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Quantum photonic chip integrates light-emitting molecules with single-mode waveguides
Photonic quantum processors, devices that can process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects and particles of light (photons), have shown promise for numerous applications, ranging from computations and communications to the simulation of complex quantum systems.
To be deployed in real-world settings, however, these photonic chips should reliably integrate many deterministic and indistinguishable single-photon sources on a single chip.
So far, achieving this has proved highly challenging. Most such photonic quantum chips developed so far utilize solid-state single-photon emitters that are limited by so-called spectral diffusion (i.e., the random “wandering” of their emission frequency).
Biological age measured by DNA methylation clocks and frailty: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Higher GrimAge EAA is consistently associated with higher frailty. Future research should focus on developing and validating DNA methylation clocks that integrate molecular surrogates of health risk and are specifically trained to predict frailty in large, harmonised, longitudinal cohorts, enabling their translation into clinical practice.
Neuroscientist finds her brain shrinks while taking birth control
A researcher who completed numerous brain scans found that her cerebral cortex volume was 1% smaller while using hormonal contraceptives.
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A researcher who underwent dozens of brain scans discovered that the volume of her cerebral cortex was 1 per cent lower when she took hormonal contraceptives.
By Grace Wade
Light is born from the vacuum: laser modeling confirms a quantum physics prediction
Physicists from Oxford and Lisbon have run a full 3D, time-resolved simulation showing that empty space can act like a nonlinear medium. Their model finds that three intense laser pulses make photons rebound and forge a fourth beam, echoing a long-standing prediction from quantum electrodynamics.
Classical physics treats vacuum as an absence. Quantum theory disagrees. The vacuum teems with flickering pairs of virtual electrons and positrons that borrow energy briefly and vanish. Strong electromagnetic fields can polarize those pairs. That tiny response turns “nothing” into a medium with a faint optical nonlinearity.
When three high-power laser pulses cross at the right angles and frequencies, quantum electrodynamics (QED) predicts four-wave mixing in vacuum. The combined fields nudge virtual pairs, which then mediate photon‑photon scattering. A new, phase‑matched beam should appear with a frequency and direction dictated by the input pulses.
Endings and beginnings: Atacama Cosmology Telescope releases its final data, shaping the future of cosmology
There’s always a touch of melancholy when a chapter that has absorbed years of work comes to an end. In the case of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), those years amount to nearly 20—and now the telescope has completed its mission. Yet some endings are also important beginnings, opening new paths for the entire scientific community.
The three papers published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics by the ACT Collaboration describe and contextualize in detail the sixth and final major ACT data release—perhaps the most important one—marking significant advances in our understanding of the universe’s evolution and its current state.
ACT’s data clarify several key points: the measurement of the Hubble constant (the number that indicates the current rate of cosmic expansion—the universe’s “speedometer”) obtained from observations at very large cosmological distances is confirmed, and it remains markedly different from the value derived from the nearby universe. This is both a problem and a remarkable discovery: it confirms the so-called “Hubble tension,” which challenges the model we use to describe the cosmos.