Junior Digest

Nobel Physics Prize : some curious things about quantum computing

Stockholm: The Nobel Physics prize was the second of the awards to be given away, on Tuesday, to a Birtish trio — scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz for revealing the secrets of exotic matter.

Thouless, 82, is professor emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle. Haldane, 65, is a professor at Princeton University, and Kosterlitz, born in 1942, teaches at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The laureates will share the eight million Swedish kronor (around $931,000 or 834,000 euros) prize sum. Thouless won one-half of the prize, while Haldane and Hosterlitz share the other half.

“This year’s laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states. They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films. Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter,” said the Nobel jury.

They used topological Physics concepts for their research. Topology, in which the three laureates specialise, is a branch of mathematics that investigates physical properties of matter and space that remain unchanged under deforming forces, including stretching. Topology actually describes properties that only change step-wise.

Superconductivity is when electricity flows through a material without experiencing any resistance or losing energy as heat, while suprafluidity is when a fluid flows without any friction.

In the 1970s it was believed that superconductivity or suprafluidity could not occur in thin layers. Michael Kosterlitz and David Thouless invalidated this by demonstrating that superconductivity could take place at low temperatures. In the 1980s, Thouless explained a previous experiment with thin electrically conducting layers in which conductance was measured as integer steps, then showing that integers were topological. And Duncan Haldane made the discovery that properties of chains of small magnets could be understood using topological concepts in some materials.

A topologist is a person who cannot tell the difference between a coffee mug and a donut — so goes a joke about a little-known scientific field crowned Tuesday with a Nobel Physics Prize. The quip describes it perfectly: topology explains how a material’s shape can be completely deformed into new one without losing its core properties. In the metaphor, the mug and the donut are one and the same. If they were made out of rubber, one could be twisted and stretched into the shape of the other without changing its essence. The two are considered topologically equivalent as each has a hole — the ear of the mug and the centre of the donut.

“You can put your finger through the hole in a teacup handle, but you can’t put it through a potato, so these are two different categories of topological objects,” explained Manuel Asorey of the University of Zaragoza’s department of theoretical physics.

A strange universe of fundamental shapes long existing only in mathematics, the field was introduced into the physics realm just a few decades ago. Indeed, in the mid-20th century theoretical physicist George Gamow said topology was one of two mathematical concepts, along with number theory, that would never apply to physics.

Gamow was wrong.

Today, topology has burgeoned into a wide range of physics sub-fields promising a host of practical applications ranging from supercomputing to superconductors.

The key virtue of topological materials is that they “remain robust regardless of the deforming forces being applied to them,” said David Carpentier, a physicist at France’s CNRS research institute. By shaping materials into “topological states,” scientists hope one day to transport energy or information farther and fastest than possible today. It is hoped that new materials emerging from this research will use much less electricity. But they pose a high risk of overheating, which is where topological insulators with an inherent stability would come in very handy.

The jury said their pioneering work “has boosted frontline research in condensed matter physics, not least because of the hope that topological materials could be used in new generations of electronics and superconductors, or in future quantum computers.” It holds exceptional promise for quantum computing and tiny quantum devices as topological states can transport energy and information without overheating, unlike traditional quantum mechanics. Quantum computers, still on the drawing board, promise superfast processing speeds using the properties of subatomic particles that exist in more than one state at once.

Kosterlitz, speaking to reporters in Helsinki where he was working, joked: “I’ve been waiting for my desk-top quantum computer for years and it’s showing no signs of appearing…At the risk of making a bad mistake, I would say that this quantum computation stuff is a long way from being practical.”

Haldane said his prizewinning discovery had been serendipitous. “Most of the big discoveries are done that way: you stumble on it and you have the luck to recognise you have something very interesting,” he told reporters at the Nobel press conference via videolink. “It’s so surprising that it takes a while to grip, but when you see it you realise why no one had seen it before.”

“The next step will be to create these objects in the lab and try to manipulate them, performing very simple operations,” Nathan Goldman of the Free University of Brussels said.

“Two years ago, I would have said it would take at least two decades to see something on the supermarket shelf” resulting from topology research, Asorey said.

“Today, I would say one decade, maybe less.”

Scottish, French and Dutch-born scientists win Nobel chemistry prize

Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa won the Nobel chemistry prize on Wednesday for work on molecular machines that may lead to developments like new materials, sensors and energy storage systems.

“This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry is about the world’s smallest machines,” said Goran Hansson, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences which conferred the award.

The French, Scottish and Dutch scientists had developed molecules with controllable movements that can perform tasks when energy is added, the Academy said in a statement awarding the 8 million Swedish crown ($931,000) prize.

“The molecular motor is at the same stage as the electric motor was in the 1830s, when scientists displayed various spinning cranks and wheels, unaware that they would lead to electric trains, washing machines, fans and food processors,” it added.

Sauvage is professor emeritus at the University of Strasbourg and director of research emeritus at France’s National Center for Scientific Research.

Stoddart, born in Edinburgh, is professor of chemistry at Northwestern University in the United States, while Feringa is professor in organic chemistry at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

“This is quite unexpected, although it has been in the cards for 25 years, I think. When it happens, it takes your breath away,” Stoddart said in a phone interview, as he watched the ceremony in a live broadcast from his home outside Chicago.

Feringa, when asked his reaction to learning he had won, said: “What I said when I got this message is that I don’t know what to say.”

Chemistry is the third of this year’s Nobel prizes after the medicine and physics laureates were announced on Monday and Tuesday.

The prize is named after dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and has been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with his will.

New fish found in Kerala waters named ‘Scomber indicus’

Kochi, Oct 5 : The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has identified a new species of mackerel in Kerala waters which is expected to boost the state’s fisheries sector.

The black-spotted fish, which is round in shape, has been named ‘Scomber indicus’ by a team of CMFRI scientists led by E M Abdussamad, after their study showed that the new species is distinctly different, both taxonomically and genetically, from the other members of the mackerel family.

The fish is called ‘pulli ayala’ or ‘pulli thiriyan’ by the local fishermen.

The meat texture of the fish is soft and tastes similar to Indian mackerel, according to the fishers, a CMFRI release said here.

“The newly identified Indian chub mackerel is distinct from other members of the mackerel family found earlier in the coastal waters around the world and is expected to boost the fishery of the state,” CMFRI Director A Gopalakrishnan said.

“The species would become a potential resource to form a commercial fishery,” he added.

While a catch of 10 tonnes of the Indian chub mackerel was recorded in the state in 2015, around 25 tonnes of the species was caught from Kerala coasts this year itself, showing the growth of the fish in the state, Gopalakrishnan added.

UK varsity to celebrate work of astrophysicist Chandrasekhar

Nobel-winning astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar is among scientists from the black and minority ethnic (BME) communities whose lives and works will be celebrated at the University of Leicester throughout October, when Britain marks the Black History month.

The university’s Department of Physics and Astronomy is recognising one black and minority ethnic scientist each day with a summary of their life and work. The university attracts a large number of students from India every year.

“Featured men and women, whose lives and achievements will be shown on a screen in the foyer, will include mathematics pioneer Benjamin Banneker, astronaut Mae Jemison, astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, cosmologist Hiranya Peiris, and aerospace engineer Mary Jackson who’s story is told in the forthcoming movie Hidden Figures,” the university said.

Organisers said the idea was to raise awareness about the under-representation of black and minority ethnic people in the industry, and to celebrate those who have changed the way the universe and everything in it is viewed.

One of the goals of the respected international festival is to encourage more BME students to study and remain in academia.

The Black History Month is an annual celebration and recognition event observed in America, Canada, and the UK which remembers the important people and events in the history of black and minority ethnic people around the world.

It is celebrated each year in the United States, where it was first held in 1976, and Canada (1995) in February, and in Britain (1987) in October.

No hangover,no headache , it is ‘Alcosynth’
A new type of synthetic alcohol has been discovered which could allow people to enjoy the sociable effects of a few pints, but skip the hangover that usually follows.

The new drink, known as ‘alcosynth’, is designed to mimic the positive effects of alcohol but doesn’t cause a dry mouth, nausea and a throbbing head, according to its creator Professor David Nutt.

The Imperial College Professor and former government drugs advisor told The Independent he has patented around 90 different alcosynth compounds.

Two of them are now being rigorously tested for widespread use, he said – and by 2050, he hopes alcosynth could completely replace normal alcohol.

“It will be there alongside the scotch and the gin, they’ll dispense the alcosynth into your cocktail and then you’ll have the pleasure without damaging your liver and your heart,” he said.

“They go very nicely into mojitos. They even go into something as clear as a Tom Collins. One is pretty tasteless, the other has a bitter taste.”By researching substances that work on the brain in a similar way to alcohol, Professor Nutt and his team have been able to design a drug which they say is non-toxic and replicates the positive effects of alcohol.“We know a lot about the brain science of alcohol; it’s become very well understood in the last 30 years,” said Professor Nutt.

“So we know where the good effects of alcohol are mediated in the brain, and can mimic them. And by not touching the bad areas, we don’t have the bad effects.”

Advocates of alcosynth believe it could revolutionise public health by relieving the burden of alcohol on the health service.

According to Alcohol Concern, drinking is the third biggest risk factor for disease and death in the UK, after smoking and obesity.”People want healthier drinks,” said Professor Nutt. “The drinks industry knows that by 2050 alcohol will be gone.””They know that and have been planning for this for at least 10 years. But they don’t want to rush into it, because they’re making so much money from conventional alcohol.”

Early experiments into alcosynth, such as those reported on by BBC’s Horizon in 2011, used a derivative of benzodiazepine – the same class of drugs as Valium.

Mr Nutt said his new drinks did not contain benzodiazepine, and their formulas would remain a closely guarded, patented secret.

Based on The Independent report.

Scientists use stem cells to grow 3D lung-in-a-dish

Los Angeles: Scientists, including those of Indian origin, have successfully grown three-dimensional (3D) lungs in the lab, using stem cells, which can be used to study diseases that are difficult to understand with conventional methods.

By coating tiny gel beads with lung-derived stem cells and then allowing them to self-assemble into the shapes of the air sacs found in human lungs, researchers created 3D “organoids”. The laboratory-grown tissue can be used to study diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which has been difficult to study using conventional methods, researchers said.

“While we haven’t built a fully functional lung, we’ve been able to take lung cells and place them in the correct geometrical spacing and pattern to mimic a human lung,” said Brigitte Gomperts, an associate professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the US.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic lung disease characterised by scarring of the lungs. The scarring makes the lungs thick and stiff, which over time results in progressively worsening shortness of breath and lack of oxygen to the brain and vital organs.

After diagnosis, most people with the disease live about three to five years. Though researchers do not know what causes idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in all cases, for a small percentage of people it runs in their families.

Additionally, cigarette smoking and exposure to certain types of dust can increase the risk of developing the disease. To study the effect of genetic mutations or drugs on lung cells, researchers have previously relied on 2D cultures of the cells.

However when they take cells from people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and grow them on these flat cultures, the cells appear healthy. The inability to model idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the laboratory makes it difficult to study the biology of the disease and design possible treatments. Researchers, including Manash Paul, Saravanan Karumbayaram
and Preethi Vijayaraj from UCLA, started with stem cells created using cells from adult lungs.

They used those cells to coat sticky hydrogel beads, and then they partitioned these beads into small wells, each only seven millimetres across. Inside each well, the lung cells grew around the beads, which linked them and formed an evenly distributed three-dimensional pattern.

To show that these tiny organoids mimicked the structure of actual lungs, the researchers compared the lab-grown tissues with real sections of human lung. When researchers added certain molecular factors to the 3D cultures, the lungs developed scars similar to those seen in people who have idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, something that could not be accomplished using 2D cultures of these cells.

Using the new lung organoids, researchers will be able to study the biological underpinnings of lung diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and also test possible treatments for the diseases.

The renowned theoretical physicist has gone as far as providing humanity with a deadline for finding another planet to colonize: We have 1,000 years.Remaining on Earth any longer, Hawking believes, places humanity at great risk of encountering another mass extinction.

“We must … continue to go into space for the future of humanity,” the 74-year-old Cambridge professor said during a speech Tuesday at Oxford University Union, according to the Daily Express.

“I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet,” he added.

During his hour-long speech, Hawking told the audience that Earth’s cataclysmic end may be hastened by humankind, which will continue to devour the planet’s resources at unsustainable rates, the Express reported.

His wide-ranging talk touched upon the origins of the universe and Einstein’s theory of relativity, as well as humanity’s creation myths and God. Hawking also discussed “M-theory,” which Leron Borsten of PhysicsWorld.com explains as “proposal for a unified quantum theory of the fundamental constituents and forces of nature.”Though the challenges ahead are immense, Hawking said, it is a “glorious time to be alive and doing research into theoretical physics.”

“Our picture of the universe has changed a great deal in the last 50 years, and I am happy if I have made a small contribution,” he added.

Speaking to audience members in a public Q&A session ahead of the annual BBC Reith Lectures, Hawking also said that leaving the planet behind was our best hope for survival.

The key, he noted, was surviving the precarious century ahead.“Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years. By that time we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race.”

Since 2009, NASA has been hunting for Earthlike planets with the potential for human colonization.

Researchers have discovered more than 4,600 “candidate” planets and another 2,300 or so confirmed planets, according to the agency.“The first exoplanet orbiting another star like our sun was discovered in 1995,” according to NASA. “Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the realm of science fiction just 21 years ago. Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamt about for thousands of years.”

Before we have a chance to relocate, Hawking says, we’ll first need to solve the potential threat created by technology.

While Hawking thinks technology has the capacity to ensure mankind’s survival, previous statements suggest the cosmologist is simultaneously grappling with the potential threat it poses. When it comes to discussing that threat, Hawking is unmistakably blunt.

“I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” Hawking told the BBC in a 2014 interview that touched upon everything from online privacy to his affinity for his robotic-sounding voice.

Despite its current usefulness, he cautioned, further developing A.I.could prove a fatal mistake.

“Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it will take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate,” Hawking warned in recent months. “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.”

Junior Digest

Nobel Physics Prize : some curious things about quantum computing

Scottish, French and Dutch-born scientists win Nobel chemistry prize

New fish found in Kerala waters named ‘Scomber indicus’

UK varsity to celebrate work of astrophysicist Chandrasekhar

No hangover,no headache , it is ‘Alcosynth’

Scientists use stem cells to grow 3D lung-in-a-dish

Stephen Hawking warns against seeking out aliens

India can become a player in global space program : Stephen Petranek

Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM & Microsoft on one Artificial Intelligence platform

What shaped Pluto’s huge icy heart?

China commissions world’s largest radio telescope

New touchscreen technology for gen-next smartphones, TVs

Artificial Intelligence can end civilisation : Stephen Hawking

Gujarat, not Rajasthan, is the sunniest state : ISRO study

Bermuda Triangle’s mystery : Bizarre hexagonal clouds could be the answer

China’s space station ‘out of control’ and on crash course to Earth

3,000-year-old mummy found in Egyptian tomb

Water detected on metallic asteroid Psyche

Indian-origin MIT scientist wins $ 4,000 award for research on radio waves

Humans have only 1000 years left to find a new planet : Hawking

Indian scientists detect crack in Earth’s magnetic shield

Four new elements officially added to periodic table

Kite-driven power stations to open in Scotland

A facelift for the Moon every 81,000 years