Quantum Maze Solvers Move Fast, but Forget their Past

Plus: Earth as a topological insulator; Microbes make dark oxygen; Croft's Tortoise gets a lower ceiling; Math helps you think local and act global

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser QUANTUM COMPUTING | ALL TOPICS   To Move Fast, Quantum Maze Solvers Must Forget the Past By BEN BRUBAKER Quantum algorithms can find their way out of mazes exponentially faster than classical ones, at the cost of forgetting the paths they took. A new result suggests that the trade-off may be inevitable. Read the article  GEOPHYSICS   How Quantum Physicists Explained Earth's Oscillating Weather Patterns By KATIE McCORMICK By treating Earth as a topological insulator — a state of quantum matter — physicists found a powerful explanation for the movements of the planet's air and seas. Read the article Related:  Scientists Unravel How the Tonga Volcano Caused Worldwide Tsunamis By Robin George Andrews (2022) MICROBIOLOGY   Underground Cells Make 'Dark Oxygen' Without Light By SAUGAT BOLAKHE Some microbes without access to light create their own "dark oxygen" through a process called dismutation. Their oxygen production may sustain entire underground ecologies. Read the article Related:  Inside Deep Undersea Rocks, Life Thrives Without the Sun By Jordana Cepelewicz (2020) GEOMETRY   Mathematicians Solve Long-Standing Coloring Problem By ANNA KRAMER A new result shows how much of the plane can be colored by points that are never exactly one unit apart. Read the article   Related:  Decades-Old Graph Problem Yields to Amateur Mathematician By Evelyn Lamb (2018) QUANTIZED ACADEMY   Math That Lets You Think Locally but Act Globally By PATRICK HONNER Knowing a little about the local connections on flight maps and other networks can reveal a lot about a system's global structure. Read the column Related:  New Proof Reveals That Graphs With No Pentagons Are Fundamentally Different By Steve Nadis (2021) QUANTA SCIENCE PODCAST   Gene Expression in Neurons Solves a Brain Evolution Puzzle Story by ALLISON WHITTEN; Podcast hosted by SUSAN VALOT Our brains have even less in common with reptile brains than was once thought. Listen to the podcast Read the article Around the Web HLA Genes Could Create Covid Immunity  Some people who contract Covid-19 don't get sick. New research shows that they might have a variant gene for an HLA protein to thank for their immunity, reports Mitch Leslie for Science Magazine. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes produce proteins that bind to viral proteins and help T-cells eliminate the invaders. As Emily Singer reported for Quanta in 2013, some HLA variants are more effective than others at preventing severe illness and death from influenza viruses. Ultracold Atoms and Laser Light Using ultracold atoms trapped in laser light, physicists have simulated an exotic quantum state that exhibits the fractional quantum Hall effect, reports Isabelle Dumé for Physics World. Such quantum simulations can help us learn about the behaviors of quantum systems before working quantum computers are fully realized. In 2021, Charlie Wood wrote for Quanta about a quantum simulation of a related state known as a quantum spin liquid. Follow Quanta Simons Foundation 160 5th Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10010 Unsubscribe | About Quanta Privacy Policy | Terms | Contact Us   Copyright © 2023 Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of the Simons Foundation