A video being widely shared on social media has renewed attention on a group that falsely presents itself as a government agency fighting against compulsory mask-wearing.

In the video filmed in a California grocery store a woman says she is from the "Freedom to Breathe Agency."

She tells a store worker that she could be sued for enforcing mask rules. She also handed her papers, which, according to BuzzFeed News, claimed that she could be sent to prison.

The group has no affiliation with any state or federal authority, and has been warned by the Department of Justice to stop mis-using its seal.

It has also been censured as part of a Facebook crackdown on coronavirus misinformation, linked to fake cards marked "FACE MASK EXEMPT" and said to be issued by the agency.

In July the Department of Justice (DoJ) denied any affiliation with the group after imagery emerged of the cards, which feature the department's seal.

"These postings were not issued by the Department and are not endorsed by the Department," said the DoJ in a statement to NPR.

The cards threatened business owners requiring patrons to wear masks with a referral to the DoJ, and potential fines of $150,000.

Pictures of the exemption cards were being linked to widely in a Facebook group called Unmasking America, reported The Verge in July.

The page was subsequently banned from the site for spreading coronavirus misinformation.

One poster in the group reportedly advised others to "print it, laminate it and use it. The number is legit."

The group's Facebook page is currently unavailable, with a message from Facebook suggesting possible reasons, including that it had been deleted.

The group's founder was identified by The New York Times as Lenka Koloma.

The outlet reported that she was selling the cards on a page on the Shopify platform. She describes herself on her webpage as an "entrepreneur, motivational speaker, transformation expert and researcher in the field of biology, nutritional science, science of life, neuroscience and quantum physics."

She is also, according to BuzzFeed News, the woman in the video confronting the grocery store worker.

She claims wearing a mask is part of "subliminal mind conditioning," and her website contains a print-out of grounds for refusing to obey mask-wearing rules.

Koloma did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Facebook also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Do you have a personal experience with the coronavirus you'd like to share? Or a tip on how your town or community is handling the pandemic? Please email covidtips@businessinsider.com and tell us your story.

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Fake 'Freedom to Breathe Agency' was caught in Facebook COVID-19 purge - Insider - INSIDER

Quantum Realm

A team of Chinese scientists put a new twist on the ancient game Go: They shrunk it down to the quantum scale.

In this new version, the classic black and white stones players use as game pieces were taken away and replaced by pairs of entangled photons, according to Phys.org. While the game is an unusual quantum experiment on its own, the researchers say that the work could herald a new era of quantum physics-based games.

In a regular game of Go, players try to claim territory on a board and capture each others stones by surrounding them with their own. Its an extremely complex game governed by extremely simple rules, which has made it a common target for AI researchers.

But in the quantum version, which is described in a paper shared on the preprint server ArXiv last month, the use of entangled photons introduces new layers of complexity and randomness.

The main difference between the two games is that now it matters whether an encircled photon is entangled with another or not. When a player places down two photons, they remain entangled until another photon is placed next to one of them. For as long as theyre entangled, neither photon can be captured.

And thanks to the tricky nature of quantum physics, a player wont know whether a given photon is entangled with another until they try to capture it, adding a new element of chance and trickery that renders classic Go strategies useless.

READ MORE: Using entangled photons to play quantum Go [Phys.org]

More on Go: Human Go Champion Who Lost to AI Says Machines Cannot Be Defeated

Continued here:

Scientists Played a Game of Go at the Quantum Scale - Futurism

Boasting one of the most evocative titles in sport, and having grown from a light-hearted entertainment show into an international franchise watched by millions, it seems disingenuous to label the Worlds Strongest Man (WSM) as small or niche.

Then again, in an industry swarming with billion dollar broadcast deals, eye-popping viewing figures, and lucrative commercial partnerships, it is a mark of the times that even WSMs feats of superhuman strength have not been able to keep up with other sports properties in the search for expansion.

A reported annual global viewership of around 220 million would certainly challenge the assumption that WSM is on the fringes of global recognition. But if you really break it down, the sport, while capturing the imagination, has yet to fully immerse itself in the public consciousness.

Aside from the cream of the crop, who get the majority of their income from sponsorships, few athletes make a living out if it. Even Eddie Hall, WSM 2017 winner and the first man to pull a 500kg deadlift (for context, that is heavier than a polar bear) could only afford to turn pro in 2015. He is one of the few select strongmen, certainly in the UK, who qualify for household name status. The other being Geoff Capes, who claimed two titles in 1983 and 1985 during the sports fledgling years.

A staple of the Christmas TV schedule during the past five decades, that reliance on linear broadcasting has perhaps held WSM back given audiences propensity today for digital, on-demand content. Even a 170kg bloke pulling an airplane is not as attention grabbing as it once was.

But that could all be about to change. In June, sports entertainment company Wave.tv struck a partnership with IMG to strengthen its content offering across the agency giants properties, one being WSM.

The deal secured Wave.tv rights to distribute WSM content via an array of digital media brands on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube channels, meaning keg tossing, axle pressing and tyre flipping were all at the fingertips of the Wave.tv audience.

We believe that a formula of fandoms, plusprogramming formats, plus IP equals new hit programming, Brian Verne (pictured right), Wave.tvs chief executive and co-founder, tells SportsPro. When we started Wave.tv,we set out to go sport by sport, or fandom by fandom, and create this portfolio of digitally native media brands, covering everything from traditional sports to non-traditional sports to anything in between.

We wanted to do it squarely on the core and emerging social and digital platforms, where we saw young fans really migrating to for their sports entertainment experience.

We felt like if we were able to do that, and take this view of providing fans with a true breadth of programming, and then also marry that with mastering different programming formats, then we'd be able to go and work with rights holders or IP holders.

We simply reimagine a lot of the same stories and narratives that fans have cared about for years into new hit programming for the platforms on which our media brands live.

Wave.tv had already tested the waters with IMG through the launch of The Pump on Snapchat. Described as the destination for the strongest content on the planet, the show features strongmen and other fitness personalities hitting the iron. Over a 12-month period, WSM content generated more than 345 million views, with The Pump now boasting a dedicated fanbase and becoming one of Wave.tvs top performing properties.

Over the last 18 months, Vernes operation has also been distributing WSM content across the Wave TV, Highlights WAVE, and Greatest Highlights channels, demonstrating bold plans to take the rights holders IP to the masses.

I think in general, there has been this massive misconception in the market that fandom is decreasing with the next generation of fans, when in fact it's actually at an all-time high, explains Verne.

People's viewing habits have changed. Today, yes, that younger fan isn't necessarily behaving the same way as previous generations. But they're consuming more content than ever on their phones across the social and digital platforms where our brands live.

So, if anything, I think its a reminder to the industry that people still love all sorts of sports for all sorts of fandoms.

There are all these amazing stories or moments that are happening on a daily basis and just because it might not be soccer, football, basketball, baseball, or hockey, doesn't mean there isn't an incredible story to be told. That was our worldview as it relates to Worlds Strongest Man.

Magns Ver Magnsson and Bill Kazmaier won seven WSM titles between them during the 1980s and 90s

Indeed, WSM has been packed with engrossing storytelling since its first edition in 1977, adding some brains to its considerable brawn.

The 1980s saw Capes, the US Bill Kazmaier and Icelands Jn Pll Sigmarsson, who called himself the Viking, trade titles and insults during the decade. The mid 1990s to early 2000s saw more Nordic power reign supreme, with competitors from Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland again dominating the field.

From 2010, weve arguably seen the highest standard of competition in the sports history, with ydrnas Savickas, Brian Shaw, Eddie Hall and Game of Thrones star Hafr Jlus Bjrnsson breaking numerous world records.

Savickas fittingly known as Big Z and regarded in many circles as the strongest man in history was described by strength icon and WWE star Mark Henry as being the Michael Jordan of lifting. Yet, his profile pales in comparison to the fastest man who ever lived, Usain Boult, or even Jordan himself.

Considering the quality on show today, staunch WSM fans could make a case that the sport does not need to drastically alter its broadcasting approach for fear of pampering the most masculine of vocations. But, facing competition from the likes of the Arnold Strongman Classic, it would be short-sighted not to tap into a digital methodology as more established sports already have done.

ydrnas Savickas is an icon of the sport

Crucially, the Wave.tv tie-up ensures WSM, along with other IMG properties such as EuroLeague Basketball and Edge Sport, will enjoy a flow of organic coverage and engagement with Gen Z and millennial audiences. Currently, 80 per cent of Wave.tvs viewers are aged between 13 and 34.

Added to that, since being founded in 2017, Wave.tv has become the fourth largest sports media entity in the US and fastest growing overall globally, according to measurement solution firm Shareablee. Boasting more than 3.2 billion monthly views, the company has over 60 million followers and subscribers, reaching at least 200 million fans each month.

I think that the beauty of sport is that its truly this universal language, continues Verne. We often say that fandom cannot, and should not, fit within a singular box.Regardless of what your favourite sport is, that doesn't mean youre not equally as passionate.

If you think about how many different fandoms exist and manifest globally, it is very limiting as a media company to only focus on a small subset. Thus, we took this approach that whether a sport is traditional or non-traditional, or anything you can even imagine, we want to develop a media brand and programming for it.

Other IMG properties including EuroLeague Basketball and Edge Sport are part of Wave.tvs content deal

Verne notes that he expects rights holders to lean even more heavily on digital content in the ongoing battle for increased exposure. Linear TV will continue to be the bread and butter, certainly with the biggest leagues, for the foreseeable future. But the added potential of opening up further sponsorship inventory, coupled with the Covid-19 uncertainty, would suggest social media has an even more sizeable role to play.

At the end of the day, it increases fandom, which drives enterprise value. From a pure commercial and revenue generating point of view, we see this as massively valuable sports sponsorship inventory, says Verne.

You think about the industry at large and, every single year, every white paper talks about the value of the ecosystem increasing. Now, we're in the midst of this paradigm shift of sorts where all sorts of things are changing.

So we view this type of programming that lives across core and emerging social and digital [platforms] as being incredibly valuable and lucrative to all sorts of rights holders. Weve certainly found a way to differentiate ourselves by working with a lot of non-traditional sports to date.

If you think about how many different fandoms exist and manifest globally, it is very limiting as a media company to only focus on a small subset.

The clamour for properties, not just WSM, to grasp the next wave of fans is all the more urgent as they look to shore up their earnings amid the economic downturn. An exact formula is elusive, given the variable nature of each generation. But, Wave.tvs youthful audience offers some clues to maximise digital engagement.

Don't overthink things. Regardless of whether it was year 1900, 1960 or 2020, sports is escapism. Its entertainment for people, explains Verne.

The same underlying pillars still exist today when you talk about developing effective programming. People want to learn something, they want to be entertained, they want to laugh, they want to be motivated, they want to be inspired. If you take that approach to your programming, irrespective of the medium or the format, then I think it's going to be effective.

For whatever reason, over the last decade or so, there has been a little bit of a misconception or over complicating a lot of what we do. We're not solving quantum physics. Were just taking the same things you and I grew up with, that our parents and grandparents grew up watching, the same interests, and just adapting it to how fans across the world are behaving today.

That's why I always tell people that the beauty in our business is truly the simplicity.

Without mammoth TV and commercial contracts to fall back on, the post-Covid future is even more uncertain for non-traditional sports. However, for WSM, its collaboration with Wave.tv offers a chance to leverage content old and new for an untapped demographic.

Boosting those prospects further arethe considerable resources Wave.tv is able to allocate to its partners. In June, Verne closed a Series A funding round worth US$32 million to further build Wave.tv's roster of media brands, while company acquisitions are on the agenda too.

With consumers watching more content during lockdown, Wave.tv was able to sustain its business by drawing on it deep archive. Whilst other media brands have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, Verne claims Wave.tv is on target to see about 100 per cent year-over-year revenue growth meaning it has enough budget to target the addition of between 12 and 20 new staff this quarter.

WSM athletes may be competing bicep to bicep, but Wave.tvs approach to having ardent fans from varying sports at the centre of its approach highlights the value of putting passion into practice.

Weve always viewed ourselves as this modern day sports and entertainment enterprise. From a media point of view, we have 18 media brands within our portfolio, each covering some subset of fandom. That's made us well positioned to continue to add media brands to the roster, says Verne.

Our worldview is that we can develop a very successful, digitally native media brand for a particular area of sports fandom. So, you'll definitely see us expand into new categories.

Given the time that were in, were at the convergence of a lot of change within sports sponsorship. Sports betting, especially in North America, is one of the fastest growing sectors, so that's something that we're looking at really heavily.

Thats on our roadmap from a programming and commercial opportunity point of view. Well be continuing to diversify and add assets to our portfolio as things evolve. Were very much in growth mode.

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How Wave.tv is making the World's Strongest Man think bigger with its digital plans - SportsPro Media

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is a general-purpose detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It has a broad physics programme ranging from studying the Standard Model (including the Higgs boson) to searching for extra dimensions and particles that could make up dark matter. The CMS detector is built around a huge solenoid magnet. This takes the form of a cylindrical coil of superconducting cable that generates a field of 4 tesla, about 100,000 times the magnetic field of the Earth. The field is confined by a steel yoke that forms the bulk of the detectors 14,000-tonne weight. Credit: CERN

The ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider have seen evidence of a new type of decay not yet observed: the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of muons.

US CMS the United States contingent of the global CMS collaboration played a crucial role in this result, contributing to the excellent performance of CMS detector. US CMS members have been instrumental in the design, construction and upgrades of detector components that capture the particle tracks and help filter potential signals from the background noise: the tracker detector, the muon detectors, the muon trigger system and the computing system. They continue to lead the successful maintenance and operations of these systems.

US CMS is very proud to acknowledge the significant impact made by its members in deploying innovative analysis techniques, including cutting-edge AI methods, which were critical in establishing the evidence for Higgs boson decays into a muon and antimuon pair, said Brown University physicist Meenakshi Narain, chair of the US CMS collaboration. This is a rare process, and finding evidence for it is a vital step toward understanding the Higgs particle and the Standard Model.

CMS is an international collaboration with members from 238 institutes across 55 countries. US CMS, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energys Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, makes up about a third of the CMS collaboration.

The achievement, reached significantly ahead of what was expected, relies on the excellent performance of our detector, on the large data set provided by LHC and on advanced analysis techniques, said Roberto Carlin, spokesperson for the CMS experimental collaboration.

The ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN have announced new results that show that the Higgs boson decays into two muons. The muon is a heavier copy of the electron, one of the elementary particles that constitute the matter content of the universe. While electrons are classified as a first-generation particle, muons belong to the second generation. The physics process of the Higgs boson decaying into muons is a rare phenomenon as only about one Higgs boson in 5,000 decays into muons. These new results have pivotal importance for fundamental physics because they indicate for the first time that the Higgs boson interacts with second-generation elementary particles.

Physicists at CERN have been studying the Higgs boson since its discovery in 2012 to probe the properties of this very special particle. The Higgs boson, produced from proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, disintegrates referred to as decay almost instantaneously into other particles. One of the main methods of studying the Higgs bosons properties is by analyzing how it decays into the various fundamental particles and the rate of disintegration.

A candidate of a Higgs boson decays into two muons as recorded by CMS. Credit: CMS collaboration, CMS collaboration, Thomas McCauley

CMS achieved evidence of this decay with 3 sigma, which means that the chance of seeing the Higgs boson decaying into a muon pair from statistical fluctuation is less than one in 700. ATLAS two sigma result means the chances are one in 40. The combination of both results would increase the significance well above 3 sigma and provides strong evidence for the Higgs boson decay to two muons.

CMS is proud to have achieved this sensitivity to the decay of Higgs bosons to muons and to show first experimental evidence for this process. The Higgs boson seems to interact also with second-generation particles in agreement with the prediction of the Standard Model, a result that will be further refined with the data we expect to collect in the next run, says Roberto Carlin, spokesperson for the CMS experiment.

The Higgs boson is the quantum manifestation of the Higgs field, which gives mass to elementary particles it interacts with, via the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism. By measuring the rate at which the Higgs boson decays into different particles, physicists can infer the strength of their interaction with the Higgs field: the higher the rate of decay into a given particle, the stronger its interaction with the field. So far, the ATLAS and CMS experiments have observed the Higgs boson decays into different types of bosons such as W and Z, and heavier fermions such as tau leptons. The interaction with the heaviest quarks, the top and bottom, was measured in 2018. Muons are much lighter in comparison, and their interaction with the Higgs field is weaker. Interactions between the Higgs boson and muons had, therefore, not been seen at the LHC.

A candidate ATLAS event display of a Higgs boson decay to two muons. Credit: ATLAS collaboration

This evidence of Higgs boson decays to second-generation matter particles complements a highly successful Run 2 Higgs physics program. The measurements of the Higgs bosons properties have reached a new stage in precision and rare decay modes can be addressed. These achievements rely on the large LHC data set, the outstanding efficiency, and performance of the ATLAS detector, as well as the use of novel analysis techniques, says Karl Jakobs, ATLAS spokesperson.

What makes these studies even more challenging is that, at the LHC, for every predicted Higgs boson decaying to two muons, there are thousands of muon pairs produced through other processes that mimic the expected experimental signature. The characteristic signature of the Higgs bosons decay to muons is a small excess of events that cluster near a muon-pair mass of 125 GeV, which is the mass of the Higgs boson. Isolating the Higgs boson to muon-pair interactions is no easy feat. To do so, both experiments measure the energy, momentum and angles of muon candidates from the Higgs bosons decay. In addition, the sensitivity of the analyses was improved through methods such as sophisticated background modeling strategies and other advanced techniques such as machine-learning algorithms. CMS combined four separate analyses, each optimized to categorize physics events with possible signals of a specific Higgs boson production mode. ATLAS divided their events into 20 categories that targeted specific Higgs boson production modes.

The results, which are so far consistent with the Standard Model predictions, used the full data set collected from the second run of the LHC. With more data to be recorded from the particle accelerators next run and with the High-Luminosity LHC, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations expect to reach the sensitivity (5 sigma) needed to establish the discovery of the Higgs boson decay to two muons and constrain possible theories of physics beyond the Standard Model which would affect this decay mode of the Higgs boson.

References:

Measurement of Higgs boson decay to a pair of muons in proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV by CMS Collaboration, 29 July 2020, CMS Physics Analysis Summaries.Report: CMS-PAS-HIG-19-006

A search for the dimuon decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector by ATLAS Collaboration, 15 July 2020, High Energy Physics Experiment.arXiv: 2007.07830

Read more:

Large Hadron Collider Detects Evidence of a Rare Higgs Boson Process: God Particle Decaying Into a Pair of Muons - SciTechDaily

A new study in Nature Photonics details the unique properties of the UCF-developed laser beam.

The speed of a message traveling in these packets is no longer affected by traveling through different materials of different densities.

University of Central Florida researchers have developed a new type of laser beam that doesnt follow long-held principles about how light refracts and travels. The findings, which were published recently in Nature Photonics, could have huge implications for optical communication and laser technologies.

This new class of laser beams has unique properties that are not shared by common laser beams, says Ayman Abouraddy, a professor in UCFs College of Optics and Photonics and the studys principal investigator.

The beams, known as spacetime wave packets, follow different rules when they refract, that is when they pass through different materials. Normally, light slows down when it travels into a denser material.

In contrast, spacetime wave packets can be arranged to behave in the usual manner, to not change speed at all, or even to anomalously speed up in denser materials, Abouraddy says. As such, these pulses of light can arrive at different points in space at the same time.

Think about how a spoon inside a water-filled glass looks broken at the point where the water and air meet, Abouraddy says. The speed of light in air is different from the speed of light in water. And so, the light rays wind up bending after they cross the surface between air to water, and so apparently the spoon looks bent. This is a well-known phenomenon described by Snells Law.

Although Snells Law still applies, the underlying change in velocity of the pulses is no longer applicable for the new laser beams, Abouraddy says. These abilities are counter to Fermats Principle that says light always travels such that it takes the shortest path, he says.

What we find here, though, is no matter how different the materials are that light passes through, there always exists one of our spacetime wave packets that could cross the interface of the two materials without changing its velocity, Abouraddy says. So, no matter what the properties of the medium are, it will go across the interface and continue as if its not there.

For communication, this means the speed of a message traveling in these packets is no longer affected by traveling through different materials of different densities.

If you think of a plane trying to communicate with two submarines at the same depth but one is far away and the other ones close by, the one thats farther away will incur a longer delay than the one thats close by, Abouraddy says. We find that we can arrange for our pulses to propagate such that they arrive at the two submarines at the same time. In fact, now the person sending the pulse doesnt even need to know where the submarine is, as long as they are at the same depth. All those submarines will receive the pulse at the same time so you can blindly synchronize them without knowing where they are.

Abouraddys research team created the spacetime wave packets by using a device known as a spatial light modulator to reorganize the energy of a pulse of light so that its properties in space and time are no longer separate. This allows them to control the group velocity of the pulse of light, which is roughly the speed at which the peak of the pulse travels.

Previous work has shown the teams ability to control the group velocity of the spacetime wave packets, including in optical materials. The current study built upon that work by finding they could also control the spacetime wave packets speed through different media. This does not contradict special relativity in any way, because it applies to the propagation of the pulse peak rather than to the underlying oscillations of the light wave.

This new field that were developing is a new concept for light beams, Abouraddy says. As a result, everything we look into using these beams reveals new behavior. All the behavior we know about light really takes tacitly an underlying presumption that its properties in space and time are separable. So, all we know in optics is based on that. Its a built-in assumption. Its taken to be the natural state of affairs. But now, breaking that underlying assumption, were starting to see new behavior all over the place.

Co-authors of the study were Basanta Bhaduri, lead author and a former research scientist with UCFs College of Optics and Photonics, now with Bruker Nano Surfaces in California, and Murat Yessenov, a doctoral candidate in the college.

Bhaduri became interested in Abouraddys research after reading about it in journals, such as Optics Express and Nature Photonics, and joined the professors research team in 2018. For the study, he helped develop the concept and designed the experiments, as well as carried out measurements and analyzed data.

He says the study results are important in many ways, including the new research avenues it opens.

Space-time refraction defies our expectations derived from Fermats principle and offers new opportunities for molding the flow of light and other wave phenomena, Bhaduri says.

Yessenovs roles included data analysis, derivations and simulations. He says he became interested in the work by wanting to explore more about entanglement, which in quantum systems is when two well-separated objects still have a relation to each other.

We believe that spacetime wave packets have more to offer and many more interesting effects can be unveiled using them, Yessenov says.

Abouraddy says next steps for the research include studying the interaction of these new laser beams with devices such as laser cavities and optical fibers, in addition to applying these new insights to matter rather than to light waves.

Reference: Anomalous refraction of optical spacetime wave packets by Basanta Bhaduri, Murat Yessenov and Ayman F. Abouraddy, 22 June 2020, Nature Photonics.DOI: 10.1038/s41566-020-0645-6

The research was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

Bhaduri earned his doctorate in physics (applied optics) from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India. He was a research scientist at UCF before recently moving to Bruker Nano Surfaces in California where he is a senior staff optical engineer.

Yessenov earned his bachelors in physics from Nazabayev University, Kazakhstan, and joined Abouraddys group in 2017.

Abouraddy received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Boston University and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined UCF in 2008.

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Space-Time Refraction Defies Fermats Principle: New Class of Laser Beam Doesnt Follow Normal Laws of Refraction - SciTechDaily

If Juan Maldacena were not a physicist, he thinks he would have been an engineer like his father. As a boy growing up in Buenos Aires, he liked to spend time with him tinkering with the washing machine or the car or other household items, learning how they exploited the laws of physics, as he sees it today.

Now a theoretical physicist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, Maldacena is world-famous in part for writing what is still one of the most influential articles in string theory.

Although the abstract realms of theoretical physics may seem like a far cry from the literal nuts and bolts of heavy appliances, I think its not too different, he says. Building a theory that works is like building a washing machine that works.

String theory just has a lower risk of electrocution or a flooded basement.

When Maldacena began his post-secondary education at the University of Buenos Aires, it seemed natural to enter as a physics major. I really loved learning about how the laws of physics explained various aspects of the real world, he says.

After two years, he transferred to the Instituto Balseiro in the far western Argentinian city of Bariloche, a research-oriented institution that accepts students after their first two years at other institutions. It is small and grants degrees in only a few disciplines, all related to physics and engineering.

Maldacena graduated with the equivalent of a US masters degree in 1991. He debated what his next move should be: physics graduate school or leaving the academic world to work as an engineer. He was a strong student and loved the discipline but worried that he might not have what it takes to make it as a physics researcher.

I really enjoyed taking the classes, but I didnt know what research was like. It was still a big mystery to me, he says. In the end, I decided to take my chances.

He was accepted to Princeton University, where he started a PhD that fall. Maldacena thrived at Princeton, where he says he enjoyed taking classes with some of the best particle physicists in his field. It was wonderful to see all these people whose papers I had been reading.

His doctoral thesis probed the behavior of black holes in string theory, a framework that unites quantum mechanics and Einsteins theory of relativity by describing fundamental particles as one-dimensional strings.

String theory is a theory of quantum gravity, so Maldacena was extrapolating from the quantum scale to the very, very large. It was considered to be a big success for string theorythe fact that you could describe black holes, which are a big deviation from flat space. It was a consistency check for this theory, he says.

Prominent string theorist Nathan Seiberg was on sabbatical from Rutgers University at the IAS when he met Maldacena, who was then a graduate student at Princeton. They were later colleagues at Rutgers, and they are now colleagues again at the IAS.

Seiberg says he was enormously impressed with Maldacena when they first met. It was quite clear from day one that he was someone specialvery, very specialand he would rise to the top.

Maldacena is best known for his description of the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence. The crux of the AdS/CFT correspondence is that a theory of gravity in one universe is the same as the quantum field theory on the boundary of that universe.

Maldacenas first paper describing the idea, published in 1997, has become one of the most-cited articles in string theory, and high-energy physics more broadly. These are results that will stay fundamental in physics for centuries, Seiberg says.

The correspondence has had interesting applications to several fields, including nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, cosmology and mathematics.

Maldacena graduated from Princeton in 1996, so his AdS/CFT breakthrough came very early in his career, when few academics would risk taking a big swing like that. Hes not afraid. Hes very bold, Seiberg says. He likes to attack the most difficult questions that most people would stay away from. He just goes full steam ahead.

The risk paid off. Maldacena was hired as an associate professor at Harvard University directly from the first year of his postdoc at Rutgers and was offered a full professorship two years later. Shortly after that, he was offered a permanent position at the IAS and moved back to New Jersey.

Maldacenas clarity stands out to Seiberg. In research, one is often in this fog of confusion. And he has this clear mind, seeing through the fog and knowing where to go, Seiberg says.

Seiberg says they have worked together a few timesand the joy of the collaboration was enormousbut Maldacena has also had an influence on him far beyond their formal co-authorship. There were many times, both when I made official presentations and in informal conversations, that he would ask a question that completely changed the direction of my own research, Seiberg says.

When he isnt doing physics, Maldacena enjoys hiking with his wife and three children. He sees his work and recreation as two sides of the same coin. When you think about physics problems, you are thinking about very specific aspects of nature, Maldacena says. When you go hiking, you appreciate other aspects of nature.

In addition to his own research, Maldacena has advised several PhD students and postdocs. He has a very good sense for identifying talent, Seiberg says. His track record is amazing.

Maldacena remembers when he wasnt sure whether he should try going into a research career in physics and hopes that other students in his position will not let that fear keep them from trying it. Maybe they will find that they are better than they expected, he says. Or maybe they will love it more than they expected.

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Taking a risk on theoretical physics | symmetry magazine - Symmetry magazine

China has for the first time taken the top position in the Nature Index as the biggest producer of high-quality research in chemistry. What will the future of China science look like?

Quantum physics may be science on an impossibly small scale, but it is one field where China is staking a massive leadership role. In February, researchers in Hefei forged a quantum connection between clusters of atoms 50 kilometers apart in an optical fiber, meaning that any changes in one groups quantum state instantly affected the other. This 50-kilometer entanglement the longest distance achieved anywhere could eventually lead to a quantum internet that would be near-instantaneous and impervious to eavesdropping.

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Quantum communications is just one area where Chinese scientists are taking a leading role others include artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology and materials genome engineering. Together, they are allowing China to reassert its position as a scientific powerhouse, centuries after the Middle Kingdom wowed the world with the four great inventions of the compass, paper, printing and gunpowder.

Chinas modern-day scientific prowess is backed by unprecedented state spending on research and development. Expressed in purchasing power parity (PPP), Chinas investment in R&D was $370.6 billion in 2017, second only to the United States, which spent $476.5 billion. And China likely overtook the US in research funding in 2019 for the first time, based on projections by the US National Science Board (although the figures are yet to be compiled at the time of writing). In terms of global scientific R&D spending, China has contributed 32% of all growth since 2000, compared with 20% for the US and 17% for the European Union.

The Chinese governments open checkbook has bought the country a lot of impressive big-science hardware. The country now boasts the worlds most powerful supercomputer, the biggest radio telescope and, by some measures, the largest gene-sequencing center.

But Beijings willingness to spend belies its poor standing in a crucial indicator of science leadership: the number of Nobel Laureates. Only one Chinese national has ever won a Nobel Prize in a scientific discipline Tu Youyou, recognized in 2015 for her role in the development of an antimalarial drug. By contrast, the US has produced 302 Nobel Laureates in chemistry, medicine and physics since the year 1900, nearly one-third of which have been awarded since 2000. Japanese scientists have also fared well, with 24 Nobel Prize winners since 1949.

Money is not the issue so much, says Denis Simon, who has studied Chinese science for 40 years and is the executive vice chancellor of Duke Kunshan University. Its how you use the money. Money doesnt buy innovation. What buys innovation is inspired thought and willingness to take risks.

Countries that place more emphasis on independent free-thinking seem to have done better in the Nobel Prize rankings, but Chinas ever-greater science proficiency is testing the hypothesis that it cannot be achieved in a highly-centralized and hierarchal system as well.

Nobel Laureates aside, there are other indicators that show China is closing in on the US as a science superpower. The countrys scientists filed 49% of all related patents worldwide in 2018, although it is important to highlight that in the view of some experts, these numbers are skewed by various factors, such as the refiling of patents already filed elsewhere. In addition, China is steadily increasing its percentage of research articles published in renowned publications, from just 5% in 2000 to 21% in 2018. The US remains dominant in its proportion of highly-cited articles, followed by the EU, but Chinas numbers are growing.

Chinas recent scientific advancements in the past two decades are especially notable, given the countrys fraught history. Its scientific community was devastated during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when many academics were denounced as counterrevolutionary and some universities were closed, halting almost all research and scientific training.

Only after China adopted its famous policy of Reform and Opening Up in 1978 did the research community begin to regrow around its stumps. In the four decades since, the economic development and international contacts have been instrumental in enabling science to flourish in China, according to Cong Cao, who studies Chinese science policy at the University of Nottingham in Ningbo, a major port and industrial hub in east China.

We really want to see this kind of stable environment continue, says Cao. For the past 40 years, China has basically been a follower in scientific research. Now, in certain areas, the Chinese side is approaching the frontier of science, he says.

Some parts of Chinas scientific system have been functional for decades, says Caroline Wagner, a professor at Ohio State University who has studied the scientific impact of foreign-trained Chinese researchers after they return to China. Food science, agricultural science, soil and engineering are fields where Chinas had strong research capabilities. It just hasnt participated in the world system of publication and validation, she adds.

China has broadened its scientific gaze, beyond the areas mentioned by Wagner, to cover some of the most exciting topics and challenges in science today. China leads the world in 33 out of 137 research fronts, particularly in computer science, chemistry, engineering, material sciences and mathematics, according to a report published in November 2019 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Clarivate Analytics, a US data and analytics company.

The progress has been particularly visible in the field of chemistry, where for the first time China dethroned the US as the biggest producer of high-quality research papers in 2019. Chinas research output last year was almost double the combined share of India, Japan and South Korea, which all ranked in the top 10.

The outbreak of COVID-19, first detected in Wuhan, provides a challenge for Chinas scientists and an opportunity in terms of aiming to become the first country to develop a vaccine. If they can do it, it would be a gamechanger. The deadly coronavirus has also highlighted Chinas capabilities in AI and computer science, which has seen sweeping national investments in recent years.

The ability of domestic research institutions and companies to harness big data to feed their AI tools gives China a leg-up in the next round of scientific research and innovation, according to academics. I think big data is an area China does have advantages, in parts because they have a few dominant apps like WeChat that everybody uses, says Yu Zhou, a professor in the Department of Earth Science and Geography at Vassar College in the US. You dont have that in the US.

China still has shortcomings to overcome before it can be considered a global leader in science. Despite lavish spending, the global business consultancy McKinsey noted in a 2015 report that inefficient government funding, among other factors, was stifling Chinas endeavors to promote science-based innovations. Five years on, this remains a problem, according to Zhou, who says an immature system of evaluating science innovations has led to state administrators from outside who dont know what theyre doing and are just bureaucratic bean-counting.

The country still lacks well-established links between businesses and universities, which significantly limits knowledge transfers. Although this relationship is difficult to quantify, Times Higher Education examined how universities work on research with industry, and it noted that in 2016, more than 6% of US publications [were] joint efforts between the academy and industry, compared with just 2.7% in China.

While China ranked second in the CAS-Clarivate report identifying the best and emerging specialty areas in scientific research, it was dwarfed by the US, which claimed the top spot on 80 research fronts. This may be partly because China has been selective in its approach, opting to channel resources into science that will not only help Beijing project its power but also respond to its peoples particular problems.

The state has the overview about the areas where China needs to invest more, says Zhou. She points to Chinas massive investments in renewable energy and electric vehicles as an example. The state has this function of telling people where you should put more money. Some areas, like environmental science, make a lot of sense.

This methodical approach reflects Chinas attitude to science. In the last 40 years, Chinas leaders tackled the countrys lagging status with a top-down approach and long-term strategic planning. When it comes to the longstanding view that this approach stifles innovation, Wagner, in a soon-to-be-published study, disagrees.

What we found is that at the disciplinary level, Chinas publications in physical sciences were highly-creative when compared to the field as a whole, much more creative than other parts of Chinas work, she says. The physical sciences stood out as highly-creative. Measures of technology research was found to be moderately creative, but biology did not appear to be creative.

We were surprised with the results of the work, finding that Chinas publications already display world-class level of creativity, says Wagner.

Authorities are orchestrating the development of a scientific establishment one pillar of which is a core group of elite universities known as the C9 that includes Tsinghua and Peking in Beijing and Fudan in Shanghai. Another key plank has been the Thousand Talents Program (TTP), a successful scheme aimed at luring top researchers to China with lab space, lavish salaries, research funding and other incentives.

Around the late 1990s, the Chinese decided to double or triple the levels of enrollment in university, but what they couldnt do was hire more good faculty. They just couldnt get that many, says Simon at Duke University. But the TTP has helped plug the deficit in training younger generations of Chinese researchers.

Simon believes the success of the TPP at the recruitment of top scientific talent has only become more important because China could face a potential talent shortage due to the notorious one-child policy. China has struggled to engineer a baby boom after scrapping the notorious policy in 2015, which could shrink the future scientific workforce.

Increasingly strict controls on internet access are also a potential long-term hindrance toward scientific excellence in China. A common gripe among the countrys academics is that internet access is a major obstacle to their research. Wagner from Ohio State University says the free flow of knowledge and information is critical to innovation.

Many researchers routinely bypass internet controls, but ever-tightening restrictions on the flow of information risk making international collaboration more difficult and threaten Chinas place in science and technology globally.

Studies demonstrate the benefits of openness, says Wagner. You cant get around the need to share findings, data and insights. If that gets closed off, China will drop behind and the world will be deprived of Chinas input. There are no winners in that scenario

The China-US relationship has also grown increasingly toxic since US President Donald Trump took office three years ago, ramping up the prospect of the worlds top-two economies decoupling. Researchers are in no doubt that this would be a disaster for the scientific communities of both countries.

Its not good for science globally, said Cong from Ningbo. Theres no doubt about that because each country is constrained by resources. No country in the world can pursue every line of research, so thats really where you need to be collaborative. If decoupling between China and the US really happens, its not going to be good for China and for other countries.

But there is also the argument that Chinese and American scientific communities are already too intertwined for any decoupling to have a serious impact, according to Simon.

The government-to-government cooperation is important, but [it] is not the defining dimension of the science and technology cooperation between China and the US, says Simon. It would be very hard, at least from my perspective, for the US government to disengage and simply shut down all of that collaboration. Theres just so much going on I dont know if anyone would know where to go to stop it or to shut the spigot off.

Just how much a potential delinking would really hurt China is up for debate. Februarys successful quantum entanglement experiment in Hefei underscores how Chinese scientists are operating at the cutting edge in many ways on their own.

The US remains ahead, but if youre looking at where we will be five, 10 years from now, the trend lines are all extremely positive for China, says Simon. The Chinese have corrected a lot of the problems that were inherent in their system. Theyre all the time trying to get higher-yield performance from their scientific community. And I think theyre starting to succeed.

*[This article was written by Shi Wei Jun and was originally published byCKGSB Knowledge, a partner institution ofFair Observer.]

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observers editorial policy.

Originally posted here:

China Closes in on the US in Science - Fair Observer

A new computing software could free Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies from powerful quantum computers that have the potential to violate public key cryptography.

According to the MIT Technology Review, the researchers are working on the development of a new measure known as lattice-based cryptography that promises to make crypto technology more quantum proof.

Lattice-based cryptography can neutralize the enormous computational capabilities of quantum computers by hiding data inside complex geometric structures containing a grid of infinite dots spread over thousands of dimensions. The security measure seems almost impenetrable, even with the use of powerful quantum computers, unless the key is in hand.

The advent of quantum computing machines is often brought to the fore as it poses a threat to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as well as cryptographic algorithms that keep the internet generally safe. The World Economic Forum explains how quantum computers can violate current encryption standards as follows.

The full computational ability of a sufficiently powerful and error-corrected quantum computer means that public-key cryptography is doomed and will compromise the technology used to protect many of todays fundamental digital systems and activities.

MIT Technology Review says the solution is promising, although the current iterations are not yet ready to be implemented. Ripple CTO David Schwartz says that developers believe it will take at least eight years before the technology that uses the properties of quantum physics to make quick calculations becomes sophisticated enough to crack the cryptocurrency.

I think we have at least eight years. I have very high confidence that quantum computing needs at least ten years to pose a threat, but you never know when there might be progress.

The rest is here:

Quantum Computers Will No Longer Threat To Bitcoin! - Somag News

This book is based on an introductory course of quantum electronics taught at Moscow Power Engineering Institute, National Research University, Russia. The book has seven chapters presenting the physics of modern quantum electronics devices such as lasers, masersand photodetectors. At the end of each chapter are problems, as in any textbook.

The first chapter explains the properties of atoms and molecules using quantum mechanics. The next two chapters are dedicated to electric and magnetic dipole interactions. The rest of the book focuses on the field interactions with charges and matter, quantum amplifiers and generators, and the physics of lasers and masers.

The book has a crystal-clear style and can be understood by any student with a basic physics and mathematical background.

Review by Mircea Dragoman, National Research and Development Institute in Microtechnology, Romania.

The opinions expressed in the book review section are those of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect those of OPN or OSA.

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Introduction to Quantum Electronics and Nonlinear Optics - Optics & Photonics News

Crypto enthusiasts have long-held fears of the future that quantum computing might bring. But are those fears overblown?

Quantum computers are a near-perfect embodiment of Arthur C. Clarkes third law, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. A fully functional quantum computer would be orders of magnitude more powerful than any conventional supercomputer in existence.

The positive applications are numerous and include accelerating discovery of cures to diseases to revolutionizing investment management and presenting better and lower-cost trading opportunities.

This could provide a huge boost to the sciences but it also represents a threat to existing cryptographic algorithms. Many crypto enthusiasts are concerned that this could compromise the blockchain and render cryptocurrency worthless. The question is, how real are these fears?

Traditional computers use bits, or 1s and 0s, in order to represent data. Everything youre seeing on your screen right now can be broken down into a string of binary digits. Quantum computers are based on the qubit, a two-state quantum system.

As a result, they are able to perform processes significantly faster than any conventional computer could. This involves quantum physics so well focus on the broad strokes here. For those interested in a deep dive, there is a great series of articles on this at the MIT Technical Review.

A quantum computer is one that is designed to capture and contain qubits in a stable state. They are then able to take advantage of two key mechanics in order to process large amounts of data:

The downside of quantum computers is that they require a significant amount of energy to run and are error-prone because of decoherence. Even slight vibrations or temperature changes can cause a quantum computer to cease functioning.

This had prevented quantum computers from achieving quantum supremacy, which is the ability to outperform traditional computers. But that changed in September 2019 when Google claimed that it had succeeded in reaching quantum supremacy, sending a shockwave through the cryptography world.

The big fear with quantum computers is that they would render all real-world uses of cryptography obsolete overnight. This would make online banking, messaging, and e-commerce completely unsafe and cripple the internet as we know it. It would also render cryptocurrencies inoperable.

Most of the major blockchains, including Bitcoin, rely upon ECDSA (Elliptical Curve Digital Signature Algorithm). This allows blockchains to create a random 256-bit private key and a linked public key that can be shared with third parties without revealing that private key.

Quantum computers could unravel the relationship between these keys thus allowing cryptocurrency wallets to be hacked and a holders funds to be liquidated.

The short answer: Maybe, but not yet. The truth is that, as Peter Todd confirmed, we still dont know how close we are to a viable, scalable quantum computer. It could be 6 months from now, or it could be never.

Another point is that if users follow the standard practice of only using Bitcoin addresses one time, it limits the amount of time a quantum computer has to break the key.

But the threat is still present, if a little distant. The good news is that some projects are actively working to counter it. The Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL) is the first industrial implementation of the eXtended Merkle Signature Scheme (XMSS). This hash-based signature scheme is significantly more advanced than ECDSA and should be harder for a quantum computer to crack.

In general, cryptocurrency investors shouldnt be too concerned about quantum computing in the short-term. But it would still be prudent to keep an eye on the quantum computing world and projects like QRL.

Featured image via Pixabay.

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Bitcoin vs Quantum Computers: Real and Imagined Fears - CryptoGlobe

A screen capture of The Japan Society of Applied Physics webpage for the online column on using physics for coronavirus measures.

TOKYO -- An online column on using physics for novel coronavirus countermeasures run by The Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP) has become a hit with readers, despite its discussion of highly technical details about the virus and the pandemic, garnering some 10,000 pageviews since its July launch.

Applied physics is the study of technological development using physics theories. When it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, physics is the foundation for the now well-known polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and the electron microscopes that captured the virus's appearance.

Other examples include non-contact thermometers used at event venues and elsewhere that use infrared sensors to measure heat emissions from the body's surface. Thermo-fluid analysis -- in which a space is divided into grids to measure factors such as temperature, air pressure and air flow -- is used to project how droplets are diffused.

The JSAP started the column on its website in early July as a way for people to learn about the background of how these technologies were developed, as well as to provide information about physical laws related to coronavirus measures. The 25 installments published so far have both a condensed version written at a high school science level, and a main version for those who want to dig deeper. The society has formed an editorial committee for the column, and checks every entry for factual errors.

JSAP president Mutsuko Hatano, a professor of quantum sensing at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, noted that Isaac Newton discovered universal gravitation in the 17th century when he was spending time in his hometown after his university in London closed down due to the plague.

"We too wanted to use this time when we're asked to refrain from various types of activities as an opportunity for the future. We hope that our column serves as a motivator for those who aspire to study physics," she commented.

(Japanese original by Ryo Watanabe, Science & Environment News Department)

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Japan science society lures online readers with column on physics applied to virus fight - The Mainichi

Our universe is best described by the LCDM model. That is an expanding universe filled with dark energy (Lambda), and dense clumps of cold dark matter (CDM). It is also sprinkled with regular matter that makes up planets, stars, and us, but that only makes up about 4% of the cosmos. While we dont know what dark matter and dark energy are, we know how they behave, so the ?CDM model works exceptionally well. Theres just one small problem.

The LCDM is defined by several parameters, such as the value of the Hubble Constant, which determines how quickly the universe is expanding, or the baryon density parameter, which describes the scale at which galaxies cluster together. Several independent experiments have measured these parameters, and they get results that slightly disagree. For example, observations of distant galaxies give a Hubble Constant that is higher than the value found from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). These disagreements are known as a tension in the LCDM model. It is perhaps the biggest problem in modern cosmology.

One way to address this problem is to look to new experiments, such as those involving gravitational wave astronomy. But so far, these havent made things better. Another path is to look toward new physics, specifically, theories that extend the standard model of particle physics.

Like the LCDM model of cosmology, the standard model of particle physics works extremely well. But there are some hints around the edges that there could be something more. There is no particle in the standard model that can account for dark matter, for example. So physicists have developed models to go beyond the standard model. The most popular of these is a class of models known as string theory. There is, however, a less popular model known as Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG).

In LQG models, space and time have a fundamental granularity to them at teeny tiny scales. We would never notice this in our everyday lives, or even in the kinds of high-energy experiments we do in modern particle accelerators. However, at the most intense regions of the universe, such as the interiors of black holes or the big bangs first moments, this granularity would matter significantly.

Recently, a team looked at how Loop Quantum Gravity could have interacted with energy and matter during the big bang period. They found that the structure of LQG in the early universe would be magnified by cosmic expansion to shift the observed cosmic parameters. In other words, the tension we see in the LCDM model could result from a cosmic dance between the very tiny and the very large.

Thats all fine and good, but just because a theory can work doesnt mean it is the theory that does work. So the team also looked for a way their model could be distinguished from other solutions. They found that LQG would also leave its mark on the Cosmic Microwave Background. If their model is correct, the CMB should have clusters of small fluctuations that are not statistically random. The granular structure of space and time should leave a detectable imprint.

These fluctuations would be too small for satellites such as Planck to observe, but future missions such as the Cosmic Origins Explorer should detect them. If the team is right, we might not only solve the mystery of cosmic tension, we might also take our first step into a new realm of physics.

Reference: Ashtekar, Abhay, et al. Alleviating the tension in the cosmic microwave background using Planck-scale physics. Physical Review Letters 125 (2020) 051302.

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How Loop Quantum Gravity Could Match Anomalies in the CMB with Large Structures in the Modern Universe - Universe Today

Valeria Bartsch first saw quantum technology in action during a 2018 conference in Frankfurt, where US start-up Rigetti Computing was showing its wares at the accompanying trade show.

In a spartan booth, Bartsch was able to see first-hand a laptop run a simple programme via a quantum computer in California.

It was so amazing, she said. For her, it was proof that quantum science is starting to move from the lab to the mainstream raising the realistic possibility of ultra-fast computers and ultra-secure encryption in the not-so-distant future.

Today, as senior R&D manager in the industrial mathematics research group at the Fraunhofer Competence Centre for High Performance Computing in Kaiserslautern, she is involved in a high-profile German-led effort to help Europe catch up with the US, China and others in the field. In July the German government announced a 2 billion quantum effort, supplementing EU plans for 1 billion in investment through 2028. In addition, nineteen EU countries have signed on to develop a joint quantum communication infrastructure across the continent.

There is some significant ground to cover. Between 1991 and early 2017 the US and Japan filed around 500 and 200 quantum patents respectively, according to the EUs Joint Research Centre. The whole of the EU, with Switzerland, filed just over 100 patents during the same period.

In 2018 US president Donald Trump signed the National Quantum Initiative Act that will provide $1.2 billion (1.06 billion) over five years for research to the use of the laws of quantum physics for the storage, transmission, manipulation, or measurement of information. The initiative got off the ground as US intelligence raised concerns about Chinese dominance in quantum technology in a report in January 2019, saying deployment of a large-scale quantum computer, even 10 or more years in the future, would put sensitive information encrypted with todays most widely used algorithms at greatly increased risk of decryption.

China launched the first quantum satellite capable of handling encrypted video calls in 2016 and is due to open a 9 billion National Laboratory for Quantum Information Sciences later this year.

These projects follow a century of theoretical physics research into how a quantum particle can be observed being in two states at the same time, (superposition), or sense a change in anothers condition from a great distance (entanglement).

These properties mean that whereas in conventional computers the unit of information, or bit, has the value 1 or 0, its quantum counterpart, the qubit, can be 1 and 0 at the same time. That raises the prospect of conducting multiple calculations in parallel. To achieve this qubits have to be made to work synchronously, using the entanglement effect.

So far, calculations done on quantum computers appear to make classical computers look primordial. Last October, Google claimed it had achieved quantum supremacy the point at which a quantum computer can do things conventional computers cannot. In the science journal Nature, Google researchers reported that Sycamore, the companys 53-qubit quantum computer, solved a mathematical problem in 3 minutes 20 seconds, which they said would have taken IBMs Summit, the worlds most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years.

IBM researchers hit back, saying the task could be performed on a supercomputer in 2.5 days. However, the researchers - who have themselves built a quantum computer acknowledged, Googles experiment is an excellent demonstration of the progress in superconducting-based quantum computing.

In March Fraunhofer announced the signing of an agreement with IBM to advance quantum computing in Germany. The collaboration will gives companies and research institutions access to IBM quantum computers in Germany and the US, under the umbrella of a nationwide Fraunhofer competence network. The aim is to research the technology and its possible applications, whilst building the skills base needed to support its use in industry.

As part of the collaboration, an IBM Q System One quantum computer will be installed in an IBM computer centre near Stuttgart. The system, scheduled to go into operation in early 2021, will be the first of its kind in Europe.

Absolute zero

Despite advances, quantum computing is far from being ready for the market. Currently, qubits can only be induced to work in temperatures near absolute zero.

We still need to make the single components better, to have a reliable system at the end, said Tatjana Wilk, general manager of the Munich Centre for Quantum Science and Technology. The problem is that in research people cannot build systems, which are aiming to be 50 to 200 qubits large, because they simply do not have the resources to do so.

European governments are rushing to improve those resources. The UK has earmarked around 1 billion through public and private funding over five years for its National Quantum Technology programme, to support the commercialisation of academic research. One example is the development of quantum sensors for the non-invasive monitoring of brain activity, or for mapping buried infrastructure.

In May, Finlands state technology research centre VTT, announced a 20-25 million plan to acquire the countrys first, five-qubit quantum computer, as the basis for improving research capabilities and promoting the development and application of quantum technology in different sectors.

In the Netherlands, translation of academic work is underway, with Microsoft last year opening a quantum laboratory at the Delft University of Technology, to research the building blocks for a quantum computer.

In January, France announced the creation of a taskforce to implement a national quantum plan. This focuses on creating the environment to foster development of a quantum sector, through measures such as setting up quantum technology accelerators. The plan has an international outlook, citing Germany specifically as a potential partner to develop quantum technology at a European scale.

Quantum and technological sovereignty

In terms of funding, Germany stands out as Europes greatest advocate for quantum computing. In July research minister Anja Karliczek announced 2 billion of the countrys COVID-19 recovery fund will be spent on quantum technology research, with the goal of building an experimental quantum computer by 2021. This federal funding is in addition to a 2018 decision to allocate 650 million up to 2022.

The research has a geopolitical edge in Germany, which has become one of the most vocal proponents of technological sovereignty, putting European self-reliance at the heart of its current presidency of the EU Council.

After the acquisition of a number of German engineering firms by Chinese companies, the final straw was the 2016 hostile takeover of the German industrial robot maker Kuka Robotics by the Chinese appliance manufacturer Midea. The takeover caused widespread angst and as a result Germany introduced tighter rules on future non-EU takeovers of technology companies last November, including companies working with quantum technology.

The German government brought this mindset to its EU presidency, saying innovation in areas such as quantum computing lays the foundations for achieving technological sovereignty.

But for that to happen, other foundations need fixing too.

For one, not enough people know about the potential of quantum technology, according to Wilk. I dont think there are enough people who do have the knowledge yet, she said. Although Germany has strong quantum research, more understanding of its potential in needed in other fields for it to progress.

You need electrical engineers, for example, to design these chips in such a way that efficient computing is possible, Wilk said.

The limited understanding of the potential is also making it hard to attract venture capital. One of the key challenges when it comes to raising money for tech startups is the knowledge of investors, said Niamah Schtter, founder and CEO of Avanetix, a Berlin-based logistics consultancy using quantum computing.

She reckons other countries are five years ahead of Germany, where there is still qubit manufacturing facility.

The venture capital picture is starting to improve; the European Innovation Councils Accelerator programme has begun investing in European quantum start-ups, as has the French consortium Quantonation.

If Germany has an advantage, it is that applications of quantum technology research are only just beginning to have an impact.

A report by the consulting firm McKinsey says quantum computing may only start generating significant value for industries in the late 2020s.

Wilk believes Germany has strong potential, helped by government funding, new training programmes and a network of researchers across institutions.

As an example of some advances, last year researchers at the Max-Planck institute announced a breakthrough quantum simulator that mimics the quantum chemistry of molecules. Meanwhile, researchers at the Helmholtz institute are aiming to build a 100-qubit computer by next year, as part of the EUs OpenSuperQ project.

Wilk cautions against thinking any one country can lead the way at such an early stage. Its not clear yet which technology will actually win the race, so one has to invest in different technologies, she said.

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Qubit to get ahead: Germany is racing to catch up with the quantum revolution - Science Business

The QuamNESS consortium unites researchers in University of Bristol, Queens University of Belfast and Trinity College Dublin to explore the thermodynamics of quantum machines and technologies, thanks to a major grant boost

Thermodynamics is one of the pillars of natural sciences: it studies the way energy is exchanged between bodies at different temperature, predicts the likeliness of certain chemical reactions, and explains why even the most energy-efficient engine will always produce waste.

However, what happens when the processes of interest involve systems as simple as electrons, atoms or simple molecules? For such nanoscale building blocks of matter, the laws of physics experienced in the everyday world are no longer valid, and quantum mechanics come into play. Therefore, to provide an accurate description of energy-exchange processes occurring at microscopic scales, thermodynamics must be blended with the quantum framework.

Such new avenues of investigation promise to deliver minuscule devices able to make use of the counter-intuitive laws of quantum mechanics to outperform their classical counterparts. Miniaturized to only handfuls of atoms, these machines hold the promise of offering highly efficient ways of generating power, managing heat flows and recovering wasted energy in wide-ranging technologies, from microprocessors to chemical reactions.

The UK-Irish consortium QuamNESS, comprising researchers at the University of Bristol, Queens University Belfast, and Trinity College Dublin, will address this challenging perspective. By developing novel mathematical tools and powerful simulation methods the fundamental principles governing the performance of the smallest possible engines will be revealed. Supported by a large grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland (EPSRC-SFI), totaling more than 1.6 million, the QuamNESS team will work towards a fully-fledged understanding of how to engineer new technologies that benefit from super-efficient (quantum-enhanced) thermal management.

Dr Stephen Clark, Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Bristol and one of the principal investigators of QuamNESS, said: Developing the tools to unravel quantum enhancements is of paramount importance to near-future technologies and is the main objective of our project.

Quantum systems are well known to behave in very unintuitive ways. Under certain conditions, these strange quantum effects can both compete and radically alter the way energy is transformed. Our project will sharpen the view of this interplay by reassessing the fundamental concepts of irreversibility and fluctuations. The long-term aim is then to design schemes to harness quantum effects to make more efficient nanoscale machines.

A crucial feature of QuamNESS is that it brings together a uniquely well-suited team of researchers across world-class institutions in England, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Consequently, the EPSRC-SFI partnership scheme was perfectly placed to support a project built on such close cross-border collaboration.

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The secrets of quantum thermodynamics - SelectScience

The ABCs head of specialist, Aidan Laverty, has died, less than three weeks after leaving his role to seek treatment overseas for an unexpected and rare medical condition.

In a statement, the broadcasters managing director, David Anderson, and director of entertainment and specialist, Michael Carrington, said the fact that he is no longer with us is hard to bear.

We are deeply saddened by the death of our colleague and friend, they said.

The rapid and devastating decline of his health has been sudden and shocking to us all at the ABC, especially for those who worked closely with him in our specialist and science teams.

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Aidan was an inspiring and endlessly energetic content maker and manager, who played a substantial role in reinvigorating our content and strategy.

Laverty joined the ABC in 2017 as executive producer of Catalyst. A year later, he was named manager of the science unit, across radio, TV and digital, and, last October, became head of specialist, joining the ABCs entertainment and specialist executive team. Recently, his remit was expanded to include leading the factual and education team, overseeing that content across a number of platforms.

At the public broadcaster, he was part of creating shows like Gut Revolution, Feeding Australia, The Great Australian Bee Keeping Challenge, Staying Younger for Longer and Stargazing: Moon and Beyond, which was last years 50th anniversary celebration of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

He joined the ABC after a year and a half on his own business, Laverty Media, and previously spent more than 20 years at the BBC, starting as a broadcast journalist and becoming a commissioning editor. In those BBC roles, he launched Make It Digital,The Truth About, Natural Wonders, The Secrets of Quantum Physics,Girls Can Code, The Secret Life of the Cat, Science Under AttackandEat Fast and Live Longer. He was editor of science program Horizon, and developed the long-running series,Trust Me Im a Doctor.

He achieved both a bachelors and masters degree at Cambridge University.

Aidan was an outstanding storyteller, a great media executive and a delight to know, Anderson and Carrington continued.

He was highly regarded, liked and respected by all who worked with him. When you spoke with Aidan, you couldnt help but get caught up in his overall positivity and enthusiasm, whether it be about the compelling and engaging content he was producing, the team working with him, his family or living in Australia.

He was a great source of innovation, creativity and common sense at the ABC, and an endless fount of wisdom and wonderfully curious turns of phrase.

The pair said their thoughts and sincere condolences are with his wife Claudia and their two young children, and added: He will be dearly missed by those who knew and worked with him at the ABC and across the wider media industry, here and overseas. We will miss his company, his creativity and his passion for public broadcasting.

See more here:

ABC's Aidan Laverty dies, less than three weeks after seeking overseas treatment - Mumbrella

What if I told you all your favorite time-travel films and books were actually created by big tech in order to wrest control of the time-travel industry from the proletariat?

Think about it. Back to the Future, The Terminator, The Time Machine, all of these stories share a central theme where traveling through time is a dangerous proposition that could destroy the very fabric of our reality.

Its called the butterfly effect. The big idea is that youd step out of your time travel machine and accidentally step on a bug. Because this bug doesnt exist maybe a frog goes hungry and dies. And maybe that frog was supposed to hop on a sabre-tooth tigers face at exactly the right moment so the cave person from which our greatest leader will descend can escape death.

But you just had to time travel didnt you? Now, because that bug is dead, the cave man didnt live and our planet is a nuclear wasteland when you return to the present.

[Read:This quantum physics breakthrough could be the origin story for time travel]

Speaking of nuclear wastelands, a team of scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory recently conducted a time travel simulation on IBMs quantum computer. And what they determined is that all those Hollywood fear mongers are full of it.

Per a press release from the lab, one of the studys coauthors, theoretical physicist Nikolai Sinitsyn, said:

On a quantum computer, there is no problem simulating opposite-in-time evolution, or simulating running a process backwards into the past. So we can actually see what happens with a complex quantum world if we travel back in time, add small damage, and return. We found that our world survives, which means theres no butterfly effect in quantum mechanics.

We cant actually travel back in time, but what we can do is simulate how systems react to perturbances with benefit of hindsight. And the reason we can do this is because quantum computers can travel back in time.

What makes quantum computers so special is that theyre capable of producing all outcomes simultaneously. With a classical computer, for example, we use binary bits to process data by switching resistors on and off. Quantum computers use qubits though. And qubits can be on, off, both, or neither all at the same time. So, if we want to solve a really complex problem we can run it through a quantum computer and get all the answers at once rather than running it through a classical computer multiple times with different parameters to achieve diverse predictions when an outcome is uncertain.

Thats a long-winded way of saying quantum computers can reverse-engineer the past to determine exactly how things in a given system would have unfolded had something else happened.

This doesnt mean we can finally solve the JFK assassination, that version of the past is a closed system that we currently dont have access to. But we can create an open system and give the quantum computer access to it via simulation so that it can determine all the different ways things can play out over time.

Quick take: Whats most interesting here is that the simulation itself works as a bit of a quantum mechanics detector.

We know that classical systems suffer from the butterfly effect. Dont believe me? Go back about 10 code commits and start randomly changing things and then generate new code from the flawed version and see how that works out for your next software build.

Sinitsyn and his coauthor Bin Yan tested their quantum mechanics hypothesis out with help from IBMs cloud-based Q system. Per the Los Alamos press release:

To test the butterfly effect in quantum systems, Yan and Sinitsyn used theory and simulations with the IBM-Q quantum processor to show how a circuit could evolve a complex system by applying quantum gates, with forwards and backwards cause and effect.

According to the researchers, the butterfly effect doesnt affect the quantum world so its existence can effectively determine whether a system is classical or quantum in nature.

We can certainly assume that any form of time travel involving human temporal displacement will rely on quantum mechanics unless of course we turn out to be binary constructs trapped within a simulation ourselves.

And that means, unless were in the Matrix, Marty McFly and John Connor were just propaganda meant to scare us regular folk off from using time machines at our leisure. Even Ashton Kutcher lied to us. Butterfly effect schmutterfly effect.

You can read the full study here.

H/t: ScienceAlert

Read next: Prosecutors claim to have caught teenage mastermind behind Twitter hack

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Excerpt from:

Quantum physicists say time travelers don't have to worry about the butterfly effect - The Next Web

Thermodynamics is one of the pillars of natural sciences: it studies the way energy is exchanged between bodies at different temperature, predicts the likeliness of certain chemical reactions, and explains why even the most energy-efficient engine will always produce waste.

However, what happens when the processes of interest involve systems as simple as electrons, atoms or simple molecules?

For such nanoscale building blocks of matter, the laws of physics that we experience in the everyday world are no longer valid, and quantum mechanics come into play. Therefore, to provide an accurate description of energy-exchange processes occurring at microscopic scales, thermodynamics has to be blended with the quantum framework.

Such new avenues of investigation promise to deliver minuscule devices able to make use of the counter-intuitive laws of quantum mechanics to outperform their classical counterparts. Miniaturised to only handfuls of atoms, these machines hold the promise of offering highly efficient ways of generating power, managing heat flows and recovering wasted energy in wide-ranging technologies, from microprocessors to chemical reactions.

The UK-Irish consortium QuamNESS, which comprises researchers at the University of Bristol, Queens University Belfast, and Trinity, will address this challenging perspective. By developing novel mathematical tools and powerful simulation methods the fundamental principles governing the performance of the smallest possible engines will be revealed.

Supported by a large EPSRC-SFI grant, in excess of 1.6 million, the QuamNESS team will work towards a fully fledged understanding of how to engineer new technologies that benefit from super-efficient (quantum-enhanced) thermal management.

Technology is being miniaturised at an unprecedented rate and we can no longer ignore the counterintuitive effects of quantum mechanics, said Dr John Goold, Assistant Professor in Trinitys School of Physics and founder of the QuSys group.

This leads to both deep and pragmatic scientific questions that this research will aim to address and I am extremely excited about the opportunity to work with both Professor Paternostro (QUB) and Dr Stephen Clark (UOB) since they are two of my most longstanding collaborators. More importantly this research award represents an important and natural reinforcement of both Irish-UK and North-South research collaborations in the post Brexit environment.

Continue reading here:

Trinity College Dublin: UK collaboration awarded 1.6 million to unveil the secrets of quantum thermodynamics - Science Business

Is your subconscious in charge?

By Rhiannon Rees

Have you ever wanted to drive a Lamborghini? Imagine the speed, the ease of handling, the wind through your hair. The car embodies class and thrills to the max.

Compare that to being on a skateboard, moving under your own steam. It takes effort, only goes fast in short bursts, is unpredictable and not great on handling. Youre exposed, dependent on the terrain and battered by weather conditions.

Which would you rather drive?

Lets call the Lamborghini your conscious mind and the skateboard a part of your subconscious. One is powerful, present and has you arriving in style; the other is slow and clunky and maybe gets you there in the end.

Which one is driving you?

Self-limiting beliefs drive us. The beliefs stored in our subconscious minds were often created when we were children. We took most of them from our parents and other adults who were influential in our lives. Once formed, these beliefs are stored, rarely questioned and all but forgottenyet they provide the compass we live by as adults. Every time something in our life matches the subconscious belief we hold, that belief is further confirmed.

The trouble with being guided by these unquestioned beliefs is that, while they may have served a purpose when they were created and may have even kept us safe when we were younger, many of them are outdated and over-simplified. Some are downright wrong. Theyre not the kind of beliefs we need as a driving force in our adult lives.

With firmly held beliefs like these the richness, or desire for riches, turns stagnant.

Our self-limiting beliefs become our reality. They influence our identity and, in turn, our future. Henry Ford once said, Whether you think you can or think you cant, youre right. Exactly. It is our thoughts that create our reality.

What if you could harness techniques that enable you to transform your self-limiting beliefs? What if you could reach into your subconscious mind to explore and effectively change the beliefs stored there?

You can. In quantum physics the simple act of observing a particle has been demonstrated to actively affect its behavior. The results of various experiments show us the potential power we have over our environment when we take on the role of observer. If we turn the light of observation on ourselves and delve into our subconscious minds, we can look closely at the beliefs we created long ago and see how they now run our lives.

Meditation can help us to reach that place of observation by allowing us access to deeper levels of consciousness. Other mindfulness techniques such as visualization, deep breathing and paying attention to how we react in situations can also work. As soon as we bring our beliefs into conscious awareness, they begin to change. Once conscious, they can be explored, and when theyre unhelpful, then new, more useful beliefs can be planted in their place.

And then theres the voice chattering away inside our heads. That voice can harangue us, undermine us and bring us downor it can support and sustain us. Much of what it tells us is colored by the beliefs we laid down in childhood. When we stand back and watch this self-talk, we can learn a lot about which beliefs support us and which do us harm. The next step is to shift the language we use, both in our thoughts and our speech. For example, we can:

Exchange I should with I choose to

Shift I cant into Im learning to

I dont sleep well shifts to I have a restful sleep every night

I know it wont work can become I make it work

Instead of I never know what to do, try I can ask for help

Rather than saying I need to keep my feelings to myself, say Its okay for me to be open with my feelings

Change Im always broke with Im expansively abundant or Money comes to me easily and effortlessly

Compared to those old limiting beliefs above, how much more powerfully would the new beliefs support you? But money and abundance arent the only areas to focus on. Dont forget to look at your beliefs around self-worth and receiving as well. In order to succeed, we need to be open to receiving success and to believing ourselves worthy. Do your beliefs build your power, or are they limiting it in any way?

Daily affirmations can help you set your new beliefs in place. By choosing your words thoughtfully and forming them into phrases that accurately reflect beliefs that will better serve you and help you reach your life goals, you can actively create the life you want.

The trick is to become aware of what is working and whats not working in your life, then harness techniques to access your subconscious mind and conquer self-limiting beliefs. Thats the first step in moving from debt to abundance, shifting from being overlooked to being valued for your skills, or changing a flailing business into one that pulls in the profits.

Is your subconscious mind getting your attention now?

Would you prefer to get where youre going on the subconscious skateboard of limiting beliefs? Or would you rather cruise your road to success in the ever-cool Lamborghini?

The choice is yours.

Rhiannon Reesis a human behavior expert and international high-performance coach helping clients redefine their level of success.An Australian native,Rhiannonis a best-selling author, thriving entrepreneur and a global speaker.

Read more from the original source:

How Your Subconscious Mind Is Running Your Life And How To Fix It - Forbes

The app led one person to a friendly dog in the desert and another to a field of wildflowers. One young woman, after making her college decision, followed the app to a field where her schools initials had been mowed into the grass.

And then there were the friends who followed the app to a suitcase full of human remains.

That is the gamble one takes with Randonautica, which claims to channel users intentions to produce nearby coordinates for exploration. Think: The law of attraction meets geocaching.

Randonautica makes a few asks of users What would you like to get? Choose your entropy source before prompting them to focus on your intent while it fetches coordinates. This process relies on location settings and a random number generator, which, despite what the company says, cannot be directly affected by human thoughts.

Many of the places users have been sent to since Randonautica became available in February are unremarkable: parking lots, grasslands, many bodies of water. However, interest has been driven by the spooky and often synchronistic randonauting stories many have shared on social media. While several of them appear to be fake, others have raised some cause for concern.

The creators of Randonautica say the app has evolved beyond their intentions. But what were those intentions?

Before Randonautica, there were the Randonauts: Strangers who swapped stories about their bot-assisted adventures into the unknown. They wanted to open their minds to the world around them and make meaning of lifes coincidences.

The bots code came from a group of programmers called the Fatum Project who were interested in, among other things, using the technology to ensure the randomness of online gambling outcomes.

Joshua Lengfelder, 29, discovered the Fatum Project on the messenger app Telegram in January 2019, in a fringe-science chat room. He absorbed the projects theories about how random exploration could break people out of their predetermined realities, and how people could influence random outcomes with their minds.

Mr. Lengfelder, a former circus performer, thought the code and its underlying ideas could be used to explore the relationship between consciousness and technology. In February 2019, while caring for his father, who had just suffered a stroke, he created a Telegram bot that used the Fatum Projects code to generate random coordinates. In March, he created a Randonauts subreddit, which now has 125,000 members. And in October, a developer named Simon Nishi McCorkindale created a web page for the bot.

That same month, Auburn Salcedo, the chief executive of Presley Media, an agency that creates brand integrations for TV, found the Randonauts on Reddit and offered to help Mr. Lengfelder get the word out. On Jan. 24, Ms. Salcedo and Mr. Lengfelder incorporated Randonauts, L.L.C., with her as C.O.O. and him as C.E.O. (She remains the chief executive of Presley Media, which handles P.R. for Randonautica.) They released a beta version of the app on Feb. 22.

Since its release, Randonautica has been downloaded 10.8 million times from the App Store and Google Play, according to the research firm Sensor Tower. After a few months of rapid growth, much of it propelled by TikTok, its downloads have started to taper off, according to data from the analytics firm App Annie.

In an interview in July, Mr. Lengfelder described Randonautica as a multimedia storytelling platform that encourages performance art. He said the overwhelming response has not surprised him.

I kind of figured it was inevitable, he said. Because basically what it is is like a machine that creates memes and legends, and it kind of virally propagates on its own.

On social media, the most popular randonauting videos feature eerie and seemingly dangerous situations that are dramatized through editing. Some creators have capitalized on the trend by posting exaggerated or false accounts of their randonauting adventures. The 27-year-old YouTuber Josh Yozura, for instance, claimed to have been led to a crime scene. (Mr. Yozura did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

Ms. Salcedo denounced such videos in an interview with the YouTube creator Billschannel. In a phone interview this month, she spoke further about the proliferation of fake videos. Its so hard to manage, because people are really taking creative liberties after seeing how much traction the app is getting in that fear factor, she said.

On first use, Randonautica offers a brief intro and some tips (Always Randonaut with a charged phone, Never trespass) before prompting you to share your location.

Then it will ask you to choose which type of point you would like it to generate (the differences between which only matter if you believe the app can read your thoughts) before fetching coordinates from a random number generator. The user can then open that location in Google Maps to begin their journey.

Randonautica throws big words like quantum and entropy around a lot. Its creators believe that quantum random numbers are more likely to be influenced by human consciousness than non-quantum random numbers. This hypothesis is part of a theory Mr. Lengfelder refers to as mind-machine interaction, or M.M.I.: It posits that when you focus on your intent, you are influencing the numbers.

Basically if youre looking for any kind of peer-reviewed, scientific consensus, that does not exist yet in the literature, Mr. Lengfelder said in a TikTok video in June, speaking about the theory. Instead, he pointed to the work of Dean Radin, a prominent figure in the pseudoscientific field of parapsychology, and the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program, which has cited Dr. Radins research, as evidence.

Randonautica claims that a 1998 PEAR experiment supported the idea that people can control random number generation with their thoughts. That study was published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, which includes work about the paranormal, spirit possessions, poltergeists and questions about Shakespeares authorship. In the study, PEARs researchers wrote that the experiment was far from conclusive.

It looks like they saw some kind of correlation, but they admit that it was weak and it needed to have further research associated with it, said Casey Schwarz, an experimental physicist and assistant professor at Ursinus College who reviewed Randonauticas claims for this article. She said she did not know of any quantum system that could be influenced by human thoughts.

Lisa Fazio, an assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, said that the more synchronous experiences were likely coincidences colored by confirmation bias, or the tendency to look for information that affirms ones beliefs and tune out contradictory evidence.

She pointed to a story shared on Reddit, in which an Australian poster described being led to a map of the London underground. Things like that happen all the time, its just that you dont notice that map of London if you didnt have the intention already to be thinking of London, Dr. Fazio said. She also noted that coincidences are far more common than people realize.

Mr. Lengfelder dismissed such criticisms, stating that the app was not created to prove a hypothesis. I would say its not some kind of academic science work, he said. Were more like inventors than academic scientists.

An update coming in August will feature improved graphics and, Mr. Lengfelder said, a custom random number generator that would have a higher rate of entropy. So technically our M.M.I. effects should be higher, he said. Of course, as noted above, M.M.I. is a theory that is not supported by science.

Daniel J. Rogers, a physicist who has worked with quantum random number generators, called Randonauticas M.M.I. theory completely absurd.

There is no quantum physics here, said Dr. Rogers, a founder of the Global Disinformation Index. This is just people using big science words to sound magical. There is no actual science here.

Randonauting became popular partly because of reverse psychology; young people approach it with a sense of foreboding. Do not go randonauting has become a popular title for videos.

Several people who shared unsettling stories about the app say they have since sworn it off. Adrian Chavez, 21, was led to an ominous beach near his home in Orange County, Calif. A video of his journey, posted on TikTok in early June, has been viewed 4.5 million times.

I deleted the app right after that and never used it again since, Mr. Chavez said in an interview in July.

The 18-year-old TikTok user who posted the viral video about finding a suitcase of human remains on a Seattle beach, @UghHenry, wrote in the comments of his video: The moment I got back home, I broke down. I still cant sleep.

In an interview with The Atlantic, Mr. Lengfelder was blas about the story, which was covered by news outlets including KING 5 News and The New York Post. Its not the best press, but Im not really that upset about it, because its kind of cool, he said. I kind of wish it was me who found it.

Some adults have expressed concerns about the apps lack of safety precautions for children. Though Randonauticas terms of use specify that anyone who is a minor must obtain parental consent to use the app, such consent is collected by email, making it easy for young users to bypass.

Know and Tell, a child protection education program with the Granite State Childrens Alliance in New Hampshire, has posted on Instagram telling parents to keep young people off the app, or at least supervise their use.

It was very apparent that these were young teenagers that were going to undisclosed areas in the middle of the night, said Jana El-Sayed, the outreach project manager for the Granite State Childrens Alliance. She described these circumstances as a perpetrators dream.

Concerns about human trafficking and personal data use are addressed in Randonauticas F.A.Q., which specifies that all location data is anonymized and only made available to developers, and that starting locations are never saved by the app.

Pokmon Go, which uses augmented reality to encourage local exploration, has handled safety concerns by putting PokStops and Gyms in notable, public locations, and encouraging users to remain vigilant.

Randonauticas safety tips are similar: Avoid dangerous areas, do not trespass, try to explore during the day or with friends. Randonauticas website repeatedly urges users to use common sense. The latest version of the app will feature multiple screens and pop-ups reminding users to use the app safely.

Randonauticas executives say they dont understand why people would use the app to seek out risk or harm.

You wouldnt go out on a walk and say, Let me think about seeing death, Ms. Salcedo said in an interview, referring to a viral TikTok video in which an 18-year-old user claims she set her intention as death and then happened upon a shooting victim.

Yeah, Lets see if I get stalked, Mr. Lengfelder added.

Ms. Salcedo said Randonauticas legal counsel reassured her and Mr. Lengfelder that the app would not be liable for any user misconduct.

Is Google Maps liable too, for giving them directions? Mr. Lengfelder said. At a certain point, if somebody wants to really go out of the way and harm themselves, theyre going to do it. Whether its with Randonautica or not.

Ben Decker contributed reporting.

Visit link:

Randonautica: What Is It and Are the Stories Real? - The New York Times

By Lena WilsonThe app led one person to a friendly dog in the desert and another to a field of wildflowers. One young woman, after making her college decision, followed the app to a field where her schools initials had been mowed into the grass.

And then there were the friends who followed the app to a suitcase full of human remains.

That is the gamble one takes with Randonautica, which claims to channel users intentions to produce nearby coordinates for exploration. Think: The law of attraction meets geocaching.

Randonautica makes a few asks of users What would you like to get? Choose your entropy source before prompting them to focus on your intent while it fetches coordinates. This process relies on location settings and a random number generator, which, despite what the company says, cannot be directly affected by human thoughts.

Many of the places users have been sent to since Randonautica became available in February are unremarkable: parking lots, grasslands, many bodies of water. However, interest has been driven by the spooky and often synchronistic randonauting stories many have shared on social media. While several of them appear to be fake, others have raised some cause for concern.

A Brief History of RandonautingBefore Randonautica, there were the Randonauts: strangers who swapped stories about their bot-assisted adventures into the unknown. They wanted to open their minds to the world around them and make meaning of lifes coincidences.

The bots code came from a group of programmers called the Fatum Project who were interested in, among other things, using the technology to ensure the randomness of online gambling outcomes.

Joshua Lengfelder, 29, discovered the Fatum Project on the messenger app Telegram in January 2019, in a fringe-science chat room. He absorbed the projects theories about how random exploration could break people out of their predetermined realities and how people could influence random outcomes with their minds.

Lengfelder, a former circus performer, thought the code and its underlying ideas could be used to explore the relationship between consciousness and technology. In February 2019, while caring for his father, who had just suffered a stroke, he created a Telegram bot that used the Fatum Projects code to generate random coordinates. In March, he created a Randonauts subreddit, which now has 125,000 members. And in October, a developer named Simon Nishi McCorkindale created a web page for the bot.

Since its release, Randonautica has been downloaded 10.8 million times from the App Store and Google Play, according to the research firm Sensor Tower. After a few months of rapid growth, much of it propelled by TikTok, its downloads have started to taper off, according to data from the analytics firm App Annie.

In an interview in July, Lengfelder described Randonautica as a multimedia storytelling platform that encourages performance art. He said the overwhelming response had not surprised him.

I kind of figured it was inevitable, he said. Because basically what it is is like a machine that creates memes and legends, and it kind of virally propagates on its own.

So How Does It Work?On first use, Randonautica offers a brief intro and some tips (Always Randonaut with a charged phone, Never trespass) before prompting you to share your location.

Then it will ask you to choose which type of point you would like it to generate (the differences between which only matter if you believe the app can read your thoughts) before fetching coordinates from a random number generator. The user can then open that location in Google Maps to begin their journey.

Randonautica throws big words like quantum and entropy around a lot. Its creators believe that quantum random numbers are more likely to be influenced by human consciousness than non-quantum random numbers. This hypothesis is part of a theory Lengfelder refers to as mind-machine interaction, or MMI: It posits that when you focus on your intent, you are influencing the numbers.

Daniel Rogers, a physicist who has worked with quantum random number generators, called Randonauticas MMI theory completely absurd.

There is no quantum physics here, said Rogers, a founder of the Global Disinformation Index. This is just people using big science words to sound magical. There is no actual science here.

Several people who shared unsettling stories about the app say they have since sworn it off. Adrian Chavez, 21, was led to an ominous beach near his home in Orange County, California. A video of his journey, posted on TikTok in early June, has been viewed 4.5 million times.

I deleted the app right after that and never used it again since, Chavez said in an interview in July.

The 18-year-old TikTok user who posted the viral video about finding a suitcase of human remains on a Seattle beach, @UghHenry, wrote in the comments of his video: The moment I got back home, I broke down. I still cant sleep.

In an interview with The Atlantic, Lengfelder was blas about the story, which was covered by news outlets including KING 5 News and the New York Post. Its not the best press, but Im not really that upset about it, because its kind of cool, he said. I kind of wish it was me who found it.

Some adults have expressed concerns about the apps lack of safety precautions for children. Although Randonauticas terms of use specify that anyone who is a minor must obtain parental consent to use the app, such consent is collected by email, making it easy for young users to bypass.

Concerns about human trafficking and personal data use are addressed in Randonauticas FAQ, which specifies that all location data is anonymized and made available only to developers, and that starting locations are never saved by the app.

Pokmon Go, which uses augmented reality to encourage local exploration, has handled safety concerns by putting PokStops and Gyms in notable, public locations and encouraging users to remain vigilant.

Randonauticas safety tips are similar: Avoid dangerous areas, do not trespass, try to explore during the day or with friends. Randonauticas website repeatedly urges users to use common sense. The latest version of the app will feature multiple screens and pop-ups reminding users to use the app safely.

Salcedo said Randonauticas legal counsel reassured her and Lengfelder that the app would not be liable for any user misconduct.

Is Google Maps liable too, for giving them directions? Lengfelder said. At a certain point, if somebody wants to really go out of the way and harm themselves, theyre going to do it. Whether its with Randonautica or not.

Excerpt from:

Randonautica: The viral app that led friends to a suitcase full of human remains - Economic Times