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The multi-colored photons that might change quantum information science
Disruptive breakthrough for photonic quantum information science

With leading corporations now investing in highly expensive and complex infrastructures to unleash the power of quantum technologies, INRS researchers have achieved a breakthrough in a light-weight photonic system created using on-chip devices and off-the-shelf telecommunications components. In their paper published in Nature, the team demonstrates that photons can become an accessible and powerful quantum resource when generated in the form of colour-entangled quDits.

The system uses a small and cost-effective photonic chip fabricated through processes similar to those used for integrated electronics. With an on-chip micro-ring resonator excited by a laser, photons are emitted in pairs that share a complex quantum state. The photons are constructed in a state featuring a number of superimposed frequency components: The photons have several colours simultaneously, and the colours of each photon in a pair are linked (entangled), regardless of their separation distance.

With each frequency -- or colour -- representing a dimension, the photons are generated on-chip as a high-dimensional quantum state (quDit). Thus far, quantum information science has largely focused on the exploitation of qubits, based on two-dimensional systems where two states are superimposed (for example, 0 AND 1 at the same time, in contrast to classical bits, which are 0 OR 1 at any time). Working in the frequency domain allows the superposition of many more states (for example, a high-dimensional photon can be red AND yellow AND green AND blue, although the photons used here were infrared for telecommunications compatibility), enhancing the amount of information in a single photon.

To date, Professor Roberto Morandotti, who leads the INRS research team, confirms the realization of a quantum system with at least one hundred dimensions using this approach, and the technology developed is readily extendable to create two-quDit systems with more than 9,000 dimensions (corresponding to 12 qubits and beyond, comparable to the state of the art in significantly more expensive/complex platforms).

The use of the frequency domain for such quantum states enables their easy transmission and manipulation in optical fibre systems. "By merging the fields of quantum optics and ultrafast optical processing, we have shown that high-dimensional manipulation of these states is indeed possible using standard telecommunications elements like modulators and frequency filters," stresses telecommunications system expert Professor José Azaña, co-supervisor of the conducted research.

Until now, advances in established technologies for the telecommunications sector were targeted for the manipulation of classical signals. This research is a game-changer: The advances can be immediately transferred to quantum science and will directly enable fundamental investigations of high-dimensional quantum state characteristics, applications in large-alphabet fibre-based quantum communications, and the future development of frequency-domain, high-dimensional quantum logic gates and other applications.

Leading authors Michael Kues and Christian Reimer note that a highlight of the demonstrated platform is its accessibility: It is easy to build and exploits components used in standard telecommunication systems that are commercially available everywhere. Thus, in the short term, researchers around the world will be able to incorporate and push this technology forward, enabling a leap in the development of practical quantum applications.

Flight demands may have steered the evolution of bird egg shape

The mystery of why birds’ eggs come in so many shapes has long been up in the air. Now new research suggests adaptations for flight may have helped shape the orbs.

Stronger fliers tend to lay more elongated eggs, researchers report in the June 23 Science. The finding comes from the first large analysis of the way egg shape varies across bird species, from the almost perfectly spherical egg of the brown hawk owl to the raindrop-shaped egg of the least sandpiper.

“Eggs fulfill such a specific role in birds — the egg is designed to protect and nourish the chick. Why there’s such diversity in form when there's such a set function was a question that we found intriguing,” says study coauthor Mary Caswell Stoddard, an evolutionary biologist at Princeton University.

Previous studies have suggested many possible advantages for different shapes. Perhaps cone-shaped eggs are less likely to roll out of the nest of cliff-dwelling birds; spherical eggs might be more resilient to damage in the nest. But no one had tested such hypotheses across a wide spectrum of birds.

Stoddard and her team analyzed almost 50,000 eggs from 1,400 species, representing about 14 percent of known bird species. The researchers boiled each egg down to its two-dimensional silhouette and then used an algorithm to describe each egg using two variables: how elliptical versus spherical the egg is and how asymmetrical it is — whether it’s pointier on one end than the other.

Next, the researchers looked at the way these two traits vary across the bird family tree. One pattern jumped out: Species that are stronger fliers, as measured by wing shape, tend to lay more elliptical or asymmetrical eggs, says study coauthor L. Mahadevan, a mathematician and biologist at Harvard University.

The Longest Day Of The Year

The Long-Awaited Construction of the World’s Largest Telescope is Underway

Super Telescope

The construction of the world’s largest telescope has begun. At a ceremony at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal Observatory in Chile, officials gathered to celebrate the first stone of the European Extremely Large Telescope’s (E-ELT) long-awaited
construction

Sophisticated telescope projects like the E-ELT take many years, so we can expect another similar ceremony sometime in 2021, when the E-ELT will see first light.

The E-ELT is the ESO’s flagship observatory. It’s primary mirror will be a 39.3 meter (129 ft.) monstrosity that will observe in the visible, near-infrared, and mid-infrared spectra. The construction of the site began in 2014, but this ceremony marks the beginning of the construction of the main telescope and its dome. The ceremony also marks the connection of the telescope to the electricity grid.

The Chilean President, Michelle Bachelet Jeria, attended the ceremony. She was welcomed by the Director General of ESO Tim de Zeeuw, by ELT Programme Manager Roberto Tamai, and by other officials from the ESO. Staff from the La Silla Paranal Observatory, and numerous engineers and technicians—as well as numerous representatives from Chilean government and industry—also attended the ceremony.

“With the symbolic start of this construction work, we are building more than a telescope here.” – President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet Jeria

In her speech, the President spoke in favor of the E-ELT, and in support of science and cooperation. “With the symbolic start of this construction work, we are building more than a telescope here: it is one of the greatest expressions of scientific and technological capabilities and of the extraordinary potential of international cooperation.”

At the ceremony, a time capsule from ESO was sealed into place. The capsule is a hexagon shaped, one-fifth scale model of the E-ELT containing a poster made of photographs of current ESO staff, and a copy of the book detailing the E-ELT’s science goals.
E-ELT

The first stone ceremony is definitely an important milestone for this Super Telescope, but it’s just one of the milestones reached by the E-ELT in the past two weeks.

Construction Begins On the Next Super Telescope

The secondary mirror for the E-ELT has already been cast, and the ESO has announced that the contracts for the primary mirror have now been signed. The primary mirror segment blanks, all 798 of them, will be made by the Germany company SCHOTT. Once produced, they will be polished by the French company Safran Reosc. Safran Reosc will also mount and test the mirror segments.

“This has been an extraordinary two weeks!” – Tim de Zeeuw, European Southern Observatory’s Director General

Tim de Zeeuw, ESO’s Director General, is clearly excited about the progress being made on the E-ELT. At the contract signing, de Zeeuw said, “This has been an extraordinary two weeks! We saw the casting of the ELT’s secondary mirror and then, last Friday, we were privileged to have the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, attend the first stone ceremony of the ELT. And now two world-leading European companies are starting work on the telescope’s enormous main mirror, perhaps the biggest challenge of all.”

Construction Begins On the Next Super Telescope

It’s taken an enormous amount of work to get to the construction stage of the world’s largest telescope. Scientist’s, engineers, and technicians have been working for years to get this far. But without the contribution of Chile, none of it would happen. Chile is the world’s astronomy capital, and they continue working with the ESO and other nations to drive scientific discovery forward.

Energy Stored in Electric Vehicles Can Power Entire Buildings

In Brief
Researchers have found a way to create a smart grid that talks to idle EVs and draws power from their batteries. Its algorithm works so well that the spare power can run large buildings, and the transaction improves the life of the batteries.
Greener Grids

University of Warwick (UW) researchers have discovered how to use energy stored in electric vehicles to power large buildings without leaving them high and dry. The secret is smart management of vehicle-to-grid technology, which allows both the use of energy sitting in idle vehicle batteries and the improvement of battery life in those vehicles by about 10 percent. The resulting “smart grid” can determine how much power it can use without hurting the batteries, and will only take enough to improve performance and longevity.

For about two years, a
research

team led by Dr. Kotub Uddin analyzed some of the most advanced lithium ion batteries used around the world in commercially available EVs in order to create what may be the most accurate public domain model of battery degradation that exists today. They gathered data on power fade over time and overall capacity under just about any relevant conditions you can imagine, assessing for state of charge and temperature, as well as the depth and current of discharge. Once the team validated their model, Dr. Uddin used it to develop a smart grid algorithm. The algorithm calculates how much energy EVs need to execute their trips, and how much energy the grid can draw from their batteries — both to render them unharmed, and to improve their staying power.
Image Credit: ChadoNihi/PixabayImage Credit: ChadoNihi/Pixabay

Smart Grid In Action

The team put their algorithm to the test with a practical goal: they wanted to power the building of the large International Digital Laboratory. Their test included powering the building’s staff quarters, 100-seat auditorium, meeting rooms, and laboratories, solely with energy drawn from the batteries of parked EVs on the UW campus. The experiment worked, and the team calculated that they were able to power the facility by drawing power from the parked cars — which were about 2.1 percent of all cars on campus.

Even more impressive, however, was that by powering the building using the algorithm, they could reduce capacity and power fade in participant EV batteries by up to 9.1 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively, over the course of a year. In other words, not only does using EV batteries to power buildings not hurt them, it actually helps them—if you do it right.

“These findings reinforce the attractiveness of vehicle-to-grid technologies to automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers: not only is vehicle-to-grid an effective solution for grid support – and subsequently a tidy revenue stream – but we have shown that there is a real possibility of extending the lifetime of traction batteries in tandem,” Dr. Uddin commented in a press release. “The results are also appealing to policy makers interested in grid decarbonization.”

The First Targets of the James Webb Telescope Have Been Announced

From exoplanets to asteroids, the James Webb Space Telescope's newly announced first targets will allow us to better understand this vast universe. Other targets include Jupiter's Great Red Spot, Neptune's south polar vortex, and geological phenomena on Saturn's moons.
James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), heir to Hubble’s throne, is set to launch in October of 2018. The massive new telescope will hopefully continue Hubble’s legacy and push the boundaries of what has before been possible in space imaging. And, in exciting new news, the first targets of the JWST have been announced — and the list is long.
The Space Telescopes of Tomorrow [Infographic]
Click to View Full Infographic

The Webb will observe the three largest low-albedo asteroids, as well as the Trojan asteroids, allowing us to peer into the origins of our solar system. It will also explore near-Earth objects, which could expand our knowledge and even protect the Earth.

It will also investigate Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, Neptune’s south polar vortex, geological phenomena on Saturn’s moons, and the atmosphere on the planet itself. What is especially exciting to many is the Webb’s plans to explore exoplanets. By observing these far-off exoplanets passing across their parent star, researchers can determine if a planet has an atmosphere and then use that information to infer more about its composition — and potential for life.
Quest for Knowledge

The implications of the knowledge to be gained with the JWST are immense. The further exploration of exoplanets alone could reveal information about the potential for alien life and which worlds would be the best candidates for human colonization. Other observations that researchers plan to make with the telescope will help us to better understand the beginnings of our solar system.

This is all, of course, significant scientifically. But better understanding of how objects and life in the universe form could, in turn, help us to better understand the laws of nature on Earth. The further we explore the distant corners of the universe, the more we will be able to make sense of the world around us. It will be exciting to follow the Webb’s journey as it slowly trades place with the iconic Hubble Space Telescope.

“Lab-on-a-Chip” Wearable Technology Could Help Detect Disease
A team of engineers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick have developed a lab-on-a-chip capable of identifying biomarkers in the body indicative of certain diseases. The technology can be used in wearables, as well as in other portable devices.
Personalized Medicine

We’ve become accustomed to having many services personalized: information can be delivered to us through our smartphone, even according to our specific preferences. Our daily commute to work has become personalized thanks to ride-hailing services like Uber. And in terms of our online social lives, even dating apps can provide more personalized options than ever before. All of this catering to our preference for preference has been made possible through technology. Now, engineers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University-New Brunswick want to extend this kind of personalized service to medicine.

The Rutgers engineers have invented a new kind of “lab-on-a-chip,” a biosensor that fits multiple functions that have traditionally required the use of a laboratory into one electrical chip. Their device, which the engineers described in detail in the journal Lab on a Chip, can analyze sweat or blood in order to detect multiple biomarkers linked to several diseases.

“One biomarker is often insufficient to pinpoint a specific disease because of the heterogeneous nature of various types of diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and inflammatory disease,” researcher Mehdi Javanmard said in a press release. “To get an accurate diagnosis and accurate management of various health conditions, you need to be able to analyz
A Wearable Lab

Lab-on-a chip devices are innovative because they compress a number of functions typically tasked to larger, bulkier instruments into much smaller technology. The invention by engineers at Rutgers took the capabilities of current state-of-the-art lab technology and transplanted them onto a chip that can be affixed to wearable devices.

The device electronically barcodes microparticles to identify them, and the first time this barcoding technique is fully electronic — which is what allowed researchers to shrink the biosensors to fit on microchips. “This is really important in the context of personalized medicine or personalized health monitoring,” Javanmard said. “Our technology enables true labs on chips. We’re talking about platforms the size of a USB flash drive or something that can be integrated onto an Apple Watch, for example, or a Fitbit.”

Javanmard and his colleagues are also working on a version that can be placed in portable devices and detect microparticles in other objects. This tool, the team said, could be commercially available within the next two years, and the wearable medical biosensor could be out within the next five years. Currently, the lab-on-a-chip was shown to be more than 95 percent accurate in identifying biomarkers. That’s certainly impressive, but the team isn’t done yet: they’re fine-tuning the instrument to reach 100 percent accuracy.