#Australian engineers just built a quantum logic gate in silicon for the first time For decades, researchers have been trying to build a computer that harnesses the enormous potential of quantum mechanics.
Now engineers from the University of New south wales (UNSW) in Australia have overcome the final hurdle,
by creating a quantum logic gate in silicon-the same material that today's computer chips are made from.
The newly developed device allows two quantum bits -or qubits-to communicate and perform calculations together,
which means they now have the ability to build the world's first quantum processor chip and, eventually, the first silicon-based quantum computer.
Right now, regular computer chips store information as binary bits, which are either in a 0 or 1 state.
This system works well, but it means that there's a finite amount of data that can be processed.
Qubits, on the other hand, can be in the state of 0, 1, or both at the same time, which gives quantum computers unprecedented processing power...
what's known as a logic gate-a building block of all digital circuits, which takes two input values
Quantum logic gates have been built in the past, but they've all used exotic materials, which isn't compatible with today's silicon-based computer infrastructure.
A silicon quantum logic gate was the last physical building block remaining to be built in order to create a silicon-based quantum computer."
"Because we use essentially the same device technology as existing computer chips, we believe it will be much easier to manufacture a full-scale processor chip than for any of the leading designs,
which rely on more exotic technologies, "project leader Andrew Dzurak said in a press release.""This makes the building of a quantum computer much more feasible,
since it is based on the same manufacturing technology as today computer industry.""The challenge in building quantum logic gates is the fact that,
in order to get two qubits to'talk'to each other, they have to be incredibly close together-generally within 20 to 40 nanometres of each other
-and this makes controlling them incredibly difficult. The team overcame this by effectively copying the setup of traditional chips.
In that setup, binary bits are defined by tiny semiconductor devices known as transistors. About 1 billion of these transistors has been packed onto each silicon chip in your smartphone or computer.
Quantum bits, on the other hand are defined by the spin of a single electron. But by reconfiguring traditional transistors to only be associated with one electron,
Dzurak and his team were able to have them define qubits instead. ee morphed those silicon transistors into quantum bits by ensuring that each has only one electron associated with it.
We then store the binary code of 0 or 1 on the'spin'of the electron,
which is associated with the electron tiny magnetic field, said Menno Veldhorst, the lead author of the research,
which has been published in Nature. The team then showed that they could use metal electrodes on these transistors to control the qubits
and get them to communicate with each other, creating a functioning logic gate. The researchers have patented already a design"for a full-scale quantum computer chip that would allow for millions of our qubits,
all doing the types of calculations that wee just experimentally demonstrated, "Dzurak explains, and they believe they could achieve a simple version within five years.
Once we have a silicon quantum chip, we'll then be able to build a functioning quantum computer,
which would revolutionise the way we process information, and would have huge impacts on finance, research, and security.
There's still a lot of engineering to be done but it's a pretty exciting time to be alive
#Scientists discover new gene that increases Alzheimer's disease risk An immune system gene that associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer disease has been identified by researchers in the US.
Older adults and Alzheimer's patients who are carrying a specific variant of the IL1RAP gene were found to have higher rates of amyloid plaque accumulation in the brain,
which is one of the key drivers of the disease. Not only could the discovery lead to quicker diagnoses and better identification of at-risk patients,
but researchers suggest that by manipulating the IL1RAP immune pathway they could figure out how to either slow the progression of the disease,
or perhaps stop it altogether.""These findings suggest that targeting the IL1RAP immune pathway may be a viable approach for promoting the clearance of amyloid deposits
and fighting an important cause of progression in Alzheimer's disease,"said one of the team, Andrew Saykin from the Indiana University School of medicine.
Previous research has linked another genetic factor to the development of Alzheimer's disease-the APOE e4 allele.
But when Saykin and his team imaged the brains of almost 500 volunteers via PET (positron emission tomography) scans,
and assessed the levels of brain amyloid deposits at the time and then two years later,
they found that the IL1RAP variant had an even stronger effect on the progression of the disease than APOE e4.
which triggers the production of pro-inflammatory proteins in response to infection, tissue damage, or stress.
'and the focus of heavy investigation in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases,"said one of the researchers, Vijay K. Ramanan.
the presence of the IL1RAP variant was associated with an overall greater likelihood of progression from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease.
and fighting an important cause of progression in Alzheimer's disease,"said Saykin n
#China now spends more on science than the EU, will soon overtake the US On Monday,
Chinese scientist Youyou Tu was awarded jointly the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of a new malaria therapy.
but equally significant is the fact that Tu is the first scientist to ever be awarded a Nobel prize for work done at a Chinese institution-despite the fact that the country trains more scientists and engineers than any other nation On earth.
In fact, China now spends more money on research and development than Europe and by 2020, it's predicted to outspend the US,
But despite that investment, there's a big reason for why Chinese science has lagged behind other parts of the world-it has a long history of pumping out dodgy research.
In addition to Tu's malaria drug, Artemisinin, China has pioneered also development of solar and wind technology, and is working on trains that will reach 500 km h.
"The fact that research grants and promotions are awarded on the basis of the number of articles published, not on the quality of the original research...
invented research and fake journals that Wuhan University estimated in 2009 was worth $150m, "The Economist wrote back in 2013.
This same culture has also been blamed for the fact that Tu never won a major award in China,
an innovation-studies specialist at Tsinghau University in Beijing, told Nature. He added that young scientists in China are told always to go overseas
and yet she gets the Nobel because of the originality of her work. It couldn have been a better choice in terms of the lessons it offers Chinese scientists,
a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, wrote in an online commentary for China. com."The prize for Tu Youyou has raised questions precisely about this. till,
but if the country's significant investments can translate into some big outcomes for humanity,
if deleted A 10-year effort to identify the genes responsible for ageing has led to researchers finding 238 specific genes that,
The researchers found that the life of yeast could be extended by as much as 60 percent in some circumstances. his study looks at ageing in the context of the whole genome
what ageing is said Brian Kennedy, president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Ageing in the US and lead author of the study. t also sets up a framework to define the entire network that influences ageing in this organism.
Together with researchers from the University of Washington, the Buck Institute laboriously examined the development of some 4, 698 separate yeast strains,
each featuring a single gene deletion. The researchers counted cells in each strain to track their respective replicative lifespan,
The researchers identified 238 genes responsible for ageing in yeast, which when removed, extend the lifespan of individual strains.
me. lmost half of the genes we found that affect ageing are conserved in mammals, said Kennedy. n theory,
any of these factors could be therapeutic targets to extend healthspan. What we have to do now is figure out which ones are amenable to targeting.
The theoretical applications for combating ageing in people could be provided huge researchers can indeed figure out which genomic targets are amenable to alteration.
which is expected to extract 1 million tonnes per day-the equivalent of taking 100 cars off the road every year.
to produce net zero emission fuels, "company chief executive Adrian Corless told the AFP. Funded by private investors,
including billionaires Bill gates and oil sands financier Murray Edwards, Carbon Engineering is not the only company in the world intent on solving our carbon dioxide problems,
but it claims to be the first to demonstrate how its technology can be scaled up to have both an actual environmental impact and commercial potential.
Instead of tackling the CO2 that pours out of factory smokestacks -because there are existing machines that do this pretty well-the Carbon Engineering'direct air capture plant'will deal with everyday carbon emissions from buildings, transportation, and agriculture."
"Emissions from sources you just can't otherwise capture, "Corless says.""It's still a pilot-scale plant,
"he told CBC News ."But it's very important, because it's the first time that anyone's demonstrated a technology that captures CO2 that has the potential to be scaled up to be large enough to be relevant from an environmental or climate point of view."
direct air capture works just like these new solar cells that split water into a hydrogen fuel-the CO2 recycling plant extracts CO2 from the air using a giant complex of fans,
and long-haulage trucks. Even existing petrol pumps can work with the fuel. A major limitation of solar and wind technologies, on the other hand, is that they require specific technologies to capture
and disperse energy.""The nice thing about the technology is that there are no real limitations for it to ultimately,
in theory, displace all of the existing fossil-based transportation fuels, "Corless said. Going forward, the most important thing for Carbon Engineering to figure out is how to be commercially viable.
Watch the video below to find out more about how it works s
#Scientists say theye found a particle made entirely of nuclear force After decades of searching, scientists say theye finally identified a glueball-a particle made purely of nuclear force.
because just like how photons are responsible for exerting the force of electromagnetism, gluons are in charge of exerting a strong nuclear force."
"explains one of the researchers, Anton Rebhan from the Vienna University of Technology. But there is one major difference between the two:
because while f0 (1710) produced better results when applied to computer models, its decay process produced heavy quarks-also known as'strange quarks'.
The researchers are hoping the new data from experiments at the Large hadron collider at CERN (TOTEM
This self-balancing wheelchair can climb and descend stairs automatically Stairs and uneven ground surfaces pose a huge problem for wheelchair users,
and while ramps can improve accessibility, theye costly to implement and not always easy to retrofit to existing building structures.
Fortunately, students in Switzerland have answered this very problem with the calevo an electric wheelchair that has the ability to ascend steps directly by lowering a tank-style tread that can roll the wheelchair up a flight of stairs.
Designed by students at ETZ Zurich and the Zurich University of the Arts, the Scalevo features gyroscopic technology that lets the wheelchair automatically balance itself on just two wheels
while on flat ground (in the same manner that Segways keep upright), and when the user approaches a staircase,
the wheelchair turns around and ascends the steps backwards via the caterpillar track. he great thing is that everything on this wheelchair is automated,
said Miro Voellmy, who helped design the wheelchair frame and support system, as reported by Jim Drury at Reuters. f
I want to climb the stairs I can just drive up to them, turn around, press one button and all
I have to do is control the velocity I want to drive at. The Scalevo travels at up to 10 km h on flat surfaces
and can ascend stairs including spiral staircases at a maximum speed of one step per second
(which is four times faster than the speed you see demonstrated in the video above). It been entered into this year Cybathlon Championship a competitive event sponsored by ETH Zurich in
which racers with disabilities pilot advanced assistive devices. racks are excellent for this use case
because they have a very large footprint, which makes it near impossible to tilt, and they are also very smooth so it doesn feel like youe driving up stairs,
so it just feels like youe driving up a ramp because theye so flat and they adapt to the stair profile,
said Voellmy. o it doesn matter if the stair is wooden or metal or glass,
the tracks grip and there no danger of slipping. In addition to letting the wheelchair climb stairs,
the track mechanism can also significantly raise the height of the user to give the person operating the chair a more elevated view of things when on flat surfaces.
While the student prototypes that have been developed so far are not for sale, interest in the project has led the Scalevo creators to consider crowdfunding a more affordable consumer version.
We can help but think there would be massive demand if the students decide to pursue the idea. t was built very compact,
so it not much wider than a classic manual wheelchair and it can still go under tables,
said Voellmy. Y ou can go through narrow doors and use it indoors without any hassle,
so it extremely compact in comparison to different wheelchairs and it very easy to use
#Scientists have found a way to make leukaemia cells kill each other Researchers in the US have found an antibody that turns cancerous leukaemia cells into natural killer cells-a type of white blood cell that's able to seek out
and destroy tumour cells in the body. If it works in humans, it would not only reduce the number of cancer cells in a patient,
but could get rid of them altogether. So far trials in the lab have shown that the converted human leukaemia cells were able to wipe out nearly 15 percent of the cancerous leukaemia cells in just 24 hours."
"It's a totally new approach to cancer, and we're working to test it in human patients
as soon as possible,"said lead researcher Richard A. Lerner from the Scripps Research Institute in Los angeles. The results are so promising,
even Lerner was surprised by how things turned out. His team had discovered recently that by exposing marrow cells to antibodies from other parts of the body,
they could change the fate of the cells entirely. The bone marrow cells could be turned into brain cells, for example.
Based on this knowledge, Learner and his colleagues started looking for an antibody that could transform cancerous leukaemia cells back into healthy bone marrow cells.
But instead they stumbled across a rare human antibody that has even more potential: it can actually turn leukaemia cells into cancer killers.
The antibody in question binds to a receptor called TPO-or thrombopoietin-which is found on most acute myeloid leukaemia cells.
When the researchers first exposed the leukaema cells to the antibody, they watched as it turned many of them into harmless immune cells known as dendritic cells.
That in itself was an awesome discovery, but they showed that when they continued to apply the antibody to the cells,
a number of them developed further into cells very similar to natural killer (NK) cells,
"That antibody could have turned those acute myeloid leukaemia cells into a lot of other cell types, but somehow we were lucky enough to get NK cells,
Fortunately, the antibody only affected leukaemia cells, and not healthy bone marrow, which suggests that it could work as a targeted cancer therapy.
And for some reason, the NK cells also didn't seem to attack all cancer types-only their former brethren.
That's both good and bad, as it means they're more specific and are less likely to have side effects.
and Lerner's team is now trying to figure out exactly how the antibody works. But they're pretty keen to get the therapy into clinical trials soon."
"We're in discussions with pharmaceutical companies to take this straight into humans after the appropriate preclinical toxicity studies,
"said Lerner. The team is also screening for antibodies that could have a similar effect on other cancer types.
The new approach is incredibly exciting, and we really hope it lives up to its potential l
#Scientists finally figure out the structure of a key cancer-driving enzyme It been a long time coming,
an enzyme complex known to play a crucial role in the development of several types of cancer.
Knowing this, they hope to understand what triggers mutations in the PRC2 gene, which has been linked to the development of lymphoma, leukaemia,
and brain tumours, plus a number of congenital diseases that affect a person growth.""Our findings bring us one step closer to understanding the chemistry of how PRC2 functions in normal cells
and how mutations in the gene cause disease,"said one of the team, Xin Liu, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical centre.
PRC2, or polycomb repressive complex 2, might not sound like much, but it plays a central role in several processes that are key to human ageing,
including differentiation, maintaining cell identity and proliferation, and stem-cell plasticity. It does this by modifying a specific protein inside chromatin-a complex of DNA
and proteins that produces chromosomes inside cell nuclei -which helps it to maintain gene expression patterns that are put in place during early development.
But when the proper functioning of PRC2 is disrupted due to mutations in the PRC2 gene, it can have very serious consequences for a person health."
"Producing either too much or too little PRC2 enzyme can unexpectedly silence or activate genes, which is not good for the cell,
and therefore triggering the development of cancer and disease has been practically impossible. But now, for the first time, Liu and his colleagues have reproduced the 3d atomic structure of PRC2 crystals,
using an imaging technique called x-ray crystallography. This means we can finally compare exactly how it behaves in normal and diseased cells,
and how its interactions with chromatin and cellular proteins affect human cell growth. The next step is to apply the findings to research that is already investigating how new drugs could inhibit PRC2 enzyme activity According to Liu,
researchers are looking at the potential of such drugs as a treatment for several types of lymphoma."
"Indeed, several clinical trials are currently ongoing to target PRC2, and we believe our work will shed light on these and other studies in drug development by offering insights into how PRC2 works at the atomic level,
"he said. The findings were published in the journal Science i
#New electronic sensor can detect ovarian cancer in your breath Your breath says more about you than you might think-not just how inebriated you are or
what you had for breakfast. A new type of sensor that can'sniff out'traces of ovarian cancer in a patient's breath has been developed by researchers in Israel,
offering a low-cost, and painless way to screen for the disease. We've seen the idea of a breathalyser being used to detect different types of cancer before,
but what makes this new technology stand out is the amount of data that can be captured,
as well as the compact size and low cost of the associated kit. On top of that, the researchers claim it's safer
and more accurate than the detection methods that are currently in use. The sensors in the breathalyser are looking for volatile organic compounds (VOCS) in the breath samples:
they use a flexible polymer substrate covered in gold nanoparticles to which the VOCS attach. By applying electrodes and a voltage to the resulting film,
patterns can be identified, which are matched then up to various diseases.""Changes in metabolism that accompany a specific illness cause changes in the composition and/or concentration of VOCS in the breath,
"lead researcher Nicole Kahn from the Technion-Israel Institute of technology told Jordan Rosenfeld at Mental Floss.
Based on some initial testing, Kahn and her colleagues were able to correctly detect ovarian cancer in 82 percent of cases,
which they say is a significant improvement on current detection methods, including special blood tests and transvaginal ultraound.
The fact that having to give a breath sample is a noninvasive, safe, and easy often for patients means more women will hopefully be given the option to get screened.
only high-risk patients are tested for ovarian cancer to reduce the chance of false positives, and seeing as most women don get symptoms until the disease is advanced quite,
it means many cases go undetected until it too late. With further research, Kahn thinks the same technique could be used to test for different types of cancer,
as well as other diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. She also says there's still room for improvement in making the sensors smaller
and more sensitive before they're ready for clinical use. Ovarian cancer currently accounts for around 3 percent of cancers among women
and with around 200,000 cases reported in the US each year, it's one of the rarer forms of the disease.
However, it causes more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system, and so new techniques to battle it would have a significant impact n
#Researchers create lithium-air battery that could be 10x more powerful than lithium-ion A new lithium-air battery created by researchers at the University of Cambridge points the way to the ultimate battery packs of the future,
its makers say. With a very high energy density, more than 90 percent efficiency and the capability for more than 2, 000 recharge cycles,
the new test battery could prove an important stepping stone in the development of this essential technology.
If you're getting tired of announcements about breakthroughs in battery technology, that's understandable: as they're so essential to modern life,
many teams of scientists are busy working on the problem around the clock, but it's an incredibly complex area of chemistry.
Any new battery has to improve on what we already have, be safe to use in consumer gadgets,
and be commercially viable enough to be affordable for manufacturers. Those are difficult targets to hit,
and that's why many'miracle'batteries have fallen since by the wayside once the initial lab work is done,
proving concepts and scaling up production is very difficult to get right. The potential rewards are huge though
not just for smartphones but for electric cars and solar power, where batteries are essential for storing energy to use
The idea of a lithium-air or lithium-oxygen battery isn't new scientists have known for a while that these types of batteries can hold up to 10 times the charge of today's lithium-ion packs (imagine not having to charge your phone for a whole week.
The new battery from the Cambridge university lab has a higher capacity, better efficiency and improved stability compared with previous attempts this stability,
crucial if we're to put these batteries into millions of cars and smartphones, was reached by using a'fluffy'carbon electrode made from graphene.
What's more, by changing the chemical mix from earlier versions of lithium-air batteries,
the researchers were able to prevent the battery from degrading significantly over time.""What we've achieved is a significant advance for this technology
and suggests whole new areas for research we haven't solved all the problems inherent to this chemistry,
The demonstration battery produced by the scientists still needs pure oxygen in order to charge not something many of us have a ready supply of
and there's still the risk of the battery exploding due to the dendrites (spindly lithium metal fibres) created during the charging process.
And any parents who are concerned about the possible effects of vaccines have their hearts in the right place
when they try to seek out relevant medical information on the Internet. Unfortunately, as many of us are aware,
the web is not necessarily a great place to do this kind of research, and now a broad study of anti-vaccination websites helps to explain why.
Researchers from the Johns hopkins university Bloomberg School of Public health analysed close to 500 anti-vaccination websites and found that they deliver a distorted mixture of pseudoscience and misinformation to parents seeking information about vaccines.
According to the researchers, more than two thirds of anti-vaccination websites present nonscientific information and other forms of misinformation as cientific evidenceto support the view that vaccines are dangerous to children,
and nearly one third of sites reinforce the idea through the use of anecdotes and stories.
The researchers used search engines including Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask jeeves to find the sites, using search terms like mmunisation dangersand accine dangerto see where it led them.
The study found that the resulting mix of blogs, personal websites Facebook pages and health sites perpetuate an alarming mixture of misinformation about vaccines
and use a range of persuasive techniques to get the reader on side. Almost two thirds of the sites suggested that vaccines cause autism,
and more than 40 percent claim theye responsible for rain injury The majority present information as scientific when it doesn actually qualify for that distinction.
In addition to condemning vaccines, the sites also promote some positive behaviours, such as healthy eating (recommended by 18.5 percent of anti-vaccination sites),
and the benefits of breastfeeding (5. 5 percent) and eating organic food (5. 2 percent). The study, presented this week at the American Public health Association annual meeting in Chicago,
may help actual scientists such as doctors and health care workers better understand how to reach and communicate with parents who are concerned genuinely about any perceived risks of vaccination
(and who may be exposing themselves to potentially dangerous misinformation on these kinds of sites). he biggest global takeaway is need that we to communicate to the vaccine-hesitant parent in a way that resonates with them
and is sensitive to their concerns, said Meghan Moran, an associate professor in the Bloomberg School department of health, behaviour and society. n our review,
we saw communication for things we consider healthy, such as breastfeeding, eating organic, the types of behaviour public health officials want to encourage.
I think we can leverage these good things and reframe our communication in a way that makes sense to those parents resisting vaccines for their children. i
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