Researchers at Stanford have built a synchronous computer that operates using the unique physics of moving water droplets. The droplet processor is significantly slower than an electronic computer, but the research team says that speed is not their aim; rather, they want to develop a completely new class of computers that can precisely control and […]
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have genetically engineered a single cell to express green fluorescent protein that can be used to amplify photons into pulses of laser light. Developed some 50 years ago, lasers have traditionally used synthetic materials such as crystals, dyes and purified gases to amplify photons as they bounce back and forth […]
The amount of electricity required to run today’s computers, data centers and mobile devices is increasing rapidly and this growing hunger for power makes the digital world a significant greenhouse gas contributor. Most energy saving projects so far have focused on more efficient cooling systems or energy-saving power modes, but researchers from the University of […]
Rice University and Princeton University physicists have uncovered a bizarre state of matter which acts like a particle that possesses what the researchers call a “quantum registry,” making it immune to information loss from external quantum perturbations. Writing in Physical Review Letters, the researchers explain that ultracold mixes of electrons caught in magnetic traps – […]
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a “universal” programmable quantum information processor that uses two quantum bits of information to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics. The demonstration marks the first time any research group has moved beyond demonstrating individual tasks for a quantum processor to perform programmable […]
Physicists at the University of California, San Diego, have successfully created super-fast integrated circuits with particles called “excitons,” bringing the possibility of a new type of extremely fast computer based on excitons closer to reality. Their discovery, detailed in the journal Nature Photonics, follows the team’s demonstration last summer of an exciton-based integrated circuit capable […]
Creating an ideal “photonic crystal” to manipulate visible light in optical computers may now be possible, thanks to a beetle from Brazil whose shimmering, iridescent green scales provide the ideal, diamond-like crystalline structure. “It appears that a simple creature like a beetle provides us with one of the technologically most sought-after structures for the next […]
Fungi, E. Coli, DNA: meet the newest tools for digital signal processing. At least, that’s according to Northwestern University computer boffins Sotirios Tsaftaris and Aggelos Katsaggelos, in their recently published “point of view” piece in the Proceedings of the IEEE(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). Digital signal processing uses mathematics and other techniques to manipulate […]
By combining quantum computation and quantum interrogation, scientists at the University of Illinois (UI) have demonstrated “counterfactual computation.” This intriguing application of quantum mechanics allows information about a problem’s answer to be inferred, although the quantum computer algorithm did not actually process the problem. The logic behind quantum coherence often deviates from intuitive reasoning, leading […]
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute report that they were able to cool single rubidium atoms and “store” them for 17 seconds. The researchers, writing in Nature, said this was by far the longest storage time ever achieved in a strongly coupled resonator system. The ability to control single atoms in this way is a […]
