Lifeboat Foundation

Entanglement, once called “spooky action at a distance” by Einstein, is the phenomenon in which the quantum states of separated particles cannot be described independently. This puzzling phenomenon is widely exploited in the quantum physicist’s toolbox, and is a key resource for applications in secure quantum communication over long distances and quantum cryptography protocols. Unfortunately, entangled particles are easily disturbed by their surroundings, and their entanglement is readily diminished by the slightest interaction with the environment.

In a recent study published in the journal Physical Review X, an international team of physicists from Austria, Scotland, Canada, Finland and Germany have demonstrated how quantum entanglement can be strengthened to overcome particle loss or very high levels of noise, which are inevitable in real-life applications outside the laboratory. This strengthening is accomplished by departing from commonly used two-level quantum bits, or qubits. Qubits are bi-dimensional systems, the quantum analogue to the classical bit, with values zero or one. In this study, the researchers instead employed entanglement of systems with more than two levels. By entangling particles of light through their spatial and temporal properties, scientists have now observed the survival of quantum entanglement under harsh environmental conditions for the first time.

When it comes to distributing particles of light outside of a protected laboratory, the environmental conditions are identical to the tested ones. Therefore, the experiment is not only a proof-of-principle implementation, but is ready for long-distance quantum communication under real-world conditions. This new method could hence prove helpful for distributing entanglement in a future quantum internet.

For many years, chili has been hailed for its therapeutic properties, and now researchers have found that eating chili peppers regularly can cut the risk of death from heart disease and stroke.

Carried out in Italy, where chili is a common ingredient, the study compared the risk of death among 23,000 people, some of whom ate chili and some of whom didn’t.

An organized tide of brain waves, blood and spinal fluid pulsing through a sleeping brain may flush away neural toxins that cause Alzheimer’s and other diseases.

Teams have looked for a “fifth force” in the universe within the Earth’s mantle, ultra-vacuum chambers, and in hypothetical particles such as “X17.” Finding it could help explain mysteries around dark matter and dark energy.

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You won’t get rich, but it’s a pretty neat mining hack.

A small study reveals that rapamycin, a drug with a long history as an immune suppressor, can improve tone and reduce wrinkles and sagging in human skin.

A physicist from RUDN University has proposed a new theoretical model for the interaction of spinor and gravitational fields. He considered the evolution of the universe within one of the variants of the widespread Bianchi cosmological model. In this case, a change in the calculated field parameters led to changes in the evolution of the universe under consideration. Upon reaching certain values, it began to shrink down to the Big Bang. The article was published in the journal The European Physical Journal Plus.

The spinor field is characterized by its behavior in interaction with gravitational fields. Dr. Bijan Saha of RUDN University focused on the study of a nonlinear spinor field. With its help, he explained the accelerated expansion of the universe. The study of a spinor field with a non-minimal coupling made it possible to describe not only the expansion of the universe, but also its subsequent contraction and the resulting Big Bang within the framework of the standard Bianchi cosmological model.

The basic calculations performed by Bijan Saha allow moving away from the isotropic model of the Friedman-Robertson-Walker universe (FRW) that is most often used. According to this traditional model, the properties of the universe are independent of the direction in which they are considered. The physicist has put forward an alternative: an anisotropic model in which such dependence exists. On the one hand, the “classical” isotropic model describes the evolution of the modern universe with great precision. On the other hand, there are theoretical arguments and observational data that lead to the conclusion that an anisotropic phase existed in the distant past.

In an article published in Physical Review Letters, Bristol scientists have answered the fundamental question: “Is it possible to move without exerting force on the environment?”, by describing the tractionless self-propulsion of active matter.

Understanding how cells move autonomously is a fundamental question for both biologists and physicists.

Experiments on cell motility are commonly done by looking at the motion of a cell on a glass slide under a microscope.