Category Physics

A representation of the quantum state in the new Yale device. Crucial to its success, the researchers say, is the ability to successfully detect and sort errors. Credit: Yale University

Yale researchers have crossed the “break even” point in preserving a bit of quantum information for longer than the lifetime of its constituent parts. They have created a novel system to encode, spot errors, decode, and correct errors in a quantum bit, ie “qubit.” The development of such a robust method of Quantum Error Correction (QEC) has been one of the biggest remaining hurdles in quantum computation.

“This is the first error correction to actually detect and correct naturally occurring errors,” said Robert Schoelkopf, Sterling Professor of Applied Physics and Physics at Yale...

This is an overview of designing and building a custom lab instrument using the Multifluidic Evolutionary Component (MEC) system created at UC Riverside. Credit: UC Riverside

Uni of CA, Riverside researchers have created a Lego-like system of blocks that enables users to custom make chemical and biological research instruments quickly, easily and affordably. The system of 3D-printed blocks can be used in university labs, schools, hospitals, and anywhere there is a need to create scientific tools.

Each block, called Multifluidic Evolutionary Components (MECs) because of their flexibility and adaptability, performs a basic task found in a lab instrument, like pumping fluids, making measurements or interfacing with a user...

Arun Kota’s superomniphobic device can sort droplets by surface tension. Credit: Sanli Movafaghi/Colorado State University

Imagine being able to instantly diagnose diabetes, Ebola or some other disease, simply by watching how a droplet of blood moves on a surface. That’s just one potential impact of new research led by Assistant Prof. Arun Kota, Colorado State University. Kota’s lab makes coatings that repel not just water, but virtually any liquid, including oils and acids – a property called superomniphobicity.

They did it by making their device’s surface tunable, meaning they can manipulate its surface chemistry to turn up or turn down how well it repels liquids...

This is a schematic of an optical tweezer used in a vacuum chamber by Purdue University researchers, who controlled the “electron spin” of a levitated nanodiamond. The advance could find applications in quantum information processing, sensors and studies into the fundamental physics of quantum mechanics. Credit: Purdue University image/ Tongcang Li

Researchers have demonstrated how to control the “electron spin” of a nanodiamond while it is levitated with lasers in a vacuum, an advance that could find applications in quantum information processing, sensors, quantum mechanics studies, and measurement of magnetic and gravitational fields, which could be applied to computer memory and experiments to search for deviations from Newton’s law of gravitation. .

Electrons can be thought of as havin...