Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have fabricated a solar cell with an efficiency of nearly 50%.

The six-junction solar cell now holds the world record for the highest solar conversion efficiency at 47.1%, which was measured under concentrated illumination. A variation of the same cell also set the efficiency record under one-sun illumination at 39.2%.

“This device really demonstrates the extraordinary potential of multijunction solar cells,” said John Geisz, a principal scientist in the High-Efficiency Crystalline Photovoltaics Group at NREL and lead author of a new paper on the record-setting cell.

Two research groups say they’ve independently built quantum devices that can operate at temperatures above 1 Kelvin—15 times hotter than rival technologies can withstand.

The ability to work at higher temperatures is key to scaling up to the many qubits thought to be required for future commercial-grade quantum computers.

Continue reading “Quantum Computing Milestone: Researchers Compute With ‘Hot’ Silicon Qubits” »

Modern circuitry operates in binaries – switches can either be 0 or 1 – which in turn restricts their computing power to discrete values. Qubits, on the other hand, can hold both values depending on their state, and derives this property from quantum physics. Qubits are modelled on subatomic particles like electrons, giving them an edge over Boolean systems. Quantum computers are difficult to operate, in part due its bulk, power consumption, hardware complexity, and reliance on low temperatures.

Intel’s “hot” qubit technology ought to address the latter concern. These qubits are capable of operating at temperatures higher than 1 Kelvin (−458F / −273K), which is the warmest temperature that quantum computers till now were able to tolerate. Computers in outer space operate at 3 Kelvin. The practical benefits of this breakthrough will manifest itself if Intel can combine quantum hardware and control circuitry on the same chip. It has hitherto been difficult for researchers to separate control electronics for qubits from the qubits themselves owing to the frigid temperature that the latter require to function.

Intel will be hoping that this development will help it fabricate more efficient chips that meld the two parts on the same chip without compromising on fidelity. The commercialization of quantum computing still remains a pipe dream, but large corporations like Google and Intel are paving the way for improvements that could make quantum computers more viable. Even so, make sure you’re wearing a scarf before you go to collect your first quantum computer.

The cost of the sanitiser would be Rs 800, and the Army can turn out 10 pieces a day.

The third innovation is a 3D-printed mask priced at Rs 1,200 apiece. Other products being devised include thermal scanners and anti-aerosalination boxes to keep doctors safe. The boxes are made up of transparent acrylic sheets and kept over patients to protect doctors and other healthcare workers from infection. Holes cut into the box help medical staff administer treatment to the patient without coming into direct contact.

The Army is just one of several sections across Indian society that are trying to chip in for the country’s battle against coronavirus, from scientists who have banded together to bust myths to IITians churning out cost-effective and innovative solutions to ease the burden on the healthcare framework.

CINCINNATI — Infectious disease scientists report early development of a potential universal vaccine for Ebola viruses that preclinical tests show might neutralize all four species of these deadly viruses infecting people in recent outbreaks, mainly in Africa.

Scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center report their preclinical results in the Journal of Virology, published by the American Society for Microbiology.

Although still in early preclinical testing, researchers report that their data indicate that the prospective vaccine has potential to be a stand-alone protection from Ebola. It also could broaden and extend the durability of protective immunity induced by current live vaccines already being tested in clinical trials against individual Ebola virus species, said Karnail Singh, PhD, the study’s co-principal investigator in the Division of Infectious Diseases.

Nobody can be “completely certain” that it is possible to find a vaccine for Covid-19, but the prospects are “very good”, according to a scientist who is leading a team attempting to develop one.

Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University, said they hope to begin clinical trials towards the end of next week.

And she said that alongside these trials, preparations need to be made to manufacture the vaccine in large amounts.

Even so, a vaccine would still take more than a year to develop, he said.

Gershoni, who has studied the family of viruses for 15 years, said that he was recently granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for his vaccine design. He explained that the vaccine intends to target the virus’s Receptor Binding Motif (RBM), a critical weak point which allows the virus to attach itself and infect a target cell.

A teenaged Muslim boy from Lucknow who was allegedly beaten up by policemen while he was trying to buy food has succumbed.

The slain has been identified as Mohammad Rizwan, he has become the first fatality from purported police high-handedness in enforcing the lockdown in Uttar Pradesh.

Rizwan’s father, Mohammed Israil, said his son had felt very hungry on Thursday night.

Scientists found that a class of particles known as bosons can behave as an opposite class of particles called fermions, when forced into a line.

The research, conducted at Penn State University and funded in part by the Army Research Office, an element of U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory, found that when the internal interactions among bosons in a one-dimensional gas are very strong, their velocity distribution transforms into that of a gas of non-interacting fermions when they expand in one dimension. The research is published in the journal Science.

“The performance of atomic clocks, quantum computers and quantum systems rely upon the proper curation of the properties of the chosen system,” said Dr. Paul Baker, program manager, atomic and molecular physics at ARO. “This research effort demonstrates that the system statistics can be altered by properly constraining the dimensions of the system. In addition to furthering our understanding of foundational principles, this discovery could provide a method for dynamically switching a system from bosonic to fermionic to best meet the military need.”