Science

The Helios-1 quantum computing chipQuantinuum Researchers at the quantum computing firm Quantinuum used a new Helios-1 quantum computer to simulate a mathematical model that has long been used to study superconductivity. These simulations are not out of reach for conventional computers, but this advance sets the stage for quantum computers to become useful tools for materials science. Superconductors conduct electricity with perfect efficiency, but they currently only work at temperatures too low to be practical. For decades, physicists have been trying to understand how to tweak their structure to make them work at room temperature, and many believe answers will come from a mathematical framework called the Fermi-Hubbard model. This potential makes it one of the ...

Where did the speed of light come from and why is it so stubborn?NASA, ESA, CXC, SSC The following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time newsletter. Each month, we dive into fascinating ideas from around the universe. You can sign up for Lost in Space-Time here. If you’ve taken a university-level physics class, you’ll have “fond” memories of being asked to measure the speed of light and – if, over several hours, you managed to line up your mirrors and lenses and light source just right – getting an answer just under 300 million metres per second. It is a foundational constant in physics, one that’s crucial to understand if you want to learn anything at all about the universe. When we look out into the cosmos, light is our only resource – well, not quite our on...

At Climate Week NYC, across a wide range of topics from finance to law, energy to food, infrastructure to conservation, one message rang clear: We need more collaboration, particularly across diverse stakeholders.  This message is nothing new. If you are engaged in environmental or societal issues, you would most likely agree that no single actor or sector has the capacity, incentive or mandate to truly address the systemic problems we currently face. The calls for collaboration, therefore, were mixed with an odd sense of déjà vu. One audience member was heard groaning, “If one more panelist says we need more collaboration, I’m going to lose my $#!t!”—reflecting a deeper struggle within the climate community to understand how, exactly, we can make such collaborations happen. One ...

Adapted from a press release written by Marina Naumova for Penn State University. For billions of years, Earth’s continents have remained remarkably stable, forming the foundation for mountains, ecosystems and civilizations. But the secret to their stability has mystified scientists for more than a century. Now, a new study by researchers at Penn State and Columbia University provides the clearest evidence yet for how the landforms became and remained so stable—and the key ingredient is heat. In a paper published on October 13 in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers—Peter Kelemen, a geologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which is part of the Columbia Climate School, and Andrew Smye, ​​associate professor of geosciences at Penn State—demonstrated that the formation o...

A galaxy cluster produces gravitational lensing, bending light around itNASA, ESA, Michael Gladders (University of Chicago); Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt Quantum physics may be the secret ingredient for understanding cosmic objects that our telescopes cannot show us in detail, or at all. To understand space, we collect and analyse light that travels from objects like stars into our telescopes, but that light doesn’t always travel in straight lines. Often, as it passes by a very massive object, such as a planet or a black hole, the light’s trajectory bends and creates distorted images as if an extra lens was added somewhere along the way. But what about objects that are not cosmic heavyweights and have relatively small masses? Traditional imaging methods struggle ...