What's up in

Abstractions blog

Latest Articles

Computer Scientists Eliminate Pesky Quantum Computations

January 19, 2022

For years, intermediate measurements made it hard to quantify the complexity of quantum algorithms. New work establishes that those measurements aren’t necessary after all.

Symmetries Reveal Clues About the Holographic Universe

January 12, 2022

Physicists have been busy exploring how our universe might emerge like a hologram out of a two-dimensional sheet. New clues have come from the symmetries found on an infinitely distant “celestial sphere.”

Euler’s 243-Year-Old ‘Impossible’ Puzzle Gets a Quantum Solution

January 10, 2022

A surprising new solution to Leonhard Euler’s famous “36 officers puzzle” offers a novel way of encoding quantum information.

Qubits Can Be as Safe as Bits, Researchers Show

January 6, 2022

A new result shows that quantum information can theoretically be protected from errors just as well as classical information can.

An Injection of Chaos Solves Decades-Old Fluid Mystery

January 4, 2022

In the 1960s, drillers noticed that certain fluids would firm up if they flowed too fast. Researchers have finally explained why.

Detailed Footage Finally Reveals What Triggers Lightning

December 20, 2021

Scientists have never been able to adequately explain where lightning comes from. Now the first detailed observations of its emergence inside a cloud have exposed how electric fields grow strong enough to let bolts fly.

Gravitational Waves Should Permanently Distort Space-Time

December 8, 2021

The “gravitational memory effect” predicts that a passing gravitational wave should forever alter the structure of space-time. Physicists have linked the phenomenon to fundamental cosmic symmetries and a potential solution to the black hole information paradox.

AI Researchers Fight Noise by Turning to Biology

December 7, 2021

Tiny amounts of artificial noise can fool neural networks, but not humans. Some researchers are looking to neuroscience for a fix.

Quantum Simulators Create a Totally New Phase of Matter

December 2, 2021

One of the first goals of quantum computing has been to recreate bizarre quantum systems that can’t be studied in an ordinary computer. A dark-horse quantum simulator has now done just that.

Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox