One of the scariest moments in Robert Oppenheimer’s career was not shown in Oppenheimer, the recent blockbuster movie. That moment occurred during the contentious hearing on his security clearance, which concerned Oppenheimer’s role on a committee to advise the US government on nuclear weapons. Ostensibly about his loyalty to America, the hearing also revealed deeper… Continue reading What the movie Oppenheimer can teach today’s politicians about scientific advice

In the race for the quantum computing platform of the future, neutral atoms have been a bit of an underdog. While quantum bits (qubits) based on neutral atoms have several attractive characteristics, including the ease of scaling up qubit numbers and performing operations on them in parallel, most attention has focused on rival platforms. Many… Continue reading Neutral-atom quantum computers are having a moment

<p>Electrons move through a conducting material like commuters at the height of Manhattan rush hour. The charged particles may jostle and bump against each other, but for the most part they’re unconcerned with other electrons as they hurtle forward, each with their own energy.</p>nn<p>But when a material’s electrons are trapped together, they can settle into… Continue reading Physicists trap electrons in a 3D crystal for the first time

One hundred and fifty years ago in the US, the combined power of four strong horses harnessed to a plough was no more than 3 kilowatts – and more than half the entire labour force worked on farms. Today, even the smallest John Deere tractor produces 120 kilowatts and about 1.3% of workers are employed… Continue reading Size matters: the economies of scale, from the very big to the very small

Emerging systems for quantum communications and cryptography rely on the ability to transmit single photons with high fidelity. Single-photon emitters based on quantum dots cooled to cryogenic temperatures have been shown to produce indistinguishable single photons with high brightness, but for practical use in real-world communications networks both the single-photon source and its cooling mechanism… Continue reading Cool tricks offer new solutions for quantum networking

Follow the flow: Graphs showing the smooth flow of photocurrent streamlines around a microscopic structure shaped like an aeroplane wing. This electrofoil (top left) makes it possible to contort, compress and expand photocurrent streamlines in the same way that aeroplane wings (shown in silhouettes at right) contort, compress and expand the flow of air. (Courtesy:… Continue reading Electrons caught going around the bend

Perhaps the most iconic map ever is Harry Beck’s depiction of the London Underground, which first appeared in the 1930s. Now, Transport for London (TfL) – which runs the Underground – has partnered with the Royal Academy of Engineering to create a Tube-themed map that depicts famous people in the history of engineering. Created to… Continue reading Tube map of famous engineers, physics of Jackson Pollock, George Washington’s imperial love

Some of the biggest mysteries of physics – including the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and the origin of the universe – are in the sights of cosmologists and astroparticle physicists. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast I am in conversation with three editorial board members of the Journal of… Continue reading Celebrating the physics of the cosmos and 20 years of JCAP

<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