A self-acclaimed “deep tech” company focused on the next generation of computing has unveiled three smart contact lens prototypes at MWC 2025, giving us a glimpse into the technology that could shape vision health of the future.
XPANCEO took the covers off its three prototypes, each one showcasing a unique technology that could feature in future “smart” contact lenses.
Water may have first formed 100–200 million years after the Big Bang, according to a modeling paper published in Nature Astronomy. The authors suggest that the formation of water may have occurred in the universe earlier than previously thought and may have been a key constituent of the first galaxies.
Water is crucial for life as we know it, and its components—hydrogen and oxygen—are known to have formed in different ways. Lighter chemical elements such as hydrogen, helium and lithium were forged in the Big Bang, but heavier elements, such as oxygen, are the result of nuclear reactions within stars or supernova explosions. As such, it is unclear when water began to form in the universe.
Researcher Daniel Whalen and colleagues utilized computer models of two supernovae—the first for a star 13 times the mass of the sun and the second for a star 200 times the mass of the sun—to analyze the products of these explosions. They found that 0.051 and 55 solar masses (where one solar mass is the mass of our sun) of oxygen were created in the first and second simulation, respectively, due to the very high temperatures and densities reached.
From computer chips to image sensors in cameras, today’s technology is overwhelmingly based on a semiconductor called silicon. This technology has been shrinking for decades—think of early room-sized computers compared to today’s desktops—but physical limitations will soon prevent further improvement.
That’s why scientists and engineers are preparing for a new generation of technology—one based on quantum mechanics.
The electrons in so-called “quantum materials” behave differently than those in silicon, enabling more complex behaviors, like magnetism and superconductivity, that are useful for future quantum technologies.
Vanishing atoms can ruin quantum calculations. Scientists have a new plan to locate leaks.
Quantum computers face a major challenge: atoms, which serve as their qubits, can vanish without warning, corrupting calculations. Researchers have developed a groundbreaking method to detect this problem in neutral-atom quantum systems without disrupting their state. This discovery helps overcome a key hurdle in making quantum computing.
Performing computation using quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement.
Dr. Philip Shiu.
EON Systems.
Presentation and Q&A
At the Carboncopies Foundation February 2025 workshop:
The brain emulation challenge: functionalizing brain data, ground-truthing and the role of artificial data in advancing neuroscience.
Google’s X company is working on the next generation of Taara, a silicon photonics technology designed to bring fast broadband speeds to some underdeveloped areas of the world. According to statements by Taara general manager Mahesh Krishnaswamy, this light-based solution could offer unprecedented connectivity opportunities in any part of the world – and beyond.
This quantum light manipulation breakthrough paves the way for unprecedented technologies.
Scientists from the University of Basel and the University of Sydney successfully manipulated and identified interacting packets of light energy, or photons, with unprecedented precision.
This breakthrough, published in Nature Physics, marks the first-ever observation of stimulated light emission at the single-photon level—a phenomenon first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916.
By measuring the time delay between photon interactions, researchers demonstrated how photons could become entangled in a “two-photon bound state,” opening up new possibilities for quantum computing and enhanced measurement techniques.
This discovery has profound implications for photonic quantum computing and metrology, particularly in fields like biological microscopy, where high-intensity light can damage delicate samples. Dr. Sahand Mahmoodian, a leading researcher on the project, emphasized that harnessing quantum light could lead to more precise measurements with fewer photons. Meanwhile, tech companies like PsiQuantum and Xanadu are already exploring how this research could contribute to fault-tolerant quantum computing. As scientists refine their ability to manipulate quantum light, the door opens to a future of more powerful computing, ultra-sensitive sensors, and revolutionary advancements in technology.
Learn more.
PsiQuantum has detailed the photonic quantum chips and cooling system it plans to use for a quantum computer with a million qubits.
The Omega quantum photonic chipset is purpose-built for utility-scale quantum computing and produced by Global Foundries in New York on 300mm wafer. The technology was detailed in a paper in Nature submitted last June and published this week.
This paper shows high-fidelity qubit operations, and a simple, long-range chip-to-chip qubit interconnect – a key enabler to scale that has remained challenging for other technologies.