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Can We Use Quantum Entanglement To Communicate Faster-Than-Light?
Earlier this month, billionaire Yuri Milner and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking teamed up to announce the Breakthrough Starshot, an incredibly ambitious plan to send the first human-created spacecraft to other star systems within our galaxy. While a giant laser array could, feasibly, launch a low mass, microchip-sized spaceship towards another star at some ~20% the speed of light, it’s unclear how such an underpowered, small device like that would ever communicate across the vastness of interstellar space. But Olivier Manuel had an idea that he submitted for Ask Ethan:
It’s a long shot, but could quantum entanglement be used for communication?
It’s certainly worth considering. Let’s take a look at the idea.
Four lasers over Paranal
This week the world's most powerful laser guide star system saw first light.
This spectacular image shows four powerful beams emerging from the new laser guidance system at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal facility in Chile. The system is a crucial component of the optics systems on ESO’s Very Large Telescope.
The Four Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) shines four 22-watt laser beams into the sky, making sodium atoms in the upper atmosphere glow so they look just like real stars. These artificial guide stars are used by the adaptive optics systems to compensate for the blurring caused by the Earth’s atmosphere so the telescope can create sharp images.
Using more than one laser allows the turbulence in the atmosphere to be mapped in greater detail to significantly improve the image quality over a larger field of view.
Australian scientists smash solar cell efficiency record
By splitting the spectrum into four, scientists have maximised electricity generation from a beam of sunlight.
Australian engineers have chalked up a world record for electricity conversion efficiency by solar cells of 34.5%.
The previous record, set by US company Alta Devices, was 24%. The result was verified by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The Biggest Hopes Of What A New Particle At The LHC Might Reveal
Within about 6 more months, we should know whether this signal is strengthening — and hence likely real — or whether it shows itself to be spurious. If it’s real, here are some of the top possibilities:
1. It’s a second Higgs boson! Many extensions to the Standard Model — like supersymmetry — predict additional Higgs particles that are heavier than the current (126 GeV) one we know. If so, this could be a window into a whole world of physics beyond the Standard Model, including into the matter/antimatter asymmetry and the Hierarchy problem.
2. It’s dark matter-related. Could this new particle be a window into the dark sector? Is there some energy non-conservation happening here that means we’re making something that the detectors can’t see? This is one of the “dare-to-dream” possibilities of particle physics: that the LHC could create dark matter. There’s even a fun little correlation here with something most people haven’t put together: there’s an excess in cosmic ray energies seen in this exact same energy range from the balloon-borne Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) experiment!
3. It’s a window into extra dimensions. If there are more than the three spatial dimensions we’re used to, especially at smaller scales, new particles can arise in our three dimensions as a result. These Kaluza-Klein particles could show up at the LHC, and might decay to two photons. Studying how they decay could tell us whether this is true.
4. It’s a new part of the neutrino sector. This would be a little unusual — since neutrinos don’t normally decay to two photons; they’ve got the wrong spin — but a scalar neutrino could create two photons, which is actually a thing in Standard Model extensions. The couplings and decay pathways, if it’s real, could show us this.
5. It’s a composite particle. The first particle we ever saw decay into two photons was the lightest quark-antiquark combination of all: the neutral pion. Perhaps these Standard Model particles are combining in ways we don’t yet understand, and what we’ve found is nothing new.
6. Or, most excitingly, none of the above. The most exciting discoveries are the ones you never anticipated, and perhaps it isn’t any of the speculative scenarios we know to look for. Perhaps nature is more surprising than even our wildest theoretical dreams.
The answers, believe it or not, are locked inside of the smallest particles in nature. All we need are the highest energies we can get to in order to find out.
Read more: www.forbes.com/sites/s...
The Real Problem With Fusion Energy
As our general understanding of plasmas has grown, so has our ability to sustain fusion conditions for more than a hot second. Earlier this year, China’s new superconducting fusion reactor was able to contain a 50 million degree Celsius plasma for a record 102 seconds. The Wendelstein X-7 Stellarator, which fired up in Germany for the first time last fall, is expected to blow that record out of the water with runs of up to 30 minutes at a time.
Caltech’s 2500 Orbiting Solar Panels Could Provide Earth With Limitless Energy
The concept involves 2500 of these satellites flying in a close formation, forming a solar power surface of 9 square kilometers (3.5 square miles). Each tile is capable of converting solar power into transmissible radio energy, which can be beamed to (and received on) Earth.
Scientists have performed the first trials of a 'universal cancer vaccine'
Scientists just took a big, "very positive" step towards developing what could be the first 'universal cancer vaccine'.
The results from early trials in humans, along with research in mice, have just been published, and they suggest that the new technique could be used to activate patients' immune systems against any type of tumour, no matter where it is in the body.
Flat lens promises possible revolution in optics
"The quality of our images is actually better than with a state-of-the-art objective lens. I think it is no exaggeration to say that this is potentially revolutionary."
Carbon emissions turn to stone after two years underground
An international team led by the UK's University of Southampton's Juerg Matter mixed 250 tonnes of carbon dioxide with water and injected it into rocks 400-800 metres beneath the Hellisheidi power plant in Iceland.
After only two years, they found 95% of the carbon had solidified into minerals – much faster than estimations that the process could take anywhere between eight and hundreds – even thousands – of years.
A classic formula for pi has been discovered hidden in hydrogen atoms
For the first time, scientists have discovered a classic formula for pi in the world of quantum physics. Pi is the ratio between a circle's circumference and its diameter, and is incredibly important in pure mathematics, but now scientists have also found it "lurking" in the world of physics, when using quantum mechanics to compare the energy levels of a hydrogen atom.
Why is that exciting? Well, it reveals an incredibly special and previously unknown connection between quantum physics and maths.
Rare Dinosaur-Era Bird Wings Found Trapped in Amber
Bone, tissue, and feathers show the almost 100-million-year-old wings are remarkably similar to those on modern birds.
Alzheimer’s breakthrough: Vaccine developed by Australian and US researchers may reverse dementia and Alzheimer’s
Experts at Adelaide’s Flinders University have made an Alzheimer’s breakthrough that may result in world’s first dementia vaccine. Developed by Australian and US scientists, this vaccine may not only prevent but also reverse early stages of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia.
The Alzheimer’s vaccine may be tested on humans within the next two to three years after being bankrolled by the US Government. Scientists from Flinders University and America’s Institute of Molecular Medicine and University of California developed the vaccine by targeting proteins in the brain that block neurons.
The Freaky Artificial Muscles on this Human Skeleton Are the Future of Robotics
Researchers at the Suzumori Endo Robotics Laboratory at the Tokyo Institute of Technology started with an artificial human skeleton that was then covered in bundles of multifilament artificial muscles. Like real human muscles, the multifilament bundles contract and expand when an electrical current is applied, and by controlling different groups of these muscles at different times, the skeleton’s arms, legs, and head can all be made to move similar to how a real human can.
"In theory, this storage density would allow all books ever created by humans to be written on a single post stamp," said Dr Otte.
bye bye taxi's.. and how cool would this be
Sharing
When true self-driving is approved by regulators, it will mean that you will be able to summon your Tesla from pretty much anywhere. Once it picks you up, you will be able to sleep, read or do anything else enroute to your destination.
You will also be able to add your car to the Tesla shared fleet just by tapping a button on the Tesla phone app and have it generate income for you while you're at work or on vacation, significantly offsetting and at times potentially exceeding the monthly loan or lease cost. This dramatically lowers the true cost of ownership to the point where almost anyone could own a Tesla. Since most cars are only in use by their owner for 5% to 10% of the day, the fundamental economic utility of a true self-driving car is likely to be several times that of a car which is not.
I'm hoping Tesla model 3 makes it to the UK within the next 3yrs id love one for my next motor
He is a true visionary. The idea of your car generating you income when you're not using it is fucking brilliant. People say that the whole AI/robots taking peoples jobs will mean mass unemployment, etc, but it's just the 21st century version of the industrial revolution, when so many jobs went from being done by people to large factories with machines powered by steam doing 100 times the work in half the time that people could. It brought about the whole service sector/catering. AI/robots will bring about new services and economy sectors we haven't even imagined, but folks like Elon Musk are giving us glimpses. Gotta admire the guy for what he's doing. Hyperloop, Space-X, etc. He's doing some amazing stuff. Hard to think of many other people in history who have had such grand visions, and also produced the goods.
I meant in recent history, since the industrial revolution, the last time there was a large scale change in how civilisation functions. Def plenty of innovators around the time of the industrial revolution, but the sheer scale of what Musk wants to do/is doing really is pretty epic. He's basically reinventing the car and car industry, he's created an entirely new industry around commercial spaceflight, he's developing new innovations in travel, solar technology, all with the underlying fundamental goal of trying to protect the environment for future generations. Legend.
The only bit that is interesting is the plan to develop electric heavy duty vehicles. That i cant wait to see. The rest is already happening throughout the industry. Hes a hype merchant like steve jobs with apple. He has a lot of cars to sell and people like you lap it up. I bet you used to que outside the apple stores when a new phone was out and thought it was "groundbreaking technology"
Jesus. You're the most pessimistic and cynical person I have ever experienced. I don't think I've seen you have a good word to say about anything on here, so I'm not at all surprised you're struggling with the fact that someone is actually doing something positive for the world. And of course he's a businessman interested in profits, how else do you think he can pump in billions of dollars into research and design before actually making anything. You're such a miserable melter lol.
"The rest is already happening throughout the industry."
Oh right, I must've missed all the Hyperloops being built, the huge choice of private spaceflight companies, all the huge rechargeable battery factories being built, all the car manufacturers solely interested in electric, etc...
Oh yeah, and he's signed up to The Giving Pledge. A commitment by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy rather than bestow their fortunes to future generations in their own family.
Cheer up lad.