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Microsoft announces progress on a completely new type of qubit

Enlarge / Microsoft says it sees two clear peaks at the ends of a wire, with a nice energy separation between those and any other energy states. (credit: Microsoft) So far, two primary quantum computing technologies have been commercialized. One type of hardware, called a transmon, involves superconducting wire loops linked to a resonator; it is […]

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Black hole “billiards” may explain strange aspects of 2019 black hole merger

Enlarge / Illustration of a swarm of smaller black holes in a gas disk rotating around the giant black hole. (credit: J. Samsing/Neils Bohr Institute) In 2019, the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration picked up a gravitational wave signal from a black hole merger that proved to be one for the record books. Dubbed “GW190521, ” it was […]

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Dark hole “billiards” may explain unusual aspects of 2019 black gap merger

Enlarge / Illustration of a swarm regarding smaller black holes in some sort of gas disk rotating around a good giant black hole. (credit: M. Samsing/Neils Bohr Institute) Within 2019, the LIGO/VIRGO collaboration selected up a gravitational wave transmission from a black hole merging that proved to be 1 for the record books. Called “GW190521, […]

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Study ID’s simple rules for how floating fire ant rafts change shape over time

Enlarge / Fire ants form a protrusion from an ant raft. (credit: Vernerey Research Group/CU Boulder) Fire ants are a textbook example of collective behavior, capable of behaving as individuals, and also banding together to form floating rafts in response to flooding. Now a pair of mechanical engineers from the University of Colorado, Boulder, have […]

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If Dilophosaurus ran the 100-meter against Usain Bolt, who would win?

Enlarge / University of Toledo physicist Scott Lee came up with the exercise to inspire undergrads in his introductory physics course. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) The early Jurassic dinosaurs known as Dilophosaurus proved to be scene stealers in the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park , taking out a full-grown man who thought they were […]

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Study: There’s no black hole in this “vampire” binary star system after all

Enlarge (credit: ESO/L. Calçada) Back in 2020, astronomers discovered an unusual star system just 1,000 light years from Earth. However, two different teams disagreed on the nature of the system, which was dubbed HR 6819. One team argued that it was looking at a trinary grouping with two stars orbiting a black hole. The other […]

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Latest success from Google’s AI group: Controlling a fusion reactor

Enlarge / Plasma inside the tokamak at the EPFL. (credit: EPFL) As the world waits for construction of the largest fusion reactor yet, called ITER, smaller reactors with similar designs are still running. These reactors, called tokamaks, help us test both hardware and software. The hardware testing helps us refine things like the materials used […]

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The robber fly is an aerodynamic acrobat that can catch its prey in midflight

Enlarge / A miniature predatory robber fly (Holcocephala fascia) feeds on a captured rove beetle. A new study reveals that the fly approaches its prey from underneath, aiming for a future meeting point wth the target. (credit: Samuel Fabian) Robber flies are aerodynamic acrobats, able to spot their prey, dodge around obstacles, and capture smaller […]

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Five seconds, 59 megajoules: A new record for tokamak fusion

Enlarge / The interior of JET, configured as a scale model for ITER, overlaid with an image of the plasma present in the tokamak during experiments. (credit: EUROfusion ) On Wednesday, the EUROfusion consortium announced that the Joint European Torus (JET), located near Oxford in the UK, had set a new record for released energy. […]

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Benedictine monk wrote earliest known reference to ball lightning in England

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images | Trinity College) On October 21, 1638, people were congregating at a church at Widecombe-in-the-Moor, in Devon, England, when a severe thunderstorm broke out. Witnesses described an 8-foot ball of fire hurtling through the church, tossing large stones from the walls to the ground, smashing pews and windows, […]