Smart cable sharing gives quantum computers a big boost

An artist’s rendering of time multiplexing of control signals to a quantum computer.
The control signals for single-qubit gates (short blocks) and two-qubit gates (long blocks) travel through common cables (tunnels) to switches, which distribute them among the qubits (spheres) based on switching signals (diamonds). By ordering the control signals in a clever way, akin to playing Tetris, traffic jams in the flow of control signals can largely be avoided and programs on the quantum computer can be executed almost as fast as if each qubit had its own cable for control signals.
Credit: Chalmers University of Technology | Boid

A major obstacle in the development of powerful quantum computers is the growing number of cables required to control a computer as the number of qubits increases...

Read More

A common nutrient could supercharge cancer treatment

Orange veggies
Zeaxanthin is a carotenoid, a type of yellow-orange pigment found in plants.

A simple nutrient from everyday vegetables could help supercharge the body’s fight against cancer. A common eye-health nutrient, zeaxanthin, may also help the body fight cancer more effectively. Scientists discovered it strengthens Tcells and enhances the impact of immunotherapy treatments. Found in everyday vegetables and supplements, it’s safe, accessible, and shows strong potential as a cancer therapy booster. Human trials are the next step.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have uncovered a surprising new role for zeaxanthin, a plant-based compound best known for supporting eye health...

Read More

Shredded stars reveal how black holes ignite trillion-sun flares

How black holes light up the dark

Supermassive black holes are among the most enigmatic objects in the universe. They typically weigh millions or even billions of times the mass of the sun and sit at the centers of most large galaxies. At the heart of the Milky Way lies Sagittarius A*, our galaxy’s supermassive blackhole, with a mass of about four million suns. But these black holes do not emit light, so astronomers can only detect them indirectly through their effects on nearby stars and gas. Artist’s depiction of a supermassive black hole tearing apart a star, with roughly half of the stellar debris flung back into space while the remainder forms a glowing accretion disk around the black hole. Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab

In a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Eric Coughlin, assista...

Read More

Previously unrecognized immune response could enhance defense against cancer

In a paradigm-breaking study, researchers have discovered a novel way the immune system, specifically Tcells, attack their target cells, reshaping long-held assumptions in immunology and demonstrating direct implications for the field of cancer immunology and bone marrow transplantation. The team consists of Dr. Pavan Reddy, director of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and his team, in collaboration with Drs. Arul Chinnaiyan, S P Hicks Endowed Professor of Pathology, and Marcin Cieslik, assistant professor of pathology, both from University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center. The study is published in Nature Immunology.

Rewriting the rules of T cell biology
The immune system relies on molecules called major histocompatibility complexes (M...

Read More