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Category: computing – Page 209

Space Age Security: How Satellites Could Extend Quantum Encryption Globally

How can we guarantee that data sent over the internet is only accessible to its intended recipient? Currently, our data is secured using encryption methods based on the premise that factoring large numbers is a complex task. However, as quantum computing advances, these encryption techniques may become vulnerable and potentially ineffective in the future.

Encryption by means of physical laws

Tobias Vogl, a professor of Quantum Communication Systems Engineering, is working on an encryption process that relies on principles of physics. “Security will be based on the information being encoded into individual light particles and then transmitted. The laws of physics do not permit this information to be extracted or copied. When the information is intercepted, the light particles change their characteristics. Because we can measure these state changes, any attempt to intercept the transmitted data will be recognized immediately, regardless of future advances in technology,” says Tobias Vogl.

Quantum Computing Meets Genomics: The Dawn of Hyper-Fast DNA Analysis

A new project unites world-leading experts in quantum computing and genomics to develop new methods and algorithms to process biological data.

Researchers aim to harness quantum computing to speed up genomics, enhancing our understanding of DNA and driving advancements in personalized medicine

A new collaboration has formed, uniting a world-leading interdisciplinary team with skills across quantum computing, genomics, and advanced algorithms. They aim to tackle one of the most challenging computational problems in genomic science: building, augmenting, and analyzing pangenomic datasets for large population samples. Their project sits at the frontiers of research in both biomedical science and quantum computing.

Chipless Fiber for Wireless Visual-to-Digital Transmission Senses Interactions with the Human Body

A team of materials scientists and engineers from Donghua University, in China, and the National University of Singapore, has developed a type of fiber that does not rely on chips or batteries to convert visual signals to digital transmissions as it interacts with the human body.

The paper is published in the journal Science. Yunzhu Li and Yiyue Luo with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and MIT, respectively, have published a Perspective piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team on this new effort.

Over the past several years, scientists have been trying to find a way to integrate electronic devices with textiles for such applications as clothes that can display colors, patterns or even messages. Unfortunately, previous efforts involve adding stiff batteries and chips to materials, making them too uncomfortable to wear. In this new effort, the researchers have found a way to get around these problems.

How do you know how a medical implant will behave before it’s manufactured?

Using electromagnetic fields or implanted medical devices to stimulate the brain can have benefits, but also carries risks. Computer simulations that reflect the unique complexity of each patient can help predict and solve problems before they arise.

Toshiba Europe And Single Quantum Partner to Provide Extended Long-Distance QKD Deployment Capability

PRESS RELEASE — Toshiba Europe Ltd. and Single Quantum B.V. have collaborated to test and validate long-distance deployments of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology. Following extended validation testing of Toshiba’s QKD technology and Single Quantum’s superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs), both companies are pleased to announce a solution that substantially extends the transmission range for QKD deployment over fibre connections, up to and beyond 300km.

QKD uses the quantum properties of light to generate quantum secure keys that are immune to decryption by both high performance conventional and quantum computers. Toshiba’s QKD is deployed over fibre networks, either coexisting with conventional data transmissions on deployed ‘lit’ fibres, or on dedicated quantum fibres.

Toshiba’s unique QKD technology can deliver quantum secure keys in a single fibre optic link at distances of up to 150km using standard integrated semiconductor devices. Achieving longer distance QKD fibre transmission is challenging due to the attenuation of the quantum signals along the fibre length, (the optical loss of the fibre link). To provide extended QKD transmission, operators typically concatenate fibre links together with trusted nodes along the fibre route which house QKD systems that relay the secret keys.

Reimagining Memory: New Research Reveals That Superconducting Loops Mimic the Brain

Computers work in digits — 0s and 1s to be exact. Their calculations are digital; their processes are digital; even their memories are digital. All of which requires extraordinary power resources. As we look to the next evolution of computing and developing neuromorphic or “brain-like” computing, those power requirements are unfeasible.

To advance neuromorphic computing, some researchers are looking at analog improvements. In other words, not just advancing software, but advancing hardware too. Research from the University of California San Diego and UC Riverside shows a promising new way to store and transmit information using disordered superconducting loops.

The team’s research, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers the ability of superconducting loops to demonstrate associative memory, which, in humans, allows the brain to remember the relationship between two unrelated items.

Study shows ultra-thin two-dimensional materials can rotate the polarization of visible light

It has been known for centuries that light exhibits wave-like behavior in certain situations. Some materials are able to rotate the polarization, i.e. the direction of oscillation, of the light wave when the light passes through the material. This property is utilized in a central component of optical communication networks known as an “optical isolator” or “optical diode.” This component allows light to propagate in one direction but blocks all light in the other direction.