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Laser processes to enable robust, miniaturized beam sources for quantum technology

In the HiPEQ project, a consortium of industry and research partners has developed new laser-based approaches to enable miniaturized, robust beam sources for quantum technology. Among others, the consortium also used lasers to grow novel optical insulator crystals. The project achieved significant progress from November 2021 to July 2025. Fraunhofer ILT in Aachen played a key role by co-developing the laser processes needed.

Currently, beam sources for quantum technology applications are often complex, large, and not robust enough for field use. What is needed, then, are miniaturized systems that are as versatile as possible. The BMFTR-funded project “HiPEQ—Highly Integrated PIC-Based ECDLs for Quantum Technology” has developed such a beam source.

Coordinated by TOPTICA, later a systems integrator, a consortium of industry and research partners has built prototypes of two miniaturized laser sources. With external dimensions of just 22 × 9 x 6 cm³, they provide enough space for all system components. The design can also be adapted to other wavelengths, making them suitable for a wide range of quantum technology applications.

This Common Houseplant Is Secretly Using Advanced Geometry

Scientists have discovered that the Chinese money plant hides a remarkable geometric system inside its leaves, revealing that nature may solve complex problems using mathematical rules similar to those found in computer science and city planning.

People often see meaningful shapes and patterns in random things. Maybe you have looked at clouds and spotted a sailboat, a seahorse, or even your great-aunt Rosemary. Scientists call this tendency “apophenia,” the human habit of finding patterns that are not really there. But in some cases, nature truly does follow hidden mathematical rules. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Associate Professor Saket Navlakha studies these kinds of patterns and recently uncovered one inside a familiar houseplant.

Hidden geometry in chinese money plants.

Your Eyes Could Reveal Your Risk of Osteoporosis, Study Finds

The eyes are a window into our deeper health.

As the only outward extension of the central nervous system, these sensory organs may reflect not only the state of our brain and blood vessels, but also our very bones.

Population studies in Singapore and the UK have now revealed that a person’s risk of osteoporosis may be associated with how quickly their eyes are aging.

Brain ‘Zaps’ From Contact Lenses May Help Ease Depression, Mouse Study Shows

Scientists in South Korea have developed experimental contact lenses designed to send electrical signals through the retina and into brain regions linked to mood. In mice, the technology appeared to improve depression-like behaviour.

The idea sounds futuristic: a contact lens that could one day help treat depression by stimulating the brain through the eye. The work is still at a very early stage, with findings so far limited to a single mouse study.

The eye is already one of the body’s most useful access points for medical technology.

NSA Releases Hundreds of Pages of Formerly Top Secret UMBRA UAP Records After Disclosure Foundation FOIA Appeal

The National Security Agency has produced hundreds of pages of historical UAP-related records following a Freedom of Information Act appeal by the Disclosure Foundation. Many of the records were previously classified “TOP SECRET UMBRA,” one of the most sensitive classification markings associated with signals intelligence.

Isomorphic Labs announces Series B investment round

Isomorphic Labs announces it has raised $2.1 Billion in Series B funding. The financing round is led by Thrive Capital, and includes participation from existing backers Alphabet and GV alongside new investors MGX, Temasek, CapitalG, and the UK Sovereign AI Fund, significantly expanding Isomorphic Labs’ global capital base.

Isomorphic Labs was founded with the ambition to leverage the power of AI to reimagine and accelerate drug discovery to bring much-needed treatments to millions of patients globally. The company aims to apply its pioneering AI drug design engine (IsoDDE) to deliver biomedical breakthroughs and is advancing drug design programs across multiple therapeutic areas and drug modalities.

Read more in the news release below.

Hello Universe: NASA’s Next-Gen Space Processor Undergoes Testing

NASA’s High Performance Spaceflight Computing project aims to dramatically improve the computing power of spacecraft. Missions need processors that can withstand the harsh space environment, so they use chips developed years ago that are hardy and reliable. But upgraded chips are needed to enable the development of autonomous spacecraft, accelerate the rate of scientific discovery through faster data analysis, and support astronauts on missions to the Moon and Mars.

“Building on the legacy of previous space processors, this new multicore system is fault-tolerant, flexible, and extremely high-performing,” said Eugene Schwanbeck, program element manager in NASA’s Game Changing Development program at the agency’s Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Virginia. “NASA’s commitment to advancing spaceflight computing is a triumph of technical achievement and collaboration.”

The centerpiece of the High Performance Spaceflight Computing project is a new radiation-hardened, high-performance processor, designed to provide up to 100 times the computational capacity of current spaceflight computers while enduring a barrage of challenges in space. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California has been conducting various tests that replicate those challenges.

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