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New ground-breaking research from the University of Surrey could change the way scientists understand and describe lasers – establishing a new relationship between classical and quantum physics.

In a comprehensive study published by the journal Progress in Quantum Electronics, a researcher from Surrey, in partnership with a colleague from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Fraunhofer IOSB in Germany, calls into question 60 years of orthodoxy surrounding the principles of lasers and the laser spectral linewidth – the foundation for controlling and measuring wavelengths of light.

In the new study, the researchers find that a fundamental principle of lasers, that the amplification of light compensates for the losses of the laser, is only an approximation. The team quantify and explain that a tiny excess loss, which is not balanced by the amplified light but by normal luminescence inside the laser, provides the answer to the spectral linewidth of the laser.

Continue reading “Ground-Breaking Research Shows That Laser Spectral Linewidth Is Classical-Physics Phenomenon” | >

Aging/longevity link!

Molecular biologists and bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have unraveled key mechanisms behind the mysteries of aging. They isolated two distinct paths that cells travel during aging and engineered a new way to genetically program these processes to extend lifespan.

The research is described July 17 in the journal Science.

Our lifespans as humans are determined by the aging of our individual . To understand whether different cells age at the same rate and by the same cause, the researchers studied aging in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a tractable model for investigating mechanisms of aging, including the aging paths of skin and .

Continue reading “Researchers discover 2 paths of aging and new insights on promoting healthspan” | >

We are highly sensitive to people around us. As infants, we observe our parents and teachers, and from them we learn how to walk, talk, read—and use smartphones. There seems to be no limit to the complexity of behavior we can acquire from observational learning.

But social influence goes deeper than that. We don’t just copy the behavior of people around us. We also copy their minds. As we grow older, we learn what other people think, feel, and want—and adapt to it. Our brains are really good at this—we copy computations inside the brains of others. But how does the brain distinguish between thoughts about your own mind and thoughts about the minds of others? Our new study, published in Nature Communications, brings us closer to an answer.

Our ability to copy the minds of others is hugely important. When this process goes wrong, it can contribute to various mental health problems. You might become unable to empathize with someone, or, at the other extreme, you might be so susceptible to other people’s thoughts that your own sense of “self” is volatile and fragile.

Continue reading “How the Brain Builds a Sense of Self From the People Around Us” | >

NASA is currently planning to return astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to Earth on board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft in about two weeks, the space agency told CNBC on Friday.

The spacecraft, which the astronauts named Endeavour, is scheduled to splash down in the Atlantic Ocean on Aug. 2 at about 3 p.m. ET, according to NASA’s Johnson Space Center public affairs officer Kyle Herring.

Herring noted that the departure time from the International Space Station “is a bit of a moving target,” but said in an email that the spacecraft is scheduled to un-dock at about 8 p.m. ET on Aug. 1. NASA will look more closely at the weather forecasts for where the spacecraft might splash down after the astronauts perform a spacewalk next week. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine also confirmed those dates.

Continue reading “NASA plans to return its astronauts in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft on Aug. 2” | >

California (CNN) (07/17/20) — Scientists have discovered a type of bacteria that eats and gets its calories from metal, after suspecting they exist for more than a hundred years but never proving it.

Now microbiologists from the California Institute of Technology (or Caltech) accidentally discovered the bacteria after performing unrelated experiments using a chalk-like type of manganese, a commonly found chemical element.

Dr. Jared Leadbetter, professor of environmental microbiology at Caltech in Pasadena, left a glass jar covered with the substance to soak in tap water in his office sink, and left the vessel for several months when he went to work off campus.

Continue reading “Metal eating bacteria accidentally discovered by scientists” | >

Portable System Boosts Laser Precision, at Room Temperature

Physicists at MIT have designed a quantum “light squeezer” that reduces quantum noise in an incoming laser beam by 15 percent. It is the first system of its kind to work at room temperature, making it amenable to a compact, portable setup that may be added to high-precision experiments to improve laser measurements where quantum noise is a limiting factor.

The heart of the new squeezer is a marble-sized optical cavity, housed in a vacuum chamber and containing two mirrors, one of which is smaller than the diameter of a human hair. The larger mirror stands stationary while the other is movable, suspended by a spring-like cantilever.

Continue reading “MIT “Light Squeezer” Reduces Quantum Noise in Lasers, Enhances Quantum Computing and Gravitational-Wave Detection” | >

A new system can significantly lower the production costs costs of mass quantum key distribution (QKD) networks, which will make them available to a wider user audience. This will make it possible to use QDK in the regular fiber-optic cable infrastructure. The paper was published in Scientific Reports.

Many have heard about quantum key distribution (QKD), which is also sometimes referred to as quantum encryption. Today, this is one of the safest ways to encode information that can then be used by major banks, military and governmental organizations. In a QDK system, the information is transmitted by quantum radiation, which is extremely hard for eavesdroppers to intercept.

“As a rule, QKD uses a weak laser light with an average number of photons less than unity,” explains Eduard Samsonov, a research associate at ITMO’s Faculty of Photonics and Optical Information. “This light has fundamental special features, the so-called quantum effects that leave no chance for a third party to infiltrate the channel to read the information without being noticed.”

Continue reading “Rsearchers suggest modification of quantum encryption system with compact detector” | >