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A way to read quantum bits faster and with less hardware

Quantum computers process information in a fundamentally different way from conventional computers, using quantum bits, or qubits, that can exist in multiple states at once. This could allow them to tackle problems beyond the reach of today’s machines, from simulating new materials to optimizing complex systems.

But to extract useful results from a quantum processor, researchers must reliably measure the state of each qubit, a task that remains one of the main bottlenecks in the field.

One of the leading approaches to building quantum computers uses superconducting circuits that carry current without resistance at extremely low temperatures.

Scientists demonstrate transition between strong and weak coupling regimes in a polariton microcavity

Researchers from Skoltech, together with colleagues from the N.D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry and Westlake University, have experimentally demonstrated how the operating regime of a polariton laser changes with a gradual increase in cavity thickness.

They demonstrated a smooth transition between strong and weak coupling regimes within a single structure in the visible spectral range using the organic copolymer MeLPPP. The study opens opportunities for developing ultrafast optical transistors and room-temperature coherent light sources. The results of the study have been published in the journal Nanophotonics.

A polariton is a quasiparticle representing a hybrid of light and matter, formed through the interaction of photons with a semiconductor structure. When a critical density of polaritons in the sample is reached, their wave functions synchronize, and the quasiparticles relax to the lowest-energy state, forming a polariton condensate—a coherent macroscopic state and a source of coherent light.

Nanoreactor Mimics Living Cells To Supercharge Artificial Photosynthesis

A biomimetic nanoreactor combines cellular design principles to produce hydrogen peroxide efficiently under visible light.

Inside a hollow nanoscale structure, researchers have recreated two strategies that living cells use to control chemical reactions. The resulting CdS@polydopamine nanoreactor offers a synthetic way to reproduce some of the organization and efficiency found in biological systems.

The work was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Can Li of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), led the research with Jian Liu’s group at Inner Mongolia University.

New Semiconductor Device Turns Light Into a Directed Current

The light-controlled electron current could open new paths for sensing, telecommunications, and other advanced technologies.

A pair of laser beams can now send electrons through a semiconductor in a chosen direction without any external electrical power. Researchers at the University of Michigan built the device to explore a previously unobserved physical effect and demonstrate that light alone can both generate and steer an electronic current.

The work could eventually support technologies that combine optics and electronics, including sensing, imaging, and telecommunications. By improving how signals move within and between devices, the effect may also allow those signals to carry more information.

Brain Scans Reveal Which Disorders May Accelerate Brain Aging

Accelerated brain aging was associated with dementia, addiction, and psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.

A brain scan can make a person’s brain appear older or younger than their actual age. Across tens of thousands of scans, researchers found that dementia, mild cognitive impairment, alcohol addiction, and psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia were associated with older-appearing brains, although each condition showed a different anatomical pattern.

The findings were reported in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Shile Qi of the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China and colleagues.

Scientists Discover the Brain Is Not Always Ready To Make Memories

Your brain may have brief windows when it is primed to transform a passing moment into a lasting memory.

Researchers at the University of Tübingen found that natural shifts in alertness can briefly change the hippocampus, making its memory circuits more receptive to new information. The findings suggest that memory formation depends not only on what happens to us but also on the brain’s condition at that exact moment.

The study, published in Nature Communications, was led by Professor Andrea Burgalossi of the Institute of Neurobiology and the Werner Reichardt Center for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN).

Claude AI Just Cracked a PostQuantum Test Scheme and Found a Faster 7Round AES Attack

Anthropic says Claude Mythos Preview helped derive an end-to-end key-recovery attack against HAWK-256 and a 200-to 800-fold speedup for an attack on seven-round AES-128.

The HAWK attack exploits a previously unused symmetry in the lattice behind the signature scheme. Anthropic’s released implementation gives an expected end-to-end runtime of about three hours and 42 minutes on a 96-core server. The AES result removes a 256-way guessing step from an existing meet-in-the-middle attack.

Anthropic said neither result affects production systems. HAWK remains a candidate in a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) post-quantum standardization process, and the public recovery code only targets the smaller HAWK-256 parameter.

Nimbus Manticore Deploys NightLedger and Turns Victim Systems Into Covert Relays

The Iranian state-backed hacking group tracked as Nimbus Manticore (aka GalaxyGato, Mirage Kitten, Smoke Sandstorm, Subtle Snail, and UNC1549) has been attributed to a fresh set of attacks targeting entities across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.

The intrusions involve the use of a previously undocumented Windows backdoor called NightLedger and two custom WebSocket tunnelers, BridgeHead and ArcBridge, with an aim to maintain covert access.

Targets of the campaign include Egypt, SMB and government environments in Jordan and Tanzania, aviation organizations in Pakistan, telecommunication companies in Ethiopia, and financial-sector entities in Burkina Faso, per Kaspersky.

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