Month: October 2023

<p>To make our way through the world, our brain must develop an intuitive understanding of the physical world around us, which we then use to interpret sensory information coming into the brain.</p>nn<p>How does the brain develop that intuitive understanding? Many scientists believe that it may use a process similar to what’s known as “self-supervised learning.”… Continue reading The brain may learn about the world the same way some computational models do

Multiple qubit platform: In this diagram, an STM tip coated with iron (top) operates the sensor spin qubit. Also shown are the remote spin qubits, which are aligned by the magnetic fields of nearby iron atoms. (Courtesy: Institute for Basic Science) n A quantum computing platform that is capable of the simultaneous operation of multiple… Continue reading Three-qubit computing platform is made from electron spins

In December 1942 US president Franklin D Roosevelt signed the Manhattan Project into existence. A scientific endeavour that culminated in the dropping of the Little Boy and Fat Man bombs three years later, the project was – for better or worse – the most significant development in the long history of nuclear physics. What is… Continue reading What can postage stamps tell us about the history of nuclear physics?

n This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features two pioneers in their fields. n Margaret Gardel is a biophysicist who is setting up a new National Science Foundation Physics Frontier Center at the University of Chicago. The Center for Living Systems will focus on the physics of adaptation, a new field that looks… Continue reading Pioneering the physics of adaptation, writing the history of quantum computing

<p>An extraordinary burst of high-energy light in the sky has pointed astronomers to a pair of metal-forging neutron stars 900 million light years from Earth.</p>nn<p>In a <a href=”https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06759-1″ target=”_blank”>study appearing today</a> in <em>Nature</em>, an international team of astronomers, including scientists at MIT, reports the detection of an extremely bright gamma-ray burst (GRB), which is the… Continue reading Bright flash leads astronomers to a heavy-metal factory 900 million light years away

Laser-driven particle accelerators on silicon chips have been created by two independent research groups. With further improvements, such dielectric laser accelerators could be used in medicine and industry – and could even find application in high-energy particle physics experiments. nn Accelerating electrons to high energies is normally done over long distances at large and expensive… Continue reading Electrons accelerated by firing lasers into nanophotonic cavities

While proton therapy has well and truly arrived as a mainstream treatment option in radiation oncology – there are currently 42 operational proton facilities in the US and a further 13 centres under construction – it’s evident that the clinical innovation is only just getting started when it comes to at-scale deployment of protons for… Continue reading Proton therapy on an upward trajectory while FLASH treatment schemes get ready to shine

How it works: the noninvasive imaging technique combines acoustic radiation force and optical coherence tomography to produce 3D elastic wave speed maps of multiple eye components simultaneously. Left: cross-sectional image of a wave speed map of the anterior segment of the eyeball depicting different eye components: lens (L), iris (I), cornea (C), and sclera (S).… Continue reading Multi-eye-component imaging could help diagnose ocular disease

<p><em>The following article is adapted from a press release issued by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Laboratory. LIGO is funded by the National Science Foundation and operated by Caltech and MIT, which conceived and built the project.</em></p>nn<p>In 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, made history when it made the first direct detection… Continue reading LIGO surpasses the quantum limit

Quantum bits (qubits) based on cold atoms are increasingly attractive candidates for quantum computing. However, targeting single atoms in an array with lasers to manipulate them individually for processing quantum information remains a challenge. Now,  Hannes Pichler at Austria’s University of Innsbruck and Francesco Cesa, who was visiting from Italy’s University of Trieste, have designed… Continue reading Quantum-computing protocol avoids targeting individual atoms in an array