In this week’s edition of the prototype, we explore the new Microsoft hardware paradigm for quantum calculation, how we can prevent an asteroid from hitting the Earth, why you should consider eating more grapes and more. You can sign up to get the prototype in your box here.
Microsoft
Tarvalhis weekMicrosoft revealed Majorana 1, a chip that uses a new type of quantum computing architecture. The company has worked for decades on this technology, which has the potential to revolutionize the calculation by being able to solve the problems that would take conventional computers years. Microsoft researchers published their findings in Nature
If these results continue, this chip can help solve one of the biggest challenges in quantum calculation. This problem is that the links between “quantum bits” or cube for February are extremely fragile, which leads to calculating errors. These errors are usually corrected at the software level, but this slows down the process significantly.
Microsoft said its new chip is based on what it calls a topological cube, which was first theorized in the 1990s. In theory, the links between topological cubes are stronger at the physical level, means they They produce fewer errors to correct (the exchange is that it makes quantum information more difficult to measure, which is why it takes decades to build one). Microsoft said in its announcement that with this success, the company will “realize quantum computers capable of solving significant problems, on the industrial scale in years, not decades”.
Scott Aaronson, a quantum computing researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, He wrote in a blog post discussing Microsoft’s announcement that it may be too early to show how much the influential Microsoft disclosure will be, noting that topological quad are now where other quantum calculation efforts were about 20 years ago.
“Topological cubes can earn if, and only if they turn out to be so much Most reliable that they jump previous approaches – a type of transistor similar to the vacuum tube and electromechanical relay, “he wrote.” If this will happen is still an open question to say it extremely soft. “
Stay okay.
Can we stop this asteroid to hit the Earth?
This part of Siberia was hit by falling meteoric pieces on July 30, 1908 in what was called the Tunguska event, likely caused by an asteroid for the size of 2024 yr4
Bettmann archive
New Asteroid Observations 2024 Yr4 (who really needs an attractive name at this point) suggest some good news: now there are only about 1 in 360 chances to hit the land in 2032. At one point, the danger was judged to be up to 3.1 %. For now the asteroid is believed to be between 130 and 300 meters in diameter, so it is not something that would destroy the planet if it hit – the most likely scenario is that it would be blown into the atmosphere. But it wouldn’t be a good thing for anyone nearby.
“Basically it would be like a nuclear weapon, without radiation and fire,” Robin George Andrews, author of How to kill an asteroid He told me. His latest book sinks into the science of protecting the planet from asteroids. He said that if the year 2024 Yr4 is on the largest side, the explosion would be “capable of knocking on multi -storey buildings for a few miles from the place of influence”.
For now the chances of asteroid striking soil are still quite small, and when it comes to observing again, scientists are likely to determine that it will be lost.
But if the Earth is on its way, there is a possibility. For example, two years ago, NASA began the mission of the double asteroid (DART) resurrection test, a small spaceship which successfully collided in an asteroid about 530 meters to successfully change its orbit. It could potentially do the same with any asteroid approaching the Earth, though Andrews noted that time could be a challenge here.
“You need about 10 years to plan a proper deviation mission,” he told me. “Now, I’m sure, in an emergency, it can change, but unintentional consequences can be terrible,” such as its unbearable breakdown in such a way as to do more harm than if left alone.
Another option for diversifying an asteroid, Andrews said, may be bursting a nuclear weapon near the asteroid to push it out of course. “It would give much more an impulse to an asteroid [than a DART-style spacecraft]”He said. “There are risks and it can go wrong for all kinds of reasons, but if it were a real emergency, I think that would go out in planning the discussions.”
Week discovery: a soil treatment that seizes carbon
All over the world, farmers routinely add calcium carbonate and similar materials to the soil to reduce its acidity and help crops grow. But new research shows that similar materials – silicate -kalcium and magnesium oxide – can provide the same function with an added bonus: on the scale, they can potentially attract billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and crystallize it, offering a possible solution to change the climate.
Last limit: Callisto may have an ocean
Jupiter’s Moon Callisto can have an ocean of salt water under its surface. This is the suggestion of a new data analysis of the moon that was collected by the Galileo spaceship in the 1990s. The team studied information about Moon’s magnetic fields from all eight Galileo flights, including new statistical techniques to determine If its ionosoffeer – the conductive electrical part of its atmosphere – was enough to explain it. The team revealed that Callisto’s ionosphere could not only be accountable for its magnetic properties, making it more likely a liquid ocean with electric conductors, the salty should also be present.
Black history in science and technical
When I was a kid at school, I learned that Robert Peary was the first person to arrive at the North Pole in 1909. But I did not learn about the four members of his team’s Inu who also reached the pole. I didn’t even learn about Matthew Henson, a black man from Baltimore who accompanied him on the trip and who built and maintained the wooden slides that the team traveled to reach the North Pole. Henson was an eternal explorer, traveling first with trading ships at the age of 12 in ports around the world. He first met Peary in 1887, and the pair went to numerous expeditions together for over 20 years.
What else have I written this week
In my next newspaper, Innovationrx, my colleague Amy Feldman and I watched a new bioteknar fund for beginnings hit by NIH Cuts, a shift in the USDA influenza influenza strategy, a new approval of the invasive meningococcal disease, model Last of he nvidia’s life sciences and more.
Technology sciences and news
Doctors may soon have another tool in their arsenal to fight Ebola epidemics: A newly detected antibody that can help block infection by the virus.
Researchers grew a synthetic diamond that is more difficult than natural ones Warming and compressing graphite in such a way that the diamond is formed with a hexagonal grate, rather than in the cubic form found in nature.
Quantum Computing D-Wave is cooperating with Staque Information Consulting To develop hybrid quantum applications to optimize course systems for autonomous tractors.
A clinical test in the early stage of an MRNA cancer vaccine discovered that it reduced the risk of repeating the post -surgery pancreatic cancer.
A new study found that the nucleus of a lead isotope is not entirely sphericalAs previously thought, it may mean that current models of atomic nuclear structures should be reviewed.
Pro Science Tip: Build muscles by eating grapes
Are you trying to keep some strength profits? You can find any help in the line of products, suggests a new study published in the newspaper provisionswhich finds that grapes help maintain muscle mass (in mice, however). To conduct the study, researchers fed the equivalent of two daily powder grape services for both male and female rats during the 18 months, starting in the first year of their lives. They were compared to rats that did not feed grapes. Researchers found rats eating grapes had healthier muscles, and also that they had more expressions of genes associated with muscle health, and less expressions of genes associated with muscle degeneration. Researchers then aim to study if the effect continues on humans, but in the meantime, it cannot hurt to grab some grapes and be torn down after a good exercise.
What is entertaining me this week
During the holiday weekend I went to the theater to see Captain America: The new bold world. I really liked it. Maybe it’s not a classic Marvel movie but it’s definitely in 25%upper. I love Anthony Mackie in the role and he played very well in front of Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross. Definitely is definitely a ticket if nothing but seeing a good blocker on the big screen again.