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SCP-4076: The VHS Tape That Deletes Reality | The Science of The “Video Hurt System”

What if watching a video didn’t just change your mind — but erased your existence?
In this speculative science deep dive, we explore SCP-4076, the infamous “Video Hurt System”, a VHS tape that destroys anything that observes it.

Through the lens of quantum collapse, memetic contagion, and information physics, we examine how a piece of analog media could defy the laws of reality itself.
Is SCP-4076 proof that knowledge can have mass? Could perception itself carry the power to rewrite existence?

Join us as we investigate the intersection of cognitive hazards, quantum theory, and metaphysical information, where curiosity becomes a weapon and observation erases the observer.

📅 New speculative science essays every weekday at 6 p.m. PST / 9 p.m. EST
🔔 Subscribe and turn on notifications — explore the edge of what’s possible.
💬 Tell us: would you play the tape?

Q&A: Chiral phonons research offers new ways to control materials

The rapidly growing field of research on chiral phonons is giving researchers new insights into the fundamental behaviors and structures of materials. The chirality of phonons could pave the way for new methods to control material properties and to encode information at the quantum level, which has implications for, among other areas, quantum technologies, electronics, energy transport, and sensor technology.

A recently published perpsective article in Nature Physics describes the development of this emerging research area, presents a framework for the classification of phonons, and provides a comprehensive overview of the materials in which chiral phonons have been studied or may be discovered in the future. This work is helping accelerate progress in one of today’s fastest-growing areas of quantum materials.

Matthias Geilhufe, Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics, conducts research on chiral phonons and is one of the main authors of the article.

On-chip cryptographic protocol lets quantum computers self-verify results amid hardware noise

Quantum computers, machines that process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, could outperform classical computers on some optimization tasks and computations. Despite their potential, quantum computers are known to be prone to errors and their ability to perform computations is easily influenced by noise.

Quantum scientists and engineers have thus been developing verification protocols, tools designed to check whether quantum computers are computing information correctly. Ideally, these protocols should also provide , meaning that they should ensure that the information processed by computers cannot be forged or tampered with by malicious users.

Researchers at Sorbonne University, University of Edinburgh and Quantinuum recently introduced a new on-chip cryptographically secure verification protocol for quantum computers. The new protocol, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, was successfully deployed on Quantinuum’s H1-1 quantum processor.

Improved method offers broader, faster detection of protein-ligand interactions

EMBL scientists have improved a protein analysis technique, significantly expanding its use and making it 100 times faster.

Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, in a letter to a fellow chemist, first suggested the name “proteins” for a particular class of biological substances, deriving it from the Greek word proteios, meaning “primary” or “of first importance.” Although scientists in the 1830s knew very little about proteins, it was already clear how essential they were to living organisms.

Long-known as the “workhorses of the cell,” proteins are responsible for powering nearly every function in the body. Often critical to this is their interactions with other small molecules known as ligands. In a new study published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, EMBL researchers introduce HT-PELSA, a high-throughput adaptation of an earlier tool that detects these interactions. This new tool can process samples at an unprecedented scale, a breakthrough that promises to accelerate and our understanding of fundamental biological processes.

First full simulation of 50-qubit universal quantum computer achieved

A research team at the Jülich Supercomputing Center, together with experts from NVIDIA, has set a new record in quantum simulation: for the first time, a universal quantum computer with 50 qubits has been fully simulated—a feat achieved on Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, JUPITER, inaugurated at Forschungszentrum Jülich in September.

The result surpasses the previous world record of 48 qubits, established by Jülich researchers in 2022 on Japan’s K computer. It showcases the immense computational power of JUPITER and opens new horizons for developing and testing . The research is published on the arXiv preprint server.

Quantum computer simulations are vital for developing future quantum systems. They allow researchers to verify experimental results and test new algorithms long before powerful quantum machines become reality. Among these are the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE), which can model molecules and materials, and the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), used for optimization problems in logistics, finance, and artificial intelligence.

Mapping AI’s brain reveals memory and reasoning are not located in the same place

Researchers studying how large AI models such as ChatGPT learn and remember information have discovered that their memory and reasoning skills occupy distinct parts of their internal architecture. Their insights could help make AI safer and more trustworthy.

AI models trained on massive datasets rely on at least two major processing features. The first is memory, which allows the system to retrieve and recite information. The second is reasoning, solving new problems by applying generalized principles and learned patterns. But up until now, it wasn’t known if AI’s memory and general intelligence are stored in the same place.

So researchers at the startup Goodfire.ai decided to investigate the internal structure of large language and vision models to understand how they work.

Once considered quality problems, substrate defects now enable precise control of semiconductor crystal growth

A team led by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has made a breakthrough in semiconductor development that could reshape the way we produce computer chips, optoelectronics and quantum computing devices.

The team, which also includes researchers from the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University and SUNY Buffalo, published their findings last month in Nature. Their work deepens the understanding of remote epitaxy, a manufacturing technique that entails growing high-quality semiconducting films on one substrate and then transferring them to a different one.

Remote epitaxy works by placing a thin buffer layer between a substrate and a growing crystal film. The substrate’s atomic structure guides the crystal’s growth through the buffer, but the buffer prevents permanent bonding—meaning that the finished crystal layer can be peeled off and moved elsewhere.

Spray 3D concrete printing simulator boosts strength and design

Concrete 3D printing reduces both time and cost by eliminating traditional formwork, the temporary mold for casting. Yet most of today’s systems rely on extrusion-based methods, which deposit material very close to a nozzle layer by layer. This makes it impossible to print around reinforcement bars (rebars) without risk of collision, limiting both design flexibility and structural integrity of builds.

Kenji Shimada and researchers in his Carnegie Mellon University’s Computational Engineering and Robotics Laboratory (CERLAB), are breaking through that limitation with a new simulation tool for spray-based concrete 3D .

“Spray-based concrete 3D printing is a new process with complicated physical phenomena,” said Shimada, a professor of mechanical engineering. “In this method, a modified shotcrete mixture is sprayed from a nozzle to build up on a surface, even around rebar.”

Research reveals shared genetic roots for psychiatric and neurological disorders

Researchers from the Center for Precision Psychiatry at the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital have discovered extensive genetic links between neurological disorders like migraine, stroke and epilepsy, and psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression. Published in Nature Neuroscience, this research challenges longstanding boundaries between neurology and psychiatry and points to the need for more integrated approaches to brain disorders.

“We found that psychiatric and neurological disorders share to a greater extent than previously recognized. This suggests that they may partly arise from the same underlying biology, contrasting the traditional view that they are separate disease entities. Importantly, the genetic risk was closely linked to brain biology,” states Olav Bjerkehagen Smeland, psychiatrist and first author.

Infants born with hearing loss show disruptions in brain design, underscoring the urgency of intervention

Infants born deaf or hard of hearing show adverse changes in how their brains organize and specialize, but exposure to sound and language may help them develop more normally, according to new research.

The study led by two neuroscientists found that infants with (SNHL) lacked the usual pattern of organization on the brain’s left side, which supports language and higher cognitive skills.

The findings also suggest that early auditory stimulation through hearing aids or , along with exposure to language, whether spoken or signed, could help preserve .

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