Cortical Labs hopes neuronal chips will do much more than shoot pixelated demons.
Category: computing
Quantum internet materializes in Germany due to a 30-kilometer breakthrough
Something once thought too delicate for real cities just survived them. A quiet test in Germany hints that the next internet may be both unbreakable and already under our feet.
On a 30-kilometer loop of commercial fiber in Berlin, researchers just teleported data while ordinary internet traffic flowed on the same line without a hiccup. The feat, executed by T-Labs with Qunnect’s Carina platform, kept delicate quantum states steady against city vibrations and temperature swings, hitting 95 percent fidelity in real time. It shows that today’s networks can carry tomorrow’s quantum links, with stakes that range from unbreakable cryptography to connected quantum computers. For Deutsche Telekom’s Abdu Mudesir, it also signals a path to European technological sovereignty as the system scales to longer distances and more nodes.
All-in-Focus Fourier Ptychographic Microscopy via 3D Implicit Neural Representation
Microscopy has long been essential to biomedical research, enabling detailed analyses of complex samples. Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM), a computational imaging technique, provides high-resolution, wide-field images without requiring extensive hardware modifications. However, current FPM algorithms struggle with samples exhibiting depth variations, such as tilted or 3-dimensional (3D) objects. The limited depth of field (DoF) leads to images with only focal-plane areas in sharp focus, while regions outside appear blurred. To address this limitation, we propose an all-in-focus FPM algorithm using physics-informed 3D neural representations to reconstruct sharp, wide-field images of 3D objects under limited DoF. Unlike previous methods, our approach samples the full depth range to create a 3D feature volume that incorporates spatial and depth information.
Large-Scale Neuromorphic Spiking Array Processors: A Quest to Mimic the Brain
Neuromorphic engineering (NE) encompasses a diverse range of approaches to information processing that are inspired by neurobiological systems, and this feature distinguishes neuromorphic systems from conventional computing systems. The brain has evolved over billions of years to solve difficult engineering problems by using efficient, parallel, low-power computation. The goal of NE is to design systems capable of brain-like computation. Numerous large-scale neuromorphic projects have emerged recently. This interdisciplinary field was listed among the top 10 technology breakthroughs of 2014 by the MIT Technology Review and among the top 10 emerging technologies of 2015 by the World Economic Forum.
3D-printed ‘plug’ links fiber optics to photonic chips with low loss
Physicists and chemists at Heidelberg University have realized a photonic microchip that is driven by light just as easily as electronic components via a “plug.” Their development could serve as the basis for fast and cost-effective production of photonic integrated systems that are of great importance for implementing innovative computing and communications systems.
Prof. Dr. Wolfram Pernice of the Kirchhoff Institute for Physics headed up the research on this novel coupling concept for light-controlled chips. The results appear in the journal Science Advances.
Catching light in air: Programmable Mie voids boost light matter interaction
Atomically thin semiconductors such as tungsten disulfide (WS2) are promising materials for future photonic technologies. Despite being only a single layer of atoms thick, they host tightly bound excitons—pairs of electrons and holes that interact strongly with light—and can efficiently generate new colors of light through nonlinear optical processes such as second-harmonic generation.
These properties make them attractive for quantum optics, sensing, and on-chip light sources. At the same time, their extreme thinness imposes a basic limitation: There is very little material for light to interact with. As a result, emission and frequency conversion are often weak unless the surrounding photonic environment is carefully engineered.
A study published in Advanced Photonics introduces a new way to address this challenge by reshaping not the two-dimensional material itself, but the space beneath it. The researchers demonstrate a hybrid platform in which a monolayer of WS2 is placed on top of nanoscale air cavities, known as Mie voids, carved into a high-index crystal of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3). The work shows that these voids can strongly enhance light emission and nonlinear optical signals, while also allowing direct visualization of localized optical modes.
A rewritable DNA hard drive may help solve the growing data storage crisis
Around the world, scientists are exploring an unexpected solution to the growing data crisis: storing digital information in synthetic DNA. The idea is simple but powerful—DNA is one of the most compact, durable information systems on Earth. But one issue has held the field back. Once data is written into DNA, it can’t be changed.
Now, researchers at the University of Missouri are helping to solve that problem by transforming DNA from a one-time medium into a rewritable digital hard drive. Their research is published in the journal PNAS Nexus.
“DNA is incredible—it stores life’s blueprint in a tiny, stable package,” said Li-Qun “Andrew” Gu, a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at Mizzou’s College of Engineering. “We wanted to see if we could store and rewrite information at the molecular level faster, simpler and more efficiently than ever before.”
Heavier hydrogen makes silicon T centers shine brighter for quantum networks
Quantum technologies, computers or other devices that operate leveraging quantum mechanical effects, rely on the precise control of light and matter. Over the past decades, quantum physicists and material scientists have been trying to identify systems that can reliably generate photons (i.e., light particles) and could thus be used to create quantum technologies.
One approach for generating photons relies on silicon color centers, such as the emerging T center. Color centers are defects or irregularities in the crystal structure of silicon characterized by a different arrangement of atoms.
The T center and other silicon color centers can emit light in the wavelength band that is already used by fiber-optic internet cables, which is desirable for the development of quantum networks and quantum communication systems.
Scientists unveil universal aging mechanism in glassy materials
“Glass” has a unique and distinct meaning in physics—one that refers not just to the transparent material we associate with window glass. Instead, it refers to any system that looks solid but is not in true equilibrium and continues to change extremely slowly over time. Examples include window glass, plastics, metallic glasses, spin glasses (i.e., magnetic systems), and even some biological and computational systems.
When a liquid is cooled very quickly—a process called quenching—it doesn’t have time to organize into a crystal but becomes stuck in a disordered state far from equilibrium. Its properties—like stiffness and structure—slowly evolve through a process called “aging.”
Now, a research team from the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has proposed a new theoretical framework for understanding the universal aging behavior of glassy materials. The study is published in the journal Science Advances.
Florida woman imprisoned for massive Microsoft license fraud scheme
A Florida woman was sentenced to 22 months in prison for running a massive years-long scheme to traffic thousands of stolen Microsoft Certificate of Authenticity (COA) labels.
52-year-old Heidi Richards (also known as Heidi Hastings, Heidi Shaffer, and Heidi Williams), who operated an e-commerce business called Trinity Software Distribution, was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.
COA labels are small stickers that authenticate software and carry unique product key codes used to activate products distributed on physical media, such as Microsoft’s Windows operating system and Office productivity suite.