Phys.org October 17, 2019 In their efforts to observe quantum phenomena on a macroscopic scale, researchers in Denmark managed to create a network of 30,000 entangled pulses of light arranged in a two-dimensional lattice distributed in space and time. They produced light beams with special quantum mechanical properties (squeezed states) and woven them together using optical fibre components to form a cluster state. An optical quantum computer will therefore not require costly and advanced refrigeration technology, its information-carrying light-based qubits in the laser light will be much more durable and it can be more easily be scaled to contain hundreds […]
Construction starts on first Zhangzhou unit
World Nuclear News October 17, 2019 In mid-2017, China Nuclear Industry No24 Construction Company won the contract for the nuclear island civil engineering. The first phase of the Zhangzhou nuclear power plant has carried out a number of design improvements and optimisations based on the reference power plant, further improving the safety and economy of the unit. Zhangzhou 1 is the fifth Hualong One unit that it is building, and serial construction of the reactor design has officially started…read more.
Cracking the mystery of nature’s toughest material
Science Daily October 23, 2019 Nacre (mother-of-pearl) that lines the insides of mussel and other mollusk shells is known as nature’s toughest material. An international team of researchers (USA – University of Michigan, Australia, Germany) found that nacre is made of microscopic bricks made of a mineral called aragonite, laced together with a mortar made of organic material. The tablets remain separate, arranged in layers. When stress is applied to the shells, the mortar squishes aside and the tablets lock together, forming a solid surface. When the force is removed, the structure springs back, without losing any strength or resilience. […]
Extracting hidden quantum information from a light source
Phys.org October 24, 2019 An international team of researchers (UK, USA – Princeton University) experimentally demonstrated the distillation of a quantum image from measured data composed of a superposition of both quantum and classical light. They measured the image of an object formed under quantum illumination that is mixed with another image produced by classical light with the same spectrum and polarization, and demonstrated near-perfect separation of the two superimposed images by intensity correlation measurements. This work provides a method to mix and distinguish information carried by quantum and classical light, which may be useful for quantum imaging, communications, and […]
First Demonstration of a 1 Petabit per Second Network Node
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, October 17, 2019 Researchers in Japan have successfully implemented a network demonstration using state-of-the-art large-scale spatial optical switching, aiming at petabit-class next-generation optical networks using spatial-division multiplexing. The testbed supported data rates from 10 Terabit per second up to 1 Petabit per second over 3 types of next-generation multicore fibers and included practical requirements of real networks, such as protection switching. The total capacity of the network was 1 Petabit per second. The system was demonstrated in 4 fundamental scenarios that constitute the building blocks of the next-generation optical fiber networks…read more.
Grand challenges in the science of wind energy
Science Magazine October 25, 2019 Wind energy is already playing a role as a mainstream source of electricity, driven by decades of scientific discovery and technology development. An international team of researchers (USA – NERL, University of Colorado, UMASS Amherst, NOAA, Johns Hopkins University, University of Wyoming, Sandia National Laboratory, industry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Norway) reviews the challenges and opportunities for further expanding wind technology, with an emphasis on the need for interdisciplinary collaboration. They identified three grand challenges in wind energy research that require further progress from the scientific community: (i) improved understanding […]
How big ideas can change the world: the revolutionary potential of LiFi
Physics World October 22, 2019 Researchers at the University of Oxford have shown that LiFi can work in lab demonstrations at speeds of 224 Gbps, illustrating the huge progress since Professor Haas from the University of Edinburgh, introduced LiFi in his 2011 TED talk. In that presentation, Haas demonstrated the benefits of LiFi with an LED light bulb housed in a desk lamp sitting on a small receiver unit. The four fundamental challenges that LiFi addresses are – first it’s efficient, second, LED lights are widely available, third, LiFi offers high capacity (the visible spectrum is 10,000 times wider than […]
Japan Imports Ebola And Other Deadly Pathogens in The Lead-Up to Tokyo Olympics
Science Alert October 17, 2019 Strains of the infectious virus along with four other dangerous pathogens were brought into the country last month by the Japanese government, so that scientists can study them and research possible countermeasures in the event of an outbreak sparked by the Tokyo 2020 tourist influx. Japan’s ability to study the most dangerous pathogens has lagged behind that of other advanced nations. There is one facility in the country operating at BSL 4 level. Both the United States and Europe have more than a dozen BSL-4 labs in operation or under construction, and China is building […]
Kirigami inspires new method for wearable sensors
Nanowerk October 22, 2019 To make a material resistant to damage from the stress and strains of the human body’s natural movement researchers at the University of Illinois applied kirigami architectures to graphene to create sensors suitable for wearable devices. They put the active sensing element on an “island” between two “bridges” made from kirigami graphene. While the graphene did not lose any electrical signal despite the bending and tilting, it still took the load from the stretching and straining, enabling the active sensing element to remain connected to the surface. It made the graphene not only stretchable, strain-insensitive and […]
A roadmap to make the land sector carbon neutral by 2040
Science Daily October 23, 2019 An international team of researchers (USA – University of Virginia, organizations, UC Berkeley, Germany, Austria, Italy, Japan) combines a review of modelled pathways and literature on mitigation strategies, and develop a land-sector roadmap of priority measures and regions that can help to achieve the 1.5 °C temperature goal set by the Paris agreement. Transforming the land sector and deploying measures in agriculture, forestry, wetlands and bioenergy could feasibly and sustainably contribute about 30%, or 15 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, of the global mitigation needed in 2050 to deliver on the 1.5 […]