Wormholes help Resolve Black Hole Information Paradox

Figure 1: As depicted in science fiction, a wormhole is a shortcut connecting two points in spacetime. A RIKEN physicist and two collaborators have used a new spacetime geometry with a wormhole-like structure to show that information is not necessarily irretrievably lost from black holes as they evaporate. © MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

A RIKEN physicist and two colleagues have found that a wormhole—a bridge connecting distant regions of the Universe—helps to shed light on the mystery of what happens to information about matter consumed by black holes.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicts that nothing that falls into a black hole can escape its clutches...

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Novel Treatment makes Pancreatic Cancer Susceptible to Immunotherapy, mouse study shows

New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that blocking a major inflammatory pathway in pancreatic cancer makes the tumors sensitive to chemotherapy and a type of immunotherapy that helps the immune system’s T cells to attack cancer cells. Above, pancreatic cancer cells are shown in green. T cells are in red.

Washington University to lead national clinical trial investigating therapy. A new study – in mice – suggests that blocking a major inflammatory pathway that is activated in pancreatic cancer makes the tumors sensitive to chemotherapy and a type of immunotherapy that prompts the immune system’s T cells to attack the cancer cells. The therapy more than doubled survival in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most...

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Engineering 2D Semiconductors with Built-in Memory Functions

A team of researchers at The University of Manchester’s National Graphene Institute (NGI) and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has demonstrated that slightly twisted 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) display room-temperature ferroelectricity.

This characteristic, combined with TMDs’ outstanding optical properties, can be used to build multi-functional optoelectronic devices such as transistors and LEDs with built-in memory functions on nanometre length scale.

Ferroelectrics are materials with two or more electrically polarisable states that can be reversibly switched with the application of an external electric field. This material property is ideal for applications such as non-volatile memory, microwave devices, sensors and transistors...

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Space Station to host ‘Self-Healing’ Quantum Communications Tech Demo

SEAQUE will be hosted on the International Space Station by the Nanoracks Bishop airlock. The blue-and-gold brackets attached to the side of the airlock are for external payloads. The technology demonstration will be installed at one of those sites.
Credit: NASA

A tiny experiment launching to the International Space Station later this year could set the stage for a future global quantum network. Called the Space Entanglement and Annealing QUantum Experiment (or SEAQUE), the milk-carton-size technology demonstration will test two communications technologies in the harsh environment of space.

Quantum computers hold the promise of operating millions of times faster than conventional computers, and distributed quantum sensors may lead to new understandings of Earth and our place in the u...

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