Lifeboat Foundation

A speech prosthetic developed by a collaborative team of Duke neuroscientists, neurosurgeons, and engineers can translate a person’s brain signals into what they’re trying to say.

Appearing Nov. 6 in the journal Nature Communications, the new technology might one day help people unable to talk due to neurological disorders regain the ability to communicate through a brain-computer interface.

“There are many patients who suffer from debilitating motor disorders, like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or locked-in syndrome, that can impair their ability to speak,” said Gregory Cogan, Ph.D., a professor of neurology at Duke University’s School of Medicine and one of the lead researchers involved in the project. “But the current tools available to allow them to communicate are generally very slow and cumbersome.”

Quantum technologies are currently maturing at a breath-taking pace. These technologies exploit principles of quantum mechanics in suitably engineered systems, with bright prospects such as boosting computational efficiencies or communication security well beyond what is possible with devices based on today’s ‘classical’ technologies.

As with classical devices, however, to realize their full potential, quantum devices must be networked. In principle, this can be done using the fiber-optic networks employed for classical telecommunications. But practical implementation requires that the information encoded in quantum systems can be reliably stored at the frequencies used in telecom networks—a capability that has not yet been fully demonstrated.

Writing in Nature Communications, the group of Prof. Xiao-Song Ma at Nanjing University reports record-long quantum storage at telecom wavelengths on a platform that can be deployed in extended networks, paving the way for practical large-scale quantum networks.

When galaxies collide, their supermassive black holes enter into a gravitational dance, gradually orbiting each other ever closer until eventually merging. We know they merge because we see the gravitational beasts that result, and we have detected the gravitational waves they emit as they inspiral. But the details of their final consummation remain a mystery. Now a new paper published on the pre-print server arXiv suggests part of that mystery can be solved with a bit of dark matter.

Just as the famous three-body problem has no general analytical solution for Newtonian gravity, the two-body problem has no general solution in general relativity. So, we have to resort to computer simulations to model how black holes orbit each other and eventually merge.

For binary black holes that are relatively widely separated, our simulations work really well, but when black holes are close to each other things get complicated. Einstein’s equations are very nonlinear, and modeling the dynamics of strongly interacting black holes is difficult.

Quantum computing, the cutting-edge technology that promises unprecedented computational power, has taken a significant leap forward with the unveiling of a groundbreaking quantum chip by Amazon Web Services.

“It’s a custom-designed chip that’s totally fabricated in house by our AWS quantum team,” said Peter Desantis, senior vice president of AWS utility computing products, during a keynote address in Las Vegas at AWS’s re: Invent conference for the global cloud computing community.

DeSantis said the state-of-the-art chip represents a major milestone in the quest for error-corrected quantum computers. “We’ve been able to suppress errors by 100x by using a passive error correction approach,” he said.

A fundamental trade-off between the resolution of a clock and its accuracy could have important implications for quantum computers, which must measure short timescales accurately.

By Alex Wilkins

Few studies have investigated the structural properties of organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors in relation to the transient device characteristics. Here, Kim et al. show that backbone-dependent molecular orientation affects ion injection directionality, which determines ion mobility and transient response.

The brain-computer interface (BCI) space continues to rise in notoriety, and a number of players are throwing their hats in the ring.

Such technologies could enable users to control a computer with their brain, or even go beyond that. Countless immobile people someday could control a mouse cursor, keyboard, mobile device/tablet, wheelchair or prosthetic device by only thinking.

Big names have already established their presence in the space. Elon Musk’s Neuralink continues to make headway, while Bill Gates-and Jeff Bezos-backed Synchron has an innovative catheter-delivered implant. Blackrock Neurotech, which has a next-generation BCI, has been implanting its Utah Array in patients since 2004.

Learn about quantum computing with Q-CTRL’s Black Opal!

Today, I’m diving into the interactive platform of Q-CTRL’s Black Opal to simplify quantum concepts and demonstrate quantum computing applications. This video is perfect for both beginners curious about quantum computing and seasoned professionals seeking looking for a broad overview of quantum computing applications.

Continue reading “Finally! A Fun Way to Learn Quantum Computing with QCTRL’s Black Opal” »

It comes 3 years after Amazon debuted its ‘handy’ authentication service for consumers.

Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary AWS (Amazon Web Services) has lifted the lid on a new palm-scanning identity service that allows companies to authenticate people when entering physical premises.

The announcement comes as part of AWS’s annual Re: Invent conference, which is running in Las Vegas for the duration of this week.

Continue reading “AWS brings Amazon One palm-scanning authentication to the enterprise” »