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While Einstein’s theory of general relativity can explain a large array of fascinating astrophysical and cosmological phenomena, some aspects of the properties of the universe at the largest-scales remain a mystery. A new study using loop quantum cosmology—a theory that uses quantum mechanics to extend gravitational physics beyond Einstein’s theory of general relativity—accounts for two major mysteries. While the differences in the theories occur at the tiniest of scales—much smaller than even a proton—they have consequences at the largest of accessible scales in the universe. The study, which appears online July 29 in the journal Physical Review Letters, also provides new predictions about the universe that future satellite missions could test.

While a zoomed-out picture of the universe looks fairly uniform, it does have a large-scale structure, for example because galaxies and dark matter are not uniformly distributed throughout the universe. The origin of this structure has been traced back to the tiny inhomogeneities observed in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)—radiation that was emitted when the universe was 380 thousand years young that we can still see today. But the CMB itself has three puzzling features that are considered anomalies because they are difficult to explain using known physics.

“While seeing one of these anomalies may not be that statistically remarkable, seeing two or more together suggests we live in an exceptional universe,” said Donghui Jeong, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and an author of the paper. “A recent study in the journal Nature Astronomy proposed an explanation for one of these anomalies that raised so many additional concerns, they flagged a ‘possible crisis in cosmology.’ Using quantum loop cosmology, however, we have resolved two of these anomalies naturally, avoiding that potential crisis.”

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are ready to return to Earth after riding a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station two months ago.

SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon capsule to carry NASA astronauts will undock from the International Space Station tonight (Aug. 1), setting the stage for a historic weekend splashdown.

Saturn will be at opposition, and visible to night sky gazers throughout August where they will be able to marvel at its rings.

Extrasolar planetary systems may harbor multiple habitable planets, says new study.

The Stanford team worked with researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop a technique called prophylactic antiviral CRISPR in human cells, or PAC-MAN. The technology disables viruses by scrambling their genetic code. The researchers developed a new way to deliver the technology into lung cells, they reported in the journal Cell.

Stanford bioengineers teamed up with researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop a CRISPR system that neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 by scrambling the virus’s genetic code. They believe the technology could prove useful for combating several types of viruses, including influenza.

I posted about this a while back, as a treatment. I’m glad people are catching up.

Some doctors are now trying to deliver 100% oxygen to COVID patients in decompression chambers long used to treat divers with the bends.

As a New York University medical researcher who works once a week in an emergency room, Dr. David Lee had the luxury of time to think like a scientist while also treating coronavirus patients whose lungs kept giving out. In every case, he saw the same thing: Their blood was starved of oxygen.

Continue reading “Doctors try pressurized oxygen chambers in COVID fight” »

Skoltech scientists have shown that quantum enhanced machine learning can be used on quantum (as opposed to classical) data, overcoming a significant slowdown common to these applications and opening a “fertile ground to develop computational insights into quantum systems.” The paper was published in the journal Physical Review A.

Quantum computers utilize quantum mechanical effects to store and manipulate information. While quantum effects are often claimed to be counterintuitive, such effects will enable quantum enhanced calculations to dramatically outperform the best supercomputers. In 2019, the world saw a prototype of this demonstrated by Google as quantum computational superiority.

Quantum algorithms have been developed to enhance a range of different computational tasks; more recently this has grown to include quantum enhanced machine learning. Quantum machine learning was partly pioneered by Skoltech’s resident-based Laboratory for Quantum Information Processing, led by Jacob Biamonte, a coathor of this paper. “Machine learning techniques have become powerful tools for finding patterns in data. Quantum systems produce atypical patterns that classical systems are thought not to produce efficiently, so it is not surprising that quantum computers might outperform classical computers on machine learning tasks,” he says.