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Dec 30, 2019

On This Day in Space! Dec. 30, 1930: 1st Photo of the Curvature of the Earth

Posted by in category: space

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_fgI-VoYEw

On Dec. 30, 1930, the first-ever photo of the Earth’s curvature was taken.

This photo was taken by Lieutenant Colonel Albert William Stevens, who was an officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps and an aerial photographer. He also happened to be a balloonist, and he once broke a world record for a high-altitude balloon flight. Stevens took this photo while flying in a balloon over South Dakota.

Continue reading “On This Day in Space! Dec. 30, 1930: 1st Photo of the Curvature of the Earth” »

Dec 30, 2019

Chip-to-chip quantum teleportation and multi-photon entanglement in silicon

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Integrated optics provides a versatile platform for quantum information processing and transceiving with photons1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. The implementation of quantum protocols requires the capability to generate multiple high-quality single photons and process photons with multiple high-fidelity operators9,10,11. However, previous experimental demonstrations were faced by major challenges in realizing sufficiently high-quality multi-photon sources and multi-qubit operators in a single integrated system4,5,6,7,8, and fully chip-based implementations of multi-qubit quantum tasks remain a significant challenge1,2,3. Here, we report the demonstration of chip-to-chip quantum teleportation and genuine multipartite entanglement, the core functionalities in quantum technologies, on silicon-photonic circuitry. Four single photons with high purity and indistinguishablity are produced in an array of microresonator sources, without requiring any spectral filtering. Up to four qubits are processed in a reprogrammable linear-optic quantum circuit that facilitates Bell projection and fusion operation. The generation, processing, transceiving and measurement of multi-photon multi-qubit states are all achieved in micrometre-scale silicon chips, fabricated by the complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor process. Our work lays the groundwork for large-scale integrated photonic quantum technologies for communications and computations.

Dec 30, 2019

Why Solitary Confinement Is The Worst Kind Of Psychological Torture

Posted by in categories: habitats, health, neuroscience

There may be as many as 80,000 American prisoners currently locked-up in a SHU, or segregated housing unit. Solitary confinement in a SHU can cause irreversible psychological effects in as little as 15 days. Here’s what social isolation does to your brain, and why it should be considered torture.

There’s no universal definition for solitary confinement, but the United Nations describes it as any regime where an inmate is held in isolation from others, except guards, for at least 22 hours a day. Some jurisdictions allow prisoners out of their cells for one hour of solitary exercise each day. But meaningful contact with others is typically reduced to a bare minimum. Prisoners are also intentionally deprived of stimulus; available stimuli and the fleetingly rare social contacts are rarely chosen by the prisoners, and are are typically monotonous and inconsiderate of their needs.

Dec 30, 2019

Say Goodbye to Banking as We Know It

Posted by in category: finance

China is poised to launch the first national digital currency. There will be no counting the disruption.

Dec 30, 2019

Iridium would pay to deorbit its 30 defunct satellites — for the right price

Posted by in category: satellites

WASHINGTON — Iridium Communications completed disposal of the last of its 65 working legacy satellites Dec. 28, while leaving open the possibility of paying an active-debris-removal company to deorbit 30 that failed in the decades since the operator deployed its first-generation constellation.

McLean, Virginia-based Iridium started deorbiting its first constellation, built by Motorola and Lockheed Martin, in 2017, as it replaced them with second-generation satellites from Thales Alenia Space.

Of the 95 satellites launched between 1997 and 2002, 30 malfunctioned and remain stuck in low Earth orbit, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Dec 30, 2019

Betelguese, one of the brightest stars in the sky, might be on the brink of explosion

Posted by in category: space

INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — One of the sky’s brightest stars has been acting a little weird recently.

Betelgeuse, a bright star in the constellation Orion, has been rapidly dimming since the beginning of December. It’s already dimmed by a factor of two, according to the Independent, which makes the change visible to the naked eye. Betelgeuse was once the ninth brightest star in our sky, but after its dimming it doesn’t even break the top 20 anymore, according to the Washington Post.

The star is known as a “variable” star, which means it’s characterized by cycles of brightening and dimming. However, scientists have never recorded it dimming so fast. Astronomers Villanova University say this is an all time low in brightness for the star.

Dec 30, 2019

How can we live longer?

Posted by in category: life extension

5 European startups extending our lifespans ~ via EU-Startups #perpetuallife

https://www.eu-startups.com/2019/12/want-to-live-longer-5-eu…lifespans/

How can we live longer? How do we live healthily to extend our lifespans? How do we feel younger than our age? These are among the many questions scientists have been trying to answer about aging.

Dec 30, 2019

2020 is The Year of The $1 Trillion Space Economy

Posted by in categories: economics, space

The private revolution in space is upon us.

Dec 30, 2019

Parallel worlds exist and interact with our world, say physicists

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Theory explains many of the bizarre observations made in quantum mechanics.

Dec 30, 2019

Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Prominent cardiologist Dr. Eric Topol explains how artificial intelligence and technological advances are ushering in a new age of healthcare and medicine.

By Laurie Mathena