Science

Quantum computers can be made using arrays of atomsAlamy Stock Vector A device with more than 6000 quantum bits, or qubits, has smashed a previously-held record and is the first step towards building the largest quantum computer yet. There is currently no single, consensus design for building a quantum computer, but researchers believe that for these devices to be useful, they will have to comprise at least tens of thousands of qubits. The current record holder is a machine from Atom Computing, with 1180 qubits, but Hannah Manetsch at the California Institute of Technology and her colleagues have now built a device with 6100 qubits. Each of these is a neutral caesium atom cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero and controlled by laser beams, with all 6100 of...

Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, one of the most rapidly melting glaciers in the world. Credit: James Yungel/NASA ICE via Flickr Four teams of scientists, including a team co-led by Columbia University researchers, will receive up to $45 million over five years for research that advances human understanding of the global carbon cycle driving a changing climate. The teams are the first to be funded through the Virtual Institute for the Carbon Cycle (VICC), an initiative of Schmidt Sciences that aims to reduce uncertainty in the global carbon cycle to inform effective climate policy and solutions. The science of climate projections has advanced rapidly over the past several decades, informing local to global decisions about everything from energy use to disaster preparedness, urban plann...

Quantinuum’s quantum computerQuantinuum What can quantum computers do that their traditional counterparts absolutely cannot? This is one of the biggest questions facing the fast-growing industry, and now we finally have an unassailable answer. Instead of classical bits, quantum computers use qubits, which can exist in more states than “0” or “1”, theoretically giving them a computational advantage. But whether a quantum computer can do something impossible or impractical for even the best traditional computers – a feat of quantum supremacy – has proven to be a difficult and contentious question to answer. This is because a true example of quantum supremacy must be a computational task that is practical, so it can be tested on realistic quantum hardware, and provable, s...

A quantum version of a debit card could keep your money safeGlobalimages101/Alamy A rudimentary quantum debit card that can be loaded with unforgeable quantum money has been made from extremely cold atoms and particles of light. In ordinary banks, discovering a forged banknote often depends on the skill of the forger, but in a quantum bank a law of physics called the no-cloning theorem would make a successful forgery impossible. This law states identical copies of quantum information simply cannot be made and, in 1983, physicist Stephen Wiesner devised a protocol that leverages the no-cloning theorem to create unforgeable currency. Julien Laurat at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory in France and his colleagues have now implemented the idea in the most advanced experiment ...

On May 12, 2025, Buddha Day, Buddhist monks and scientific researchers gathered to pay tribute to Yala Glacier in Nepal’s Langtang Valley. The International Centre for Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an international NGO housed in Kathmandu, collaborated with local Indigenous community leaders to organize this event to raise awareness of Yala’s rapid retreat and highlight the risk across Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) glaciers. They invited community leaders, local university professors and international media to the tribute, which included a central ceremony held by spiritual leaders. The Yala Glacier tribute, May 12, 2025. Photo: Jitendra Raj Bajracharya/ICIMOD ICIMOD has often referred to the HKH region as the “pulse of the planet.” Extending across eight countries and pouring into 10 ...