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Bacteria on marine particles play key role in ocean nitrogen cycle

It has puzzled scientists for years whether and how bacteria, that live from dissolved organic matter in marine waters, can carry out N2 fixation. It was assumed that the high levels of oxygen combined with the low amount of dissolved organic matter in the marine water column would prevent the anaerobic and energy consuming N2 fixation.

Already in the 1980s it was suggested that aggregates, so-called “marine snow particles,” could possibly be suitable sites for N2 fixation, and this was recently confirmed. Still, it has been an open question why the carrying out this N2 fixation can be found worldwide in the ocean. Moreover, the global magnitude and the distribution of the activity have been unknown… until now.

In a new study, researchers from the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research in Germany, Technical University of Denmark, and the University of Copenhagen demonstrate, by use of mechanistic mathematical models, that bacteria attached to marine snow particles can fix N2 over a wide range of temperatures in the global oceans, from the tropics to the poles, and from the surface to the abyss.

High-performance sodium-ion cathode paves the way for lithium-ion battery alternative

Tech giant Microsoft unveiled a new computer chip on Wednesday that it says could transform everything from fighting pollution to developing new medicines, joining Google and IBM in arguing that the promise of quantum computing is closer to reality.

The US-made , called Majorana 1, can fit in the palm of a hand but packs a revolutionary design that Microsoft believes will solve one of the biggest challenges in quantum computing—making these super-powerful machines reliable enough for real-world use.

“We took a fresh approach and basically reinvented how quantum computers could work,” said Chetan Nayak, a senior scientist at Microsoft.

Introducing Majorana 1

Introducing a breakthrough in quantum computing. The Majorana 1 chip. An approach that ignores the limitations of current models to unleash the power of millions of potential qubits all working together to solve unsolvable challenges in creating new medicines, entirely new materials, and helping our natural world. All on a single chip.

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Microsoft Unveils First Quantum Computing Chip

Microsoft announced a major milestone in its quantum computing efforts on Wednesday, unveiling its first quantum computing chip, called Majorana 1. Jason Zander, Microsoft’s executive VP of strategic missions and technologies explains this breakthrough and how it gets quantum computing technology closer to real world applications. Zander speaks to Bloomberg Technology’s Jackie Davalos.
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Majorana 1 Explained: The Path to a Million Qubits

Hear from the Microsoft team behind the recent breakthrough in physics and quantum computing demonstrated by the new Majorana 1 chip, engineered from an entirely new material that has the potential to scale to millions of qubits on a single chip. Find out what is possible…

Chapters:
0:00 — Introducing Majorana 1
1:26 — Why does quantum computing matter?
2:47 — Qubits, the building blocks of quantum computing.
5:05 — Understanding the topological state.
7:00 — How the Majorana 1 chip works.
9:10 — How quantum and classical computing work together.
10:13 — The Quantum Age.

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Two distinct superconducting states found in Bernal bilayer graphene challenge current models

Superconductivity is a widely sought after material property, which entails an electrical resistance of zero below a specific critical temperature. So far, it has been observed in various materials, including recently in so-called multilayer graphene allotropes (i.e., materials that consist of several layers of a hexagonal carbon lattice).

Recent studies found that when bilayer graphene is placed on a WSe2 (tungsten-diselenide) substrate, its superconducting phase is enhanced. This results in a greater charge carrier density and higher (i.e., the temperature at which a material becomes a superconductor).

Researchers at University of California at Santa Barbara and California Institute of Technology have carried out a study aimed at further investigating this enhancement in the graphite allotrope Bernal bilayer graphene. Their paper, published in Nature Physics, reports the observation of two distinct superconducting states in this material, challenging current models of electron pairing in graphite allotropes.

Cosmic radiation from supernova altered virus evolution in Africa, study suggests

Isolated by mountains along the East African Rift is Lake Tanganyika. More than 400 miles long, it is the continent’s deepest lake and accounts for 16% of the world’s available freshwater. Between 2 and 3 million years ago, the number of virus species infecting fish in that immense lake exploded, and in a new study, UC Santa Cruz researchers propose that this explosion was perhaps triggered by the explosion of a distant star.

The new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, led by recent undergraduate student Caitlyn Nojiri and co-authored by astronomy and astrophysics professor Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz and postdoctoral fellow Noémie Globus, examined iron isotopes to identify a 2.5 million-year-old supernova.

The researchers connected this stellar explosion to a surge of radiation that pummeled Earth around the same time, and they assert that the blast was powerful enough to break the DNA of living creatures—possibly driving those viruses in Lake Tanganyika to mutate into new species.

Ultrafast vortex electron diffraction: A new way to observe electrons in motion

Electrons oscillate around the nucleus of an atom on extremely short timescales, typically completing a cycle in just a few hundred attoseconds. Because of their ultrafast motions, directly observing electron behavior in molecules has been challenging. Now researchers from UC San Diego’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have suggested a new method to make visualizing electron motion a reality.

This new method describes an experimental concept called ultrafast vortex electron diffraction, which allows for direct visualization of electron movement in molecules on attosecond timescales. The paper is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

The key idea behind this approach is the use of a specialized electron beam that spirals as it travels, enabling precise tracking of electron motion in both space and time. This method is especially sensitive to electronic coherence, where electrons move in a synchronized, harmonious manner.

Rare trio of weak bosons observed at Large Hadron Collider

As the carriers of the weak force, the W and Z bosons are central to the Standard Model of particle physics. Though discovered four decades ago, the W and Z bosons continue to provide physicists with new avenues for exploration.

In a new study available on the arXiv preprint server, the ATLAS collaboration analyzed its full data set from the second run of the Large Hadron Collider (recorded from 2015 to 2018) in search of a rare process in which a Z boson is produced alongside two other weak-force carriers, or vector (V) bosons, as the W and Z are known.

“The production of three vector bosons is a very rare process at the LHC,” says Fabio Cerutti, ATLAS Physics Coordinator. “Its measurement provides information on the interactions among multiple bosons, which are linked to underlying symmetries of the Standard Model. This is a powerful tool for uncovering new physics phenomena, such as new, undiscovered particles that are too heavy to be directly produced at the LHC.”