Lifeboat Foundation

A team of researchers from Heriot-Watt University, the Indian Institute of Technology and the University of Glasgow has demonstrated a way to transport entangled particles through a commercial fiber cable with 84.4% fidelity. In their paper published in the journal Nature Physics, the group describes using a unique attribute of entanglement to achieve such high fidelity. Andrew Forbes and Isaac Nape with the University of Witwatersrand have published a News & Views piece in the same journal issue outlining issues with sending entangled particles across fiber cables and the work done by the team in this new effort.

The study of entanglement, its properties and possible uses has made headlines due to its novelty and possible applications —particularly in quantum computers. One of the roadblocks standing in the way of its use as an international computer communications medium is noise encountered along the path through fiber cables that destroys the information they carry. In this new effort, the researchers have found a possible solution to the problem—using a unique attribute of entanglement to reduce losses due to noise.

The work exploited a property of quantum physics that allows for mapping the medium (fiber cable) onto the quantum state of a particle moving through it. In essence, the entangled state of a particle (or photon in this context) created an image of the fiber cable, which allowed for reversing the scattering within it as a photon was transmitted. And furthermore, the descrambling could be achieved without having anything touch either the fiber or the photon that moved through it. More specifically, the researchers sent one of a pair of photons through a complex medium, but not the other. Both were then directed toward spatial light modulators and then on to detectors, and then finally to a device used to correlate coincidence counting. In their setup, light from the photon that did not pass through the complex medium propagated backward from the detector, allowing the photon to appear as if it had emerged from the crystal as the other photon.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved viltolarsen (Viltepso; NS Pharma) for the treatment of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy amenable to exon 53 skipping, making it only the second FDA-approved therapy for this specific DMD gene mutation.

The agent from NS Pharma, delivered via weekly intravenous infusion, was granted accelerated approval via its priority review, fast track, orphan drug, and rare disease designations after its new drug application was accepted earlier this year. In March, NS Pharma launched an expanded access program for qualified patients.

The approval was granted based on findings from a phase 2 clinical trial (NCT02740972) and long-term extension study, details of which were recently published in JAMA Neurology. Among 16 participants age 4 to 9, significant drug-induced dystrophin production was observed in both viltolarsen dose cohorts (40 mg/kg per week: mean, 5.7% [range, 3.2–10.3] of normal; 80 mg/kg per week: mean, 5.9% [range, 1.1–14.4] of normal), with 15 (94%) patients achieving dystrophin levels greater than 2% of normal and 14 of 16 (88%) achieving levels greater than 3% of normal.

A cable cut a large gash into the radio telescope this week and it’s uncertain when it will be back in working order.

Aguas Zarcas, a space rock that crashed last year in a Costa Rican rainforest, has captivated researchers and collectors.

This new 4k footage from Mars taken by the Curiosity Rover will leave you in complete awe of ‘The Red Planet’.

This video explains the details of eukaryotes, replication in eukaryotes and differences between prokaryotic DNA replication and eukaryotic DNA replication.

After recalling more than 100 hand sanitizers that contain methanol, the FDA introduces a new toxin (1-propanol) that can depress the central nervous system if wrongfully ingested.

It wasn’t quite built one piece at a time, but there was a lot of fabrication required.

China’s Xiaomi has launched a new TV as part of the 10th anniversary celebration that also saw the announcement of the Mi 10 Ultra smartphone. The Mi TV Lux Transparent Edition brings sci-fi into the living room with an edge-to-edge self-luminous television that you can see through.

We’ve seen a few transparent televisions and screens from industry big hitters like Samsung, LG and Panasonic over the years, but Xiaomi says its Mi TV Lux Transparent Edition is the first to go into mass production.

The 55-inch OLED panel is just 5.7-mm thin and sits on a rounded base and, when the TV isn’t powered on, the display looks like a window between you and whatever is behind it – though it can be set to show arty display images if desired. But Xiaomi is promising an “unprecedented visual experience” when it’s switched on, with “extra rich blacks and unmatched brightness.”