181 articles from THURSDAY 2.9.2021

Researchers find a way to check that quantum computers return accurate answers

Quantum computers are advancing at a rapid pace and are already starting to push the limits of the world's largest supercomputers. Yet, these devices are extremely sensitive to external influences and thus prone to errors which can change the result of the computation. This is particularly challenging for quantum computations that are beyond the reach of our trusted classical computers, where we...

New source for earthquakes and tsunamis in the Greater Tokyo Region identified

Researchers have discovered geologic evidence that unusually large earthquakes and tsunamis from the Tokyo region—located near tectonic plate boundaries that are recognized as a seismic hazard source—may be traceable to a previously unconsidered plate boundary. The team, headed by Simon Fraser University Earth scientist Jessica Pilarczyk, has published its research today in Nature Geoscience.

Negative triangularity—a positive for tokamak fusion reactors

Tokamak devices use strong magnetic fields to confine and to shape the plasma that contains the fuel that achieves fusion. The shape of the plasma affects the ease or difficulty of achieving a viable fusion power source. In a conventional tokamak, the cross-section of the plasma is shaped like the capital letter D. When the straight part of the D faces the "donut hole" side of the donut-shaped...

Paving the path to electrically-pumped lasers from colloidal-quantum-dot solutions

In a new review article in Nature Photonics, scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory assess the status of research into colloidal quantum dot lasers with a focus on prospective electrically pumped devices, or laser diodes. The review analyzes the challenges for realizing lasing with electrical excitation, discusses approaches to overcome them, and surveys recent advances toward this...

Copper and PTFE stick together to support better 5G

The amount of digital communication supporting our daily lives continues to increase. This means there is a constant need to improve hardware, including optimizing the performance of printed wiring boards (PWBs). Researchers from Osaka University have demonstrated a method for strongly combining polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and smooth cooper foil. They presented their findings at the...

How much energy do we need to achieve a decent life for all?

For many, an increase in living standards would require an increase in energy provision. At the same time, meeting current climate goals under the Paris Agreement would benefit from lower energy use. IIASA researchers have assessed how much energy is needed to provide the global poor with a decent life and have found that this can be reconciled with efforts to meet climate targets.

Nursing Home COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Protect The Most Vulnerable, But Pose a Hidden Threat to Residents

Some two weeks before U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Aug. 18 that nursing homes must require their staff to get vaccinated or risk losing their Medicare and Medicaid funding, Genesis HealthCare, which manages about 250 facilities nationwide that offer long-term care and other services, had said its workers would need to be vaccinated. “The growing spread of the Delta variant makes...

Survey shows that women are more likely to experience technical paper authorship disagreements

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions has found via survey that women are more likely to experience technical paper authorship disagreements than men. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes how they conducted a survey of thousands of researchers around the globe regarding technical paper authorship issues and what was learned from it.

Degassing data suggests Mt. Etna began showing signs of pressure buildup months before 2018 eruption

A team of researchers from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, in Italy, has found evidence showing that magma pressure had begun building up deep in Mt. Etna's reservoir several months before the 2018 eruption. They also found evidence of degassing. In their paper, published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their study of data from gas monitors situated on the...

TRACS set the stage in flatworm regeneration

People who fish and regularly use earthworms as bait may be familiar with the animal's ability to regenerate a head or tail when cut in two. Yet while impressive, an earthworm's regenerative capacity is child's play compared with that of the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea. This species, a type of flatworm, can regrow an entire animal from tiny tissue fragments as minuscule as 1/279th of the...

Uncommon byproducts of organochlorine pesticides found in the livers of raptors

A research team in Ehime University, Japan conducted a comprehensive profiling of chlorinated and brominated compounds bioaccumulated in the liver of various wild bird species from Osaka, Japan in order to find potentially harmful but "hidden" contaminants. The team found a specific accumulation of several groups of typically unmonitored halogenated contaminants in raptors, including those so far...

New superconducting material found

The phenomenon of superconductivity, providing current transmission without dissipation and a host of unique magnetic properties arising from macroscopic quantum coherence, was first discovered over a century ago. It was not understood until 1957, after which it quickly became clear that superconductors could in principle exist with a wide variety of the fundamental characteristic often referred...

Materials for superconducting qubits

The connection between microscopic material properties and qubit coherence are not well understood despite practical evidence that material imperfections present an obstacle to applications of superconducting qubits. In a new report now published on Communications Materials, Anjali Premkumar and a team of scientists in electrical engineering, nanomaterials, physics and angstrom engineering at...