Daily Archives: June 19, 2017

Selena screening, Astronomy on Tap and more events for Tuesday fun – Austin American-Statesman

Posted: June 19, 2017 at 7:46 pm

Selena Screening at the Paramount

7 p.m. June 20. $7-$12. 713 Congress Ave. austintheatre.org.

Celebrate the 20th anniversary screening of the movie Selena, starring Jennifer Lopez. It comes complete with the Paramount Theatres Anything for Selenas happy hour starting at 6 p.m. and featuring music by Selena tribute band Bidi Bidi Banda, Home Slice Pizza, a photo booth, $2 Lone Stars and more. Bustiers are encouraged. Selena is the story of Tejano music sensation Selena Quintanilla, whose life was tragically cut short at the age of 23 when she had just become a rising star with a dynamite stage presence.

Steve Earle at Waterloo Records

5 p.m. June 20. Free. 600 N. Lamar Blvd. waterloorecords.com.

The Texas-born, New York-based troubadour will feature songs from his new album, So You Wannabe an Outlaw, at this solo acoustic in-store performance. Hell be back in a couple of weeks as part of the lineup for Willie Nelsons Fourth of July Picnic, joined at that show by his longtime backing band that includes former Austinites Eleanor Whitmore and Chris Masterson, but these will be your only opportunities to hear Earle play live. Peter Blackstock

7 p.m. June 20. Free. The North Door, 502 Brushy St. northdooraustin.com/queueapp.com/events/32637.

The monthly event highlighting the cosmos over a pint of beer or two will present three exciting talks focusing on dusty star-forming galaxies, nearby galaxies and the disks around young stars, with speakers including Kimberly Sokal, Sinclaire Manning and Sydney Sherman. Hope for good weather: Astronomy on Tap organizers will have telescopes on hand to look for cool objects in the night sky. There will be a segment about astronomy in the news, as well as trivia and new giveaways.

In Good Company Dinner at Alcomar

The final installment in Alcomars dinner series featuring Chefs Alma Alcocer-Thomas and Jeff Martinez favorite local vendors highlights East Austins Boggy Creek Farm. The four-course dinner will feature fresh produce from the farm paired with cocktails and wines. Courses include items like crab-stuffed squashed, roasted heirloom tomato chipotle salsa and avocado pumpkin seed salad. Boggy Creek has become beloved in town for its tasty fruits, vegetables, fresh eggs, local honey and more.

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Gravitational Astronomy? How Detecting Gravitational Waves … – Universe Today

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Universe Today
Gravitational Astronomy? How Detecting Gravitational Waves ...
Universe Today
Just a couple of weeks ago, astronomers from Caltech announced their third detection of gravitational waves from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave ...

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Kepler yields a handful of promising planetary candidates – Astronomy Magazine

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The newest Kepler catalog draws out 219 new planetary candidates and infers that 10 of them may be habitable doubling the number of planetary candidates in the habitable zone of their star. The Kepler catalog now stands at 2,335 confirmed planets and 4,034 strong candidates.

This catalog marks the final results of the first Kepler mission, which stared at the same portion of the sky for three-and-a-half years before a busted reaction wheel forced NASA to pivot the mission to other forms of planet hunting. There were only a small number of newly confirmed planets.

The data of the final catalog also suggests that there is a certain point at which super-Earths become more Neptune like, with a jump in mass as planets accumulate. This is why there seems to be so few planets between three and 10 Earth masses.

The Kepler telescope looked for planetary transits, when a planet passes in front of its star and causes a slight dip in its light. The original mission took a small sample of the sky in the Cygnus constellation to act as a sort of statistical survey. When a signal is sufficiently strong, its considered confirmed. If it cant quite be confirmed, its considered a candidate until further observation can verify a planet there.

You can scroll the list of all discovered exoplanets here.

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Astronomy club to host NASA ambassador Wednesday – Longview Daily News

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If you've ever been curious about NASA or the universe, Wednesday night might be the perfect time to get some answers.

The local Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club is featuring guest speaker Les Hasting, a NASA ambassador, for its upcoming monthly meeting Wednesday night. This free event will take place from 6 to 8 p.m in the basement of the Longview Public Library.

FOG President Chuck Ring said Hasting, a native of Skamania County, will cover a multitude of topics.

"(Hasting) gives a pretty good lecture about what you can see right now and whats going to happen in the near future," Ring said. "He may talk about the solar eclipse. Its just good information."

On Aug. 21, all of North America will be treated to an eclipse of the sun, which NASA describes as "one of natures most awe-inspiring sights. The "path of totality," in which the moon will completely cover the sun, will stretch from Lincoln Beach, Ore., to Charleston, S.C. Observers outside this path will still see apartial solar eclipsewhere the moon covers part of the sun's disk.

In Southwest Washington, about 90 percent of the sun will be eclipsed.

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Microsoft Could Surpass Amazon in Cloud Computing This Year (AMZN, MSFT) – Investopedia

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Amazon (AMZN) may have long been the leader in cloud computing with its Amazon Web Services, but that may change later this year as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is finally able to surpass it.

Thats according to Pacific Crest Securities which late Friday said Azure, the cloud computing unit of Microsoft, could have more revenue that its main rival for the first time in 2017. In a research note covered by The Street, analyst Brent Bracelin predicted the rise of Microsoft for the first time in 10 years would transition the company from a cloud laggard to a cloud leader. Bracelin said he came to this conclusion after conducting an analysis of the 60 biggest cloud computing companies. It was revealed that the market is poised for primetime and has lots of growth opportunities. The analyst is predicting spending on cloud initiatives could explode to $239 billion in the span of five years, with the Redmond, Washington software giant benefiting the most from the growth. Bracelin pointed to what he called unmatched product depth and breadth" in software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure as a service as the main reasons. (See also: Microsoft's Azure Cloud Revenue Estimated at $3B.)

While Microsoft still makes the lions share of its money through software sales, its cloud computing business continues to grow. For the three months ending in March, it said revenue in its Intelligent Cloud business came in at $6.8 billion, up 11% compared to the year ago and up 12% on a constant currency basis. During the third quarter, the company said server products and cloud services revenue increased 15%, driven by Azure cloud revenue growth of 93%. Our results this quarter reflect the trust customers are placing in the Microsoft Cloud, said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer at Microsoft said at the time. From large multi-nationals to small and medium businesses to non-profits all over the world, organizations are using Microsofts cloud platforms to power their digital transformation. (See also: Credit Suisse Bullish on Microsoft Cloud Business)

Pacific Crest isnt writing off Amazon completely in the cloud market, despite predicting the rise of its main rival and even though it has seen revenue growth at AWS decline for seven quarters in a row. Bracelin said that business appears to be increasing during the second quarter, with revenue growth of 9% sequentially forecasted. "We remain bullish on the five year prospects for AWS and are encouraged by 2Q cloud activity picking up," Bracelin wrote. "However, investor optimism is partially reflected in the valuation."

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Chinese tech giant Alibaba joins key open-source cloud computing foundation – GeekWire

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GeekWire File Photo.

Kicking off a week in which it plans to encourage American businesses to invest in China, Alibaba Group announced plans to give something back to the cloud computing community: Alibaba Cloud is now a member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

The Chinese internet giant plans to join the CNCF as a Gold member, putting it on the same level as rival Tencent. The CNCF, which is working to improve adoption of modern cloud-native software development technologies without setting standards, said in a statement that it was looking forward to more open-source contributions from the international cloud community.

Alibaba may not be a household name in the U.S., unless your household sells servers or enterprise computing technology. Nearly half a billion people mostly in China use one of Alibabas many services, from ecommerce to streaming video, and Intel has dubbed the company one of its super seven data center customers. The company is holding an event in Detroit this week with founder and executive chairman Jack Ma to pitch China as a source of new revenue for American businesses.

Alibaba Cloud is the leading cloud computing service in China, although it does face competition from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft there. On a global basis, it trails AWS, Microsoft, and Google by some margin, but Gartners latest Magic Quadrant report ranked it above more established U.S. cloud services like IBM and Oracle based on its belief in Alibabas ability to execute its cloud strategy.

Its definitely a significant addition for the CNCF, which now has a second source of cloud computing expertise in China through which to promote its member projects, most notably the Kubernetes container-orchestration project.

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7 Tips for Securely Moving Data to the Cloud – Government Technology (blog)

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A few years back, an unmistakable trend emerged that cloud computing was growing in both percentage of organizations adopting cloud solutions as well as the amount and type of data being placed in the cloud.

Earlier this year, I highlighted research that made it clear that trust and risks are both growing in government clouds. Since that time, many readers have asked for more specific guidance about moving more data to the cloud in the public and private sectors. I was asked: What are the right cloud questions?

Questions like: Where are we heading with our sensitive data? Will cloud computing continue to dominate the global landscape? These are key questions that surface on a regular basis.

The forecast for the computer industry is mostly cloudy. Here are some of the recent numbers:

Back at the end of last year, The Motley Fool reported 10 Cloud Computing States That Will Blow You Away, and the last three listed are especially intriguing to me. Here they are:

IoT, Other Trends and the Cloud

And while it is true that the Internet of Things (IoT) has taken over the mantle as the hottest trend in technology, the reality is that The Internet of Things and digital transformation have driven the adoption of cloud computing technology in business organizations, according to a U.S.-based cloud infrastructure firm Nutanix.

This article from CxO Today lays out the case that the cloud remains the most disruptive force in the tech world today. Why?

While premise-based IT software and tools have their own advantages, the global trend is for cloud based applications since they offer more connectivity and functionalities than legacy systems. Moreover, enterprises are naturally gravitating towards it as the technology is reasonably reliable, affordable, and provides them access to other new and emergent technologies as well as high end skills. The cloud boom is also propelled by the fact that enterprises are trying to improve performance and productivity over the long term. Looking at the tremendous response for cloud services, several IT companies are designing applications meant solely for pure cloud play.

Other experts say that several overlapping trends are colliding as The edge is eating the cloud. These trends include:

Overcoming Fears in the Cloud

And yet, there are plenty of enterprises that continue to have significant concerns regarding cloud computing contracts. Kleiner Perkins Mary Meeker highlighted the fact that cloud buyers are kicking the tires of multiple vendors while becoming more concerned about vendor lock-in.

Also, technology leaders often move to the cloud to save money, but CFOs are now telling IT shops to cut costs in the cloud fearing that resources are being wasted. For example:

Also, while overall trust in cloud infrastructure is higher, new concerns are rising about application security delivered through the cloud.

My 7 Tips for Moving Data into the Cloud

So what can technology and security leaders do to protect their data that is moving to the cloud?

Here are seven recommendations that can help you through the journey. Note that the first four items are largely best practices about your current data situation and options before your data moves.

1) Know your data. I mean, really know what is happening now before you move the data. Think about the analogy of a doing a house cleaning and organizing what you own before putting things in storage to sell your house.

If you dont want to catalog everything (which is a mistake), at least know where the most important data is. Who is doing what regarding the cloud already? What data is sensitive? This is your as is data inventory situation with known protections of current data. And dont forget shadow IT. There are plenty of vendor organizations that can help you through this process.

2) Have a defined and enforced data life cycle policy. You need to know what data is being collected by your business processes, where does it go, who is accountable (now) and what policies are in force.

Ask: Is there appropriate training happening now? Is it working? What policies are in place to govern the movement of your data? For example, my good friend and Delaware CSO Elayne Starkey does a great job in this area of policies. You can visit this Web portal for examples: https://dti.delaware.gov/information/standards-policies.shtml

3) Know your cloud options: Private, public, hybrid or community cloud? This simple step often gets confusing, in my experience, because some staff mix these terms up with the public sector and private sector definitions wrongly thinking that a private cloud means private-sector-owned cloud.

Here are some basic cloud definitions to ponder with your architecture team:

Private Cloud: The organization chooses to have its own cloud where the resource pooling is done by the organization itself (Single Organization cloud). May be or may not be on premises (in your own data centers.)

Public Cloud: Different tenants are doing the resource pooling among the same infrastructure.

Pros: It can be easily consumable, and the consumer can provision the resource.

Cons: Consumer will not get the same level of isolation as a Private cloud.

Community Cloud: Sharing the cloud with different organizations usually unified by the same community sharing underlined infrastructure (halfway between private and public) small organizations pooling resources among others. For example, some state and local government organizations share email hosting with other state and local governments in the U.S. only.

Hybrid: Mixture of both private and public i.e., some organization might say we would like elasticity and cost effectiveness of public cloud and we want to put certain applications in private cloud.

4) Understand and clearly articulate your Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles responsibilities and demarcation points for your data. Who owns the data? Who are the custodians? Who has access? Who can add, delete or modify the data? Really (not just on paper)? How will this change with your cloud provider?

Build a system administration list. Insist on rigorous compliance certifications Incorporate appropriate IAM:Incorporate appropriate IAM from the outset, ideally based on roles, especially for administration duties. When you move to the cloud, the customers, not the provider, are responsible for defining who can do what within their cloud environments. Your compliance requirements will likely dictate what your future architecture in the cloud will look like. Note that these staff may need background checks, a process to update lists (for new employees and staff that leave) and segregation of duties as defined by your auditors.

5) Apply encryption thinking end to end data at rest and data in transit. We could do an entirely separate blog on this encryption topic, since a recent (and scary) report says there is no encryption on 82 percent of public cloud databases. Here are a few points to consider. Who controls and has access to the encryption keys? What data is truly being encrypted and when? Only sensitive data? All data?

6) Test your controls. Once you move the data, your cloud solution vulnerability testing should be rigorous and ongoing and include penetration testing. Ask: How do you truly know your data is safe? What tools do you have to see your data in the cloud environment? How transparent is this ongoing process?

The cloud service provider should employ industry-leading vulnerability and incident response tools. For example, solutions from these incidence response tools enable fully automated security assessments that can test for system weaknesses and dramatically shorten the time between critical security audits from yearly or quarterly, to monthly, weekly, or even daily.

You can decide how often a vulnerability assessment is required, varying from device to device and from network to network. Scans can be scheduled or performed on demand.

7) Back up all data in a distinct fault domain.

Gartner recommends: To spread risk most effectively, back up all data in a fault domain distinct from where it resides in production. Some cloud providers offer backup capabilities as an extra cost option, but it isnt a substitute for proper backups. Customers, not cloud providers, are responsible for determining appropriate replication strategies, as well as maintaining backups.

Final Thoughts

No doubt, managing your data in the cloud is a complex and ongoing challenge that includes many other pieces beyond these seven items. From contract provisions to measuring costs incurred for the services to overall administration functions, the essential data duties listed are generally not for technology professionals or contracts pros lacking real experience.

Nevertheless, all organizations that move data into and out of cloud providers data centers are constantly going through this data analysis process. Just because you moved sensitive data in the cloud five years ago for one business area does not mean that new business areas can skip these steps.

If you are in a large enterprise, you may want to consider adding a cloud computing project management office (PMO) to manage vendor engagement and ensure the implementation of best practices across all business areas.

And dont just fall for the typical line: I know xyz company (Amazon or Microsoft or Google or fill-in-the-blank) is better at overall security than we are so just stop asking questions. Yes these companies are good at what they do, but there are always trade-offs.

You must trust but verify your cloud service because you own the data. Remember, you can outsource the function, but not the responsibility.

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Prototype device enables photon-photon interactions at room temperature for quantum computing – Phys.Org

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June 19, 2017 by Larry Hardesty A micrograph of the MIT researchers new device, with a visualization of electrical-energy measurements and a schematic of the device layout superimposed on it. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ordinarily, light particlesphotonsdon't interact. If two photons collide in a vacuum, they simply pass through each other.

An efficient way to make photons interact could open new prospects for both classical optics and quantum computing, an experimental technology that promises large speedups on some types of calculations.

In recent years, physicists have enabled photon-photon interactions using atoms of rare elements cooled to very low temperatures.

But in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters, MIT researchers describe a new technique for enabling photon-photon interactions at room temperature, using a silicon crystal with distinctive patterns etched into it. In physics jargon, the crystal introduces "nonlinearities" into the transmission of an optical signal.

"All of these approaches that had atoms or atom-like particles require low temperatures and work over a narrow frequency band," says Dirk Englund, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT and senior author on the new paper. "It's been a holy grail to come up with methods to realize single-photon-level nonlinearities at room temperature under ambient conditions."

Joining Englund on the paper are Hyeongrak Choi, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science, and Mikkel Heuck, who was a postdoc in Englund's lab when the work was done and is now at the Technical University of Denmark.

Photonic independence

Quantum computers harness a strange physical property called "superposition," in which a quantum particle can be said to inhabit two contradictory states at the same time. The spin, or magnetic orientation, of an electron, for instance, could be both up and down at the same time; the polarization of a photon could be both vertical and horizontal.

If a string of quantum bitsor qubits, the quantum analog of the bits in a classical computeris in superposition, it can, in some sense, canvass multiple solutions to the same problem simultaneously, which is why quantum computers promise speedups.

Most experimental qubits use ions trapped in oscillating magnetic fields, superconducting circuits, orlike Englund's own researchdefects in the crystal structure of diamonds. With all these technologies, however, superpositions are difficult to maintain.

Because photons aren't very susceptible to interactions with the environment, they're great at maintaining superposition; but for the same reason, they're difficult to control. And quantum computing depends on the ability to send control signals to the qubits.

That's where the MIT researchers' new work comes in. If a single photon enters their device, it will pass through unimpeded. But if two photonsin the right quantum statestry to enter the device, they'll be reflected back.

The quantum state of one of the photons can thus be thought of as controlling the quantum state of the other. And quantum information theory has established that simple quantum "gates" of this type are all that is necessary to build a universal quantum computer.

Unsympathetic resonance

The researchers' device consists of a long, narrow, rectangular silicon crystal with regularly spaced holes etched into it. The holes are widest at the ends of the rectangle, and they narrow toward its center. Connecting the two middle holes is an even narrower channel, and at its center, on opposite sides, are two sharp concentric tips. The pattern of holes temporarily traps light in the device, and the concentric tips concentrate the electric field of the trapped light.

The researchers prototyped the device and showed that it both confined light and concentrated the light's electric field to the degree predicted by their theoretical models. But turning the device into a quantum gate would require another component, a dielectric sandwiched between the tips. (A dielectric is a material that is ordinarily electrically insulating but will become polarizedall its positive and negative charges will align in the same directionwhen exposed to an electric field.)

When a light wave passes close to a dielectric, its electric field will slightly displace the electrons of the dielectric's atoms. When the electrons spring back, they wobble, like a child's swing when it's pushed too hard. This is the nonlinearity that the researchers' system exploits.

The size and spacing of the holes in the device are tailored to a specific light frequencythe device's "resonance frequency." But the nonlinear wobbling of the dielectric's electrons should shift that frequency.

Ordinarily, that shift is mild enough to be negligible. But because the sharp tips in the researchers' device concentrate the electric fields of entering photons, they also exaggerate the shift. A single photon could still get through the device. But if two photons attempted to enter it, the shift would be so dramatic that they'd be repulsed.

Practical potential

The device can be configured so that the dramatic shift in resonance frequency occurs only if the photons attempting to enter it have particular quantum propertiesspecific combinations of polarization or phase, for instance. The quantum state of one photon could thus determine the way in which the other photon is handled, the basic requirement for a quantum gate.

Englund emphasizes that the new research will not yield a working quantum computer in the immediate future. Too often, light entering the prototype is still either scattered or absorbed, and the quantum states of the photons can become slightly distorted. But other applications may be more feasible in the near term. For instance, a version of the device could provide a reliable source of single photons, which would greatly abet a range of research in quantum information science and communications.

"This work is quite remarkable and unique because it shows strong light-matter interaction, localization of light, and relatively long-time storage of photons at such a tiny scale in a semiconductor," says Mohammad Soltani, a nanophotonics researcher in Raytheon BBN Technologies' Quantum Information Processing Group. "It can enable things that were questionable before, like nonlinear single-photon gates for quantum information. It works at room temperature, it's solid-state, and it's compatible with semiconductor manufacturing. This work is among the most promising to date for practical devices, such as quantum information devices."

Explore further: Unpolarized single-photon generation with true randomness from diamond

More information: Hyeongrak Choi et al. Self-Similar Nanocavity Design with Ultrasmall Mode Volume for Single-Photon Nonlinearities, Physical Review Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.223605

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.

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Advanced photonic nanostructures are well on their way to revolutionising quantum technology for quantum networks based on light. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have now developed the first building blocks needed ...

An elegantly simple experiment with floating particles self-assembling in response to sound waves has provided a new framework for studying how seemingly lifelike behaviors emerge in response to external forces.

Ordinarily, light particlesphotonsdon't interact. If two photons collide in a vacuum, they simply pass through each other.

An international team of scientists has for the first time used an X-ray free-electron laser to unravel the structure of an intact virus particle on the atomic level. The method used dramatically reduces the amount of virus ...

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According to Einstein's theory of relativity, the curvature of spacetime was infinite at the big bang. In fact, at this point all mathematical tools fail, and the theory breaks down. However, there remained the notion that ...

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Great advance but very confusing title. With this technique Photons do not interact between them , each one only interacts with the material.

Okay, right away, I don't understand the concept of photons that "simply pass through each other." It would make way more sense if photons "simply" bounce off each other and fly the opposite way, if colliding in a vacuum. They're already going the speed of light, so there's no elasticity. Please, show me the evidence and research!

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Israel Enters Quantum Computer Race, Placing Encryption at Ever-Greater Risk – Sputnik International

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19:29 19.06.2017 Get short URL

The Universitysays the US$2.13 million system, tobe developed atits Quantum Information Science Center laboratory, will use single photons asthe communications medium quantum bits make it possible toperform calculations innew ways that are not possible incurrent communications systems or even supercomputers.

Current methods ofencrypting data are increasingly vulnerable toattacks, asthe increased power ofquantum computing comes online.

Quantum communication systems use the laws ofphysics tosecure data and are therefore resistant toattacks.

Professor Nadav Katz, Director ofthe Quantum Information Science Center, said the project would position Israel inthe "leading edge" ofresearch towardultimately secured communication systems. While a fresh tender, the center was originally founded in2013, and recruited an interdisciplinary team ofover 20 researchers fromphysics, computer science, mathematics, chemistry, philosophy and engineering toits ranks.

However, the privacy conscious and techies alike may be disappointed inthe project's objectives rather thanfocusing onprotecting individual data, the system will instead be designed tobeef upthe government's quantum communications capabilities, and give Israeli officials the ability toprotect themselves againsthackers and other potentially malicious forces.

Quantum information research is one ofthe biggest growth areas in21st century science, promising dramatic improvements incomputation speed and secure communication. Based onthe inherent wave-like nature ofmatter and light, it will theoretically lead tomassive leaps forward inhuman ability tofabricate, control, measure and understand advanced structures.

Competition inthe field is rapidly gathering pace, withChina inJune showing offthe results ofits first Earth-to-satellite quantum entanglement experimentlast week, using the Micius satellite launched in2016. The satellite is said tohave "teleportation-like" communication capabilities, which cannot be hacked.

Meanwhile, back onEarth, the best-developed quantum communications application is quantum key distribution companies such asQuintessenceLabs and ID Quantique exploit the quantum properties ofphotons toprotect encryption keys generated bytheir appliances, beforeusing the keys toencrypt data transmitted overconventional channels.

As such, it is inevitable governments will be the first toget their hands onmost quantum technology whether communications or computers.

The cost involved inresearch and development cannot be borne byprivate businesses, much less individuals and ontop ofboasting the requisite funds forthe task, governments would also be granted a head start indigital spying and surveillance.

Quantum computers will be most effective atbreaking encryption, due totheir hyperactive number crunching capabilities and given governmental dedication toending encryption, most notably inthe UK,there's no doubt the technology is being doggedly pursued precisely forthis reason.

The obvious upshot ofthis would be that governments would be able toheavily insulate their own data fromoutsiders, while throwing open the vast majority ofpublic data totheir own scrutiny.

What's more, it's evident fromtheNSA's XKeyscore program, asrevealed byEdward Snowden,that Western spying agencies are storing vast quantities ofencrypted data they cannot currently crack, inthe hope once a requisitely powerful quantum computer actually exists, it can retrospectively break intothose communications.

Past, current and future data may not be safe fromprying official eyes formuch longer.

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China sets new record for quantum entanglement en route to build new communication network – NEWS.com.au

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China has used a laser on a satellite orbiting 480 kilometres above the earth to produce entangled photons and beam them to stations on the ground. Picture: Cai Yang/Xinhua via ZUMA

IN A bid to build an entirely new kind of internet completely secure and impervious to hackers China has pulled off a major feat in particle physics.

Chinese scientists have set a new distance record for beaming a pair of entangled particles: photons of light that behave like twins and experience the exact same things simultaneously, even though theyre separated by great distances.

The principle is called quantum entanglement and its one of the subatomic worlds weirdest phenomena. And China has smashed the distance record for quantum entanglement.

In a groundbreaking experiment led by Professor Jian-Wei Pan of Hefei University in China, a laser on a satellite orbiting 480 kilometres above the earth produced entangled photons.

They were then transmitted to two different ground-based stations 1200 kilometres apart, without breaking the link between the photons, the researchers said in a report published in the journal Science.

That distance achieved in the experiment is 10 times greater than the previous record for entanglement and is also the first time entangled photons have been generated in space.

Its a huge, major achievement, Thomas Jennewein, physicist at the University of Waterloo in Canada, told Science. They started with this bold idea and managed to do it.

China launched its first quantum satellite in August and if all goes according to plan will send up plenty more to create a system of communication which relies on entanglement.

A COMPLETELY NEW INTERNET

By launching a group of quantum-enabled satellites, China hopes to create a super secure network that uses an encryption technique based on the principles of a field known as quantum communication.

In physics we are trying, and we have demonstrated some encryption techniques that rely on the law of physics rather than the mathematical complexity and we call this quantum key distribution, professor Ping Koy Lam from the ANUs Department of Quantum Science told news.com.au last year, before China launched its first quantum satellite.

For that to work you need to send laser beams that carry certain information, quantum information, and then you need the senders and the receivers to get together to find a protocol to secure the communication.

The reason it cant be hacked is because the information carried in the quantum state of a particle cannot be measured or cloned without destroying the information itself.

We can show that this kind of quantum encryption works in a city radius or at most between two nearby cities, Prof Lam said.

However China believes the atmosphere in space will allow the photons to travel further without disruption because in space theres nothing to attenuate light.

In the latest experiment, both stations which received the photons were in the mountains of Tibet, at a height that reduced the amount of air the fragile photons had to traverse.

The successful characterisation of quantum features under such conditions is a precondition for a global quantum communication network using satellites that would link metropolitan area quantum networks on the ground. Picture: Google, ESASource:Supplied

A NEW SPACE RACE

Chinas ongoing progress will no doubt be watched closely by security agencies around the world.

While the spectre of a communication network enabled via quantum satellites is still a long way off, as China edges closer to the goal it has led to predictions of a new space race.

Quantum technology has been a major focus of Chinas five-year economic development plan, released in March 2016. While other space agencies have been experimenting with the technology, none have seen the level of financial support provided by Beijing.

China has not disclosed how much money it has spent on Quantum research, but funding for basic research which includes quantum physics was $US101 billion in 2015 an absolutely massive increase from the $US1.9 billion the country spent in 2005.

Scientists in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan are also rushing to exploit the power of particle physics to create secure communication systems, but Chinas latest experiment puts the country well ahead of the pack.

With AFP

China launched the world's first quantum satellite on top of a Long March-2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. Picture: ZumaSource:Supplied

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China sets new record for quantum entanglement en route to build new communication network - NEWS.com.au

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