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Oct 27, 2019

Quantum computing’s ‘Hello World’ moment

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Does quantum computing really exist? It’s fitting that for decades this field has been haunted by the fundamental uncertainty of whether it would, eventually, prove to be a wild goose chase. But Google has collapsed this nagging superposition with research not just demonstrating what’s called “quantum supremacy,” but more importantly showing that this also is only the very beginning of what quantum computers will eventually be capable of.

This is by all indications an important point in computing, but it is also very esoteric and technical in many ways. Consider, however, that in the 60s, the decision to build computers with electronic transistors must have seemed rather an esoteric point as well. Yet that was in a way the catalyst for the entire Information Age.

Most of us were not lucky enough to be involved with that decision or to understand why it was important at the time. We are lucky enough to be here now — but understanding takes a bit of explanation. The best place to start is perhaps with computing and physics pioneers Alan Turing and Richard Feynman.

Oct 27, 2019

The Universe as Informavore

Posted by in category: space

Even if the universe has some kind of mentality, it need not be conscious.

Oct 27, 2019

This Week in Tech: WeWork and S9 Architecture Inaugurate the Flood-Resilient Dock 72 in Brooklyn

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Plus, the first-ever WELL Conference, MIT robots that assemble lunar settlements, and more design-tech news this week.

Oct 27, 2019

Space: The Final Business Frontier | GIANT LEAP Ep. 1

Posted by in categories: business, space

In the not-too-distant future, entirely new industries will be developed in space. But for these endeavors to be viable, we need to first get the necessary tools into orbit. That’s where one of the most crowded new sectors has developed. More than 100 privately-backed launch companies are in fierce competition to get payloads into space as fast, often and cheaply as possible.

For more Giant Leap episodes: &list=PLqq4LnWs3olWR-zshlDHm6Avj0oURtc1X

Continue reading “Space: The Final Business Frontier | GIANT LEAP Ep. 1” »

Oct 27, 2019

The five: ways to slow the onset of Alzheimer’s

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Scientists have conducted a series of trials that point to various ways to check the progress of the disease.

Oct 27, 2019

There’s a chance the black hole at the center of our galaxy is actually a wormhole

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Science fiction writers love wormholes because they make the impossible possible, linking otherwise unreachable places together. Enter one, and it’ll spit you back out in another locale—typically one that’s convenient for the plot. And no matter how unlikely these exotic black hole relatives are to exist in reality, they tend to fascinate physicists for exactly the same reason. Recently, some of those physicists took the time to ponder what such a cosmic shortcut might look like in real life, and even make a case that there could be one at the center of our galaxy.

Oct 26, 2019

Does sunlight change our gut microbiome?

Posted by in category: futurism

Scientists have found changes in the gut microbiomes of vitamin D deficient volunteers after only three sessions of ultraviolet light exposure.

Oct 26, 2019

Scientists find answer to vast puzzle about the universe in the middle of two colliding stars

Posted by in category: space

Scientists have found the answer to a decades-long mystery, in the middle of two colliding stars.

For the first ever time, a newly made heavy element called strontium was detected in space after two neutron stars crashed into each other.

The discovery definitively confirms that heavier elements in the universe can be made in the mergers of neutron stars, at last helping answer the puzzle of how chemical elements form.

Oct 26, 2019

Lattice QCD Calculations Predict Exotic Nuclei Not on Periodic Table

Posted by in categories: chemistry, particle physics, quantum physics

Have you ever wondered how the Sun creates the energy that we get from it every day and how the other elements besides hydrogen have formed in our universe? Perhaps you know that this is due to fusion reactions where four nuclei of hydrogen join together to produce a helium nucleus. Such nucleosynthesis processes are possible solely due to the existence, in the first place, of stable deuterons, which are made up of a proton and a neutron.

Probing deeper, one finds that a deuteron consists of six light quarks. Interestingly, the strong interaction between quarks, which brings stability to deuterons, also allows for various other six-quark combinations, leading to the possible formation of many other deuteron-like nuclei. However, no such nuclei, though theoretically speculated about and searched for experimentally many times, have yet been observed.

All this may get changed with an exciting new finding, where, using a state-of-the-art first-principles calculation of lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the basic theory of strong interactions, a definite prediction of the existence of other deuteron-like nuclei has been made by TIFR’s physicists. Using the computational facility of the Indian Lattice Gauge Theory Initiative (ILGTI), Prof. Nilmani Mathur and postdoctoral fellow Parikshit Junnarkar in the Department of Theoretical Physics have predicted a set of exotic nuclei, which are not to be found in the Periodic Table. The masses of these new exotic nuclei have also been calculated precisely.

Oct 26, 2019

Here is The Ocean Cleanup CEO Boyan Slat’s invention in action to cleanup by removing plastic from the oceans to save the world environment for the security of humanity and to preserve our wildlife for the future now

Posted by in categories: innovation, security

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