How Schrödinger’s cat could help improve quantum computers

Schrödinger's cat
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Quantum computers could be made with fewer overall components, thanks to technology inspired by Schrödinger’s cat. A team of researchers from Amazon Web Services has used “bosonic cat qubits,” to improve the ability of quantum computers to correct errors. The demonstration of quantum error correction requiring reduced hardware overheads is reported in a paper published in Nature.

The system uses so-called cat qubits (qubits are the quantum equivalent to classical computing bits), which are designed to be resistant against certain types of noise and errors that might disrupt the output of quantum systems. This approach requires fewer overall components to achieve quantum error correction than other designs.

Quantum computers are prone to errors, ...

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Adsorptive regolith on Mars soaks up water, updated model shows

Adsorptive Regolith on Mars Soaks Up Water, Researchers Reveal

Mars, the next frontier in space exploration, still poses many questions for scientists. The planet was once more hospitable, characterized by a warm and wet climate with liquid oceans. But today Mars is cold and dry, with most water now located below the surface. Understanding how much water is stored offers critical information for energy exploration, as well as life sustainability on the planet.

A research group from Tohoku University has helped shed light on this by improving an existing Mars climate model. The enhanced model accommodates the various properties of Martian regolith, or the loose deposits of solid rock that comprise Martian soil. The study is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

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Magnetic microrobots remove blood clots from sheep iliac artery

Magnetic microrobots remove blood clots from sheep iliac artery
The engagement with the blood clot for volume reduction and revascularization of blood flow is achieved through three methods: mechanical fragmentation using an untethered magnetic robot (UMR), chemical lysis employing fibrinolytics, and a hybrid approach that combines both fragmentation and chemical lysis to mitigate the risk of peripheral emboli or hemolysis. Credit: Applied Physics Reviews (2025). DOI: 10.1063/5.0233677

Researchers at the TechMed Center of the University of Twente and Radboud University Medical Center have removed blood clots with wireless magnetic robots. This innovation promises to transform treatment for life-threatening vascular conditions like thrombosis.

Cardiovascular diseases such as thrombosis are a major global health challenge...

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New study identifies differences between human and AI-generated text

robot typing
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers set out to see how accurately large language models (LLMs) can match the style of text written by humans. Their findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“We humans, we adapt how we write and how we speak to the situation. Sometimes we’re formal or informal, or there are different styles for different contexts,” said Alex Reinhart, lead author and associate teaching professor in the Department of Statistics & Data Science.

“What we learned is that LLMs, like ChatGPT and Llama, write a certain way, and they don’t necessarily adapt to the writing style...

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