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Category: computing

We know that the rule “nothing lasts forever” holds true for everything. But the world of quantum particles doesn’t always seem to follow the rules.

In the latest findings, scientists have observed that quasiparticles in quantum systems could be virtually immortal. These particles can regenerate themselves after they have decayed — and this can have a significant impact on the future of quantum computing and humanity itself.

This finding stands up directly against the second law of thermodynamics which basically says that things can only break down and not reconstruct again. However, these quantum particle fields can reconstruct themselves after decaying – just like the Phoenix rises from its ashes in Greek mythology.

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O.o…

Black holes are engines of destruction on a cosmic scale, but they may also be the bringers of life. New research on supermassive black holes suggests that the radiation they emit during feeding frenzies can create biomolecular building blocks and even power photosynthesis.

The upshot? Far more worlds roaming the Milky Way and beyond could be suitable to life, the researchers speculated.

For their new study, published May 24 in the Astrophysical Journal, scientists created computer models to look at the radiating disks of gas and dust called active galactic nuclei, or AGN, that swirl around supermassive black holes. Some of the brightest objects in the universe, AGN form as a black hole’s gravity binds matter. As that matter swirls around a black hole, it releases incredible amounts of light and radiation. [9 Ideas About Black Holes That Will Blow Your Mind].

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Jigang Wang and his collaborators have demonstrated light-induced acceleration of supercurrents, which could enable practical applications of quantum mechanics such as computing, sensing and communicating. Larger image. Image courtesy of Jigang Wang.

AMES, Iowa – Jigang Wang patiently explained his latest discovery in quantum control that could lead to superfast computing based on quantum mechanics: He mentioned light-induced superconductivity without energy gap. He brought up forbidden supercurrent quantum beats. And he mentioned terahertz-speed symmetry breaking.

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Quantum physics will bring us even faster computers and tap-proof communication. However, there are still a number of problems to solve before the breakthrough. The prototype of a quantum interface, which was developed at the Institute for Science and Technology (IST) Austria, brings us one step closer to quantum internet. The transfer of information from one quantum computer to another becomes possible.

One problem with quantum computers is that the electronics only function at extremely low temperatures of a few thousands of a degree above absolute zero (−273.15 °C). If the temperature in the computer rises, all information is destroyed. The reason for this is superconductivity – a macroscopic quantum state of materials whose electrical resistance drops abruptly to zero when the temperature drops below the transition temperature. In the case of the quantum computer, these are microwave photons that are extremely sensitive to noise and losses.

This temperature sensitivity currently makes it almost impossible to transfer information from one quantum computer to another. The information would have to pass through an environment with high temperatures it could not survive in.

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Where reality is still lagging considerably is in recreating the physical experience of VR. In the movie, the haptic gloves OASIS players wear make them virtual objects almost indistinguishable from real ones. Other characters have even more advanced set-ups, like full-body haptic suits that simulate both pleasure and pain, complicated harnesses and treadmills that allow users to run around and move their bodies just like they would in real life, and even “smell towers.”

But a report released by analysts IDTechX to coincide with the movie’s release suggests the first step towards most of these technologies has already been taken. VR handsets already feature the same kind of rumble packs found in computer game controllers that provide simple haptic feedback in the form of vibrations.

These same vibration motors have also been integrated into VR gloves like Gloveone and Manus, where they can recreate textures. Go Touch VR’s haptic rings use a small motor to vary the pressure of a piece of plastic against your fingertips to mimic the force felt when touching objects, while Ultrahaptics beams ultrasound onto your hands to give the sensation of pressure and texture.

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Oxidation numbers have so far eluded any rigorous quantum mechanical definition. A new SISSA study, published in Nature Physics, provides such a definition based on the theory of topological quantum numbers, which was honored with the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to Thouless, Haldane and Kosterlitz. This result, combined with recent advances in the theory of transport achieved at SISSA, paves the way to an accurate, yet tractable, numerical simulation of a broad class of materials that are important in energy-related technologies and planetary sciences.

Every undergraduate student in the natural sciences learns how to associate an integer oxidation number to a chemical species participating in a reaction. Unfortunately, the very concept of oxidation state has thus far eluded a rigorous quantum mechanical definition, so that no method was known until now to compute oxidation numbers from the fundamental laws of nature, let alone demonstrate that their use in the simulation of charge transport does not spoil the quality of numerical simulations. At the same time, the evaluation of electric currents in ionic conductors, which is required to model their transport properties, is presently based on a cumbersome quantum-mechanical approach that severely limits the feasibility of large-scale computer simulations. Scientists have lately noticed that a simplified model where each atom carries a charge equal to its oxidation number may give results in surprising good agreement with rigorous but much more expensive approaches.

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Condensation might ruin a wood coffee table or fog up glasses when entering a warm building on a winter day, but it’s not all inconveniences; the condensation and evaporation cycle has important applications.

Water can be harvested from “thin air,” or separated from salt in desalination plants by way of . Due to the fact condensing take heat with them when they evaporate, it’s also part of the cooling process in the industrial and high-powered computing arenas. Yet when researchers took a look at the newest method of condensation, they saw something strange: When a special type of is covered in a thin layer of oil, condensed water droplets seemed to be randomly flying across the surface at high velocities, merging with larger droplets, in patterns not caused by gravity.

“They’re so far apart, in terms of their own, relative dimensions”—the droplets have a diameter smaller than 50 micrometers—” and yet they’re getting pulled, and moving at really high velocities,” said Patricia Weisensee, assistant professor of mechanical engineering & materials science in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.

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I’m super excited to share this new Quartz article of mine, part of an ongoing personal debate about #transhumanism, #kids, and #education in my family:

But the age of downloading experience and expertise directly into our brain mainframe is coming. So is downloading professional training, including everything from becoming a police officer to practicing medicine or investigative journalism.

For many in the audience, I think that was the first time considering this could become a reality in our lifetime.

But in plenty of instances, brainwave tech is already here. People fly drones using mind-reading headsets. Parkinson’s disease patients can use brain chips to calm shaking attacks. Machine interfaces let people silently communicate mind-to-mind with one another, or with devices.

Brainwave technology works by recording the brain’s thought patterns—configurations of neurons that fire in distinct ways for different thoughts—and replicating those patterns back into the brain via electrical stimulation from a nonbiological device.

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Student from Canberra, Australia confirms that ‘near’ infinite data compression is possible.

Has proven that ‘near’ infinite compression of data is possible. Can shrink Terabytes of data to under 1440KB.Could technically store known, or ‘explored’, universe in an object smaller than a grapefruit.

  • (Smaller than a grapefruit seed in fact!).
  • How close to ‘zero’ (infinite) can you get?, much smaller than 1440KB he’ll say that much.

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