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A team led by Prof. Lu Zhengtian and Researcher Xia Tian from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) realized a Schrödinger-cat state with minute-scale lifetime using optically trapped cold atoms, significantly enhancing the sensitivity of quantum metrology measurements. The study was published in Nature Photonics.

In quantum metrology, particle spin not only serves as a potent probe for measuring magnetic fields, inertia, and a variety of physical phenomena, but also holds the potential for exploring new physics beyond the Standard Model. The high-spin Schrödinger-cat state, a superposition of two oppositely directed and furthest-apart spin states, offers significant advantages for spin measurements.

On one hand, the high spin quantum number amplifies the precession frequency signal. On the other hand, the cat states are insensitive to some environmental interference, thus suppressing measurement noise. However, one major technical challenge in applying cat states in experiments is how to maintain a sufficiently long coherence time.

MIT physicists have shown that it should be possible to create an exotic form of matter that could be manipulated to form the qubit (quantum bit) building blocks of future quantum computers that are even more powerful than the quantum computers in development today.

The work builds on a discovery last year of materials that host electrons that can split into fractions of themselves but, importantly, can do so without the application of a magnetic field. The general phenomenon of electron fractionalization was first discovered in 1982 and resulted in a Nobel Prize.

That work, however, required the application of a magnetic field. The ability to create the fractionalized electrons without a magnetic field opens new possibilities for basic research and makes the materials hosting them more useful for applications.

The first experimental demonstration of two schemes to enhance the longitudinal coherence of SASE-XFEL pulses shows that the SASE pulse bandwidth can be reduced by up to a factor of three.

Can weight loss leave a lasting imprint on our fat cells?

Losing weight is often touted as a cornerstone of better health, particularly for people dealing with obesity and its associated health risks.


Anyone who has ever tried to get rid of a few extra kilos knows the frustration: the weight drops initially, only to be back within a matter of weeks—the yo-yo effect has struck. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now been able to show that this is all down to epigenetics.

Epigenetics is the part of genetics that’s based not on the sequence of genetic , but on small yet characteristic chemical markers on these building blocks. The sequence of building blocks has evolved over a long period of time; we all inherit them from our parents.

Using data and samples from volunteers, including Kaiser Permanente Washington members participating in the Adult Changes in Thought Study (ACT Study), the researchers used advanced genomic technologies and machine learning models to create a timeline of the cellular and molecular changes caused by…


Mapping the disease at the cellular level identifies possible new treatment targets.

Researchers in the Nanoscience Center at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, have used machine learning and supercomputer simulations to investigate how tiny gold nanoparticles bind to blood proteins. The studies discovered that favorable nanoparticle-protein interactions can be predicted from machine learning models that are trained from atom-scale molecular dynamics simulations. The new methodology opens ways to simulate the efficacy of gold nanoparticles as targeted drug delivery systems in precision nanomedicine.

Hybrid nanostructures between biomolecules and inorganic nanomaterials constitute a largely unexplored field of research, with the potential for novel applications in bioimaging, biosensing, and nanomedicine. Developing such applications relies critically on understanding the dynamical properties of the nano–bio interface.

Modeling the properties of the nano-bio interface is demanding since the important processes such as electronic charge transfer, or restructuring of the biomolecule surface can take place in a wide range of length and time scales, and the atomistic simulations need to be run in the appropriate aqueous environment.

We are now more connected than ever, but also more lonely. Could AI companionship be the cure? In this episode, Emily Chang explores the future tech behind a growing market of relationships-on-demand.

Technology that once seemed like science fiction is rapidly becoming reality, transforming the very essence of our existence. In this four-part series, Emily Chang unravels the future of being human in an age of unprecedented innovation.

Watch more of Posthuman with Emily Chang: • Posthuman with Emily Chang.

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