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Archive for the ‘computing’ category: Page 213

Jun 24, 2023

University of Washington team detects atomic ‘breathing’ for quantum computing breakthrough

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics

Most of us don’t think of atoms as having their own unique vibrations, but they do. In fact, it’s a feature so fundamental to nature’s building blocks that a team of University of Washington researchers recently observed and used this phenomenon in their research study. By studying the light atoms emitted when stimulated by a laser, they were able to detect vibrations sometimes referred to as atomic “breathing.”

The result is a breakthrough that may one day allow us to build better tools for many kinds of quantum technologies.

Led by Mo Li, a professor of photonics and nano devices in both the UW Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the UW Physics Department, the researchers set out to build a better quantum emitter, or QE, one that could be incorporated into optical circuits.

Jun 24, 2023

Natural Language Programming AIs are taking the drudgery out of coding

Posted by in categories: computing, finance, internet, space

“Learn to code.” That three-word pejorative is perpetually on the lips and at the fingertips of internet trolls and tech bros whenever media layoffs are announced. A useless sentiment in its own right, but with the recent advent of code generating AIs, knowing the ins and outs of a programming language like Python could soon be about as useful as knowing how to fluently speak a dead language like Sanskrit. In fact, these genAIs are already helping professional software developers code faster and more effectively by handling much of the programming grunt work.

Two of today’s most widely distributed and written coding languages are Java and Python. The former almost single handedly revolutionized cross-platform operation when it was released in the mid-’90s and now drives “everything from smartcards to space vehicles,” as Java Magazine put it in 2020 — not to mention Wikipedia’s search function and all of Minecraft. The latter actually predates Java by a few years and serves as the code basis for many modern apps like Dropbox, Spotify and Instagram.

They differ significantly in their operation in that Java needs to be compiled (having its human-readable code translated into computer-executable machine code) before it can run. Python, meanwhile, is an interpreted language, which means that its human code is converted into machine code line-by-line as the program executes, enabling it to run without first being compiled. The interpretation method allows code to be more easily written for multiple platforms while compiled code tends to be focused to a specific processor type. Regardless of how they run, the actual code-writing process is nearly identical between the two: Somebody has to sit down, crack open a text editor or Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and actually write out all those lines of instruction. And until recently, that somebody typically was a human.

Jun 23, 2023

Human-like “organ chips” could eliminate animal studies

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

To rapidly test for COVID-19 treatments without animal studies, researchers make a model human body out of “organ chips.”

Jun 23, 2023

The chip patterning machines that will shape computing’s next act

Posted by in categories: computing, engineering

The first lithography tools were fairly simple, but the technologies that produce today’s chips are among humankind’s most complex inventions.

When we talk about computing these days, we tend to talk about software and the engineers who write it. But we wouldn’t be anywhere without the hardware and the physical sciences that have enabled it to be created—disciplines like optics, materials science, and mechanical engineering. It’s thanks to advances in these areas that we can fabricate the chips on which all the 1

Semiconductor lithography, the manufacturing process responsible for producing computer… More.

Jun 23, 2023

Flow of water on a carbon surface is governed by quantum friction, says study

Posted by in categories: computing, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum physics, sustainability

Water and carbon make a quantum couple: the flow of water on a carbon surface is governed by an unusual phenomenon dubbed quantum friction. A new work published in Nature Nanotechnology experimentally demonstrates this phenomenon—which was predicted in a previous theoretical study—at the interface between liquid water and graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms. Advanced ultrafast techniques were used to perform this study. These results could lead to applications in water purification and desalination processes and maybe even to liquid-based computers.

For the last 20 years, scientists have been puzzled by how water behaves near carbon surfaces. It may flow much faster than expected from conventional flow theories or form strange arrangements such as square ice. Now, an international team of researchers from the Max Plank Institute for Polymer Research of Mainz (Germany), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2, Spain), and the University of Manchester (England), reports in the study published in Nature Nanotechnology on June 22, 2023, that water can interact directly with the carbon’s electrons—a quantum phenomenon that is very unusual in .

A liquid, such as water, is made up of that randomly move and constantly collide with each other. A solid, in contrast, is made of neatly arranged atoms that bathe in a cloud of electrons. The solid and the liquid worlds are assumed to interact only through collisions of the liquid molecules with the solid’s atoms—the liquid molecules do not “see” the solid’s electrons. Nevertheless, just over a year ago, a paradigm-shifting theoretical study proposed that at the water-carbon interface, the liquid’s molecules and the solid’s electrons push and pull on each other, slowing down the liquid flow: this new effect was called quantum friction. However, the theoretical proposal lacked experimental verification.

Jun 23, 2023

Computer scientists sequence cotton genome

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, economics, food

Cotton is the primary source of natural fiber on Earth, yet only four of 50 known species are suitable for textile production. Computer scientists at DePaul University applied a bioinformatics workflow to reconstruct one of the most complete genomes of a top cotton species, African domesticated Gossypium herbaceum cultivar Wagad. Experts say the results give scientists a more complete picture of how wild cotton was domesticated over time and may help to strengthen and protect the crop for farmers in the U.S., Africa and beyond.

The findings are published in the journal G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics. Thiru Ramaraj, assistant professor of computer science in DePaul’s Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media, is lead author on the publication. Leaps in technological advancement in the past decade made it possible for Ramaraj to analyze the in his Chicago lab.

“The power of this technology is it allows us to create high-quality genomes that supply a level of detail that simply wasn’t possible before,” says Ramaraj, who specializes in bioinformatics. “This opens up the possibility for more researchers to sequence many crops that are important to the and to feeding the population.”

Jun 23, 2023

IonQ moves ahead with Forte quantum computers and its facility in Seattle area

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Maryland-based IonQ is expanding the commercial availability of its next-generation Forte quantum computer — and ramping up its research and production facility in the Seattle area to work on the next, next generation.

Forte is expected to bring the quantum frontier closer to the point that customers can start running real-world applications rather than merely experimenting with quantum capabilities, said Chris Monroe, co-founder and chief scientist at IonQ.

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Jun 23, 2023

Apple will upgrade iPhone 15 Ultra Wideband chip for Vision Pro integration, says Kuo

Posted by in categories: computing, mobile phones

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Apple will “aggressively upgrade” its iPhone hardware to better integrate with the new Apple Vision Pro.

It’s only to be expected that Apple sees its Vision Pro as part of the company’s ecosystem of devices and services, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims to know the specifics of Apple’s hardware plans.

Speaking of both the 2023 and 2024 iPhone releases, Kuo says that “Apple will aggressively upgrade hardware specifications to build a more competitive ecosystem for Vision Pro.”

Jun 23, 2023

New device opens door to storing quantum information as sound waves

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics

Quantum computing, just like traditional computing, needs a way to store the information it uses and processes. On the computer you’re using right now, information, whether it be photos of your dog, a reminder about a friend’s birthday, or the words you’re typing into browser’s address bar, must be stored somewhere. Quantum computing, being a new field, is still working out where and how to store quantum information.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Physics, Mohammad Mirhosseini, assistant professor of electrical engineering and applied physics, shows a new method his lab has developed for efficiently translating electrical quantum states into sound and vice versa. This type of translation may allow for storing prepared by future quantum computers, which are likely to made from electrical circuits.

This method makes use of what are known as , the sound equivalent of a light particle called a photon. (Remember that in quantum mechanics, all waves are particles and vice versa). The experiment investigates phonons for storing quantum information because it’s relatively easy to build small devices that can store these mechanical waves.

Jun 23, 2023

Researchers solve temperature problem for source-gated transistors

Posted by in categories: computing, engineering, nanotechnology

Low-cost, flexible displays that use very little energy could be a step closer, thanks to an innovation from the University of Surrey that solves a problem that has plagued source-gated transistors (SGT). The study has been published by IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

Dr. Radu Sporea, project lead from the University of Surrey, said, We used a rapidly emerging semiconductor material called IGZO or indium-gallium-zinc oxide to create the next generation of source-gated transistors. Through nanoscale contact engineering, we obtained transistors that are much more stable with temperature than previous attempts. Device simulations allowed us to understand this effect.

This new design adds to SGTs and retains usual benefits like using low power, producing high signal amplification, and being more reliable under different conditions. While source-gated transistors are not mainstream because of a handful of performance limitations, we are steadily chipping away at their shortcomings.