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Mar 23, 2021

Novel thermometer can accelerate quantum computer development

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, quantum physics

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed a novel type of thermometer that can simply and quickly measure temperatures during quantum calculations with extremely high accuracy. The breakthrough provides a benchmarking tool for quantum computing of great value—and opens up for experiments in the exciting field of quantum thermodynamics.

Key components in quantum computers are coaxial cables and waveguides—structures that guide waveforms and act as the vital connection between the and the classical electronics that control it. Microwave pulses travel along the waveguides to the quantum processor, and are cooled down to extremely along the way. The also attenuates and filters the pulses, enabling the extremely sensitive quantum computer to work with stable quantum states.

In order to maximize control over this mechanism, the researchers need to be sure that these waveguides are not carrying noise due to thermal motion of electrons on top of the pulses that they send. In other words, they have to measure the temperature of the electromagnetic fields at the cold end of the microwave waveguides, the point where the controlling pulses are delivered to the computer’s qubits. Working at the lowest possible temperature minimizes the risk of introducing errors in the qubits.

Mar 23, 2021

2021 SpaceRenaissance Webinar Series: Webinar on the Development of Mars, the Asteroids, and Beyond

Posted by in categories: space travel, sustainability

# **MARS: A GATEWAY TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM**

Today’s highlight: **Bruce MacKenzie**, founder of the Mars Foundation.

Continue reading “2021 SpaceRenaissance Webinar Series: Webinar on the Development of Mars, the Asteroids, and Beyond” »

Mar 23, 2021

Neuroscientists identify brain circuit motifs that support short-term memory

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Humans have the innate ability to store important information in their mind for short periods of time, a capability known as short-term memory. Over the past few decades, numerous neuroscientists have tried to understand how neural circuits store short-term memories, as this could lead to approaches to assist individuals whose memory is failing and help to devise memory enhancing interventions.

Researchers at Stanford and the Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute have recently identified neural circuit motifs involved in how humans store short-term memories. Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest that -related contain recurrently connected modules that independently maintain selective and continuous activity.

“Short-term memories are of approximately 10 seconds or so, for example, if you needed to remember a while you looked for a pen to write the number,” Kayvon Daie, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Medical Xpress. “Individual , however, are very forgetful, as they can only remember their inputs for about 10 milliseconds. It has been hypothesized that if two forgetful neurons were connected to each other, they could continuously remind each other of what they were supposed to remember so that the circuit can now hold information for many seconds.”

Mar 23, 2021

Expressing some doubts: Comparative analysis of human and android faces could lead to improvements

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Researchers from the Graduate School of Engineering and Symbiotic Intelligent Systems Research Center at Osaka University used motion capture cameras to compare the expressions of android and human faces. They found that the mechanical facial movements of the robots, especially in the upper regions, did not fully reproduce the curved flow lines seen in the faces of actual people. This research may lead to more lifelike and expressive artificial faces.

The field of robotics has advanced a great deal in recent decades. However, while current androids can appear very humanlike at first, their active facial expressions are still unnatural and unsettling to people. The exact reasons for this effect have been difficult to pinpoint. Now, a research team at Osaka University has used motion capture technology to monitor the facial expressions of five android faces and compared the results with actual human facial expressions. This was accomplished with six infrared cameras that monitored reflection markers at 120 frames per second and allowed the motions to be represented as three-dimensional displacement vectors.

“Advanced artificial systems can be difficult to design because the numerous components have with each other. The appearance of an android face can experience surface deformations that are hard to control,” study first author Hisashi Ishihara says. These deformations can be due to interactions between components such as the soft skin sheet and the skull-shaped structure, as well as the mechanical actuators.

Mar 23, 2021

‘Doodles of light’ in real time mark leap for holograms at home

Posted by in categories: holograms, information science, supercomputing

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have devised and implemented a simplified algorithm for turning freely drawn lines into holograms on a standard desktop CPU. They dramatically cut down the computational cost and power consumption of algorithms that require dedicated hardware. It is fast enough to convert writing into lines in real time, and makes crisp, clear images that meet industry standards. Potential applications include hand-written remote instructions superimposed on landscapes and workbenches.

T potential applications of holography include important enhancements to vital, practical tasks, including remote instructions for surgical procedures, electronic assembly on circuit boards, or directions projected on landscapes for navigation. Making holograms available in a wide range of settings is vital to bringing this technology out of the lab and into daily life.

One of the major drawbacks of this state-of-the-art technology is the computational load of generation. The kind of quality we’ve come to expect in our 2D displays is prohibitive in 3D, requiring supercomputing levels of number crunching to achieve. There is also the issue of power consumption. More widely available hardware like GPUs in gaming rigs might be able to overcome some of these issues with raw power, but the amount of electricity they use is a major impediment to mobile applications. Despite improvements to available hardware, the solution can’t be achieved by brute force.

Mar 23, 2021

Google Chrome’s new Live Caption feature will transcribe speech in videos

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, space

First introduced in 2019, Google Chrome’s Live Caption accessibility feature offers real-time captions for audio playing on both Pixel and non-Pixel phones, including the Galaxy S20 series, OnePlus 8 series, OnePlus Nord and beyond.

The main benefits of this feature arise for hearing impaired users as well as users who simply wish to watch a video without audio. Furthermore, not only does the allow users to view videos without sound for their own convenience, it also permits the viewer to avoid disturbing others nearby with audio.

Until recently, this tool has only been available on Android phones, but Google is now releasing Live Caption for its Chrome browser. So far, Google aims to implement this feature on both Chrome desktop as well as Chrome 89. Now, users can access Live Caption for Chrome 89 by navigating to Settings Advanced Accessibility. Chrome 89 users who don’t automatically see the Live Caption toggle can try restarting Chrome.

Mar 22, 2021

The Battery That Will Finally Unlock Massless Energy Storage

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

It could revolutionize electric vehicles and aircraft.


In groundbreaking new research, scientists have made a structural battery 10 times better than in any previous experiment.

Continue reading “The Battery That Will Finally Unlock Massless Energy Storage” »

Mar 22, 2021

Flying Cars and Drones Will Soon Get Their Own Airport in the UK

Posted by in categories: drones, economics, government

Coventry, a city in the United Kingdom, will play host to the world’s first airport for electric flying cars and delivery drones. Urban Air Port will build the Air One transport hub next to the city’s Ricoh Arena and will open later this year. It’ll be used to transport cargo and hopefully even people later across cities.

The city was specifically chosen by the company for its relatively central location and also because it’s a historically prominent location for both the aerospace and automobile industries. The project received a £1.2 million grant after winning the Government’s Future Flight Challenge, and the city is now in an urban air mobility partnership that’s backed by the UK Government.

“Cars need roads. Trains need rails. Planes need airports. eVTOLs will need Urban Air Ports. Over 100 years ago, the world’s first commercial flight took off, creating the modern connected world. Urban Air Port will improve connectivity across our cities, boost productivity and help the UK take the lead in a whole new clean global economy. Flying cars used to be a futuristic flight of fancy. Air-One will bring clean urban air transport to the masses and unleash a new airborne world of zero-emission mobility,” said Ricky Sandhu, Urban Air Port’s founder and executive chairman.

Mar 22, 2021

Quantum computing: IBM’s new tool lets users design quantum chips in minutes

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Big Blue has made Qiskit Metal generally available, to let “anyone” try their hand at quantum hardware design.

Mar 22, 2021

Plasmonic nanoreactors regulate selective oxidation via energetic electrons and nanoconfined thermal fields

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, engineering, nanotechnology

When optimizing catalysis in the lab, product selectivity and conversion efficiency are primary goals for materials scientists. Efficiency and selectivity are often mutually antagonistic, where high selectivity is accompanied by low efficiency and vice versa. Increasing the temperature can also change the reaction pathway. In a new report, Chao Zhan and a team of scientists in chemistry and chemical engineering at the Xiamen University in China and the University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S., constructed hierarchical plasmonic nanoreactors to show nonconfined thermal fields and electrons. The combined attributes uniquely coexisted in plasmonic nanostructures. The team regulated parallel reaction pathways for propylene partial oxidation and selectively produced acrolein during the experiments to form products that are different from thermal catalysis. The work described a strategy to optimize chemical processes and achieve high yields with high selectivity at lower temperature under visible light illumination. The work is now published on Science Advances.

Catalysts

Ideal catalytic processes can produce desired target products without undesirable side effects under cost-effective conditions, although such conditions are rarely achieved in practice. For instance, high efficiency and high selectivity are antagonistic goals, where a relatively high temperature is often necessary to overcome the large barrier of oxygen activation to achieve high reactant conversion. Increasing the functional temperature can also lead to overoxidized and therefore additional byproducts. As a result, researchers must compromise between selectivity and efficiency. For instance, a given molecule typically requires diverse catalysts to generate different products, where each catalyst has different efficiency and selectivity. To circumvent any limitations, they can use surface plasmons (SPs) to redistribute photons, electrons and heat energy in space and time.