COPS (Complex Photonic Systems)

Het is treurig dat mensen het internationaal recht afserveren terwijl het henzelf moet beschermen. Kennelijk is recht van de sterkste geen probleem. Dus toegeven aan hoge illegale heffingen van Trump? Groenland opgeven? Zelenski dwingen tot capitulatie? Wat voor wereld wil je?

@PhysRevB @APSphysics many thanks dear @PhysRevB for publishing our paper! 🫶🙏 #physics #optics #nanotechnology

PRB Editors' Suggestion: Dispersion of backward-propagating waves in a surface defect on a 3D #photonic band-gap crystal T. J. Vreman, M. J. Goodwin et al., Phys. Rev. B 112, 155305 ➡️ go.aps.org/3J0flQS #OpenAccess #EdSugg @APSPhysics #physics #condmat @nanocops

Here a news item about the happy news on COPS web: nano-cops.com/2025/09/cops-a… #physics #optics #nanotechnology

Always a great pleasure to hear that a @nanocops has been appointed full professor, so congratulations from the bottom of our heart to Rajesh Nair for becoming professor at #IIT Ropar, hooray hooray! 🙌 #physics #optics #nanotechnology

Our work on Mesoscopic theory of wavefront shaping to focus waves deep inside disordered media journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/1… describes the theory of focusing waves deep inside a 3Ddisordered material by shaping 𝑁 external field sources, aka #wavefront shaping #optics #physics #ffso

Against some odds 😊COPS rocks on!💪So you may appreciate we're very happy with our new paper "Mesoscopic theory of wavefront shaping to focus waves deep inside disordered media" journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/1… with Bart van Tiggelen (@CNRS Grenoble) #physics #optics #nanotechnology

@jurgen_nauditt Fuck Trump! Viva president @VZelenskyUA ! Slava Ukraini💪#physics #optics #nanotechnology #ffso

Help us - 1000 x "Fuck Trump".

@PhysRevLett 👏👏 for your initiative @PhysRevLett . Would also help if you work on the readability of abstracts (keyword: general audience?) If an example reads "..integrable Trotterization for the evolution of the XXZ.." we're sorry but we're lost🤪 (love the authors!😘) #physics

PRL has selected 1 issue's worth of Letters from last year's 52, spanning all of our sections, to create our first annual PRL Collection of the Year 2024. Happy exploring to our readers, congratulations to authors, and thank you to referees! promo.aps.org/PRL2024 #PRLcoty2024

@PhysRevLett Surely well done. But please don't call it "Anderson localization of light": the term light is misleading when it invokes perfect electric conductors that do not exist for light. Thanks @PhysRevLett ! #optics #physics #nanotechnology @InstLangevin @WFShaping

A theory revealing the existence of a mobility edge and critical behavior for light in a disordered 3D metallic structure provides a new system for studying the Anderson transition Letter: go.aps.org/4jtDH2C Synopsis: go.aps.org/3EhJbxu

tinyurl.com/bdfz4m94 Saxion (linkedin.com/school/saxion-…) collaborates w. COPS as part of 2025 International Project Week: Geert-Jan, Melissa & Willem advised >50 students who visited us for input &☕ Hooray for great solutions🏆👏!#wavefrontshaping #mechatronics #ffso #OpticsNL🥳

Posting in full a new translation of the "last word" speech at court of historian Alexander Skobov at his trial this week, who will most likely perish in Putin's Gulag. This is the voice of a true Russian patriot and I'm honored that a man of such immense courage is a member of the Free Russia Forum. It's worth noting that Alexander was jailed as a young man back in the Soviet days for his dissident views. Arrested by Communists, now by fascists, a true demonstration of his immense courage and unshakeable principles. -- Garry ********************** "I was raised in the Soviet Union with the conviction that when an evil aggressor attacks peaceful citizens, one must take up arms and fight. And if you cannot hold a weapon yourself, you must help those who can, and encourage others to do so. All my public activity is a call to fight the aggressor who attacked Ukraine, to support Ukraine with weapons and ammunition. I consider myself a participant in the armed resistance against the aggressor. In the missiles and shells that destroy the invaders, there is a small part of me. And I share a small part in every eliminated occupier. No one attacked Russia, no one threatened it. It is Putin’s Nazi regime that attacked Ukraine, driven solely by its leaders’ delusions of grandeur and their inhuman lust for power over everyone around them. They affirm themselves by killing hundreds of thousands of people. They are degenerates, scum, Nazi filth. The guilt of Putin's Nazi dictatorship in preparing, unleashing, and waging an aggressive war is obvious and needs no proof. Likewise, our right to armed resistance against the aggressor on the battlefield and on the aggressor’s territory needs no justification. Indeed, it would be laughable to expect such acknowledgment from a regime that imprisons people merely for uttering a word of moral condemnation against it. All possibilities for legal protest against Putin's aggression have long been eradicated. My calls for armed resistance against the aggressor’s regime are considered by it to be terroristic activity. I will not argue with the aggressor's authorities, even if they decide to charge me with pedophilia. The judicial system in Russia has long proven itself to be an appendage of Nazi tyranny, and seeking justice there is meaningless. I will never bow before these people – accomplices to murderers and scoundrels. I have nothing to argue about with them. Let the cannons speak for me. I see no point in arguing with the dictatorship’s marionets about how faithfully they apply their laws. These are, in any case, the laws of a totalitarian state aimed at trampling dissent. I do not recognize these laws and will not succumb to them. I also will not appeal any decisions or actions of the representatives of this Nazi regime. I do not seek mercy from my armed enemy. The Putin dictatorship may kill me, but it cannot force me to abandon my fight against it. Wherever I may be, I will continue to call on honest Russians to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I will continue to advocate for strikes on military targets deep within Russian territory. I will call on the civilized world to inflict a strategic defeat on Nazi Russia. I will argue for the necessity of the military destruction of the new Hitler regime. Putin is the new Hitler, intoxicated by impunity, a ghoul drunk on blood. And I will not tire of repeating: “Crush the serpent!” Death to Putin - murderer, tyrant, and scoundrel! Death to the Russian-fascist invaders! Glory to Ukraine!" **********************************

@CCrowley100 Hi @CCrowley100 many thanks f the interesting thread. As next read, you may enjoy the paper by Brozovic on Societal collapse: doi.org/10.1016/j.futu… discussing Tainter's book (+ later papers) and a large body of literature #Physics #FFSO

7/ An Addendum (As I often provide for clarification) This essay was a brief exploration of Joseph Tainter's "The Collapse of Complex Societies," alongside my analysis of the reigning liberal-humanist ideology in the West, its role in demographic transformation, and how these dynamics contribute to systemic fragility. It is not intended to be exhaustive or conclusive. On X, I often discuss books and ideas that I don’t fully agree with, drawing my own conclusions, as any critical reader should. While I don’t align with every aspect of Tainter’s work, his overriding thesis rings true: complex societies collapse when the costs of maintaining their complexity outpace their ability to solve problems. Given that our world is the most interconnected and technologized in human history, his insights remain strikingly relevant. It’s worth noting that Tainter wrote this book in 1988, and much of what he foresaw has now become our reality. In the replies and reposts, most responses fall into one of two camps, either agreeing with the larger point or critiquing it. For the latter, two recurring misconceptions dominate: 1. The Pilot and the First Tweet Some are fixated on the helicopter footage, insisting the pilot isn’t to blame. But this entirely misses the point. The video wasn’t about the pilot; it was a visual shorthand, necessary on a platform like X, to draw attention. It represents systemic failure decades in the making—failure rooted in decayed leadership, crumbling infrastructure, and misplaced priorities. Whether the pilot was doing his best within a broken system or is the product of DEI-driven hiring is ultimately irrelevant. The clip serves as a visceral reminder of what happens when a society’s capacity to maintain basic functionality erodes. It’s not about one individual’s actions but the larger decay that leaves a helicopter missing its mark as an emblem of collapse. Naturally, the forces of Mother Nature play a role—as they always have and always will. Factors like erratic wind patterns, thermal turbulence, the inherent difficulty of aerial firefighting, etc., all complicate such efforts. Yet the question remains: is a society equipped to adapt and overcome these challenges, or does it succumb to its own self-inflicted fragility, leaving technical obstacles as insurmountable failures rather than manageable hurdles? 2. Policy Mismanagement The other camp focuses on "policy mismanagement," claiming it as the root cause. This is a classic example of missing the forest for the trees. Tainter’s work isn’t a catalog of policy blunders; it’s a meta-analysis of civilizational collapse, spanning 18 vastly different societies across history. His purpose is to uncover the deeper patterns that arise when societies become too complex to sustain themselves. Policy mismanagement is not the cause—it’s a symptom. As Tainter demonstrates, collapse occurs when the diminishing returns on complexity lead systems designed to solve problems to become the problems themselves. A society consumed by inefficiency, symbolic gestures, and ideological pretense is incapable of adapting to the practical demands of survival. Focusing on isolated issues like brush management or fire zone construction obscures the broader reality: a system so unwieldy and preoccupied with maintaining appearances that it can no longer deliver meaningful solutions. The priorities are misplaced, the vision myopic, and the result predictable. Tainter’s central message is that civilizations do not collapse due to isolated missteps—such as flawed policies, which ultimately reflect the values and priorities of a society and its elites—but because they become trapped by their own complexity, unable to address the fundamental realities needed for their survival. Our current crises—whether in infrastructure, governance, or demography—are not isolated aberrations or events, they are the symptoms of a system that has prioritized ideological conformity and bureaucratic bloat over competence and survival. The lesson is clear: without a return to practical, grounded solutions and the political will to confront uncomfortable truths, we risk joining the ranks of civilizations that collapsed under the weight of their own pretenses.

1/ Let’s talk about collapse. Fires rage in Los Angeles, and no one can put them out—a clear symbol of a civilization unable to solve even its most basic problems. Joseph A. Tainter's "The Collapse of Complex Societies" provides a framework to understand why this happens.

COPS to Paris (vlog part 5): Doing experiments at @InstLangevin of @ESPCI_Paris on super-duper nanosamples 😇 youtube.com/shorts/3avr9AA… #optics #physics #nanotechnology #ffso 😊

COPS to Paris (vlog part 4): (sound) waves need a medium youtube.com/shorts/jslzTvS… wonderful demo at the museum on Science & Technology in the Parc de la Villette #optics #physics #nanotechnology #ffso 😊

COPS to Paris (vlog part 3): visiting the @InstLangevin at @ESPCI_Paris and participating at the delightful GdR Complexe workshop, see tinyurl.com/3a2cry8d or tinyurl.com/yc4u47va #optics #physics #nanotechnology #ffso 😊

@vtchakarova Dear @vtchakarova, sorry to be ignorant of your source of info and/or metrics. Anyway, being hands on in Advanced Physics, we'd like to politely disagree and state for record that Europe is nr. 1 (=Eins, Uno, Un, Een, One :-) #physics #nanotechnology #optics #nanophotonics

As a geopolitical strategist, I wish the EU more AI, chips & advanced manufacturing, and less regulation in 2025!

New COPS paper: "Experimentally mapping the scattering phases and amplitudes of a finite object by optical mutual scattering" doi.org/10.1103/PhysRe… #optics #physics #nanotechnology #ffso @InstLangevin @WFShaping Congratulations @AlfredoRates, Duy, @ad_lagendijk, Willem

Misschien moeten we met z’n allen eens wat vaker artikel 1 van de grondwet delen op social media. Ik begin #Artikel1

@PhysRevResearch @Neso_167 Many thanks! #physics #optics #nanophotonics #cartesianlight

Observation of Cartesian light propagation through a three-dimensional cavity superlattice in a silicon photonic band gap crystal, Manashee Adhikary, Marek Kozoň, Ravitej Uppu, and Willem L. Vos #Optics go.aps.org/4gcOMmm