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Jun 25, 2019

Scientists are Developing a Vaccine for Stress and Anxiety

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

New potential vaccine could reduce stress and anxiety.

Jun 25, 2019

SpaceX launches hefty rocket with 24 satellites

Posted by in categories: energy, military, satellites

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX launched its heftiest rocket with 24 research satellites Tuesday, a middle-of-the-night rideshare featuring a deep space atomic clock, solar sail, a clean and green rocket fuel testbed, and even human ashes.

It was the third flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, but the first ordered up by the military.

The Defense Department mission, dubbed STP-2 for Space Test Program, is expected to provide data to certify the Falcon Heavy — and reused boosters — for future national security launches. It marked the military’s first ride on a recycled rocket.

Jun 24, 2019

Quantum drone to create unhackable communication network

Posted by in categories: drones, quantum physics

Researchers in China are using drones as nodes in the development of an airborne quantum communications network. The article describes how such a network, using a quantum drone would be nigh unhackable.

Jun 24, 2019

People with fibromyalgia have different gut bacteria

Posted by in category: futurism

A new study shows that gut bacteria composition is different in people with fibromyalgia and that it varies with the severity of pain and other symptoms.

Jun 24, 2019

Soyuz Capsule Returns Station Crew to Earth After 204 Days in Space

Posted by in category: space

A Russian cosmonaut and astronauts from the United States and Canada have returned to Earth after spending more than 200 days on board the International Space Station.

Oleg Kononenko with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Anne McClain of NASA and Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques landed aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft on Monday (June 24). Lowered by parachute and slowed by braking thrusters, the capsule touched down southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 10:47 p.m. EDT (0247 GMT or 8:47 a.m. local time on June 25).

The landing brought to a close the crew members’ 204-day mission, which saw Kononenko, McClain and Saint-Jacques serve on the space station’s 58th and 59th expedition crews. The trio arrived at the orbiting laboratory on Dec. 3, 2018.

Jun 24, 2019

Alien-ocean-in-a-lab experiments produce new crystals not found on Earth

Posted by in category: space

With Earth-like canyons and oceans of liquid methane, Saturn’s moon Titan is one of the most fascinating places in the solar system. To better understand this weird world, scientists recreated Titan’s alien oceans in the lab, producing new types of crystals that don’t occur naturally on Earth but may form a common crust on Titan.

Jun 24, 2019

Brain study reveals type of schizophrenia similar to neurodegenerative disease

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Research from Johns Hopkins Medicine has revealed some cases of schizophrenia can be associated with abnormal protein buildup in the brain similar to that seen in cases of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disorders. It’s hoped the discovery will lead to better diagnostic strategies identifying specific types of schizophrenia.

Jun 24, 2019

Scientists have engineered a self-destruct button in bacteria

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Sneaky molecular biology tricks bacteria into killing themselves, in place of antibiotics.

Jun 24, 2019

New theory for trapping light particles aims to advance development of quantum computers

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics, weapons

If we could trap light it could be used as a force field or even a lightsaber in future developments :3.


Quantum computers, which use light particles (photons) instead of electrons to transmit and process data, hold the promise of a new era of research in which the time needed to realize lifesaving drugs and new technologies will be significantly shortened. Photons are promising candidates for quantum computation because they can propagate across long distances without losing information, but when they are stored in matter they become fragile and susceptible to decoherence. Now researchers with the Photonics Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) at The Graduate Center, CUNY have developed a new protocol for storing and releasing a single photon in an embedded eigenstate—a quantum state that is virtually unaffected by loss and decoherence. The novel protocol, detailed in the current issue of Optica, aims to advance the development of quantum computers.

“The goal is to store and release single photons on demand by simultaneously ensuring the stability of data,” said Andrea Alù, founding director of the ASRC Photonics Initiative and Einstein Professor of Physics at The Graduate Center. “Our work demonstrates that is possible to confine and preserve a single photon in an and have it remain there until it’s prompted by another photon to continue propagating.”

Continue reading “New theory for trapping light particles aims to advance development of quantum computers” »

Jun 24, 2019

Interaction-induced topology in symmetry-broken phase

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Symmetry is a fundamental characteristic in nature. Understanding the mechanisms that break symmetries is essential to scientific research. Spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), in particular, occurs when thermal or quantum fluctuations drive a system from a symmetric state into an ordered state, as it occurs when a liquid turns into a solid. This mechanism allows researchers to classify different phases of matter according to the different patterns generated by the broken symmetry.

In the last decades, topology has also been recognized as a crucial characteristic to describe how matter is organized at the fundamental level. In this case, it is no longer the breaking of certain symmetries, but their conservation, which gives rise to novel states of matter, the so-called symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases. Different topological phases might present the same symmetries, but they can be distinguished by a global topological invariant, which takes integer values and is preserved under continuous deformations.

Current research in condensed matter physics aims to understand how symmetry breaking and symmetry protection compete, in particular in the presence of interactions. In a recent paper published in Nature Communications, ICFO researchers Daniel Gonzalez and Przemyslaw Grzybowski, led by Alexandre Dauphin and ICREA Prof. at ICFO Maciej Lewenstein, in collaboration with Alejandro Bermudez from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, report how these two processes cooperate, giving rise to new strongly-correlated topological effects.