Microscopic marine life includes genetically diverse lifeforms. This image shows diatoms, a type of microalgae, collected in Russian waters and arranged on a microscope slide in 1952 by Albert Brigger. The scale bar is one-tenth of a millimeter.California Academy of Sciences/Flickr
Microscopic marine life forms help in generating oxygen and taking up carbon dioxide just like rainforests on land. But how do they know when it is day or night? Can they see? By analysing RNA from seawater samples, researchers have now identified four main groups of photoreceptors (cells that are triggered by light). The team notes that the discovery could help in the field of optogenetics, where light is used to control a cell s functions.
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//]]>// >By John P. Mello Jr.
Feb 3, 2021 4:33 AM PT
A step toward engineering a new generation of powerful quantum computers has been made by a team of scientists and engineers at the University of Sydney, Microsoft and EQUS, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems.
The team, which published their findings in the Jan. 25 issue of Nature Electronics, invented a cryogenic computer chip capable of functioning at temperatures near absolute zero, which could enable a new crop of high performance quantum computers capable of performing calculations with thousands of qubits, or more.
Qubits are the quantum equivalent of the bits used by traditional computers. Because qubits aren t binary they don t process information using zeroes and ones they re capable of much faster performance. For a variety of reasons, however, quantum computers, up to now, could only accommodate a few dozen qubits. That s why the new cryo chip, called Gooseb
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Beyond qubits: next big step to scale up quantum computing Through the Microsoft partnership with the University, Professor David Reilly and colleagues have invented a device that operates at 40 times colder than deep space to directly control thousands of qubits, the building blocks of quantum technology.
The control platform with the cryogenic chip to control thousands of qubits. The invention will help quantum engineers overcome the input-output bottleneck preventing quantum machines scaling to useful devices.
Scientists and engineers at the University of Sydney and Microsoft Corporation have opened the next chapter in quantum technology with the invention of a single chip that can generate control signals for thousands of qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers.
IC can control thousands of Qubits
Researchers at the University of Sydney and Microsoft have come up with a chip that can generate control signals for thousands of qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers.
“To realise the potential of quantum computing, machines will need to operate thousands if not millions of qubits,” says researcher Professor David Reilly.
“The world’s biggest quantum computers currently operate with just 50 or so qubits,” he said, “this small scale is partly because of limits to the physical architecture that control the qubits. Our new chip puts an end to those limits.”
Most quantum systems require quantum bits, or qubits, to operate at temperatures close to absolute zero (-273.15 degrees).
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IMAGE: Professor David Reilly from the School of Physics at the University of Sydney holds a joint position with Microsoft Corporation. view more
Credit: University of Sydney
Scientists and engineers at the University of Sydney and Microsoft Corporation have opened the next chapter in quantum technology with the invention of a single chip that can generate control signals for thousands of qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers. To realise the potential of quantum computing, machines will need to operate thousands if not millions of qubits, said Professor David Reilly, a designer of the chip who holds a joint position with Microsoft and the University of Sydney.