Quantum computers are one of the most promising and hard-to-reach goals in the world today. These machines promise unprecedented calculation power, that would make today's supercomputers look like mere pocket calculators. But achieving stable quantum operations is tremendously difficult, and groups around the world are hitting their heads against the wall trying to figure this thing out. The same is the case with quantum communications, where data is handled on similarly-unstable structures. Now, two researchers at the University of Potsdam believe that they may have discovered a way of weeding out unwanted knots that form in this type... [read more >>] Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the group that manages the Large Hadron Collider, announced that the first proton beams had already been injected in the massive particle accelerator, and that they had completed thousands of spins in its tunnels. The 27-kilometer-long facility saw the injection of a clockwise-circulating beam on Friday. CERN officials revealed that a stable beam was established at 10 PM local time last night, ZDNet reports.The CERN Twitter feed also states that an additional beam of protons, circulating anticlockwise, was introduced in the accelerator's tunnels later yesterday, and t... [read more >>] The dual nature of light, as in the fact that it can act like both a particle and a wave, has had physicists puzzled since that was first discovered. Such a duality was bound to lead to some paradoxes, scientists hypothesized at the time, and now their predictions appear to be coming true. Scientists have recently discovered a paradox that makes no sense, but that occurs nonetheless. When they attempt to pass light through an already transparent, ultra-small layer of gold atoms that has received many holes priorly, less light goes through than it would through a layer without holes. Even kindergarten children will tell you that, if you pi... [read more >>] The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is undoubtedly the most ambitious science project ever undertaken by people. Its purpose is to look directly at the conditions that led to the formation of everything around us, and provide a firm confirmation for the Standard Model as well. But, other than the unfounded talk of black holes and other global calamities that may spring from the particle accelerator, physicists are beginning to wonder what will come next. Steven Weinberg believes, for example, that, if the Higgs boson is indeed discovered, then physics may come to a standstill. Weinberg is the physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 19... [read more >>] The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is one of the American space agency's best observatories, especially suited to discovering gamma-ray bursts coming towards our planet from the distant Universe. However, in its first 14 months of operations, the machine was able to record some peculiar signals coming in from the Earth's atmosphere, which gave physicists something to puzzle over. The telescope discovered 17 gamma-ray flashes associated with lightning storms, occurring immediately before, during and just after the electrical discharge left the clouds, Wired reports. In addition to Fermi, the World Wide Lightning Location Network... [read more >>] Far from being the only ones attempting to create an artificial black hole, Chinese researchers recently announced that they were able to produce the first artificial black hole for microwaves. If light in this energy spectrum enters the construct, it can no longer leave it, the team reports. Its accomplishment was made possible through the use of metamaterials, the same components that form the basis for invisibility cloaks and other optoelectronic devices, Technology Review reports.In charge of the Chinese team were scientists Qiang Cheng and Tie Jun Cui, both from the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, at the Southeast University ... [read more >>] Everyone knows that one of the basic traits magnets have is sporting two poles. If you break a larger magnet into two smaller ones, then each of the them will have a “north” and a “south pole.” For some time, experts have theorized that it could be possible to create magnetic monopoles, as in materials that only exhibit the “north” or the “south” pole, and not both at once. Now, after many years, experts at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have managed to create the large-scale “cousins” of magnetic monopoles inside the laboratory. This feat will hopef... [read more >>] Nuclear-powered submarines can operate underwater, at a depth of around 300 meters (roughly 1,000 feet), for weeks and months on end. While this is of enormous strategic importance, it does come with a drawback, namely the fact that the subs need to come close to the surface in order to communicate with the outside world. When they do that, they are mostly vulnerable to detection and attack. A new type of communication equipment, currently under development, could see submarines talking to each other and with their command centers, by making use of the power of neutrinos. Neutrinos are small, elementary particles that can travel through o... [read more >>] Scientists at the University of California in Santa Barbara (UCSB) have recently managed to demonstrate that the quantum entanglement effect – one of the basic ones in quantum physics – can be observed at a large scale as well, and that it is not necessarily confined to the elementary-particle level. The team that detailed its finds in the September 24 issue of the journal Nature also shows that billions of electrons flowing in superconductor materials can collectively exhibit this property. “It’s an exciting piece of work. People are interested in pushing the boundaries of quantum mechanics,” Yale University... [read more >>] Black holes and space-time singularities have played a hugely important role in explaining some of astronomy's greatest mysteries, but also in popular science-fiction entertainment shows and books. However, the newest model of the Universe, developed by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, has no room at all for this type of structures. In short, the new theory states that, in order for other things to be explained, these two phenomena must not exist, Technology Review reports. The new model arose from a need to unite our knowledge of the large-scale world with that of the small-scale interactions between particles. Essentially, for a lo... [read more >>] | 
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