Storing light pulses can boost quantum computing further

October 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, a team of physicists in Sweden and Poland has found that combining 6 photons together can result in highly robust qubits, or quantum information. Exploiting quantum mechanics for transmitting information is a tantalizing possibility because it promises secure, high-speed communications.

October 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Taking a major step towards improved CMOS sensors for most in-car camera systems, scientists have developed a new process that could provide colours to these systems. The CMOS sensors are semiconductor chips that convert light signals into electrical pulses and are installed in most digital cameras.

September 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has developed a new laser technology that has made it possible to turn light into sound. Developed by scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory, US, the technology has the potential to expand and improve both Naval and commercial underwater acoustic applications, including undersea communications, navigation and acoustic imaging.

August 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at Texas A and M University in the US have developed a controversial new model of quantum gravity, which might reproduce Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. The theory, which Einstein developed in the early 20th century, says that matter curves spacetime, and it is this curvature which deflects massive bodies - an effect that we interpret as the influence of gravity.

August 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, a team of scientists at Dartmouth university has proposed a new way of creating a reproduction black hole in the laboratory on a much-tinier scale than their celestial counterparts. The new method to create a tiny quantum sized black hole would allow researchers to better understand what physicist Stephen Hawking proposed more than 35 years ago: black holes are not totally void of activity; they emit photons, which is now known as Hawking radiation.

August 17th, 2009 LONDON - The world's smallest laser, contained in a silica sphere just 44 nanometres across, and about 10 times smaller than the wavelength of light, has been unveiled. According to a report in Nature News, the laser has been named as the 'spaser'.

August 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at UC (University of California) Santa Barbara have devised a new type of superconducting circuit that behaves quantum mechanically, but has up to five levels of energy instead of the usual two, thus pushing quantum mechanics to higher levels. These circuits act like artificial atoms in that they can only gain or lose energy in packets, or quanta, by jumping between discrete energy levels.

July 28th, 2009 LONDON - By combining two nanoparticles in one tiny package, University of Washington researchers have created a Swiss Army knife of sorts for medical imaging and therapy. The multipurpose nanotechnology tool could perform wide range of medical uses - imaging tumours, carrying drugs, delivering pulses of heat.

July 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have constructed a new time-calibrated family tree for ferns, which has indicated that while modern tropical rain forests were becoming established, ferns climbed aboard, and experienced a flowering of their own species diversity. The family tree for ferns was created by Duke University researcher Eric Schuettpelz, along with associate professor Kathleen Pryer.

July 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers from across Europe have united to build the largest quantum key distribution (QKD) network ever built. The efforts of 41 research and industrial organisations were realised as secure, quantum encrypted information was sent over an eight node, mesh network.

July 2nd, 2009 LONDON - Swiss researchers have made an optical transistor that uses one laser beam to control another, an instrument that could form the heart of a future generation of ultrafast light-based computers. Conventional computers are based on transistors, which allow one electrode to control the current moving through the device and are combined to form logic gates and processors.

June 17th, 2009 LONDON - A team of physicists have created an artificial black hole in their lab that traps sound instead of light, in an attempt to detect the theoretical Hawking radiation. The radiation, proposed by physicist Stephen Hawking more than 30 years ago, causes black holes to evaporate over time.

June 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has broken the light modulation speed record, that too twice, with a signal-processing modulation speed of 4.3 gigahertz, breaking the previous record of 1.7 gigahertz held by a light-emitting diode. The team, comprising of researchers at the University of Illinois and at U.

May 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have demonstrated a breakthrough in the quantum control of photons, the energy quanta of light, which is a significant result in quantum computation, and could eventually have implications in banking, drug design, and other applications. UCSB physics researchers Max Hofheinz, John Martinis, and Andrew Cleland used a superconducting electronic circuit known as a Josephson phase qubit to prepare highly unusual quantum states using microwave-frequency photons.

May 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - If you thought that Star Trek scanners that fix injuries with beams of light was just a piece of fiction, just be ready for this-scientists have developed a new optical technology that could lead to better artificial tissues and wounds that heal faster with less scarring. The new technology lines up living cells and controls their movements to effectively heal the wounds faster.