.bsky.social! In news stories, why do quantum computers look like a 'steampunk chandelier'? Well, turns out: that's not the computer!
(But that's all just setup for my rant at the end about how so much quantum tech is way over-hyped 👀👀👀)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhou...
(But that's all just setup for my rant at the end about how so much quantum tech is way over-hyped 👀👀👀)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhou...
Looks like the Literature prize this year went to "The late Dr. William B. Bean, for persistently recording and analyzing the rate of growth of one of his fingernails over a period of 35 years." Which, okay, that's pretty fun, too
improbable.com/ig/winners/#...
improbable.com/ig/winners/#...
Given the two AI-related Nobels this year, surely the Ig Nobel committee now have to do the funniest thing ever and award their next Literature prize to ChatGPT
September 19, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Looks like the Literature prize this year went to "The late Dr. William B. Bean, for persistently recording and analyzing the rate of growth of one of his fingernails over a period of 35 years." Which, okay, that's pretty fun, too
improbable.com/ig/winners/#...
improbable.com/ig/winners/#...
Reposted by Tom Rivlin
This year at the Ig Nobels it's affirming to see empirical confirmation of a personal research project: that alcohol demonstrably improves my ability to speak a foreign language.
The sample size is a bit small but I'd volunteer for anyone's replication attempt: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
The sample size is a bit small but I'd volunteer for anyone's replication attempt: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
September 19, 2025 at 11:28 AM
This year at the Ig Nobels it's affirming to see empirical confirmation of a personal research project: that alcohol demonstrably improves my ability to speak a foreign language.
The sample size is a bit small but I'd volunteer for anyone's replication attempt: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
The sample size is a bit small but I'd volunteer for anyone's replication attempt: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
One of my all time favourite things on the internet just got an incredible makeover www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3g6...
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The It's My Book They'll Walk If I Tell Them Too (ANIMATED)
YouTube video by Tom Cardy
www.youtube.com
September 16, 2025 at 12:23 PM
One of my all time favourite things on the internet just got an incredible makeover www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3g6...
Congrats to Professor Michele Dougherty on being my Differential Equations lecturer in second year undergrad in 2012.
Oh, and maybe some other more recent achievement of hers IDK www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Oh, and maybe some other more recent achievement of hers IDK www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK gets first female Astronomer Royal in 350 years
Prof Michele Dougherty is the first woman to be appointed to the influential post.
www.bbc.co.uk
July 30, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Congrats to Professor Michele Dougherty on being my Differential Equations lecturer in second year undergrad in 2012.
Oh, and maybe some other more recent achievement of hers IDK www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Oh, and maybe some other more recent achievement of hers IDK www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
New preprint! Really excited about this. It's some of my best work ever, IMO: an analytic and numerical study of the Wigner's Friend problem(s) with a specific model of the measurement process and a decohering environment.
arxiv.org/abs/2507.21221
arxiv.org/abs/2507.21221
Emergence of Classicality in Wigner's Friend Scenarios
The Wigner's Friend (WF) thought experiment concerns quantum measurements by a 'superobserver' of an observer measuring a quantum system. Variations on the setup and its extended versions have seen a ...
arxiv.org
July 30, 2025 at 8:47 AM
New preprint! Really excited about this. It's some of my best work ever, IMO: an analytic and numerical study of the Wigner's Friend problem(s) with a specific model of the measurement process and a decohering environment.
arxiv.org/abs/2507.21221
arxiv.org/abs/2507.21221
Ha, this is fun. Four years ago I wrote a SciShow that mentioned the famous unsolved "Moving Sofa" problem. But last year someone claimed to have finally solved it. So now, SciShow made a new video about it!
New video:
youtu.be/GeJEJXqf2XI?...
My older video:
youtu.be/3b6zvcqbNa0?...
New video:
youtu.be/GeJEJXqf2XI?...
My older video:
youtu.be/3b6zvcqbNa0?...
What’s the Largest Sofa You Can Move Around a Corner?
YouTube video by SciShow
youtu.be
July 25, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Ha, this is fun. Four years ago I wrote a SciShow that mentioned the famous unsolved "Moving Sofa" problem. But last year someone claimed to have finally solved it. So now, SciShow made a new video about it!
New video:
youtu.be/GeJEJXqf2XI?...
My older video:
youtu.be/3b6zvcqbNa0?...
New video:
youtu.be/GeJEJXqf2XI?...
My older video:
youtu.be/3b6zvcqbNa0?...
New @scishow.bsky.social
This was a really fun one. We wrote about the real science behind an ancient tome said to hold alchemical secrets... And just what does Shannon entropy have to do with it?
youtu.be/K0wVcFXNXLw?...
This was a really fun one. We wrote about the real science behind an ancient tome said to hold alchemical secrets... And just what does Shannon entropy have to do with it?
youtu.be/K0wVcFXNXLw?...
This Famous Medieval Book May Be a Hoax
YouTube video by SciShow
youtu.be
June 19, 2025 at 2:32 PM
New @scishow.bsky.social
This was a really fun one. We wrote about the real science behind an ancient tome said to hold alchemical secrets... And just what does Shannon entropy have to do with it?
youtu.be/K0wVcFXNXLw?...
This was a really fun one. We wrote about the real science behind an ancient tome said to hold alchemical secrets... And just what does Shannon entropy have to do with it?
youtu.be/K0wVcFXNXLw?...
Really enjoyed this series of mini essays on social democracy
May 31, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Really enjoyed this series of mini essays on social democracy
Quite enjoyed this piece!
My feature article about the delayed-choice quantum eraser is out now in @physicsworld.bsky.social!
physicsworld.com/a/the-quantu...
physicsworld.com/a/the-quantu...
May 29, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Quite enjoyed this piece!
Reposted by Tom Rivlin
To us, every year is the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, but it's nice that it's official now...
And this week, Marcus spoke to esteemed science journo Emily Conover about the future of quantum theory, with some hot takes 👀
www.sciencenews.org/article/quan...
And this week, Marcus spoke to esteemed science journo Emily Conover about the future of quantum theory, with some hot takes 👀
www.sciencenews.org/article/quan...
As quantum mechanics turns 100, a new revolution is under way
With greater control over the quantum realm, physicists are poised to make major leaps in quantum computing, quantum gravity and more.
www.sciencenews.org
May 21, 2025 at 8:25 AM
To us, every year is the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, but it's nice that it's official now...
And this week, Marcus spoke to esteemed science journo Emily Conover about the future of quantum theory, with some hot takes 👀
www.sciencenews.org/article/quan...
And this week, Marcus spoke to esteemed science journo Emily Conover about the future of quantum theory, with some hot takes 👀
www.sciencenews.org/article/quan...
New SciShow! Really pleased with this one. Had a lot of fun researching and writing it. It turns out that basically every language has almost the exact same bit rate. What's up with that? Find out here:
youtu.be/suEm3uFJA2s?...
youtu.be/suEm3uFJA2s?...
What’s The Fastest Language?
YouTube video by SciShow
youtu.be
May 14, 2025 at 6:34 PM
New SciShow! Really pleased with this one. Had a lot of fun researching and writing it. It turns out that basically every language has almost the exact same bit rate. What's up with that? Find out here:
youtu.be/suEm3uFJA2s?...
youtu.be/suEm3uFJA2s?...
This project is coming along nicely it seems
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
May 6, 2025 at 5:37 AM
This project is coming along nicely it seems
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
