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How quantum computers could make future humans immortal

As best we can guess, life started on planet Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. Unfortunately, so did death. And the reaper remains undefeated.

About 99 percent of all species that ever lived are now extinct. There’s almost no scientific reason to believe humans won’t join them in a relatively insignificant amount of time. I say almost because, if we try really hard, we can conceive of a theoretical, science-based intervention for death. Let’s call it a “quantum respawn.”

We’re not the first generation to imagine immortality. But we are the first one to have access to this really cool research paper from physicists working at the University of Rochester in New York, and Purdue University in Indiana.

Electronic Cooling Technology Could Be a Quantum Computing Game Changer

Controlling temperature is crucial for the functioning of electronic devices. It’s even more so for highly complex quantum computers that rely on the ability to control quantum bits (also called qubits) in order to achieve processing capabilities far above the most powerful classical computer.

For a quantum computer to maintain its prowess, it must be cooled to a temperature close to absolute zero (−273.15oC) to keep the qubits in a state of coherence. However, keeping a quantum computer’s core temperature near absolute zero is not a simple feat and poses a major roadblock to the advancement of quantum computing. Often quantum computer producers keep the machines cool by using liquid helium as a refrigerant delivered in multiple stages. Nonetheless, this system is cumbersome and elaborate, and is not user-friendly.

Stanford Scientists Slow Light Down and Steer It With Resonant Nanoantennas

Researchers have fashioned ultrathin silicon nanoantennas that trap and redirect light, for applications in quantum computing, LIDAR and even the detection of viruses.

Light is notoriously fast. Its speed is crucial for rapid information exchange, but as light zips through materials, its chances of interacting and exciting atoms and molecules can become very small. If scientists can put the brakes on light particles, or photons, it would open the door to a host of new technology applications.

Now, in a paper published on August 17, 2020, in Nature Nanotechnology, Stanford scientists demonstrate a new approach to slow light significantly, much like an echo chamber holds onto sound, and to direct it at will. Researchers in the lab of Jennifer Dionne, associate professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford, structured ultrathin silicon chips into nanoscale bars to resonantly trap light and then release or redirect it later. These “high-quality-factor” or “high-Q” resonators could lead to novel ways of manipulating and using light, including new applications for quantum computing, virtual reality and augmented reality; light-based WiFi; and even the detection of viruses like SARS-CoV-2.

Scientists Extend Quantum States by 22 Milliseconds. That’s an Eternity

Molecular engineers at the University of Chicago have found a way to extend the quantum state of a qubit to 22 milliseconds, representing a huge improvement and a window some say will make quantum computers far more feasible. The secret is an alternating magnetic field, which they say is scientifically “intricate” but easy to apply.

🤯 You like quantum. So do we. Let’s nerd out over it together.

Breakthrough in cell research reveals two paths to aging

“Using microfluidics, computer modeling and other techniques, they found that about half of the cells age through a gradual decline in the stability of the nucleolus, a region of nuclear DNA where key components of protein-producing “factories” are synthesized,” a press release announcing the research explains. “In contrast, the other half age due to dysfunction of their mitochondria, the energy production units of cells.”


Researchers studying aging have discovered that cells tend to follow one of two aging pathways. The way each individual cell ages is determined early on, and scientists can predict how a cell will age based on early observations.

Synthesis of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Images via Multi-channel Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)

Circa 2017


Positron emission tomography (PET) image synthesis plays an important role, which can be used to boost the training data for computer aided diagnosis systems. However, existing image synthesis methods have problems in synthesizing the low resolution PET images. To address these limitations, we propose multi-channel generative adversarial networks (M-GAN) based PET image synthesis method. Different to the existing methods which rely on using low-level features, the proposed M-GAN is capable to represent the features in a high-level of semantic based on the adversarial learning concept. In addition, M-GAN enables to take the input from the annotation (label) to synthesize the high uptake regions e.g., tumors and from the computed tomography (CT) images to constrain the appearance consistency and output the synthetic PET images directly.

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