#Quantum computing breakthrough: Qubits made from standard silicon transistors In what is likely a major breakthrough for quantum computing,
researchers from the University of New south wales (UNSW) in Australia have managed for the first time to build the fundamental blocks of a quantum computer in silicon.
The device was created using standard manufacturing techniques, by modifying current-generation silicon transistors, and the technology could scale up to include thousands, even millions of entangled quantum bits on a single chip.
Gizmag spoke to the lead researchers to find out more. Quantum computers are a peculiar beast. Though the machines we've been building
since the 50s have been aiming to be as deterministic and reliable as possible so a certain input will always result in the same output in a quantum computer,
this dynamic is turned on its head, and predictability is sacrificed for (sometimes) incredible speedups. A quantum bit,
or qubit, has two awesome and confusing properties. First, it can set itself to both 0 and 1 at the same time.
And second, it can commune (or entangle) with other qubits to compound this ability. This means five entangled qubits can store
and process as much information as 32 (two to the power of five) classical bits; 10 qubits can do as much as 1, 000 classical bits;
and 300 fully entangled qubits can manipulate as many classical bits of information as there are atoms in the Universe.
You might think this would lead to much faster number-crunching over a regular computer and you'd be right, to a point.
A quantum computer can perform any operation a classical computer can, but its exponential speedups only take effect
when a quantum algorithm can process data in a massively parallel fashion, such as searching through a very large database,
virtually designing a new drug by choosing among quadrillions of possible combinations, or simulating the behavior of every single atom in your right toe.
That is, even in the best of cases, a quantum computer is guaranteed never to return the correct result.
So, in practice, classical computers will probably be faster and more practical than quantum computers for day-to-day operations
and quantum computers will only come in useful where massive parallelism is involved. When they are let loose, though, their speed will be spectacular.
Most of the prototype quantum computers developed so far feature a limited number of entangled qubits made from exotic and expensive materials like cesium or diamonds and which,
However, researchers at UNSW are focusing on the potentially revolutionary approach of building quantum computers out of silicon, a material that is cheap
and which could ultimately pave the way for quantum computers with not 300 but thousands, even millions of fully entangled qubits.
Last year, UNSW scientists were able to create single"CMOS type"qubits that leveraged current transistor technology and silicon-28, a very common isotope of silicon,
Together with a single controllable qubit, this is the basic building block of a quantum computer and paves the way to quantum chips that can perform just about any operation.
and an external current and microwave field control the qubits and make them interact as needed."
"A CNOT gate is a...two-qubit gate that flips the state of the target qubit depending on the state of the control qubit,
"In our case, the target qubit flips its spin if the control qubit is pointing down.
If the control qubit is pointing up, the target qubit will remain in the same state."
"This two-qubit gate is most essential for a quantum computer and together with single qubit operations,
which we have demonstrated already with very high fidelity, provides what is called a universal gate set. This means that any gate set can be constructed out of it."
"Although their quantum computers wouldn't work at room temperature, this approach lets the researchers operate their device at approximately 1 Kelvin(-272°C,
-458°F). That may not seem like much of an improvement over previous designs, but, the researchers told us,
but in the fact that these basic building blocks of quantum computers were built by doing simple modifications to current-generation silicon transistors.
The researchers say they have worked out a way to extend this technique to a much larger number of qubits
"Our team is looking for industrial partners to construct a chip that would contain between tens and hundreds of qubits,
so that we can demonstrate a manufacturing process that can be scaled up to the thousands or millions of qubits."
"I believe that a Si-CMOS qubit prototype containing between tens and hundreds of qubits could be made within five years,
provided we have the right level of investment and the right industry partners. Our main aim is to develop a prototype that can demonstrate that it is possible to go all the way with'Quantum CMOS
"Such a powerful quantum computer would have major implications for the finance, data security, and health industry.
and the one advanced by Richard Feynman decades ago as he first proposed the idea of a quantum computer,
#3d printed teeth kill bacteria Creating replacement parts for various bits of the human body is one of the many areas in
which 3d printing has huge potential. Dental implants are on that list, too, and if new research out of the University of Groningen in The netherlands comes to fruition,
3d printed replacement teeth could come with the added bonus of being able to destroy 99 percent of bacteria that they come into contact with.
has developed a process to manufacture 3d printed teeth and braces capable of destroying bacteria using a special type of antimicrobial resin.
The resultant mixture was hardened then using ultraviolet light and put inside a 3d printer to print samples of replacement teeth.
#Boron-doped graphene to enable ultrasensitive gas sensors As an atom-thick, two-dimensional material with high conductivity,
graphene is set to enable a stream of new electronic devices, including particularly sensitive sensors for the detection of various gases,
Now an international team of researchers led by Pennsylvania State university (Penn State) has created a graphene-boron amalgam that can detect particular gases down to mere parts per billion,
By pairing boron atoms with graphene to create what is known as a heteroatom structure (where non-carbon atoms bond with carbon atoms to form part of the molecular ring),
and an ammonia detection rate 105 times greater than is untreated possible with graphene.""This is a project that we have been pursuing for the past four years,
"We were previously able to dope graphene with atoms of nitrogen, but boron proved to be much more difficult.
Once we were able to synthesize what we believed to be boron graphene, we collaborated with experts in the United states
"Graphene is composed of carbon, and boron is an element that sits right beside carbon on the periodic table.
when it comes to normal graphene production methods. To overcome this, the researchers used a bespoke bubbler-assisted chemical vapor deposition apparatus to isolate the boron from the atmosphere
whilst incorporating the element with the graphene to produce one-square centimeter (0. 155-sq in) sheets of boron-doped graphene.
At the same time, the Novoselov lab at the University of Manchester, UK (where graphene was synthesized first and from where the first commercial graphene light-bulb was produced),
examined the electron transport function of the sensors, whilst contributing researchers in the US and Belgium established that boron atoms were melded into the graphene lattice
and observed their influence of interaction with ammonia or NOX molecules.""This multidisciplinary research paves a new avenue for further exploration of ultrasensitive gas sensors,
The scientists also believe that their theoretical research points towards using boron-doped graphene to improve such things as lithium-ion batteries by controlling generated gas levels for optimum efficiency y
available only for the iphone initially, is expected to launch later this month on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter.
#Teenage Girl Turns Plastic Trash Into Million-Dollar Biofuel An Egyptian teenager has discovered an inexpensive way to turn plastic trash into fuel
are the same chemicals extracted from vegetation to create ethanol biofuel. The process releases other chemicals that can also be recycled and sold.
when solar power was viewed largely as a curiosity in the utility industry. Solar costs were compared multiples higher to its renewable competitor, wind energy--so high, in fact,
that some states made special carve-outs for solar in their renewable portfolio standards (RPS)
positioning it to be the lowest cost renewable energy source available for many parts of the U s. The following cost per watt (AC) graph was generated by Go Solar California,
A Generator That Plays Well With Renewable energy Marc Hoffman, CEO of startup Innovus Power, believes that the synchronous generator, the workhorse of the power grid for the past century,
But the rise of wind and solar power, which rises and falls with the weather, and uses inverters to turn direct current into grid-ready alternating current, presents them with a serious set of challenges.
when theye forced to ramp up and down to match fluctuations in renewable energy, with some strict limits on how low they can go before they need to be shut off entirely.
Hoffman said during a presentation at last month Grid Edge Live conference in San diego. For microgrids that run diesel generators to back up renewable energy,
For the grid at large, it could place strict limitations on how much renewable energy can be integrated before the need arises for excessive amounts of fossil fuel-fired power plants
whether theye inverter-based renewable energy or battery storage systems, or traditional spinning generators. With the benefit of the Northern Power Systemspower converter
but not without a certain amount of energy storage in the form of expensive lithium-ion batteries. he Innovus genset is going to allow us to achieve a very high renewable penetration without a very large battery,
Florio proposal calls for policies that allow rooftop solar energy storage, plug-in vehicles energy efficiency, demand response,
Meanwhile, customer incentives are split up into energy efficiency programs, self-generation incentive program credits, energy storage mandates, demand response payments,
#3d printed Pathway Helps Nerve Growth 3d printing has some amazing possibilities for architecture and design, not the least
the researchers used a custom-built 3d printer to make silicone guides for nerve regeneration. These 3d printed nerve pathways were embedded with biochemical cues to promote growth.
The final 3d printed product was implanted then into rats with severed nerves. In about 10 to 12 weeks'time, the rats experienced improved walking ability.
The advantage of this technology is that precise shapes can be printed to suit the patient,
"This represents an important proof of concept of the 3d printing of custom nerve guides for the regeneration of complex nerve injuries,
"Someday we hope that we could have a 3d scanner and printer right at the hospital to create custom nerve guides right on site to restore nerve function. n
but we think there would be 20 kilograms left over for the payload, Neumann told IFLSCIENCE. ith a higher thrust fuel in a Neumann Drive you could do it in nine to 11 months,
#Human heart can now be 3d printed using biological materials All 3d printed innovations have something in common:
and body parts using a hacked 3d printer bought off the shop shelves. The new research, published in the journal Science Advances, demonstrates that it is possible to replicate the heart through 3d printing.
-D printing of various materials has been a common trend in tissue engineering in the last decade,
The team next step is to inject heart cells into these 3d printed biological tissue structures
This waiting list could be reduced significantly by using 3d bioprinting: this FRESH technique could produce pieces of bespoke heart tissue for each specific case of heart damage. 3d bioprinters aren new:
Using a 3d printer bought by most consumers, and ackingit with open-source software and hardware, this research team have managed to replicate human organ structures for less than $1, 000 (£650) n
That points to the possibility of a future wearable device that could continuously measure the blood flow of patients
The University of Illinois team developed the new wearable device in cooperation with the U s. National institutes of health and a broader group of U s and Chinese researchers.
The 3. 5 milliwatts per square millimeter of thermal energy entering the skin is so minuscule that someone wearing the device wouldn notice the difference.
Testing with the wearable device placed above the wrist veins of human volunteers showed how it could work in practice.
Researchers also compared the wearable device results with the state-of-the-art optical imagers to ensure that the measurements were reasonably accurate.
#FDA approves first 3d printed drug Aprecia Pharmaceuticals owns Spritam (levetiracetam), a solid oral pill to treat epileptic seizures.
The 3d printer lets the company create a pill with a high drug load up to 1, 000mg of levetiracetam, in a single dose.
is licensed based on 3d printing from the original inventors at MIT. The patent-protected technique uses liquid to stitch together several layers of powder.
molecular biologist James Paulson at the Scripps Research Institute in the US told this publication. he authors exploit Siglec function by attaching sialic acids to nanoparticles that exploit the function of Siglecs and control inflammation,
The company has hired also Paul Furgale, a researcher on autonomous vehicles, according to a report by The Wall street journal l
#Wearable technology: Latest devices allow employers to track behaviour of their workers In the past, companies looking to increase the productivity of their staff may not have stretched much further than a modest increase to the Christmas bonus pot or the installation of a new coffee machine.
But the dawn of wearable technology has led to the creation of devices capable of building up workerspersonalised biological profiles,
wearable technology has focused on improving basic efficiency or safety in the workplace but the new gadgets could allow firms to link their staff behaviour and physiological data to their business performance for the first time,
#Biomedical 3d printing Company Signs Agreement with Xilloc for Licensing, Sale of 3d printed Bones in Europe (3ders. org) NEXT 21 K. K,
. an innovative Japanese biomedical 3d printing company, has created a 3d bone printer capable of producing artificial bone structures for humans.
Before these 3d printed bones actually hit the shelves Xilloc needs to go through registration for on an EU-level on 93/42/EEC (Medical device Directive MDD.
and selling these 3d printed CT bones within Europe
#Patients Have Less Pain and Recover Faster with 3d printed, Custom-Fit Knee Replacements Dr. Ralph Liebelt is one of the few surgeons in the country to use 3d printed, custom-fit knee replacements.
Liebelt said that so far patients who get the customized total knee replacement typically have less pain
and recover faster because doctors are not making holes in the bones and there less bleeding.
His technology from Conformis uses a 3d printer to produce a jig specifically built for an individual patient.
The jigs that come from 3d printing are based on CT SCAN data and fit the patient anatomy.
#Neri Oxman Reveals Mushtari, World First 3d printed Photosynthetic Wearable (Engineering. com) Neri Oxman, architect and designer, has revealed the world first 3d printed photosynthetic wearable mbedded with living matter.
Entitled Mushtari, the wearable is inspired by the human gastrointestinal tract and is designed to host synthetic microorganisms a co-culture of photosynthetic cyanobacteria
or biofuels when exposed to the sun. Oxman said, uch functions will in the near future augment the wearer by scanning our skins,
an experiment that has never been attempted before. xman team used Stratasystriple-jetting 3d printing to create a large fluid network within Mushtari that varied in transparency from opaque to clear.
Such mechanical and optical property gradation can only be achieved using multi-material 3d printing with high spatial resolution for manufacturing
#Patients Will Swallow 3d printed Tadpole Endoscope That Provides Diagnosis of Cancers A team from the Institute of Precision Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong kong has developed 3d printed tadpole-like devices that can improve diagnosis
The new 3d printed device, called the Tadpole Endoscope, is a reliable and relatively noninvasive solution that could improve cancer diagnosis. Developed to be swallowed just like a large pill (it is a bit bigger than a small coin),
such as big data analytics and complex Web applications. The average Memory1 use case enables a four-to-one server reduction,
he cloud, virtualization, big data and analytics are pressuring the infrastructure of many of today enterprise datacenters.
Solutions such as Diablo Memory1, can accelerate application performance while bringing higher capacities lower power and cooling costs,
which heats and cools Wearable technology and built-in sensors collect information about users to create an environment,
It will also almost certainly be used in gas-fired power plants and perhaps in nuclear reactors as well.
#Graphene-coated Fabrics Detect Dangerous Gases Scientists in Korea have developed wearable, graphene-coated fabrics that can detect dangerous gases present in the air,
alerting the wearer by turning on a light-emitting diode (LED) light. The researchers, from the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute and Konkuk Univ. in the Republic of korea, coated cotton and polyester yarn with a nanoglue called bovine serum albumin (BSA.
The yarns were wrapped then in graphene oxide sheets. Graphene is an incredibly strong one-atom-thick layer of carbon,
and is known for its excellent conductive properties of heat and electricity. The graphene sheets stuck very well to the nanoglueo much
so that further testing showed the fabrics retained their electrical conducting properties after 1, 000 consecutive cycles of bending
Finally, the graphene oxide yarns were exposed to a chemical reduction process, which involves the gaining of electrons.
The reduced-graphene oxide-coated materials were found to be particularly sensitive to detecting nitrogen dioxide a pollutant gas commonly found in vehicle exhaust that also results from fossil fuel combustion.
Exposure of these specially treated fabrics to nitrogen dioxide led to a change in the electrical resistance of the reduced graphene oxide.
The fabrics were three times as sensitive to nitrogen dioxide in air compared to another reduced graphene oxide sensor previously prepared on a flat material.
we could also help bring virtual reality to the masses, says Eyenetra cofounder Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab who co-invented the device.
it can also disrupt virtual reality, which is an even bigger market, says Raskar. User friendly optics Around 2009, Raskar and some of his Media Lab students developed a prototype of Netra:
it could lead to highly-efficient conversion of solar energy to chemical energy-providing a clean, storable and transferrable source of energy. y
The researchers made the implants using a 3d printer. Three-dimensional printers can create items from a wide variety of materials:
except 3d printers can also lay down flat layers on top of each other to build 3d objects. Advances in 3d printing have enabled the rapid production of medical devices that are customized for individual patients, such as hearing aids, dental implants and prosthetic hands.
However, devices made of rigid materials are often unsuitable for young patients who can quickly outgrow the implants.
Recently, scientists began developing techniques to try to accomplish 4d printing which involves 3d printing items that are designed to shape-shift after they are printed.
Green and his colleagues reasoned that 4d items could grow with young patients if needed."
"This is the first 3d printed implant specifically designed to change shape over time, the fourth dimension, to allow for a child's growth,
The 3d printed airway splint, shown here in diagrams of how the device was placed into the patients'lungs.
"The researchers used CT SCANS of the infants to develop 3d printed airway splints whose length, diameter,
"This is the first time 3d printing has been used to create a medical implant for treating a life-threatening disease,
Pin It Researchers built a 3d printed device that saved the life of Kaiba Gionfriddo, who was born with a rare condition that caused life-threatening breathing problems.
One emerging technology for skeletal reconstruction is 3d printed synthetic implants made to match the anatomical shape of a patient's defects,
Such artificial bones have already been implanted successfully in pigs and other animals, but we still need to demonstrate that this method will work for humans.
Big data analysis requires the computer to draw some tiny piece of data from some previously unknown spot in truly staggering troves of data.
AUDS sends the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) radio signals that interfere with the radio signals coming from the remote operator.
which calls for the"design and prototyping of vanishing air delivery vehicles capable of precise, gentle drops of small payloads."
#First 3d printed Drug Approved by FDA Youl rarely see medication news on the pages of Medgadget,
The fascinating part is that each tablet is produced using a layering technique similar to now common 3d printing.
#3d printed Brain regions Help Neurosurgeons Prepare for Difficult Procedures While neurosurgeons have been able to virtually navigate volumetric images of patientsbrain structures gathered from CT and MRI scans,
At Boston Children Hospital, physicians are now using 3d printed replicas of brain regions theyl be working on to practice with before actual surgery.
and nearby anatomy using 3d printed resin. They then used them to train on in preparation to the surgeries
000 suns The latest in solar power comes to us from Swiss inventors working for Airlight Energy, Dsolar (a subsidiary of Airlight),
It uses something called HCPVT (Highly Efficient Concentrated Photovoltaic/Thermal) to generate electricity and hot water from solar power.
as well as highly efficient photovoltaic cells (known as gallium arsenide photovoltaic cells) to convert that concentrated solar energy into electricity. Though concentrated solar thermal power
and PVS are nothing new to the solar power industry, the Solar Sunflower incorporates these technologies in a novel way that represents a few ingenious engineering breakthroughs.
along with 21kw of thermal energy. Even though that doesn't amount to a huge amount of energy (the 12kw of electricity is only enough to power a few homes, for instance),
and the design isn't going to be able to financially compete with less innovative but sure-fire solar energy harvesters already on the market.
While the glass itself is composed almost entirely of a special 3d printed plastic, Ballantine's added a Rose gold mouthpiece to retain what it describes as"that evocative,
he first underwent mental training to learn to use his brain waves to control an avatar in virtual reality.
They can use solar power or harvest energy from a beam of light. The patent does not mention batteries so these contacts have to constantly generate power.
for many years, researchers have explored other options that would provide greater energy storage for a given weight.
#Narrowing the gap between synthetic and natural graphene Producing graphene in bulk is critical when it comes to the industrial exploitation of this exceptional two-dimensional material.
To that end, Graphene Flagship researchers have developed a novel variant on the chemical vapour deposition process which yields high quality material in a scalable manner.
This advance should significantly narrow the performance gap between synthetic and natural graphene. From sticky tape to chemical synthesis Media-friendly Nobel laureates peeling layers of graphene from bulk graphite with sticky tape may capture the public imagination,
but as a manufacturing process the technique is somewhat lacking. Mechanical exfoliation may give us pristine graphene
but industry requires scalable and cost-effective production processes with much higher yields. Synthesis of graphene via chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of methane gas onto a copper substrate is the most common way of producing the quantity
and quality of material required for electronic applications. CVD is an industrially scalable process, but graphene produced in this way is prone to contamination from chemical agents used to remove the growth substrate.
It is also a complex and expensive technique, wasteful of the copper and other materials used.
another approach is to peel away the graphene, and preserve the copper foil for future reuse.
Electrochemical and dry delamination of CVD-grown graphene has previously been demonstrated, but the material still suffers from some processing-related contamination.
CVD graphene with help from intermolecular forces Flagship-affiliated physicists from RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich have together with colleagues in Japan devised a method for peeling graphene flakes from a CVD substrate
Key to the process is the strong Van der waals interaction that exists between graphene and hexagonal boron nitride, another 2d material within
Thanks to strong Van der waals interactions between graphene and boron nitride, CVD graphene can be separated from the copper
and minimises contamination of the graphene due to processing. Raman spectroscopy and transport measurements on the graphene/boron nitride heterostructures reveals high electron mobilities comparable with those observed in similar assemblies based on exfoliated graphene.
Furthermore and this comes as something of a surprise to the researchers no noticeable performance changes are detected between devices developed in the first and subsequent growth cycles.
This confirms the copper as a recyclable resource in the graphene fabrication process. hemical vapour deposition is a highly scalable
graphene synthesised this way has been significantly lower in quality than that obtained with the scotch-tape method,
We demonstrate a novel fabrication process based on CVD that yields ultra-high quality synthetic graphene samples. The process is in principle suitable for industrial-scale production,
and narrows the gap between graphene research and its technological applications. With their dry-transfer process,
Banszerus and his colleagues have shown that the electronic properties of CVD-grown graphene can in principle match those of ultrahigh-mobility exfoliated graphene.
The key is to transfer CVD graphene from its growth substrate in such a way that chemical contamination is avoided.
The high mobility of pristine graphene is preserved thus, and the approach allows for the substrate material to be recycled without degradation u
#Graphene nanoribbon finding could lead to faster, more efficient electronics Graphene, an atom-thick material with extraordinary properties, is a promising candidate for the next generation of dramatically faster, more energy-efficient electronics.
that could enable the use of graphene in high-performance semiconductor electronics. Now, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have discovered a way to grow graphene nanoribbons with desirable semiconducting properties directly on a conventional germanium semiconductor wafer.
This breakthrough could allow manufacturers to easily use graphene nanoribbons in hybrid integrated circuits which promise to significantly boost the performance of next-generation electronic devices.
This technology could also have specific uses in industrial and military applications, such as sensors that detect specific chemical and biological species
and their collaborators describe their new approach to producing graphene nanoribbons. Importantly, their technique can easily be scaled for mass production
Graphene, a sheet of carbon atoms that is only one atom in thickness, conducts electricity and dissipates heat much more efficiently than silicon,
But to exploit graphene remarkable electronic properties in semiconductor applications where current must be switched on and off,
graphene nanoribbons need to be less than 10 nanometers wide, which is phenomenally narrow. In addition, the nanoribbons must have smooth
Researchers have fabricated typically nanoribbons by using lithographic techniques to cut larger sheets of graphene into ribbons.
where they form graphene. Arnold team made its breakthrough when it explored dramatically slowing the growth rate of the graphene crystals by decreasing the amount of methane in the chemical vapor deposition chamber.
They found that at a very slow growth rate the graphene crystals naturally grow into long nanoribbons on a specific crystal facet of germanium.
By simply controlling the growth rate and growth time, the researchers can easily tune the nanoribbon width be to less than 10 nanometers. hat wee discovered is that
when graphene grows on germanium, it naturally forms nanoribbons with these very smooth, armchair edges,
so all the desirable features we want in graphene nanoribbons are happening automatically with this technique. he nanoribbons produced with this technique start nucleating,
Progressively zoomed-in images of graphene nanoribbons grown on germanium. The ribbons automatically align perpendicularly and naturally grow with their edges oriented along the carbon-carbon bond direction, known as the armchair edge configuration a
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011