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Archive for the ‘computing’ category: Page 86

Mar 9, 2024

New superconducting device could boost quantum tech

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Superconducting circuits, which conduct electricity without resistance, are among the most promising technologies for quantum computing and ultrafast logic circuits. However, finding a practical way to work with these materials that require extremely cold temperatures has been a challenge.

In a step toward that goal, a team of researchers led by Prof. Hong Tang developed and successfully demonstrated a device that presents a viable solution in transferring a very weak signal from a computing device stored at cryogenic temperatures to room temperature electronics to achieve a fast data transfer with very low energy consumption. The results are published in Nature Photonics.

The practical use of superconducting circuits requires connecting them to room temperature electronics. But doing so has largely relied on coaxial cables, which have a limited bandwidth and limited thermal conductivity – two factors that negate the benefits of superconducting circuits.

Mar 9, 2024

Researchers discover tunable room-temperature nonlinear Hall effect in bismuth thin films

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

A research team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the University of Salerno in Italy has discovered that thin films of elemental bismuth exhibit the so-called non-linear Hall effect, which could be applied in technologies for the controlled use of terahertz high-frequency signals on electronic chips.

Bismuth combines several advantageous properties not found in other systems to date, as the team reports in Nature Electronics. In particular, the quantum effect is observed at . The thin-layer films can be applied even on plastic substrates and could therefore be suitable for modern high-frequency technology applications.

“When we apply a current to certain materials, they can generate a voltage perpendicular to it. We physicists call this phenomenon the Hall effect, which is actually a unifying term for effects with the same impact, but which differ in the underlying mechanisms at the electron level. Typically, the Hall voltage registered is linearly dependent on the applied current,” says Dr. Denys Makarov from the Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research at HZDR.

Mar 9, 2024

Breaking Barriers in Quantum Research: Magnesium-Coated Tantalum Unveiled

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Scientists at the DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that coating tantalum with magnesium significantly enhances its properties as a superconducting material for quantum computing. This coating prevents oxidation, increases purity, and improves the superconducting transition temperature of tantalum, offering promising advancements for the development of qubits and the future of quantum computing.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that adding a layer of magnesium improves the properties of tantalum, a superconducting material that shows great promise for building qubits, the basis of quantum computers.

As described in a paper just published in the journal Advanced Materials, a thin layer of magnesium keeps tantalum from oxidizing, improves its purity, and raises the temperature at which it operates as a superconductor. All three may increase tantalum’s ability to hold onto quantum information in qubits.

Mar 9, 2024

Video: Europe’s biggest 3D-printed building rises in just 140 hours

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, computing

Tasked with building a new data center in an urban area of Germany, the team behind the Wave House harnessed the benefits of 3D printing technology to inject a sense of style into the unglamorous world of cloud-computing infrastructure, creating Europe’s largest 3D-printed building in the process.

The Wave House is located in Heidelberg and was designed by SSV and Mense Korte, and created by Peri 3D Construction for developer KrausGruppe. It measures 600 sq m (6,600 sq ft). As mentioned, its unusual appearance comes from an attempt to spice up what could otherwise have been a rather boring building.

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Mar 9, 2024

Drug design on quantum computers

Posted by in categories: chemistry, computing, quantum physics

Quantum computers promise to efficiently predict the structure and behaviour of molecules. This Perspective explores how this could overcome existing challenges in computational drug discovery.

Mar 9, 2024

Researchers decode neuronal basis of decision-making processes to predict actions

Posted by in categories: computing, food, neuroscience

For decades, neuroscientists have been trying to understand how we manage to make the best possible decisions. Due to technical limitations, researchers have so far had to rely on experiments in which monkeys perform tasks on computer screens while the activity of their brain cells is measured.

The animals are trained to sit still in a chair and are therefore restricted in their natural freedom of movement. Since it is now possible to wirelessly record the activity of several individual nerve cells, decision-making in scenarios with natural movement sequences can be investigated.

For the study, a team of researchers from Germany and the U.S. trained two rhesus monkeys to explore an experimental room with two button-controlled food boxes. Each time the monkeys pressed a button on one of the boxes, they had the chance to receive food pellets.

Mar 9, 2024

Exploring the surface properties of NiO with low-energy electron diffraction

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics

Spintronics is a field that deals with electronics that exploit the intrinsic spin of electrons and their associated magnetic moment for applications such as quantum computing and memory storage devices. Owing to its spin and magnetism exhibited in its insulator-metal phase transition, the strongly correlated electron systems of nickel oxide (NiO) have been thoroughly explored for more than eight decades. Interest in its unique antiferromagnetic (AF) and spin properties has seen a revival lately since NiO is a potential material for ultrafast spintronics devices.

Despite this rise in popularity, exploration of its magnetic properties using the low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) technique has not received much attention since the 1970s. To review the understanding of the surface properties, Professor Masamitsu Hoshino and Emeritus Professor Hiroshi Tanaka, both from the Department of Physics at Sophia University, Japan, revisited the surface LEED crystallography of NiO.

The results of their quantitative experimental study investigating the coherent exchange scattering in Ni2+ ions in AF single crystal NiO were reported in The European Physical Journal D.

Mar 9, 2024

First atom-level structure of packaged viral genome reveals new properties and dynamics

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, genetics

A computational model of the more than 26 million atoms in a DNA-packed viral capsid expands our understanding of virus structure and DNA dynamics, insights that could provide new research avenues and drug targets, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers report in the journal Nature.

“To fight a virus, we want to know everything there is to know about it. We know what’s inside in terms of components, but we don’t know how they’re arranged,” said study leader Aleksei Aksimentiev, an Illinois professor of physics. “Knowledge of the internal structures gives us more targets for drugs, which tend to focus on receptors on the surface or replication proteins.”

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Mar 8, 2024

Intriguing science discoveries of 2023

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, neuroscience, science

science images
This year, Rockefeller scientists plumbed the depths of wound repair and tackled how songbirds solve problems; they used microchips to grow mini-lungs and proposed an environmental trigger for multiple sclerosis. Efforts to combat COVID, Hepatitis B, and other infections bore fruit, and countless papers shed light on basic research, answering questions that have long baffled biologists. Here are some of the intriguing discoveries that came out of Rockefeller in 2023.

Old sperm, new mutations

As the male reproductive system ages, it becomes more and more susceptible to mutations. New research from the laboratory of Li Zhao explored this phenomenon in fruit flies, by focusing on how mutations arise during the formation of sperm. The team found that, while mutations are common in the testes of both young and old flies, the repair mechanisms that remove those mutations and maintain genomic integrity during spermatogenesis become less efficient in older individuals, leading to the accumulation and persistence of more mutations in older flies.

Mar 8, 2024

Brain communicates in both digital and analog

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

Unlike computers, cells in the brain use digital and analog signals at the same time to communicate with each other, researchers have found.

The finding contradicts the belief that nerve cells in the brain communicate with each other using digital code only.

In an analog system, signals can vary continuously, while digital systems represent signals by a series of pulses. The brain uses a mixture of the two to transmit signals among cells, researchers say.

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