| | | The Quest to Quantify Quantumness By CHARLIE WOOD What makes a quantum computer more powerful than a classical computer? It's a surprisingly subtle question that physicists are still grappling with, decades into the quantum age.
Read the article | |  | Thirty Years Later, a Speed Boost for Quantum Factoring By BEN BRUBAKER Shor's algorithm will enable future quantum computers to factor large numbers quickly, undermining many online security protocols. Now a researcher has shown how to do it even faster.
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Related:
What Makes Quantum
Computing So Hard to Explain?
By Scott Aaronson (2021) |  | These Cells Spark Electricity in the Brain. They're Not Neurons. By LAURA DATTARO Researchers have long debated whether brain cells called astrocytes can signal like neurons. A recent study provides the best evidence yet that some astrocytes are part of the electrical conversation.
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Glial Brain Cells, Long in Neurons'
Shadow, Reveal Hidden Powers
By Elena Renken (2020) | | A Fine Transition
Clocks based on nuclear transitions are better protected against environmental disruptions than atomic clocks based on electronic transitions are. They could make advanced timekeeping more than a trillion times as precise, reports Kenna Hughes-Castleberry for Scientific American. The world's best atomic clocks lose only one second after running for 100 million years, an accuracy that has enabled physicists to sense differences in time's passage within a single cloud of atoms, as Katie McCormick reported for Quanta in 2021. Nuclear clocks will do even better.
Flight Control
Some flying insects flap their wings synchronously, while others have independent control of each wing. That difference is inspiring new designs for flying robots, reports Rupendra Brahambhatt for Ars Technica. Engineers are also learning from studies of how birds fly. In 2022, Yasemin Saplakoglu wrote for Quanta about new insights into the biomechanics of birds. | | | Quanta is conducting a series of surveys to better serve our audience. Take our newsletter subscriber survey and you will be entered to win free Quanta merchandise. | | | |
