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Category: computing – Page 409

Two research groups demonstrate quantum algorithms using neutral atoms as qubits. Tim Wogan reports.

The first quantum processors that use neutral atoms as qubits have been produced independently by two US-based groups. The result offers the possibility of building quantum computers that could be easier to scale up than current devices.

Two technologies have dominated quantum computing so far, but they are not without issues. Superconducting qubits must be constructed individually, making it nearly impossible to fabricate identical copies, so the probability of the output being correct is reduced – causing what is known as “gate fidelity”. Moreover, each qubit must be cooled close to absolute zero. Trapped ions, on the other hand, have the advantage that each ion is guaranteed to be indistinguishable by the laws of quantum mechanics. But while ions in a vacuum are relatively easy to isolate from thermal noise, they are strongly interacting and so require electric fields to move them around.

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Tight squeeze The Xanadu X8 quantum photonic processor used in the study. (Courtesy: Xanadu) Computers are made of chips, and in the future, some of those chips might use light as their main ingredient. Scientists from the Ontario, Canada-based…

Giant bacteria, Ca. Thiomargarita magnifica, have been found in Guadeloupe. They have organelles, DNA and measure one centimeter long.

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Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a lightweight, wearable textile exomuscle that uses sensors embedded in its fabric to detect a user’s movement intentions and chip in extra force as needed. Initial tests show a significant boost in endurance.

Where powered exoskeletons act as both muscle and bone, providing force as well as structural support, exomuscles make use of the body’s own structure and simply chip in with additional force. As a result, they’re much lighter and less bulky, but they’re also limited in how much force they can deliver, since human bones and joints can only take so much.

This “Myoshirt” from ETH Zurich is designed as a vest, with cuffs for the upper arm and forearm. Sensors in the fabric feed data on muscle control impulses to a control box, which processes the information in real time and decides when to actuate the artificial muscles – which are short Dyneema cables aligned parallel with the wearer’s own muscles. By shortening the cables as the muscles contract, the Myoshirt is able to contribute power to your movements in a subtle, discreet, intuitive and tuneable way.

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Summary: New software can perform computerized image editing using only input from electrical activity in the human brain.

Source: University of Copenhagen.

Soon, we won’t need to use the Help function. The computer will sense that we have a problem and come to the rescue by itself. This is one of the possible implications of new research at University of Copenhagen and University of Helsinki.

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IBM is building accessible, scalable quantum computing by focusing on three pillars:

**· **Increasing qubit counts.

**· **Developing advanced quantum software that can abstract away infrastructure complexity and orchestrate quantum programs.

**· **Growing an ecosystem of quantum-ready enterprises, organizations, and communities.

The next step in IBM’s goals to build a frictionless development experience will be the release of Qiskit Runtime in 2022, which will allow developers to build workflows in the cloud, offering greater flexibility. Bringing a serverless approach to quantum computing will also provide the flexibility to distribute workloads intelligently and efficiently across quantum and classical systems.

To help speed the work of developers, IBM launched Qiskit Runtime primitives earlier this year. The primitives implement common quantum hardware queries used by algorithms to simplify quantum programming. In 2023, IBM plans to expand these primitives, as well as the capability to run on the next generation of parallelized quantum processors.

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After a Sydney-based firm built the world’s first atomic-scale quantum integrated circuit.

Sydney-based firm Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) built the first integrated silicon quantum computer circuit manufactured at the atomic scale, in what has been touted as a “major breakthrough” on the road to quantum supremacy, a press statement reveals.

The atomic-scale integrated circuit, which functions as an analog quantum processor, may be SQC’s biggest milestone since it announced in 2012 that it had built the world’s first single-atom transistor.

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Researchers at the University of Central Florida are developing new photonic materials which may one day be used to enable ultra-fast, low-power light-based computing. The unique materials referred to as topological insulators, resemble wires that have been flipped inside out, with the insulation on the inside and the current flowing along the exterior.

In order to avoid the overheating issue that today’s ever-smaller circuits encounter, topological insulators could be incorporated into circuit designs to enable the packing of more processing power into a given area without generating heat.

The researchers’ most recent study, which was published on April 28 in the journal Nature Materials, presented a brand-new process for creating the materials that make use of a unique, chained honeycomb lattice structure. The linked, honeycombed pattern was laser etched onto a piece of silica, a material often used to create photonic circuits, by the researchers.

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Australian scientists have created the world’s first-ever quantum computer circuit – one that contains all the essential components found on a classical computer chip but at the quantum scale.

The landmark discovery, published in Nature today, was nine years in the making.

“This is the most exciting discovery of my career,” senior author and quantum physicist Michelle Simmons, founder of Silicon Quantum Computing and director of the Center of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at UNSW told ScienceAlert.

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