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Category: computing – Page 142

This spring, the Hastings Center Report added a new series of essays named after the field its pieces aim to explore. Neuroscience and Society produces open access articles and opinion pieces that address the ethical, legal, and societal issues presented by emerging neuroscience. The series will run roughly twice a year and was funded by the Dana Foundation to foster dynamic, sustained conversation among neuroscience researchers, legal and ethics scholars, policymakers, and wider publics.

The first edition of the series focuses on the topic of research studies and what is owed to people who volunteer to participate in clinical trials to develop implantable brain devices, such as deep-brain stimulators and brain-computer interfaces.

Imagine you have lived with depression for most of your life. Despite trying numerous medications and therapies, such as electroconvulsive therapy, you have not been able to manage your symptoms effectively. Your depression keeps you from maintaining a job, interacting with your friends and family, and generally prevents you from flourishing as a person.

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BASEL, Switzerland — A reliable and ultra-powerful quantum computer could finally be on the horizon. Researchers from the University of Basel and the NCCR SPIN in Switzerland have made an exciting advancement in the world of quantum computing, achieving the first controllable interaction between two “hole spin qubits” inside a standard silicon transistor. This leap forward could eventually allow quantum computer chips to carry millions of qubits — a feat that would drastically scale up their processing power and potentially replace the modern computer.

First, we need to explain some of the high-tech terms involved in the new study published in Nature Physics. A qubit is the quantum equivalent of a bit, the fundamental building block of data in conventional computing. While a standard bit can be either a 0 or a 1, qubits can be both simultaneously, thanks to the principles of quantum mechanics. This allows quantum computers to handle complex calculations at speeds today’s standard computers will never achieve.

The concept of hole spin qubits might sound even more abstract. In simple terms, in the materials used for making computer chips, electrons (tiny particles with negative charge) move around, and sometimes they leave behind empty spaces or “holes.”

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The nuclear reactions that power the stars and forge the elements emerge from the interactions of the quantum mechanical particles, protons and neutrons. Explaining these processes is one of the most challenging unsolved problems in computational physics. As the mass of the colliding nuclei grows, the resources required to model them outpace even the most powerful conventional computers. Quantum computers could perform the necessary computations. However, they currently fall short of the required number of reliable and long-lived quantum bits. This research combined conventional computers and quantum computers to significantly accelerate the prospects of solving this problem.

The Impact

The researchers successfully used the hybrid computing scheme to simulate the scattering of two neutrons. This opens a path to computing nuclear reaction rates that are difficult or impossible to measure in a laboratory. These include reaction rates that play a role in astrophysics and national security. The hybrid scheme will also aid in simulating the properties of other quantum mechanical systems. For example, it could help researchers study the scattering of electrons with quantized atomic vibrations known as phonons, a process that underlies superconductivity.

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Researchers say this novel device, barely larger than a human hair, functions as an artificial synapse, mimicking the brain’s unique ability to process and share information.

“The brain’s computing principles (neurons connected by synapses) and information carriers (ions in water) both differ fundamentally from those of conventional computers,” researchers wrote. “Building on this distinction, we present an aqueous memristor that emulates the brain’s short-term synaptic plasticity features through ion transport in water, mirroring the natural processes in the brain.”

In their findings, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers highlighted that the iontronic memristor marks a significant departure from earlier models designed to mimic the brain’s communication pathways. Moreover, the device uniquely emulates the dynamic processes of human synapses in real time, using only salt and water to closely replicate how neurons transmit information naturally.

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We present a novel model of neuroplasticity in the form of a horizontal-vertical integration model. The horizontal plane consists of a network of neurons connected by adaptive transmission links. This fits with standard computational neuroscience approaches. Each individual neuron also has a vertical dimension with internal parameters steering the external membrane-expressed parameters. These determine neural transmission.

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“This study has given us an historical picture of how the emerging modern reef responded to huge environmental stress,” said Dr. Jody Webster.

What events caused the Great Barrier Reef to become what it is today, specifically over the course of the last six to eight thousand years, or just after the last Ice Age? This is what a recent study published in Quaternary Science Reviews hopes to address as a team of international researchers conducted an in-depth scientific analysis on various aspects of the Great Barrier Reef to ascertain the environmental factors that contributed to the Reef’s present conditions. This study holds the potential to help scientists better understand how reefs evolve over time and the environment’s role in their evolution.

For the study, the researchers drilled almost two dozen coral samples and analyzed them using a variety of methods, including computer tomography, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction to ascertain yearly growth patterns within the coral samples. In the end, they determined that environmental factors, including increased water temperatures, ocean turbulence, and rising sea levels, led to increased nutrients, which contributed to the growth of the Great Barrier Reef, and is consistent with previous studies.

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