Researchers harness the power of the world’s most advanced supercomputers to simulate the inner workings of cellular machinery that repairs DNA and helps prevent life-threatening diseases. Sunburn and premature aging are well-known consequences of exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, tobacco s
“The meaningful difference,” argues Silverstein, “comes down to our lifespan. For humans, our mortality defines so much of our experience. If a human commits murder and receives a life sentence, we understand what that means: a finite number of years. But if a UI with an indefinite lifespan commits murder, what do life sentences mean? Are we talking about a regular human lifespan? 300 years? A thousand? Then there’s love and relationships. Let’s say you find your soulmate and spend a thousand years together. At some point, you may decide you had a good run and move on with someone else. The idea of not growing old with someone feels alien and upsetting. But if we were to live hundreds or thousands of years, our perceptions of relationships and identity may change fundamentally.”
“One of the best” because — in addition to having a well-crafted, suspenseful, and heartfelt narrative about love and loss — thoughtfully engages with both the technical and philosophical questions raised by its cerebral premise: Is a perfect digital copy of a person’s mind still meaningfully human? Does uploaded intelligence, which combines the processing power of a supercomputer with the emotional intelligence of a sentient being, have a competitive edge over cold, unfeeling artificial intelligence? How would uploaded intelligence compromise ethics or geopolitical strategy?
“Underrated” because was produced by — and first aired on — AMC+, a streaming service that, owing to the dominance of Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, and Amazon Prime, has but a fraction of its competitors’ subscribers and which, motivated by losses in ad revenue, ended up canceling the show’s highly anticipated (and fully completed) second season in exchange for tax write-offs. Although has since been salvaged by Netflix, […] its troubled distribution history resulted in the show becoming a bit of a hidden gem, rather than the global hit it could have been, had it premiered on a platform with more eyeballs.
Still, the fact that managed to endure and build a steadily growing cult following is a testament to the show’s quality and cultural relevance. Although the concept of uploaded intelligence is nothing new, and has been tackled by other prominent sci-fi properties like Black Mirror and Altered Carbon, is unique in that it not only explores how this hypothetical technology would affect us on a personal level, but also explores how it might play out on a societal level. Furthermore, take is a nuanced one, rejecting both techno-pessimism and techno-optimism in favor of what series creator Craig Silverstein calls “techno-realism.”
A quantum machine has used entangled qubits to generate a number certified as truly random for the first time, demonstrating a handy function that’s physically beyond even the most powerful supercomputer.
Researchers from the US and UK repurposed existing quantum supremacy experiments on Quantinuum’s 56-qubit computer to roll God’s dice. The result was a number so random, no amount of physics could have predicted it.
Quantum technology is becoming critical for secure electronic communication as cybersecurity threats increase.
Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have unlocked new insights into the turbulent behavior of hypersonic flows by using advanced 3D simulations.
Leveraging supercomputing power and custom-built software, they discovered unexpected instabilities and flow breaks around cone-shaped models at Mach 16, disturbances never seen before in previous 2D or experimental studies. These findings could significantly impact the design of future hypersonic vehicles by helping engineers understand how extreme speeds interact with surface geometries in new ways.
Hypersonic Flows and New Discoveries.
Researchers have achieved a major quantum computing breakthrough: certified randomness, a process where a quantum computer generates truly random numbers, which are then proven to be genuinely random by classical supercomputers. This innovation has deep implications for cryptography, fairness, an
The quantum computing landscape has witnessed a revolutionary breakthrough from China. Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei have developed a quantum processor that claims to be 1 quadrillion times faster than the world’s most powerful supercomputers. This technological marvel, named Zuchongzhi 3.0, represents a significant leap in quantum computing capabilities and establishes China as a formidable player in the quantum race.
The Zuchongzhi 3.0 processor boasts an impressive 105 qubits, the fundamental units of quantum computing. This represents a substantial upgrade from its predecessor, which contained only 66 qubits. The new processor utilizes transmon qubits, which are specifically designed to minimize sensitivity to external disturbances, thereby enhancing computational stability.
In benchmark tests published in Physical Review Letters on March 3, 2025, the Chinese quantum processor demonstrated performance that was approximately 1 million times faster than Google’s Sycamore chip on specific sampling tasks. This extraordinary speed differential highlights the exponential advantage that quantum processors hold over conventional computing systems for certain operations.
In a new paper in Nature, a team of researchers from JPMorganChase, Quantinuum, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and The University of Texas at Austin describe a milestone in the field of quantum computing, with potential applications in cryptography, fairness and privacy.
Using a 56-qubit quantum computer, they have for the first time experimentally demonstrated certified randomness, a way of generating random numbers from a quantum computer and then using a classical supercomputer to prove they are truly random and freshly generated. This could pave the way toward the use of quantum computers for a practical task unattainable through classical methods.
Scott Aaronson, Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science and director of the Quantum Information Center at UT Austin, invented the certified randomness protocol that was demonstrated. He and his former postdoctoral researcher, Shih-Han Hung, provided theoretical and analytical support to the experimentalists on this latest project.
The standard model of particle physics is our best theory of the elementary particles and forces that make up our world: particles and antiparticles, such as electrons and positrons, are described as quantum fields. They interact through other force fields, such as the electromagnetic force that binds charged particles.
To understand the behavior of these quantum fields—and with that, our universe—researchers perform complex computer simulations of quantum field theories. Unfortunately, many of these calculations are too complicated for even our best supercomputers and pose great challenges for quantum computers as well, leaving many pressing questions unanswered.
Using a novel type of quantum computer, Martin Ringbauer’s experimental team at the University of Innsbruck, and the theory group led by Christine Muschik at IQC at the University of Waterloo, Canada, report in Nature Physics on how they have successfully simulated a complete quantum field theory in more than one spatial dimension.
Sunburns and aging skin are obvious effects of exposure to harmful UV rays, tobacco smoke and other carcinogens. But the effects aren’t just skin deep. Inside the body, DNA is literally being torn apart.
Understanding how the body heals and protects itself from DNA damage is vital for treating genetic disorders and life-threatening diseases such as cancer. But despite numerous studies and medical advances, much about the molecular mechanisms of DNA repair remains a mystery.
For the past several years, researchers at Georgia State University tapped into the Summit supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study an elaborate molecular pathway called nucleotide excision repair, or NER relies on an array of highly dynamic protein complexes to cut out, or excise, damaged DNA with surgical precision.
If quantum computers are to fulfill the promise of solving problems faster or which are too complex for classical supercomputers, then quantum information needs to be communicated between multiple processors.
Modern computers have different interconnected components such as a memory chip, a Central Processing Unit and a General Processing Unit. These need to communicate for a computer to function.
Current attempts to interconnect superconducting quantum processors use “point-to-point” connectivity. This means they require a series of transfers between nodes, compounding errors.
