The Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, refers to the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing and other industries. It is characterized by the integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and robotics into the traditional manufacturing process. The goal of Industry 4.0 is to create a more efficient and flexible production process that can adapt to changing market demands and consumer preferences.
Overall, the Fourth Industrial Revolution presents both challenges and opportunities for businesses and individuals. By staying informed and proactive, it is possible to take advantage of the benefits of these new technologies while mitigating potential negative impacts.
Category Archives: Science
Yoshinori Ohsumi of Japan Wins Nobel Prize for Study of ‘Self-Eating’ Cells
Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese cell biologist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for his discoveries on how cells recycle their content, a process known as autophagy, a Greek term for “self-eating.”
Continue reading Yoshinori Ohsumi of Japan Wins Nobel Prize for Study of ‘Self-Eating’ CellsPakistani scientists find 30 new genes that may cause intellectual disabilities
Study finds 30 new genes that may cause intellectual disabilities
ISLAMABAD: The number of children suffering from intellectual disabilities in Pakistan is increasing due to cousin marriages.
A study conducted by the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the United States and Radbound University in the Netherlands has found that 30 new genes have developed which are causing these disabilities.
In light of the study, recommendations will be sent to the government within a week for legislation that requires cousins to be screened before marriage.
The recommendations also include a proposal to ensure neonatal screening, which is already practiced in Europe and the US.
Neonatal screenings can identify conditions that could affect a foetus’ long term health or survival.
Early detection, diagnosis and intervention can prevent death or disability, and allow children to reach their full potential.
Read more » DAWN
See more » http://www.dawn.com/news/1282564/
How Stephen Hawking, diagnosed with ALS decades ago, is still alive
On April 20, 2009, a moment arrived that doctors had foretold for decades. Stephen Hawking, a scientist who overcame debilitating disease to become the world’s most renowned living physicist, was on the cusp of death. The University of Cambridge released grim prognoses. Hawking, diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 21, was described as “very ill” and “undergoing tests” at the hospital. Newspapers ran obituary-esque articles. It seemed time was up for the man who so eloquently explained it.
But, as is his custom, Hawking survived.
Hawking shouldn’t be able to do the things he now does. The 73-year-old shouldn’t be able to deliver meditations on the existence of God. He shouldn’t be able to fret over artificial intelligence or humanity’s capacity for self-destruction. And he most definitely shouldn’t be able to attend the BAFTAs — Britain’s academy awards — settled inside the wheelchair that has carried him for decades, expressing admiration for a recent biopic that paid homage to his struggle. But yet, he is. And he does.
[Stephen Hawking says that ‘aggression,’ humanity’s greatest vice, will destroy civilization]
It’s difficult to overstate the lethality of ALS, the condition with which Hawking lives. The disorder can befall anyone. It first brings muscle weakness, then wasting, then paralysis, ripping away the ability to speak and swallow and even breathe. The ALS Association says the average lifespan of someone diagnosed with the condition is between two and five years. More than 50 percent make it past year three. Twenty percent make it past year five. From there, the number plummets. Less than 5 percent make it past two decades.
And then there’s Hawking. He has passed that two-decade mark twice — first in 1983, then in 2003. It’s now 2015. His capacity for survival is so great some experts say he can’t possibly suffer from ALS given the ease with which the disease traditionally dispatches victims. And others say they’ve simply never seen anyone like Hawking.
Read more » The Washington Post
Learn more » http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/24/how-stephen-hawking-survived-longer-than-possibly-any-other-als-patient/?tid=sm_fb
Darwin Day
“IT’S NOT THE STRONGEST SPECIES THAT SURVIVES, NOR THE MOST INTELLIGENT BUT THE SPECIES THAT RESPONDS BETTER TO CHANGING”. ~ CHARLES DARWIN
Naturalist Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England, on February 12, 1809. In 1831, he embarked on a five-year survey voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle. His studies of specimens around the globe led him to formulate his theory of evolution and his views on the process of natural selection. In 1859, he published On the Origin of Species. He died on April 19, 1882, in London.
Courtesy: Internet + Social media
Technology And the Threat of a Jobless Future
The Typical Millennial Is $2,000 Poorer Than His Parents at This Age
More young people are living in poverty and fewer have jobs compared their parents’ generation, the Baby Boomers, in 1980
The past is another country. In 1980, the typical young worker in Detroit or Flint, Michigan, earned more than his counterpart in San Francisco or San Jose. The states with the highest median income were Michigan, Wyoming, and Alaska. Nearly 80 percent of the Boomer generation, which at the time was between 18 and 35, was white, compared to 57 percent today.
Three decades later, in 2013, the picture of young people—yes, Millennials—is a violently shaken kaleidoscope, and not all the pieces are falling into a better place. Michigan’s median income for under-35 workers has fallen by 26 percent, more than any state. In fact, beyond the east coast, earnings for young workers fell in every state but Hawaii and South Dakota.
Read more » The Atlantic
Learn more » http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/young-adults-poorer-less-employed-and-more-diverse-than-their-parents/385029/
Terminator-style implant may help paralyzed people walk again
Swiss scientists have created a cyborg-style implant they hope will soon give paralyzed people a chance to walk again. So far, it has been successfully tested in labs, which means clinical trials with humans should start soon.
The soft, stretchable device, dubbed e-Dura, is the brainchild of scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. It is designed to act as a “bridge” between two ends of severed spinal cord and deliver electrical impulses and drugs.
It is named after dura matter, a thick membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.
Due to its softness and flexibility, this silicon and gold “ribbon” implant doesn’t cause inflammation and rejection when connected to spinal tissue.
To make the gold even more elastic, the scientists laid it down in layers of just 35 nanometers (0.000035 millimeters) thick.
“The spinal cord expands and relaxes,” said Professor Stéphanie Lacour. “If you have a hard, non-deformable material, the friction and rubbing cause inflammation.”
The implant imitates the mechanical properties of living tissue, and can simultaneously deliver electric impulses and pharmacological substances with little risk of damage.
In previous attempts, similar implants caused the immune system to reject the “foreign body,” and so they had to be removed.
The Swiss scientists believe their e-Dura can last 10 years in humans before its needs replacing.
“It’s the first neuronal surface implant designed from the start for long-term application. In order to build it, we had to combine expertise from a considerable number of areas,” says Courtine.
Read more » http://rt.com/news/221567-implant-paralyzed-walk-test/
Why ideas – not labor or capital – will decide countries’ economic success in the future
New World Order
Labor, Capital, and Ideas in the Power Law Economy
By Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, and Michael Spence
Recent advances in technology have created an increasingly unified global marketplace for labor and capital. The ability of both to flow to their highest-value uses, regardless of their location, is equalizing their prices across the globe. In recent years, this broad factor-price equalization has benefited nations with abundant low-cost labor and those with access to cheap capital. Some have argued that the current era of rapid technological progress serves labor, and some have argued that it serves capital. What both camps have slighted is the fact that technology is not only integrating existing sources of labor and capital but also creating new ones.
Machines are substituting for more types of human labor than ever before. As they replicate themselves, they are also creating more capital. This means that the real winners of the future will not be the providers of cheap labor or the owners of ordinary capital, both of whom will be increasingly squeezed by automation. Fortune will instead favor a third group: those who can innovate and create new products, services, and business models.
The distribution of income for this creative class typically takes the form of a power law, with a small number of winners capturing most of the rewards and a long tail consisting of the rest of the participants. So in the future, ideas will be the real scarce inputs in the world — scarcer than both labor and capital — and the few who provide good ideas will reap huge rewards. Assuring an acceptable standard of living for the rest and building inclusive economies and societies will become increasingly important challenges in the years to come.
LABOR PAINS
Turn over your iPhone and you can read an eight-word business plan that has served Apple well: “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.” With a market capitalization of over $500 billion, Apple has become the most valuable company in the world. Variants of this strategy have worked not only for Apple and other large global enterprises but also for medium-sized firms and even “micro-multinationals.” More and more companies have been riding the two great forces of our era — technology and globalization — to profits.
Read more » Foreign Affairs
Learn more » http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141531/erik-brynjolfsson-andrew-mcafee-and-michael-spence/new-world-order
India launches largest rocket and unmanned capsule
India launches largest rocket and unmanned capsule
India has successfully launched its largest rocket and an unmanned capsule which could send astronauts into space.
The 630-tonne Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (MK III) blasted off from Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday morning.
The new rocket will be able to carry heavier satellites into space.
India has successfully launched lighter satellites in recent years, but has faced problems sending up heavier payloads.
The new rocket is capable of carrying communication satellites weighing 4,000kg, reports say, meaning India will not have to rely on foreign launchers to do so.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted after the launch: “Successful launch of GSLV MK-III is yet another triumph of brilliance & hard work of our scientists. Congrats to them for the efforts.”
K Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space and Research Organization (Isro), said the launch marked a “very significant day in India’s space history”.
The rocket’s main cargo was an Indian-made capsule capable of carrying two to three astronauts into space.
Read more » BBC
Learn more » http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30527602
China’s hypersonic strike vehicle ‘in 3d test flight’
China has reportedly conducted a third flight test for its new ultra-high speed strike vehicle – capable of travelling at up to eight times the speed of sound, in what experts suspect is part of the development of its strategic nuclear program.
Read more » RT
Learn more » http://rt.com/news/211575-china-hypersonic-missile-test/
China Has Big Plans to Explore the Moon and Mars
China continues to ramp up its space activities, which include a new launch complex, more powerful boosters and the construction of a large space station, as well as plans for complex robotic missions to the moon and Mars.
For example, China’s “little fly” spacecraft looped around the moonand returned to Earth Nov. 1 (Beijing time) after eight days of flight, parachuting safely down in northern China’s Inner Mongolia.
The capsule used seven kinds of thermal protection materials, returning data that will be applied to China’s Chang’e 5 robotic lunar sample return mission, which is slated to launch in 2017 from the new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. [Greatest Moon Missions of All Time]
Courtesy: Space
Read more » http://www.space.com/27893-china-space-program-moon-mars.html?adbid=10152483784056466&adbpl=fb&adbpr=17610706465&cmpid=514630_20141203_36643077
Toyota unveils game changer hydrogen-powered car
Toyota has unveiled the first mass-market hydrogen fuel cell car, which will start selling in Japan next month and in the US and Europe in 2015.
Read more » RT
http://rt.com/news/206667-toyota-hydrogen-powered-car/
Pakistan Smart phone App Success
Fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100 says IPCC
The unrestricted use of fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100 if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change, a UN-backed expert panel says. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says in a stark report that most of the world’s electricity can – and must – be produced from low-carbon sources by 2050. If not, the world faces “severe, pervasive and irreversible” damage. The UN said inaction would cost “much more” than taking the necessary action.
Read more » BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29855884
Japan approves plans for world’s fastest train line
The Japanese government has approved plans for a train that will carry passengers from Tokyo to Nogoya at a speed of 310 miles per hour (500 kph). The train, which will be the fastest in the world, will use magnetic levitation technology.
Read more » RT
http://rt.com/news/196976-japan-approves-maglev-train/
Cold Fusion – Another Clean Energy Breakthrough That Could Change Our World
Cold fusion is a certain type of nuclear reaction that occurs at or near room temperature. In years past, it was studied as theoretical and hypothetical, but scientists all over the world have attested to the possibility, and possible reality of cold fusion and the tremendous implications it can have for clean energy generation. It is a form of energy generated when hydrogen interacts with various metals like nickel and palladium. It has been subject to a large amount of criticism and opposition.
Many scientists have confirmed its reality, and many remain very skeptical.
Cold fusion, like free energy would eliminate the entire energy industry. No more oil, no more anything. To be honest, in my opinion free energy is real. This alone would eliminate the need for cold fusion. Either way, both are extremely important.
Cold fusion is not a conspiracy, hundreds of people in over 12 countries have been investigating the process with success. Thousands of papers have been published and are available for review at http://lenr-canr.org/
Read more » Earth We Are One
http://earthweareone.com/cold-fusion-another-clean-energy-breakthrough-that-could-change-our-world/
Sending Pakistan to Mars
When spacecraft Mangalyaan successfully entered the Martian orbit in late September after a 10-month journey, India erupted in joy. Costing more than an F-16 but less than a Rafale, Mangalyaan’s meticulous planning and execution established India as a space-faring country. Although Indians had falsely celebrated their five nuclear tests of 1998 — which were based upon well-known physics of the 1940s — the Mars mission is a true accomplishment.
Pakistanis may well ask: can we do it too? What will it take? Seen in the proper spirit, India’s foray into the solar system could be Pakistan’s sputnik moment — an opportunity to reflect upon what’s important. Let’s see how India did it: First, space travel is all about science and India’s young ones are a huge reservoir of enthusiasm for science. Surveys show that 12-16 year olds practically worship Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, are fascinated by black holes and Schrödinger cats, and most want a career in science. They see more prestige in this than becoming doctors, lawyers, financial managers, or army officers. Although most eventually settle for more conventional professions, this eagerness leads India’s very best students towards science.
Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1138678/sending-pakistan-to-mars
Bullet Train Could Connect Moscow and Beijing
China and Russia are considering building a high-speed rail line thousands of kilometers from Moscow to Beijing that would cut the journey time from six days on the celebrated Trans-Siberian to two, Chinese media reported Friday.
The project would cost more than $230 billion and be over 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) long, the Beijing Times reported — more than three times the world’s current longest high-speed line, from the Chinese capital to the southern city of Guangzhou.
Read more » Discovery
http://news.discovery.com/autos/transportation-infrastructure/bullet-train-could-connect-moscow-and-beijing-141017.htm
India prepares to launch its third navigation satellite
Chennai: The 67-hour countdown for the Thursday launch of India’s third navigation satellite is progressing smoothly though a thunder storm on Wednesday delayed some operations, a senior space agency official said.
“Today (Wednesday) morning we moved the mobile service tower (MST) backwards. The operation was delayed by around two hours owing to thunderstorm in the morning. There is sufficient time cushion built in for such unforeseen delays in the countdown period,” MYS Prasad, director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, told IANS.
Read more » IBNLive
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/india-prepares-to-launch-its-third-navigation-satellite/506292-3.html
Powerful quantum computers move a step closer to reality
A research team from Australia has pushed quantum computers closer to fruition, but a former NSA director warns that the technology could break encryption
By Alex Hern
Researchers at the University of New South Wales have pushed quantum computers a step closer to reality, which one former NSA technical director says calls for a rethink in how the whole security of the internet is managed.
Read more » the guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/14/quantum-computers-public-encryption?CMP=fb_gu
The distinctive morality of ebola
Ebola does not really hide. It is transmitted by the obviously sick and the dead. Moreover if transmission stopped tomorrow, it would disappear completely within a couple of months. In so far as it is cryptic at all it is because of a short asymptomatic incubation period and early symptoms that can be mistaken for other diseases.
As the experts have said repeatedly, it is a disease we know how to control by contract tracing and isolation of symptomatic individuals. The fact that the recent outbreak has run out of control comes down to moral decisions and in fact its spread involves moral decisions at nearly every step. It is also in an important sense black and white. There is no accommodation possible. Ebola needs to be controlled or it will just grow and grow until it overwhelms those trying to fight it and then the rest of us.
Read more » http://paintmychromosomes.blogspot.ca/2014/10/the-distinctive-morality-of-ebola_13.html
Australia has proved Solar power can replace fossil fuels
World first: Australian solar plant has generated “supercritical” steam that rivals fossil fuels’
A CSIRO test plant in Australia has broken a world record and proved solar power could efficiently replace fossil fuels.
A solar thermal test plant in Newcastle, Australia, has generated “supercritical” steam at a pressure of 23.5 MPa (3400 psi) and 570°C (1,058°F).
CSIRO is claiming it as a world record, and it’s a HUGE step for solar thermal energy.
“It’s like breaking the sound barrier; this step change proves solar has the potential to compete with the peak performance capabilities of fossil fuel sources,” Dr Alex Wonhas, CSIRO’s Energy Director, told Colin Jeffrey for Gizmag.
The Energy Centre uses a field of more than 600 mirrors (known as heliostats) which are all directed at two towers housing solar receivers and turbines, Gizmag reports.
This supercritical steam is used to drive the world’s most advanced power plant turbines, but previously it’s only been possible to produce it by burning fossil fuels such as coal or gas.
“Instead of relying on burning fossil fuels to produce supercritical steam, this breakthrough demonstrates that the power plants of the future could instead be using the free, zero emission energy of the sun to achieve the same result,” Dr Wonhas explained.
Read more » Science Alert
http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20140506-25618.html
Metro Bus or Mars: The problem with our priorities
1969 was the year, when the United States succeeded in landing humans on the moon – our closest neighbour in space – and safely bringing them back to Earth.
The United States, being the most technologically advanced country on Earth, put that feather in its hat about 45 years ago.
What was the condition of India and Pakistan at that time? The two countries had already fought two battles, and were about to plunge into another one in 1971.
While the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was established in 1969, the same year when humans set foot on the moon, Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) was established in 1961 – eight years before its Indian counterpart.
Explore: Space: Above and Beyond
SUPARCO was set up by the most famous of all Pakistani scientists and the country’s only Nobel Laureate: Dr Abdus Salam.
Dr Salam had advised Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan, then President of Pakistan to establish a Space Sciences Research Wing within Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. This later turned into SUPARCO in 1964.
Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1134488
India is the only nation so far to reach Mars on its first attempt.
India put a satellite into Mars orbit early Wednesday, the only nation to have done so on a maiden voyage and the first in Asia to reach the red planet.
As the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked on, space scientists at mission control in Bangalore, India’s tech capital, announced that the Mangalyaan orbiter had entered Mars orbit after a 10-month voyage from Earth.
Mangalyaan, Hindi for Mars craft, cost $74 million to send into space, making it by far the cheapest of recent missions to Mars. The U.S. spent $671 million getting its Maven satellite to Mars orbit, where it arrived late Sunday.
Read more » The Wall Street Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/09/24/indias-mangalyaan-enters-mars-orbit/?mod=e2tw
No nuclear waste: Fuel of future produced at Russia’s high-tech underground plant
Russia’s ‘Breakthrough’ energy project enables closed a nuclear fuel cycle and a future without radioactive waste. The first batch of MOX nuclear fuel has been manufactured for the world’s only NPP industrially power generating breeder reactors.
The first ten kilograms of the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) – a mixture of plutonium and uranium dioxides (UO2 and PuO2), have been industrially produced by Russia’s nuclear monopoly, Rosatom, at the Mining & Chemical Combine (GKhK) in the Krasnoyarsk region.
A world first, tablets of the fuel of the future have been put on serial production and are destined for Russia’s next generation BN-800 breeder reactor (880 megawatts
Read more » RT
http://rt.com/news/188332-mox-nuclear-fuel-production/
A new way to generate insulin-producing cells in type 1 diabetes
A new study by researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) has found that a peptide called caerulein can convert existing cells in the pancreas into those cells destroyed in type 1 diabetes—insulin-producing beta cells. The study, published online July 31 in Cell Death and Disease, suggests a new approach to treating the estimated 3 million people in the U.S., and over 300 million worldwide, living with type 1 diabetes. “We have found a promising technique for type 1 diabetics to restore the body’s ability to produce insulin. By introducing caerulein to the pancreas we were able to generate new beta cells—the cells that produce insulin—potentially freeing patients from daily doses of insulin to manage their blood-sugar levels.” said Fred Levine, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of the Sanford Children’s Health Research Center at Sanford-Burnham. The study first examined how mice in which almost all beta cells were destroyed—similar to humans with type 1 diabetes—responded to injections of caerulein. In those mice, but not in normal mice, they found that caerulein caused existing alpha cells in the pancreas to differentiate into insulin-producing beta cells. Alpha cells and beta cells are both endocrine cells meaning they synthesize and secret hormones—and they exist right next to one another in the pancreas in structures called islets. However, alpha cells do not normally become beta cells. –
China plans super collider
Proposals for two accelerators could see country become collider capital of the world.
For decades, Europe and the United States have led the way when it comes to high-energy particle colliders. But a proposal by China that is quietly gathering momentum has raised the possibility that the country could soon position itself at the forefront of particle physics.
Scientists at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Beijing, working with international collaborators, are planning to build a ‘Higgs factory’ by 2028 — a 52-kilometre underground ring that would smash together electrons and positrons. Collisions of these fundamental particles would allow the Higgs boson to be studied with greater precision than at the much smaller Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland.
Physicists say that the proposed US$3-billion machine is within technological grasp and is considered conservative in scope and cost. But China hopes that it would also be a stepping stone to a next-generation collider — a super proton–proton collider — in the same tunnel.
Read more » nature international weekly magazine
http://www.nature.com/news/china-plans-super-collider-1.15603
Russian scientists raising funds to rebuild Tesla Tower, satisfy world energy hunger
Two Russian physicists are fundraising to realize their project for wireless energy transmission once proposed by brilliant 20th-century scientist Nikola Tesla. Solar panels and an upgraded Tesla Tower could solve global energy hunger, they say.
Leonid and Sergey Plekhanov, graduates of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, claim they have spent years scrutinizing the Nikola Tesla’s patents and diaries and they believe that with his most ambitious project – transcontinental wireless energy transmissions – Tesla came very close to unprecedented scientific discovery that could be brought to fruition.
The enthusiasts say they need about $800,000 to reconstruct the famous Wardenclyffe Tower once created by Tesla himself to implement his ideas and find a commercial application for his ideas on long-distance wireless energy transmission.
Read more » http://rt.com/news/170468-tesla-tower-rebuild-project/
Solar Roadways! This Invention Can Change The World. Just Watch.
This video is currently going viral and has been seen by over 6 million people. A crowd funding campaign is currently underway for “Solar Roadways” which would essentially turn all roads into ways solar panels, which would end our reliance on oil. I, for one, support this project. Wouldn’t you?
Read more at http://blog.petflow.com/this-invention/#Hjpf4pDeUaFai4tM.99
Research team claims to have accurately ‘teleported’ quantum information ten feet
By Bob Yirka
(Phys.org) —A team of researchers at Delft University in the Netherlands is reporting in a paper they have had published in the journal Science, that they have successfully used entanglement as a means of communication, over a distance of ten feet (three meters). Furthermore, they note, they did so with 100 percent reliability and without altering the spin state of the quantum bits (qubits) involved.
Teleportation, is of course, a means of moving an object from one place to another without it having to travel between them. Thus far examples of it have only been seen in science fiction movies. The idea of moving information in similar fashion, however, has met with some, albeit limited success. The idea is to use the concept of entanglement of particles as a means of conveyance. It’s supposed to work because of the strange interconnectedness of the two particles—whatever happens to one, automatically happens to the other, regardless of the distance between them. Such a property should allow then, for the exchange of information. If the spin state of one qubit is altered, then it should be automatically altered in the other qubit—a form of information exchange which can be counted as a message of sorts if a string of such transactions can be carried out.
To date, scientists have struggled to use entanglement as a means of communication—it’s been achieved but the error rate has been so great that it would be unfeasible as a real-world application. In this new effort, the researchers claim to have solved the error rate problem—they’ve brought it down to zero percent. They did it, they report, by trapping electrons in diamonds at very low temperatures and shooting them with lasers, resulting in the creation of qubits. The diamonds, the team reports, serve as really tiny prisons, holding the electrons in place. Held as they were, the researchers were able to cause a spin state to exist and then to read it at both locations, which meant that information had been conveyed.
The research team next plans to extend the distance between the qubits to 1,300 meters, while others presumably will attempt to replicate the first result—if the claims prove true, the breakthrough could mark the first stage of a the development of a true quantum computer, or network.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-05-team-accurately-teleported-quantum-ten.html#jCp
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