For the first time, nitrogen-containing organic molecules have been discovered in a Martian meteorite. The famous meteorite – Allan Hills 84001 – was picked up in Antarctica in 1984. The discovery provides more clues about habitable conditions on early Mars. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-meteorite-alh-84001-1st-discovery-fixed-nitrogen…
Tag: Nature Communications
The exceptional origin of EUV light in hot tin plasma
Extreme ultraviolet light (EUV light) does not naturally occur on Earth, but it can be produced. In nanolithography machines, EUV light is generated using an immensely hot tin plasma. Researchers at ARCNL, in close collaboration with the American Los Alamos National Laboratory, have unraveled how such a plasma emits EUV light at the atomic level, and have made unexpected discoveries, reporting…
Scientists Create Antibody That Defeats Coronavirus in Lab
Scientists created a monoclonal antibody that can defeat the new coronavirus in the lab, an early but promising step in efforts to find treatments and curb the pandemic’s spread. From a report: The experimental antibody has neutralized the virus in cell cultures. While that’s early in the drug development process — before animal research and human trials — the antibody may…
Towards a nanomechanical quantum switchboard
Physicists at Universität Regensburg have coupled the vibrations of a macromolecule—a carbon nanotube—to a microwave cavity, creating a novel and highly miniaturized optomechanical system. The team of Dr. Andreas K. Hüttel achieved this by using the quantization of the electrical charge, i.e., that it is carried by single electrons, as a strong amplifier mechanism. Their findings were published on April 2…
Antibiotic matter waves: The quantum wave nature of a complex antibiotic polypeptide
One of the central tenets of quantum mechanics is the wave-particle duality. It tells us that even massive objects behave like both particles and waves. A number of previous experiments have shown this for electrons, neutrons, atoms and even large molecules. Quantum theory maintains that this is a universal property of matter. However, it had been notoriously difficult to extend this…
When Maxwell’s demon takes its time: Measuring microparticle reaction time
Researchers at the Universities Vienna and Stuttgart have investigated a version of Maxwell’s demon embodied by a delayed feedback force acting on a levitated microparticle. They confirmed new fundamental limits that time delay imposes on the demon’s actions which are not covered by the standard laws of thermodynamics. The team of scientists published their new study in the journal Nature Communications….
Quantum-entangled light from a vibrating membrane
Entanglement, a powerful form of correlation among quantum systems, is an important resource for quantum computing. Researchers from the Quantum Optomechanics group at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, recently entangled two laser beams through bouncing them off the same mechanical resonator, a tensioned membrane. This provides a novel way of entangling disparate electromagnetic fields, from microwave radiation to optical…
Graphene Solar Thermal Film Could Be a New Way To Harvest Renewable Energy
An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: Researchers at the Center for Translational Atomaterials (CTAM) at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, have developed a new graphene-based film that can absorb sunlight with an efficiency of over 90 percent, while simultaneously eliminating most IR thermal emission loss — the first time such a feat has been reported. The…
The imitation game: Scientists describe and emulate new quantum state of entangled photons
A research team from ITMO University, with the help of colleagues from MIPT (Russia) and Politecnico di Torino (Italy), has predicted a novel type of topological quantum state of two photons. Scientists have also applied a new, affordable experimental method for testing this prediction. The method relies on an analogy: Instead of expensive experiments with quantum systems of two or more…
Qubits that operate at room temperature
Scientists from NUST MISIS (Russia) together with colleagues from Sweden, Hungary and U.S., found a way to manufacture stable qubits that operate at room temperature, in contrast to the majority of existing analogues. This opens up new prospects for creating a quantum computer. Moreover, the results of the research can already be used to create high-accuracy magnetometers, biosensors and new quantum…