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Category: computing

Promoters and enhancers: Tool catches gene-controlling DNA sequences doing each other’s jobs

Researchers at the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology have uncovered new evidence that two major types of gene-controlling DNA sequences, promoters and enhancers, operate with a shared logic and often perform the same jobs. The finding, made possible through a high-throughput assay they developed called QUASARR-seq, could reshape how scientists design gene therapies, interpret disease-related mutations, and understand cancer genetics.

New research from the lab of Haiyuan Yu, Tisch University Professor of Computational Biology at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and faculty at the Weill Institute, reveals that drawing a distinction between the two classes gene controllers may be too black and white—they seem to respond to the same biological rules and act in concert.

In a study published in Nature Communications on Jan. 30 and led by Mauricio Paramo, a graduate student at the Weill Institute, the team developed a technology capable of measuring an element’s promoter and enhancer activity simultaneously, in close collaboration with the lab of John Lis, Barbara McClintock Professor of Molecular Biology & Genetics. This is significant because, until now, most technologies could measure only one function at a time, leaving open the question of whether—and how—the two activities interact inside the same DNA sequence.

Dynamical freezing can protect quantum information for near-cosmic timescales

Preserving quantum information is key to developing useful quantum computing systems. But interacting quantum systems are chaotic and follow laws of thermodynamics, eventually leading to information loss. Physicists have long known of a strange exception, called dynamical freezing, when quantum systems shaken at precisely tuned frequencies evade these laws. But how long can this phenomenon postpone thermodynamics?

Not forever, but for an astonishingly long time, Cornell physicists have determined, giving the first quantitative answer. Using a new mathematical framework, they demonstrate that the frozen state can be stabilized long enough to be a useful strategy for preserving information in quantum systems. This can be a promising route for maintaining coherence in quantum computers as the numbers of qubits scale up to the millions.

“It’s like asking, how do you evade the laws of physics from eventually taking over?” said Debanjan Chowdhury, associate professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Imagine that you had a hot cup of coffee that even without a heater, stayed hot. Or a block of ice placed on a heater that never melts. Is that even possible? This has been one of the big open problems in the field of quantum many-body systems.”

Could a niche 80s technology be the key to better quantum computers?

Superconducting computing circuits were briefly heralded as the future of computing in the 1980s. Columnist Karmela Padavic-Callaghan visits a quantum chip foundry where one company is betting this technology’s second act will revolutionise quantum computers.

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

The unbearable hardness of deciding about magic

Identifying the boundary between classical and quantum computation is a central challenge in quantum information. In multi-qubit systems, entanglement and magic are the key resources underlying genuinely quantum behaviour. While entanglement is well understood, magic — essential for universal quantum computation — remains relatively poorly characterised. Here we show that determining membership in the stabilizer polytope, which defines the free states of magic-state resource theory, requires super-exponential time $\exp( n^2)$ in the number of qubits $n$, even approximately. We reduce the problem to solving a $3$-SAT instance on $n^2$ variables and, by invoking the exponential time hypothesis, the result follows. As a consequence, both quantifying and certifying magic are fundamentally intractable: any magic monotone for general states must be super-exponentially hard to compute, and deciding whether an operator is a valid magic witness is equally difficult. As a corollary, we establish the robustness of magic as computationally optimal among monotones. This barrier extends even to classically simulable regimes: deciding whether a state lies in the convex hull of states generated by a logarithmic number of non-Clifford gates is also super-exponentially hard. Together, these results reveal intrinsic computational limits on assessing classical simulability, distilling pathological magic states, and ultimately probing and exploiting magic as a quantum resource.

Researchers unlock hidden dimensions inside a single photon

Researchers have discovered new ways to shape quantum light, creating high-dimensional states that can carry much more information per photon. Using advanced tools like on-chip photonics and ultrafast light structuring, they’re pushing quantum communication and imaging into exciting new territory. Although long-distance transmission remains tricky, innovative approaches—such as topological quantum states—could make these fragile signals far more resilient. The momentum suggests quantum optics is entering a bold new phase.

New technique spots hidden defects to boost reliability of ultrathin electronics

Future devices will continue to probe the frontier of the very small, and at scales where functionality depends on mere atoms, even the tiniest flaw matters. Researchers at Rice University have shown that hard-to-spot defects in a widely used two-dimensional insulator can trap electrical charges and locally weaken the material, making it more likely to fail at lower voltages. The findings are published in Nano Letters.

“By showing practical ways to detect when and where these defects form, we help make future devices more reliable and repeatable,” said Hae Yeon Lee, an assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice, who is a corresponding author on the study.

Building ultrathin electronics such as advanced transistors, photodetectors and quantum devices involves stacking sheets of different 2D materials on top of each other into “heterostructures.” Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), prized for being atomically flat and chemically stable, is a common building block.

What does it mean to compute? Framework maps hidden computations running inside natural dynamic systems

Some computers are easy to spot. Artificial, human-built computers like those found in smartphones and laptops are abstract dynamic systems with observable computational elements like input, output, energy cost, and logical processes. Other computers aren’t so readily recognized.

Scientists have argued that many natural dynamic systems—from cells to brains to turbulence in fluids—carry out computations, too. However, it’s not always been clear what these dynamic systems are computing, or how they might be harnessed to solve tasks, says SFI Professor David Wolpert.

Biology, not physics, holds the key to reality

Three centuries after Newton described the universe through fixed laws and deterministic equations, science may be entering an entirely new phase.

According to biochemist and complex systems theorist Stuart Kauffman and computer scientist Andrea Roli, the biosphere is not a predictable, clockwork system. Instead, it is a self-organising, ever-evolving web of life that cannot be fully captured by mathematical models.

Organisms reshape their environments in ways that are fundamentally unpredictable. These processes, Kauffman and Roli argue, take place in what they call a “Domain of No Laws.”

This challenges the very foundation of scientific thought. Reality, they suggest, may not be governed by universal laws at all—and it is biology, not physics, that could hold the answers.

Tap here to read more.

Frequently distracted? Your brain rhythms may be to blame

Scientists may have new answers to why pop-ups or notifications grab our attention. Turns out our attention is on a cycle, shifting seven to 10 times per second. This rhythmic occurrence may be crucial for survival, as it prevents us from becoming overly focused on one thing in our environment. It could help us to see a car backing up in a parking lot while we search for where we parked, or to duck to avoid a low-hanging tree branch on a walk while watching a kid ride a bike.

However, these windows that shift our attention could also make us more susceptible to distractions, especially in modern times. As we live in a world surrounded by screens, digital alerts, and other visual stimuli, these frequent and innate windows for shifting attention may make it easier to be pulled away from a task.

“For our ancestors who had to continue to monitor the environment for predators while foraging for food, this was a beneficial trait,” said Ian Fiebelkorn, Ph.D., assistant professor of Neuroscience at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester and senior author of a study out in the journal PLOS Biology. “But in our modern environment, with laptops open in front of us and a smartphone nearby, rhythmically occurring windows for beneficial attentional shifts might also work against us. That is, rhythmically occurring windows for attentional shifts are also associated with increased susceptibility to distracting information.”

Your car’s tire sensors could be used to track you

Researchers at IMDEA Networks Institute, together with European partners, have found that tire pressure sensors in modern cars can unintentionally expose drivers to tracking. Over a ten-week study, they collected signals from more than 20,000 vehicles, revealing a hidden privacy risk and highlighting the need for stronger security measures in future vehicle sensor systems.

Most modern cars are equipped with a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), mandatory since the late 2000s in many countries for their contribution to road safety. This system uses small sensors in each wheel to monitor tire pressure and sends wireless signals to the car’s computer to alert the driver if a tire is underinflated.

However, the researchers found that these tire sensors also send a unique ID number in clear, unencrypted wireless signals, meaning that anyone nearby with a simple radio receiver can capture the signal, and recognize the same car again later. Most vehicle tracking today uses cameras that need clear visibility and line-of-sight to a car. TPMS tracking is different: tire sensors automatically send radio signals that pass through walls and vehicles, allowing small hidden wireless receivers to capture them without being seen.

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