Lifeboat Foundation

Newcastle University research turns to ancient hot springs to explore the origins of life on Earth.

The research team investigated how the emergence of the first living systems from inert geological materials happened on Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago. Scientists at Newcastle University found that mixing hydrogen, bicarbonate, and iron-rich magnetite under conditions mimicking relatively mild hydrothermal vent results in forming a spectrum of organic molecules, most notably including fatty acids stretching up to 18 carbon atoms in length.

Published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, their findings potentially reveal how some key molecules needed to produce life are made from inorganic chemicals, which is essential to understanding a key step in how life formed on the Earth billions of years ago.

Princeton physicists have discovered an abrupt change in quantum behavior while experimenting with a three-atom-thin insulator that can be easily switched into a superconductor.

The research promises to enhance our understanding of quantum physics in solids in general and also propel the study of quantum condensed matter physics and superconductivity in potentially new directions. The results were published in the journal Nature Physics in a paper titled “Unconventional Superconducting Quantum Criticality in Monolayer WTe₂.”

The researchers, led by Sanfeng Wu, assistant professor of physics at Princeton University, found that the sudden cessation (or “death”) of quantum mechanical fluctuations exhibits a series of unique quantum behaviors and properties that appear to lie outside the purview of established theories.

Astronomers discovered a mysterious gamma-ray feature outside our galaxy by analyzing 13 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

“It is a completely serendipitous discovery,” said Alexander Kashlinsky, a cosmologist at the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, who presented the research at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans. “We found a much stronger signal in a different part of the sky than the one we were looking for.”

The gamma-ray signal is unexpected and intriguingly similar to another unexplained feature produced by some of the most energetic cosmic particles ever detected. A paper describing the findings is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Year 2014 Basically once the master qubit is found it could even lead to a sorta master algorithm. Also it could show who actually pulls the strings of reality.

Whatever the u-bit is, it rotates quickly (Image: Natalie Nicklin)

Our best theory of nature has imaginary numbers at its heart. Making quantum physics more real conjures up a monstrous entity pulling the universe’s strings

Continue reading “From i to u: Searching for the quantum master bit” »

Like several scientific discoveries, the researchers stumbled upon this result accidentally while conducting experiments irradiating graphene when they found that irradiated noble gases became trapped between two sheets of graphene, which results in the graphene forming small pockets where the atoms of the gases coalesce into small groups of atoms.

“We used scanning transmission electron microscopy to observe these clusters, and they are really fascinating and a lot of fun to watch,” said Manuel Längle, who is a PhD student at the University of Vienna and lead author of the study. “They rotate, jump, grow and shrink as we image them. Getting the atoms between the layers was the hardest part of the work. Now that we have achieved this, we have a simple system for studying fundamental processes related to material growth and behavior.”

The research conducted by Elena Hassinger, an expert in low-temperature physics working at ct.qmat—Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter (a joint initiative by two universities in Würzburg and Dresden), has always been synonymous with extreme cold.

In 2021, she discovered the unconventional superconductor cerium-rhodium-arsenic CeRh₂As₂). Superconductors normally have just one phase of resistance-free electron transport, which occurs below a certain critical temperature. However, as reported in the academic journal Science, CeRh₂As₂ is so far the only quantum material to boast two certain superconducting states.

Lossless current conduction in superconductors has remained a central focus in solid-state physics for decades and has emerged as a significant prospect for the future of power engineering. The discovery of a second superconducting phase in CeRh₂As₂, which results from an asymmetric crystal structure around the cerium atom (the rest of the crystal structure is completely symmetrical), positions this compound as a prime candidate for use in topological quantum computing.

A new study in Physical Review Letters illuminates the intricacies of energy exchanges within bipartite quantum systems, offering profound insights into quantum coherence, pure dephasing effects, and the potential impact on future quantum technologies.

In quantum systems, the behavior of particles and energy transfer are governed by probability distributions and wave functions, adding layers of complexity to the understanding of energy exchanges.

The exploration of energy exchanges in quantum systems inherently involves tackling the complexities arising from quantum decoherence and the scales at which quantum systems operate, introducing sensitivity.

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated the remarkable ability to perturb pairs of spatially separated yet interconnected quantum entangled particles without altering their shared properties.

The team includes researchers from the Structured Light Laboratory (School of Physics) at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, led by Professor Andrew Forbes, in collaboration with string theorist Robert de Mello Koch from Huzhou University in China (previously from Wits University).

“We achieved this experimental milestone by entangling two identical photons and customizing their shared wave-function in such a way that their topology or structure becomes apparent only when the photons are treated as a unified entity,” explains lead author, Pedro Ornelas, an MSc student in the structured light laboratory.

Darwin applied the theory of evolution to life on earth, but not to other massively complex systems like planets, stars, atoms and minerals. Now, an interdisciplinary group of researchers has identified a missing aspect of that theory that applies to essentially everything.

Their paper, “On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems,” published Oct. 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes “a missing law of nature” that recognizes for the first time an important norm within the natural world’s workings. The new law states that complex natural systems evolve to states of greater patterning, diversity and complexity.

“This was a true collaboration between scientists and philosophers to address one of the most profound mysteries of the cosmos: why do complex systems, including life, evolve toward greater functional information over time?” said co-author Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and chair of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences.