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Oct 8, 2024

Chip gives edge in quantum computing

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

China’s efforts to scale up the manufacture of superconducting quantum computers have gathered momentum with the launch of the country’s independently developed third-generation Origin Wukong, said industry experts on Monday.

The latest quantum computer, which is powered by Wukong, a 72-qubit indigenous superconducting quantum chip, has become the most advanced programmable and deliverable superconducting quantum computer currently available in China.

The chip was developed by Origin Quantum, a Hefei, Anhui province-based quantum chip startup. The company has already delivered its first and second generations of superconducting quantum computers to the Chinese market.

Oct 8, 2024

The way sensory prediction changes under anesthesia could reveal how conscious cognition works

Posted by in categories: media & arts, neuroscience

Our brains constantly work to make predictions about what’s going on around us, for instance to ensure that we can attend to and consider the unexpected. A new study examines how this works during consciousness and also breaks down under general anesthesia. The results add evidence for the idea that conscious thought requires synchronized communication—mediated by brain rhythms in specific frequency bands—between basic sensory and higher-order cognitive regions of the brain.

Previously, members of the research team in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT and at Vanderbilt University had described how enable the brain to remain prepared to attend to surprises.

Cognition-oriented brain regions (generally at the front of the brain), use relatively low frequency alpha and beta rhythms to suppress processing by sensory regions (generally toward the back of the brain) of stimuli that have become familiar and mundane in the environment (e.g. your co-worker’s music). When sensory regions detect a surprise (e.g. the office fire alarm), they use faster frequency gamma rhythms to tell the higher regions about it and the higher regions process that at gamma frequencies to decide what to do (e.g. exit the building).

Oct 8, 2024

Sam Altman’s AI Device Just Changed the Game—Is Humanity Ready?

Posted by in categories: media & arts, robotics/AI

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Oct 8, 2024

Are Digital Memories Enhancing or Altering Our Autobiographical Past?

Posted by in category: health

Summary: Digital technology has transformed how we document and recall life experiences, from capturing every moment with photos to tracking our health data on smart devices. This increased density of digital records offers potential benefits, like enhancing memory for personal events or supporting those with memory impairments.

However, it also raises concerns, such as privacy risks and the potential for manipulation through technologies like deepfakes. Researchers emphasize the need for further study to understand both the opportunities and risks posed by digital memory aids as they become more integral to how we remember.

Oct 8, 2024

ChatGPT-4 passes the Turing Test for the first time: There is no way to distinguish it from a human being

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

ChatGPT-4 passes the Turing Test, marking a new milestone in AI. Explore the implications of AI-human interaction.

Oct 8, 2024

The ‘cloud’ requires heaps of energy to stay aloft. Could synthetic DNA be the answer?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

DNA is nature’s highly efficient mechanism for data storage. Now, scientists are taking note to address our storage crisis.

Oct 8, 2024

Project Starship: Materials Engineering Challenges in Science Fiction

Posted by in categories: engineering, nanotechnology, space travel

Part of the delight in reading science fiction is seeing how real science can be extrapolated to envision future technologies, whether here on Earth or in extraterrestrial environments. Starships are a ubiquitous presence in science fiction and a prototypical example of technology that can stimulate the imagination of future scientists and engineers. As a materials scientist, I am particularly intrigued by the role of various materials (metals, ceramics, glasses, polymers, nanomaterials, etc.) in building the starships of tomorrow.

The purpose of this science-meets-science fiction initiative, which we are calling Project Starship, is to deepen the connection between the scientific and science fiction communities, helping to stimulate new interest in both fields. To kick off this series of articles, Grimdark Magazine reached out to three leading voices in dark science fiction to explore the materials required for designing the starships from within their fictional universes. First up is Graham McNeill, a British novelist best known for his Warhammer 40k novels, including Nightbringer. Next is Richard Swan, critically acclaimed author of the dark science fiction trilogy, The Art of War. Finally, Essa Hansen is author of the dark science fiction series, The Graven, which begins with the critically acclaimed Nophek Gloss.

The Anatomy of a Starship.

Oct 8, 2024

Taking twistronics into new territory

Posted by in category: materials

In 2018, a discovery in materials science sent shock waves throughout the community. A team showed that stacking two layers of graphene at a precise magic angle turned it into a superconductor, says Ritesh Agarwal of the University of Pennsylvania. This sparked the field of twistronics, revealing that twisting layered materials could unlock extraordinary material properties.

Building on this concept, Agarwal, Penn theoretical physicist Eugene Mele, and collaborators have taken twistronics into new territory. In a study published in Nature (“Opto-twistronic Hall effect in a three-dimensional spiral lattice”), they investigated spirally stacked tungsten disulfide (WS 2) crystals and discovered that, by twisting these layers, light could be used to manipulate electrons. The result is analogous to the Coriolis force, which curves the paths of objects in a rotating frame, like how wind and ocean currents behave on Earth.

“What we discovered is that by simply twisting the material, we could control how electrons move,” says Agarwal, Srinivasa Ramanujan Distinguished Scholar in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. This phenomenon was particularly evident when the team shined circularly polarized light on WS 2 spirals, causing electrons to deflect in different directions based on the material’s internal twist.

Oct 8, 2024

Bubble findings could unlock better electrode and electrolyzer designs

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy

Industrial electrochemical processes that use electrodes to produce fuels and chemical products are hampered by the formation of bubbles that block parts of the electrode surface, reducing the area available for the active reaction. Such blockage reduces the performance of the electrodes by anywhere from 10 to 25 percent.

But new research reveals a decades-long misunderstanding about the extent of that interference. The findings show exactly how the blocking effect works and could lead to new ways of designing electrode surfaces to minimize inefficiencies in these widely used electrochemical processes.

Continue reading “Bubble findings could unlock better electrode and electrolyzer designs” »

Oct 8, 2024

The Next Breakthrough In Artificial Intelligence: How Quantum AI Will Reshape Our World

Posted by in categories: finance, quantum physics, robotics/AI

Quantum AI, the fusion of quantum computing and artificial intelligence, is poised to revolutionize industries from finance to healthcare.

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