Making plastic bricks, 5 times stronger than concrete, Nzambi Matee runs Njenge Makers in Nairobi, where she turns plastic waste into bricks.
The Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls’ School in Rajasthan was conceptualised by CITTA founder Michael Daube, and designed by US-based architect Diana Kellogg.
C an you imagine children studying in the middle of the Thar desert, where day temperatures peak close to 50 degrees Celsius and harsh winds cause sand to blow through the day?
An architectural marvel, located just a six-minute drive away from Jaisalmer’s famous Sam Dunes, has taken shape in Kanoi village, with an aim to educate girls and empower them. The Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls’ School is made of yellow sandstone, and surprisingly, has no air conditioners. Here, students can study and even play in the protected courtyard without worrying about the extreme weather.
Circa 2013 o.o
Quantum entanglement, one of the odder aspects of quantum theory, links the properties of particles even when they are separated by large distances. When a property of one of a pair of entangled particles is measured, the other “immediately” settles down into a state compatible with that measurement. So how fast is “immediately”? According to research by Prof. Juan Yin and colleagues at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai, the lower limit to the speed associated with entanglement dynamics – or “spooky action at a distance” – is at least 10000 times faster than light.
Despite playing a vital role in the development of quantum theory, Einstein felt philosophically at odds with its description of how the universe works. His famous quote that “God does not play dice” hints at his level of discomfort with the role of probability in quantum theory. He believed there exists another level of reality in which all of physics would be deterministic, and that quantum mechanics would turn out to be a description that emerges from the workings of that level – rather like a traffic jam emerges from the independent motions of a large number of cars.
In 1935 Einstein and his coworkers discovered quantum entanglement lurking in the equations of quantum mechanics, and realized its utter strangeness. This lead to the EPR paradox introduced by Einstein, Poldolsky and Rosen. The EPR paradox stated that the only ways of explaining the effects of quantum entanglement were to assume the universe is nonlocal, or that the true basis of physics is hidden (otherwise known as a hidden-variable theory). Nonlocality in this case means that events occurring to entangled objects are linked even when the events cannot communicate through spacetime, spacetime having the speed of light as a limiting velocity. Nonlocality is also known as spooky action at a distance (Einstein’s phrase).
O., o circa 2020.
Last week, Honeywell’s Quantum Solutions division released its first commercial quantum computer: a system based on trapped ions comprising 10 qubits. The H1, as it’s called, is actually the same ion trap chip the company debuted as a prototype, but with four additional ions. The company revealed a roadmap that it says will rapidly lead to much more powerful quantum computers. Separately, a competitor in ion-trap quantum computing, Maryland-based startup IonQ, unveiled a 32-qubit ion computer last month.
Long-time trapping of a single electron could allow the particle to be used as an efficient quantum bit.
A new type of quantum holography which uses entangled photons to overcome the limitations of conventional holographic approaches could lead to improved medical imaging and speed the advance of quantum information science.
There’s a mini second genome inside your cells, but no one could figure out how to edit it — until now.
Scientists have discovered the first evidence for a rare type of stellar explosion, or supernova in the Milky Way. This intriguing object lies near the center of our galaxy in a supernova remnant called Sagittarius A East (Sgr A East). Chandra data revealed that Sgr A East may belong to a spec.
Human-Autonomy Interaction, Collaboration and Trust — Dr. Julie Marble, JHU Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)
Dr. Julie Marble is a senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) leading research in human-autonomy interaction, collaboration and trust.
Dr. Marble earned her PhD in Human Factors/Cognitive Psychology from Purdue University. After graduating from Purdue University, she joined the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), one of the national laboratories of the United States Department of Energy involved in nuclear research, first in the Human Factors group and then the Human and Robotic Systems group.