Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 147

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Expanding the search for quantum-ready 2D materials

Quantum technologies from ultrasensitive sensors to next-generation information processors depend on the ability of quantum bits, or qubits, to maintain their delicate quantum states for a sufficiently long time to be useful.

One of the most important measures of this stability is the spin coherence time. Unfortunately, qubits may lose coherence because their environment is “noisy,” for example, due to the presence of nuclear isotopes or other interference that disturbs the qubit.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials—or atomically thin sheets—can offer quiet environments for qubits, as their reduced thickness naturally lowers the number of isotopes that interact with the qubit.

New Paper-Thin Brain Implant Could Transform How Humans Connect With AI

A radically miniaturized brain implant called BISC is redefining what’s possible in human–computer interaction, offering a paper-thin, wireless, high-bandwidth link directly to the brain.

With over 65,000 electrodes and unprecedented data throughput, it enables advanced AI decoding of thoughts, intentions, and sensory experiences while remaining minimally invasive.

Researchers Use Virus To Trace Psilocybin’s Effects Across the Entire Brain

An international collaboration led by Cornell researchers used a combination of psilocybin and the rabies virus to map how – and where – the psychedelic compound rewires the connections in the brain.

Specifically, they showed psilocybin weakens the cortico-cortical feedback loops that can lock people into negative thinking. Psilocybin also strengthens pathways to subcortical regions that turn sensory perceptions into action, essentially enhancing sensory-motor responses.

The findings published Dec. 5 in Cell. The lead author is postdoctoral researcher Quan Jiang.

Tiny “Ghost” Particles Could Explain Why the Universe Exists

A joint effort between two of the world’s largest neutrino experiments has brought scientists closer to understanding how the universe survived its violent beginnings.

The findings could reveal why matter exists at all — and why everything didn’t vanish long ago.

Scientists unite to explore why the universe exists.

Maryna Viazovska

Viazovska was born in Kyiv, the oldest of three sisters. Her father was a chemist who worked at the Antonov aircraft factory and her mother was an engineer. [ 6 ] She attended a specialized secondary school for high-achieving students in science and technology, Kyiv Natural Science Lyceum No. 145. An influential teacher there, Andrii Knyazyuk, had previously worked as a professional research mathematician before becoming a secondary school teacher. [ 7 ] Viazovska competed in domestic mathematics Olympiads when she was at high school, placing 13th in a national competition where 12 students were selected to a training camp before a six-member team for the International Mathematical Olympiad was chosen. [ 6 ] As a student at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, she competed at the International Mathematics Competition for University Students in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005, and was one of the first-place winners in 2002 and 2005. [ 8 ] She co-authored her first research paper in 2005. [ 6 ]

Viazovska earned a master’s from the University of Kaiserslautern in 2007, PhD from the Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2010, [ 2 ] and a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) from the University of Bonn in 2013. Her doctoral dissertation, Modular Functions and Special Cycles, concerns analytic number theory and was supervised by Don Zagier and Werner Müller. [ 9 ]

She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Berlin Mathematical School and the Humboldt University of Berlin [ 10 ] and a Minerva Distinguished Visitor [ 11 ] at Princeton University. Since January 2018 she has held the Chair of Number Theory as a full professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland after a short stint as tenure-track assistant professor. [ 4 ] .

/* */