Lifeboat Foundation

A photodetector converts light into an electrical signal, causing the light to be lost. Researchers led by Tracy Northup at the University of Innsbruck have now built a quantum sensor that can measure light particles non-destructively. It can be used to further investigate the quantum properties of light.

Physicist Tracy Northup is currently researching the development of quantum internet at the University of Innsbruck. The American citizen builds interfaces with which quantum information can be transferred from matter to light and vice versa. Over such interfaces, it is anticipated that quantum computers all over the world will be able to communicate with each other via fiber optic lines in the future. In their research, Northup and her team at the Department of Experimental Physics have now demonstrated a method with which visible light can be measured non-destructively. The development follows the work of Serge Haroche, who characterized the quantum properties of microwave fields with the help of neutral atoms in the 1990s and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2012.

In work led by postdoc Moonjoo Lee and Ph.D. student Konstantin Friebe, the researchers place an ionized calcium atom between two hollow mirrors through which visible laser light is guided. “The ion has only a weak influence on the light,” explains Tracy Northup. “Quantum measurements of the ion allow us to make statistical predictions about the number of light particles in the chamber.” The physicists were supported in their interpretation of the measurement results by the research group led by Helmut Ritsch, a Innsbruck quantum optician from the Department of Theoretical Physics. “One can speak in this context of a quantum sensor for light particles”, sums up Northup, who has held an Ingeborg Hochmair professorship at the University of Innsbruck since 2017. One application of the new method would be to generate special tailored light fields by feeding the measurement results back into the system via a feedback loop, thus establishing the desired states.

Continue reading “Quantum sensor for photons” »

Ambitious dreams have now become a reality as the Ocean Cleanup deploys its $20 million system designed to clean up the 1.8 trillion pieces of trash floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Check out another Forbes piece on how Ocean Cleanup aims to reuse and recycle the ocean plastic.

Ahead of its 2019 Build developer conference, Microsoft announced a slew of updates across its Azure cloud, cognitive services, blockchain, intelligent edge, and HoloLens 2.

CHENNAI: As meteorologists observed a trough of low in the southern http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Indian-Ocean”>Indian Ocean more than a week ago, five Indian satellites kept a constant eye on the system as it brewed into cyclone Fani.

As it developed into an “extremely severe cyclone”, the satellites launched by Isro sent data every 15 minutes to the ground station, helping track and forecast its movement and save hundreds of lives.

According to IMD, data from satellites Insat-3D, Insat-3DR, Scatsat-1, Oceansat-2 and Megha Tropiques was used to study the intensity, location and cloud cover around Fani. There was a cloud cover around the eye of the storm up to 1000km radius, though the rain clouds were only up to a radius of 100 to 200km. The rest were at a height of around 10,000feet.

Continue reading “How Isro satellites tracked Fani, saved many lives” »

Being able to measure, and monitor, temperatures and temperature changes at miniscule scales—inside a cell or in micro and nano-electronic components—has the potential to impact many areas of research from disease detection to a major challenge of modern computation and communication technologies, how to measure scalability and performance in electronic components.

Building a Silicon Brain Computer chips based on biological neurons may help simulate larger and more-complex brain models.

#MayTheFourthBeWithYou from the real-world Space Warfighters at Air Force Space Command! You will now watch this video we made—unless Jedi mind tricks don’t work on you. Either way, please share! #StarWarsDay

👽 The odds that you have already met a space alien are not zero.

An uptick in UFO sightings by military pilots raises all sorts of interesting questions.

Experts caution that addressing lingering questions will require more research.

• By Nicholette Zeliadt, Spectrum on May 2, 2019