The core element of our quantum repeater is a cube of glass. We put two independent photons in, and as long as we can detect two photons coming out the other sides we know that we can perform entanglement swapping. Credit: Wits University

Technique paves the way for high bit-rate secure long distance quantum communication. Researchers have demonstrated entanglement swapping and teleportation of orbital angular momentum ‘patterns’ of light. This is a crucial step towards realizing a quantum repeater for high-dimensional entangled states.

Quantum communication over long distances is integral to information security and has been demonstrated in free space and fibre with two-dimensional states, recently over distances exceeding 1200 km between satellites...

Hubble image of Comet Siding Spring before and after filtering, as captured by Wide Field Camera 3 on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, and J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute)

When Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) passed just 140,000 kilometres from Mars on 19th October 2014, depositing a large amount of debris in the martian atmosphere, space agencies coordinated multiple spacecraft to witness the largest meteor shower in recorded history. It was a rare opportunity, as this kind of planetary event occurs only once every 100,000 years...

This is a three-color optical image of a Milky Way sibling. Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey

The most-studied galaxy in the universe – the Milky Way – might not be as “typical” as previously thought, according to a new study. The Milky Way, which is home to Earth and its solar system, is host to several dozen smaller galaxy satellites. These smaller galaxies orbit around the Milky Way and are useful in understanding the Milky Way itself. Early results from the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) Survey indicate that the Milky Way’s satellites are much more tranquil than other systems of comparable luminosity and environment. Many satellites of those “sibling” galaxies are actively pumping out new stars, but the Milky Way’s satellites are mostly inert, the researchers found.

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Experiments by a team of NIH-funded scientists suggests a potential method for halting the expansion of certain brain tumors. Credit: Image courtesy of Michelle Monje, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University

The growth of certain aggressive brain tumors can be halted by cutting off their access to a signaling molecule produced by the brain’s nerve cells, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. When the signaling molecule neuroligin-3 was absent, or when its signal was interrupted with medication, human cancers called high-grade gliomas could not spread in the brains of mice, the researchers found.

“We thought that when we put glioma cells into a mouse brain that was neuroligin-3 deficient, that might decrease tumor growth to some measurable extent...