Quantum physical experiments exploring the motion of macroscopic or heavy bodies under gravitational forces require protection from any environmental noise and highly efficient sensing. An ideal system is a highly reflecting mirror whose motion is sensed by monochromatic light, which is photoelectrically detected with high quantum efficiency. A quantum optomechanical experiment is achieved if the quantum uncertainties of light and mirror motion influence each other, ultimately leading to the observation of entanglement between optical and motional degrees of freedom. In…
A dynamic left-hand squeeze helps to optimize performance. The images are legendary: Tennis stars who hit the deciding match ball just outside the line, golfers who putt the ball past the cup from only inches away, and speakers who suddenly can’t say a word. These individuals all have one thing in common: They are unable to access their performance abilities in a crucial situation. A research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) investigated the phenomenon and has come…
Around 500,000 people in the UK live with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), a life-long, chronic condition characterised by sporadic bouts of gut inflammation causing debilitating symptoms. Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis – the latter affecting around 1 in 400 people – are the two most common types of IBD. Current treatments are ineffective and seriously impact the quality of life of the patients and those of their families. Scientists at the Earlham Institute, Quadram Institute and University of East Anglia on the…
Mutations that lead to muscle atrophy can be repaired with the gene editor CRISPR-Cas9. A team led by ECRC researcher Helena Escobar has now introduced the tool into human muscle stem cells for the first time using mRNA, thus discovering a method suitable for therapeutic applications. It may be only a tiny change in the genome, but this small difference can have fatal consequences: Muscular dystrophies are almost always caused by a single faulty gene. As different as the mutations…
In the classic example of mountain-building, the Indian and Asian continental plates crashed – and continue colliding today – to form the world’s largest and highest geologic structures: the Himalayan Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau. Despite the importance of these formations, which influence the global climate through atmospheric circulation and seasonal monsoons, experts have proposed contradicting theories about how tectonic plates below the surface created the iconic behemoths. Now, using geochemical data from 225 hot springs, scientists have mapped the boundary…
Climate scientists reconsider the meaning and implications of drought in light of a changing world. Maps of the American West have featured ever darker shades of red over the past two decades. The colors illustrate the unprecedented drought blighting the region. In some areas, conditions have blown past severe and extreme drought into exceptional drought. But rather than add more superlatives to our descriptions, one group of scientists believes it’s time to reconsider the very definition of drought. Researchers from…
Made from cheap chemicals, this polymer packs a punch. An imaginative approach to polymer surface coating has produced a sustainable way to remove mercury from water – while providing a wide range of protection including for preventing metal corrosion and solvent damage of plastic PVC pipes. The smart coating, made from low-cost chemicals from oil refining and other sources, also can prevent acid and water damage of concrete surfaces and be repaired in situ by a simple heating process, says…
… for early-phase drug discovery. The existence of various molecular arrangements that occur in the solid-state is called polymorphism. During early-phase drug discovery, researchers commonly look at hydrogen-bonding networks to identify potential metastable polymorphs. But what if a system doesn’t have hydrogen bonding? Or what if the hydrogen-bonding networks are the same in two different solid forms? Going beyond hydrogen-bonding networks with CSD-Materials CCDC’s CSD-Materials suite provides a comprehensive analysis of a potential active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) that helps researchers explore…
In Gerhard Kirchmair’s laboratory at the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Innsbruck, Austria, superconducting quantum bits are coupled to waveguides. When several of these quantum bits are incorporated into the waveguide, they interact with each other, resulting in so-called dark states. “These are entangled quantum states that are completely decoupled from the outside world,” explains Max Zanner, first author of the paper. “They are invisible, so to speak, which is…
Physicists have discovered a new way to coat soft robots in materials that allow them to move and function in a more purposeful way. Physicists have discovered a new way to coat soft robots in materials that allow them to move and function in a more purposeful way. The research, led by the UK’s University of Bath, is described today in Science Advances. Authors of the study believe their breakthrough modelling on ‘active matter’ could mark a turning point in…
Reduces friction and extends product life. Toyohashi University of Technology research team led by lecturer Toru Harigai have developed an ultra-high-rate coating technology for functional hard carbon films using vacuum plasma. Functional hard carbon films with low friction coefficients are used as protective films with sliding surfaces. This technology has achieved a film deposition rate of more than one order of magnitude faster than existing coating technologies, while maintaining the same degree of film quality. The technology—which can be introduced…
Novel material with promising properties for quantum computers and networks discovered – KIT researchers report in nature. Quantum information will revolutionize not only research and industry, but also our everyday life. Among others, it promises enormous progress in the simulation of materials and processes, which will push the development of new medical substances, the improvement of batteries, transport planning, and secure information and communication. A quantum bit (qubit) can assume many different states between 0 and 1 at the same…
The formation of the greenhouse gas is driven by reactive oxygen species. It is well known that methane, a greenhouse gas, is produced by special microorganisms, for example in the intestines of cows, or in rice fields. For some years, scientists had also observed the production of methane in plants and fungi, without finding an explanation. Now researchers from Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg have shed light on the underlying mechanism. Their findings suggest…
University of Amsterdam Institute of Physics and QuSoft physicists use a single trapped ion to detect ultracold molecules. When we think of ions, we usually think of single atoms that have lost or gained some electrons, but entire molecules can also become ions. In a new publication that was highlighted as an Editor’s Suggestion in Physical Review Letters this week, physicists from the University of Amsterdam, QuSoft and Stony Brook University, show that cold molecular ions can be created using…
Development of a stretchable display where images can be transversely/ longitudinally stretched up to 25% without distortion. Results of this study have been published in Advanced Functional Materials. The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (President Sang Jin Park, hereafter referred to as KIMM), an institute under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Science and ICT, has successfully developed a new stretchable meta-display technology that can be stretched up to 25% without image distortion, for the first time in the…
A single-celled marine microbe capable of photosynthesis and hunting and eating prey may be a secret weapon in the battle against climate change. A single-celled marine microbe capable of photosynthesis and hunting and eating prey may be a secret weapon in the battle against climate change. Scientists at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have discovered a new species that has the potential to sequester carbon naturally, even as oceans warm and become more acidic. The microbe, abundant around the…
Feedback
