Lifeboat Foundation

Prof. Chuanfeng Li and Prof. Zongquan Zhou from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) innovatively raised and realized noiseless photon echo (NLPE) protocol. The research of entire originality reduced the noise by 670 times compared with previous strategies and achieved solid quantum memory with high fidelity. The results were published in Nature Communications.

First observed by Erwin Hahn in 1,950 photon echo is a fundamental physical interaction between light and matter as well as an essential tool for the manipulation of electromagnetic fields. However, the intense spontaneous noise emission generated has the same frequency as the signal, it is impossible to separate them in principle. Previous protocols, such as atomic frequency comb and the revival of silenced echo, failed to eliminate the spontaneous noise emission as much as needed.

In this study, the researchers implemented NLPE protocol in Eu3+:Y2SiO5 crystal to serve as an optical quantum memory and applied a four-level aromic system to suppress the noise.

Reinforcement learning is an interesting area of machine learning (ML) that has advanced rapidly in recent years. AlphaGo is one such RL-based computer program that has defeated a professional human Go player, a breakthrough that experts feel was a decade ahead of its time.

Reinforcement learning differs from supervised learning because it does not need the labelled input/output pairings for training or the explicit correction of sub-optimal actions. Instead, it investigates how intelligent agents should behave in a particular situation to maximize the concept of cumulative reward.

This is a huge plus when working with real-world applications that don’t come with a tonne of highly curated observations. Furthermore, when confronted with a new circumstance, RL agents can acquire methods that allow them to behave even in an unclear and changing environment, relying on their best estimates at the proper action.

The story illuminates the way that many scientific discoveries become life-changing innovations: with decades of dead ends, rejections and battles over potential profits, but also generosity, curiosity and dogged persistence against scepticism and doubt. “It’s a long series of steps,” says Paul Krieg, a developmental biologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who made his own contribution in the mid-1980s, “and you never know what’s going to be useful”.

Hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough.

Simple creation of a super multi-element catalyst homogeneously containing 14 elements.

A research group in Japan has successfully developed a “nanoporous super multi-element catalyst”^[1] that contains 14 elements^[2] which are mixed uniformly at the atomic level and used as a catalyst. A high-entropy alloy.

A mixture of two metallic elements typically used to give greater strength or higher resistance to corrosion.

That successful demonstration paves the way for practical, commercial, carbon-free power.

Circa 2014

Scientists researching nuclear energy have made a breakthrough in nuclear fusion with an experiment that generated more fuel than was put in.

Tesla’s insane laser windshield wiper patent has been officially granted by the United States Patent Office this week. Filed in May 2,019 the U.S. Patent Office granted the application, giving Tesla an exclusive right for the invention.

Tesla has played around with several ideas for windshield wipers in the past. In fact, in February, the company had a patent approved for a new wiper design for the Roadster, which would utilize an electromagnetic linear actuator to rid the windshield of moisture. It would essentially move from one side of the windshield to the other with one wiper in one motion.

Tesla Roadster’s revolutionary wiper design secures U.S. Patent approval

Innovative coronavirus disease2019(COVID-19) vaccines, with elevated global manufacturing capacity, enhanced safety and efficacy, simplified dosing regimens, and distribution that is less cold chain-dependent, are still global imperatives for tackling the ongoing pandemic. A previous phase I trial indicated that the recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (V-01), which contains a fusion protein (IFN-PADRE-RBD-Fc dimer) as its antigen, is safe and well tolerated, capable of inducing rapid and robust immune responses, and warranted further testing in additional clinical trials. Herein, we aimed to assess the immunogenicity and safety of V-01, providing rationales of appropriate dose regimen for further efficacy study.

Methods:

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II clinical trial was initiated at the Gaozhou Municipal Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Guangdong, China) in March 2021. Both younger (n = 440; 18–59 years of age) and older (n = 440; ≥60 years of age) adult participants in this trial were sequentially recruited into two distinct groups: two-dose regimen group in which participants were randomized either to follow a 10 or 25 μg of V-01 or placebo given intramuscularly 21 days apart (allocation ratio, 3:3:1, n = 120 120, 40 for each regimen, respectively), or one-dose regimen groups in which participants were randomized either to receive a single injection of 50 μg of V-01 or placebo (allocation ratio, 3:1, n = 120 40, respectively). The primary immunogenicity endpoints were the geometric mean titers of neutralizing antibodies against live severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and specific binding antibodies to the receptor binding domain (RBD).