By using controlled microwave noise, researchers created a quantum refrigerator capable of operating as a cooler, heat engine, or amplifier. This approach offers a new way to manage heat directly inside quantum circuits. Quantum technology has the potential to reshape many core areas of society.
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In the many worlds theory of quantum physics, all possible outcomes of a quantum event occur, creating branching parallel worlds in which a different outcome is reality. According to a recently published paper, communication between those worlds should be possible under our current understanding of quantum physics. Sounds crazy? Let’s take a look.
We experience time as something that flows. Seconds pass. Moments disappear. The future becomes the present and then turns into the past.
But modern physics does not describe time this way.
In this video, we explore why time — as we intuitively understand it — may not exist at the fundamental level of reality.
Drawing on ideas associated with Leonard Susskind, this documentary examines how relativity and quantum physics challenge the idea of a flowing temporal river. Einstein’s theory removes the notion of a universal present. There is no global “now” that sweeps across the universe.
Without a universal present, the idea of time flowing becomes difficult to define physically.
In the relativistic picture, spacetime is a four-dimensional structure. Events are not created moment by moment. They are embedded in geometry. The equations of physics do not contain a moving present. They describe relations between events.
“” by Kai Mundsinger (Queensland University of Technology, Australia), Christopher Barner-Kowollik (Queensland University of Technology, Australia and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany), et al.
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We report the first wavelength-dependent quantum yields of a [2 + 2] photocycloaddition generating the heterodimers of 7-hydroxycoumarin (7HCou) and styrene via a photochemical action plot. The wavelength-dependent heterodimer quantum yields are quantified at a constant number of photons at each wavelength between 310 and 370 nm. The resulting wavelength-dependent quantum yields demonstrate that the heterodimer is most efficiently generated at 345 nm, red-shifted by close to 25 nm compared to the absorption maximum of 7HCou at 320 nm. We subsequently translate these findings to photochemical surface functionalization by exploiting heterodimer formation between a surface bound coumarin derivative and para-styrene perfluoroalkyl ether (StyPFA) on surfaces under 345 nm irradiation to reversibly modulate surface hydrophobicity. The reversibility of the surface heterodimerization is demonstrated by removing StyPFA under UVC irradiation, and re-functionalization on the same surface. Functional heterodimer formation and the reversibility of the reaction on surface are followed via surface-sensitive X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and contact angle measurements. We subsequently apply our photochemical surface functionalization strategy to a dual cure photoresin based on a polyurethane-acrylate interpenetrating network, without deterioration of its mechanical properties, thereby confirming the feasibility of a photocycloaddition-based functionalization strategy for photoresins.
The future of innovation in both government and industry will not be distinguished by singular breakthroughs, but rather by the convergence and meshing of a number of different new technologies. Going forward, industries, national security, economic competitiveness, privacy and almost every aspect of everyday life will all be reshaped as a result of this integrated ecosystem, which encompasses artificial intelligence, quantum computing, improved connectivity, space systems and other areas.
Twelve crucial technical domains will help propel the federal government toward this convergent transformation.
Researchers have developed a highly sensitive light-based sensor that can detect extremely low concentrations of cancer biomarkers in the blood. The new technology could one day make it possible to spot early signs of cancer and other conditions using a simple blood test.
Biomarkers such as proteins, DNA or other molecules can be used to reveal the presence, progression or risk of cancer and other diseases. However, one of the main challenges in early disease diagnosis is the extremely low concentration of biomarkers present at the onset.
“Our sensor combines nanostructures made of DNA with quantum dots and CRISPR gene editing technology to detect faint biomarker signals using a light-based approach known as second harmonic generation (SHG),” said research team leader Han Zhang from Shenzhen University in China.
Researchers have developed a new computational method, DOCI-QSCI-AFQMC, which accurately simulates complex molecular systems by effectively doubling the number of orbitals considered in standard quantum simulations and overcoming limitations of existing single-reference techniques, as demonstrated through successful modelling of chemical bonds and reactions.
Gold, M., Lin, J., Chitambar, E. et al. Heralded photonic graph states with inefficient quantum emitters. npj Quantum Inf (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-026-01181-7
A research team has successfully implemented a programmable spinor lattice on a photonic integrated circuit (PIC). This platform enables the realization of non-Abelian physics, in which the outcome of operations depends on their sequence, within an integrated photonic system.
Through this achievement, the research team led by Prof. Sunkyu Yu and Prof. Namkyoo Park of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in collaboration with Prof. Xianji Piao of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Seoul and Prof. Jensen Li of the University of Exeter (UK), demonstrates that the operating principles of topological qubits can be classically emulated, and further propose the possibility of realizing novel topological physical phenomena that differ from previously known implementations.
The results of this study were published in Physical Review Letters.