Category Archives: Quantum Physics

Quantum battery technology is approaching an inflection point similar to the one quantum computing crossed a decade or so ago, escalating it from a theoretical curiosity to an engineering challenge worth solving.

Quantum batteries exploit the strange physical laws of the very small the quantum world to gain performance advantages over classical batteries. Recent research on charging speed advantages and loss-free storage suggests this technology is poised for growth over the next three to five years.

The quantum world is probabilistic rather than deterministic, and that applies to quantum batteries as well as quantum computers. If, for example, an energy-storage unit exhibits either a ground state or an excited state in the classical world, it acts instead as a smearing of both in the quantum world, which can be described with probability functions.

Similarly, the likelihood that the same unit transitions between states also can be defined with a probability function. This function is known as a transition amplitude, and it is key to explaining why quantum batteries offer the advantages they do.

An Australian-Italian-UK research group published a paper in the journal Science Advances this year about photosensitive dye molecules, known as Lumogen-F Orange, which can be used as storage units. The researchers confined these units, in groups of varying sizes, in an optical microcavity a quantum battery prototype and measured the rate at which photons were able to excite the various groups.

I saw the potential in what (quantum batteries) could do if someone could realize this in a lab, said James Quach, who conceived and managed the project. I wanted to take it from the blackboard out into the laboratory.

Acting as quantum units, each dye molecule had its own transition amplitude describing the probability it would transition from a ground state to an excited state.

Superextensive ChargingThe magic of quantum batteries emerged when the dye molecules transition amplitudes were allowed to interfere with each other.

The way that quantum batteries work is that these transition amplitudes, when you put them in a coherent state, interfere with each other very much in the way that waves interfere with each other, and produce crests when they constructively interfere and troughs when theyre destructive, said Quach. Through this constructive interference, the combined transition amplitude of the whole system was greater than the sum of the individual parts if they werent acting as one.

In contrast, the fastest way to deliver energy into a battery in the classical world is through a parallel charging configuration, where every cell is charged simultaneously. The batterys charging speed, in this setup, is limited by how fast a single cell can charge.

What Quachs team found in their quantum demonstration was that the interference allowed the battery as a whole to charge faster than a classical parallel setup. Even better, they found charging speed to be superextensive, meaning it increased as more and more dye molecules storage units were added to the battery.

The microcavity setup physically demonstrated, for the first time, superextensive energy absorption superabsorption a phenomenon that Quach says can benefit everything from small-scale consumer electronics to electric vehicles and grid-scale storage systems.

Hurdles and boundsJust where the limits of this superextensive speed lie has been the subject of interest of Juyeon Kim at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in Daejeon, Korea. Last year, Kim and fellow researchers Dominik Safranek and Dario Rosa published a paper in Physical Review Letters quantifying the bounds of the quantum charging advantage the ratio of quantum charging speed versus classical charging speed.

I wanted to make a very tight bound for the expected power for the general case, said Kim. In classical batteries, the power increases with the number of cells in parallel. But in quantum batteries, we can make the power increase with the square of the number of cells.

In practice, however, Quachs team found their batterys charging speed could only scale with the square root of N, a difference that warrants a deeper look into the implementation options for quantum batteries.

The charging advantages of these devices arise from an effect known as collective charging, where a batterys units genuinely share the batterys power source in a way, communicate with each other instead of the every-cell-for-itself strategy of classical batteries.

Collective charging is kind of a shortcut, said Kim. We can separate the cells (in a classical setup) and theres no other effect. But in the quantum battery, we cannot separate the cells if we want the quantum advantage, if we want collective charging.

Quantum batteries can leverage one of two quantum phenomena to implement collective charging quantum entanglement or quantum coherence.

Quantum entanglement, which Albert Einstein dubbed spooky action at a distance, existentially links particles together, allowing them to behave as a single unit despite physical separation. Although Kims team focused on entanglement in their paper in quantifying quantum advantage, they also acknowledged its fragility.

Entanglement is very easily broken down by the environment and notoriously difficult to maintain, said Kim. Quantum computers, for example, tend to operate at temperatures near absolute zero in pursuit of entanglement longevity.

Quach, for this reason, saw more practicality down the coherence route, even if it offered less of a quantum advantage. While quantum coherence also is susceptible to collapse, it maintains stability better than entanglement, even at room temperatures.

Furthermore, in addition to superabsorption, the optical cavity prototype demonstrated that decoherence, if applied judiciously to a quantum battery, can help control its storage and discharge phases. Or put in perspective, a little bit of a bad thing actually might be good.

If I charge the battery very quickly, because quantum mechanics is time-symmetric, it should discharge very quickly, explained Quach. But decoherence makes this asymmetric, which means you can charge it quickly, but then it will discharge very slowly with decoherence.

Loss-free storageScientists from the University of Alberta, in partnership with the University of Toronto, published research in 2019 that detailed such symmetry-breaking perturbations and how quantum batteries might use them to enter dark states and achieve loss-free energy storage.

The use of symmetry-protected dark states effectively decouples the battery from its environments, making it possible to perfectly store the excitation energy, stated the Journal of Physical Chemistry C paper. In contrast to conventional electrochemical batteries, the charged excitonic quantum battery does not discharge over time in the presence of environments, a remarkable feature stemming from the quantum nature of the system.

The research studied, as its quantum battery prototype, a para-benzene-like structure that accumulated excitons, and subjected the structure to numerical simulations that demonstrated immunity to environmentally-induced losses.

A possible inflectionThe loss-free paper, one of the first to explore quantum batteries in a dissipative environment, and the real-world optical cavity demonstration, may herald a shift in how researchers approach the technology.

Traditionally, because this was always the simplest way out, most of the works that dealt with quantum batteries initially dealt with isolated quantum systems, meaning subsystems that did not interact with the environment, said Juzar Thingna, quantum thermodynamics researcher at the University of Massachusetts. The goal was rather simplistic.

Dissipative environments, however, represent real situations much more than those idealistic situations where the quantum system were fully isolated, Thingna said. The change in focus toward how these devices will interact with their parent systems suggests the field is moving closer to reality.

Another cause for shift, said Quach, is recognizing that the problems facing quantum batteries differ from those facing quantum computers, and how this recognition may help fast track quantum batteries to commercial applications.

Any sort of decoherence in quantum computing [ruins it], he said. It just doesnt work. And thats the challenge (for quantum computing). But decoherence is a good thing for quantum batteries and, because of this, the big hurdle for quantum computing doesnt apply for quantum batteries. In a sense, it is much easier than quantum computing, but it has started a lot later.

ApplicationsSo why go quantum? asked Thingna. If a classical battery is just working fine, why do I need to go quantum? Its storing energy. Its doing the job that its meant to do. Why do I need to invest $1 billion or $2 billion of funding into something that will do as good?

Certainly, batteries with charging speeds that thrive on scale and offer loss-free storage will find their place in the world.

The IBS paper on quantum charging advantage attracted a bit of media attention earlier this year, partly because it provided a laymans gateway into the promise of quantum batteries they can be used to charge electric cars much more quickly. But while the prospect of 10 hours of charging time compressed into seconds grabbed the publics attention, practical considerations, such as charger power and coherence protection, are still in the research phase for electric vehicles.

One of the first applications for quantum batteries, believes Quach, will be light harvesting, which neatly side steps the charging power constriction by way of the sun providing a pseudo-ubiquitous power source. He intends to extend his existing work with photosensitive quantum batteries by scaling them up.

The idea of superabsorption is that it should absorb better than classical absorption, and therefore we hope that it will take solar cell technology to a new level, he said. But he notes that consumer electronics and electric vehicles far behind. Given sufficient funding, consumer applications could arrive within three to five years, he said.

Thingna envisions public transport massive trains that require range and quick charging turnarounds as a prime candidate for quantum battery use. But even without the lure of rapid charging and loss-free storage, engineers must soon contend with quantum batteries. We are going to be miniaturizing things very soon, he said. We are already on that path. The problem with miniaturization is if you go too small, all your devices will hit a bottleneck and your classical laws of physics will no longer work. You cannot avoid quantum physics.

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What Quantum Batteries Have in Store - SemiEngineering

Covina, June 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The discovery of potential COVID-19 therapeutics has a bright future due toquantum computing. New approaches to drug discovery are being investigated with funding from the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, coordinated through the Penn State Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. For businesses in the quantum computing market, these tendencies are turning into lucrative opportunities during forecast period. Research initiatives that are assisting in the screening of billions of chemical compounds to uncover suitable medication candidates have been made possible by the convergence of machine learning and quantum physics. Stakeholders in the quantum computing business are expanding the availability of supercomputers and growing R&D in artificial intelligence to support these studies (AI). The energy and electricity sector offers lucrative potential for businesses in the quantum computing market. As regard to whole assets, work overs, and infrastructure, this technology is assisting players in the energy and power sector in making crucial investment decisions. Budgetary considerations, resource constraints, and contractual commitments may all be factors in these issues that quantum computing can help to resolve.

Region Analysis:

North America is predicted to hold a large market share for quantum computing due to its early adoption of cutting-edge technology. Additionally, the existence of a competitive market and end-user acceptance of cutting-edge technology may promote market growth. Sales are anticipated to increase throughout Europe as a result of the rise of multiple startups, favourable legislative conditions, and the growing use of cloud technology. In addition, it is anticipated that leading companies' company expansion will accelerate market growth. The market is anticipated to grow in Asia Pacific as a result of the growing need for quantum computing solutions for simulation, optimization, and machine learning.

Key Highlights:

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Key Market Insights from the report:

Global Quantum Computing Market size accounted for US$ 387.3 billion in 2020 and is estimated to be US$ 4531.04 billion by 2030 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 28.2%.The Global Quantum Computing Market is segmented based on component, application, end-user industry and region.

Competitive Landscape & their strategies of Quantum Computing Market:

Key players in the global quantum computing market include Wave Systems Corp, 1QB Information Technologies Inc, QC Ware, Corp, Google Inc, QxBranch LLC, Microsoft Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, ID Quantique SA, and Atos SE.

Scope of the Report:

Global Quantum Computing Market, By Component, 2019 2029, (US$ Mn)

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Some Important Points Answered in this Market Report Are Given Below:

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Global Quantum Computing Market is estimated to be US$ 4531.04 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 28.2% during the forecast period - By PMI -...

Partnership will Deliver the Ability to Track Anything, Anywhere

BOULDER, Colo., June 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ColdQuanta, the global quantum ecosystem leader, today announced a partnership with LocatorX, the world's most ground-breaking location tracking company, to advance the development of atomic clocks. The strategic partnership will enable the companies to jointly address an expanded range of atomic clock applications through the combination of ColdQuanta's world class team and technology, and LocatorX's affordable, small form factor, low power atomic clocks.

Under the agreement, ColdQuanta's technical talent will assist LocatorX in the final stages of development of the Solid-state Miniature Atomic Clock (SMAC) that LocatorX licensed from the University of Oxford. The market for LocatorX's compact SMAC will be further expanded when networked with ColdQuanta's clock technology. The device will provide a high value solution to address common challenges such as clock drift, jamming resistance, radio silence management, signal acquisition speed and a reduction in code validity interval.

ColdQuanta has a 15-year history of successfully executing federal quantum research, and has manufactured and demonstrated a wide variety of advanced performance atomic clocks. With a team of more than 80 physicists and engineers, ColdQuanta has a track record of solving complex quantum challenges and manufacturing devices to advance the understanding of quantum.

LocatorX is building a strong reputation for asset tracking and management with system deployments at several major defense contractors. LocatorX built its secure asset tracking software for several types of IoT devices, including the ongoing development of the SMAC technology. The LocatorX engineering and science teams bring decades of experience in the technologies required to build the SMAC and securely track assets tagged with SMAC-enabled IoT devices.

"We are in a period where global instabilities are accelerating the demand for highly accurate atomic clocks that can be used across a wide variety of critical applications," said Chester Kennedy, ColdQuanta's President, Research and Security Solutions. "Under the agreement, ColdQuanta will offer the U.S. Government access to a unique combination of global innovation that combines the novel concepts of the original Oxford-based SMAC with the proven knowledge base of ColdQuanta's team. When combined with ColdQuanta's extensive portfolio of advanced clocks, the LocatorX device will unlock a variety of high value applications."

"The heart of the new technology is a miraculous molecule in which a single atom is incarcerated within a carbon cage. This enables the rich quantum properties of the atom to be harnessed in the solid state. Pioneering research at the University of Oxford led to the discovery of the resonant transitions which provide the underpinning science for robust accurate timekeeping, in a miniature low-power device," said Professor Andrew Briggs, Chief Innovation Officer at LocatorX.

About ColdQuanta

ColdQuanta is a global quantum technology company solving the world's most challenging problems. The company harnesses quantum mechanics to build and integrate quantum computers, sensors, and networks. From fundamental physics to leading edge commercial products, ColdQuanta enables "quantum everywhere" through an ecosystem of devices and platforms.Founded in 2007, ColdQuanta grew from decades of research in atomic physics and work at JILA, with intellectual property licensed through the University of Colorado and University of Wisconsin. ColdQuanta's scalable and versatile cold atom technology is used by world-class organizations around the globe and deployed by NASA on the International Space Station. ColdQuanta is based in Boulder, CO, with offices in Chicago, IL; Madison, WI; and Oxford, UK. Find out how ColdQuanta is building the future at http://www.coldquanta.com.

The name ColdQuanta and the ColdQuanta logo are both registered trademarks of ColdQuanta, Inc.

About LocatorX

LocatorX provides accurate, flexible and inexpensive tracking technology to retailers, manufacturers and distributors across a variety of industries. Founded with technology discovered at the University of Oxford, LocatorX has innovated cutting-edge technologies in the areas of location tracking, solid-state electronics and counterfeit detection. The company is also developing the world's first molecular-sized location tracking device. For more information, visit LocatorX.com.

SOURCE ColdQuanta

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ColdQuanta and LocatorX Partner to Build Next Generation of Atomic Clocks - PR Newswire

Napa, CA, June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Napa Valley Akashic today unveiled a new white paper titled, The Akashic Records: A Simple Explanation for the Scientific Mind. The document takes an innovative approach to introducing and explaining the Akashic Records and how it functions through the lens of science. The white paper highlights and cites research from an extensive list of leading physicists, mathematicians, philosophers, psychologists, scholars, and several Nobel laureates including Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Sir Roger Penrose and Murray Gell-Mann.

The Akashic Records provide guidance to help us navigate our daily lives as well as to tune into our deeper nature and bring that wisdom into the current experience. The Akashic Records are an energetic record of every thought, emotion and action that has ever occurred, and these records exist and can be accessed through an extended dimension of consciousness during an Akashic session. While this may sound mystical in nature, the Akashic Records align with the principles of quantum physics that have completely reframed our scientific perspective and understanding of the universe and how it functions.

The past two years have been, collectively, a time of profound transformation for everyone, said Napa Valley Akashic founder, Alan Jacob. Changes have arisen in all areas of our lives. The Akashic Records enable us to access our inherent deeper wisdom to provide guidance and understanding for our personal journeys, which is especially valuable during times of such rapid change. Utilizing the Akashic Records does not require any new beliefs, and the experience can coexist and complement any existing religious or spiritual beliefs.

This paper is intended to appeal to those who generally resonate with ideas presented in more of a rational and scientific context and are accessible to even those with no experience in the subjects explored. The Akashic Records white paper includes detailed endnotes for all citations made in the paper, as well as an extensive recommended reading list in consideration for those wanting to explore these ideas further.

My hope is that this paper helps those who are unfamiliar with the Akashic Records to consider utilizing this modality in their own lives, added Alan Jacob. I have found it to be such an empowering and helpful tool and I was surprised to see how many of the concepts and ideas associated with the Akashic Records have been explored and relatively established within scientific literature. Im thrilled to share my findings with others.

Learn MoreTo download The Akashic Records: A Simple Explanation for the Scientific Mind visitwww.napavalleyakashic.com/white-paper. Alan Jacob currently offers virtual Akashic Records sessions via Zoom to clients all over the world. For more information or to book a session online visitwww.NapaValleyAkashic.com.

About Alan JacobAlan Jacob is the founder and Akashic Reader at Napa Valley Akashic, specializing in working with people on a spiritual path. Alan received his Akashic Reader training from Anne Marie Pizarro and launched Napa Valley Akashic in 2021 with the intention of being of service to others. Alan is a Reiki Master in the Kali-ki lineage of Reiki and is a Certified HeartMath Practitioner focusing on heart-brain coherence. Alan has studied Transcendental Meditation and Kundalini Yoga and is currently deepening his education as a student of Contemplative Psychology at Naropa University. Alan is in the process of completing a three-year intensive program studying with masters in a variety of consciousness-based disciplines, including the opportunity to spend time with wisdom elders and shamans in indigenous tribes around the world. Prior to changing career paths to that of an energy healer and Akashic Reader, Alan was a marketing executive with experience at both private and publicly traded companies, being recognized on many award lists including Forbes 30 under 30, and giving two TEDx talks. Following a successful career in corporate marketing, Alan was called to be of service to learn these various modalities and offer them to others.

About Napa Valley AkashicNapa Valley Akashic was founded in 2021 by Akashic Reader and healer, Alan Jacob. The purpose of Napa Valley Akashic is to guide others in accessing their Akashic Records, which are the enduring record of all that happens, and has ever happened, in the entirety of the universe. Napa Valley Akashic offers virtual sessions via Zoom. For more information, or to book a session online, visitwww.NapaValleyAkashic.comand on Instagram and Facebook, @NapaValleyAkashic.

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New Akashic Records White Paper Explains this Healing Modality from a Scientific Perspective - GlobeNewswire

June 17, 2022• Physics 15, 87

At very low volume, a quantum optical microphone performs better than a classical device, and humans can hear the difference.

Romolo Tavani/stock.adobe.com

Romolo Tavani/stock.adobe.com

Quantum devices are often touted as performing better than classical ones, but the impact can seem far from our everyday lives. Researchers have now demonstrated a quantum optical microphone that listeners say produces a clearer sound than a classical counterpart [1]. The microphone was tested under specific conditions (low volume and high noise), outside of which the quantum advantage would not be noticeable. Despite this limitation, the new quantum techniques could prove useful elsewhere: they could eventually be used to improve imaging of biological samples.

Many high-precision measurements, such as gravitational-wave detection, rely on interferometers that measure interference effects, such as fringes, that arise when photons are sent through two possible paths. Using pairs of quantum-mechanically entangled photons reduces the random fluctuations (shot noise) in such measurements, which increases the measurements sensitivity. However, some common techniques involve measuring both photons in an entangled paira slow selection process that limits the measurement rate to 1 Hz. If you want to use entangled photons to follow fast action, like single molecules moving inside a biological cell, that rate is far too slow.

Florian Kaiser from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and his colleagues have come up with a way to boost the measurement rate for such quantum-optics experiments by 10,000 times. In their setup, the input laser light first goes through a nonlinear crystal that creates a stream of pairs of entangled photons that are then fed into the two paths (or arms) of their interferometer.

To avoid having to measure both photons at the outputs of the interferometer, the team added an optical component called a wavelength-selective wave plate, which rotates the polarization of the light passing through one of the interferometers arms. It turns out that this simple manipulation encodes the two-photon information (the quantum phase of the pair) in just one of the photons.

Once the information is transferred to single photons, measuring the interference signal becomes easy: just take the difference of the light intensity at the two outputsthe same method as in classical interferometry. The team showed that they could obtain quantum-enhanced signal-to-noise measurements with sampling rates as high as 100 kHz. This frequency is high enough to generate high-quality audio, which allowed the researchers to demonstrate their technique in a sound recording experiment. We wanted to check if humans can actually hear the quantum improvement, Kaiser says.

J. C. M. Gebhardt/University of Ulm

J. C. M. Gebhardt/University of Ulm

The researchers transformed their interferometer into an optical microphone by attaching one of the mirrors to a membrane that vibrates in response to sound waves. As the mirror moves back and forth, it changes the length of one of the interferometer arms, producing an observable variation in the light reaching the detectors. The team used the microphone in a standardized hearing test. Selected words were recorded with the microphone and played back to a set of human listeners, who were asked to identify the words. A similar test was done with a classical optical microphone, in which the same interferometer was used but without any entanglement of photons. The subjects had slightly better success recognizing the quantum-recorded words.

Kaiser is quick to admit that the test was rigged. Our microphone has a quantum advantage in an artificial situation that we created here, he says. That situation involved turning down the volume during the recording sessions so that the measurement shot noise would be high relative to other noise contributions. Kaiser compares the noise level to the garbled transmissions between a race car driver and the pit crew, where only about half of the words are understood correctly.

But even if the new quantum technique wont revolutionize audio recording, it may benefit other types of measurements, such as biological imaging. Kaiser explains that most cells behave abnormally or can be damaged under intense illumination. A quantum microscope using the researchers entanglement scheme could improve high-resolution imaging techniques by allowing them to perform well using fewer photons.

Within the context of developing practical sensors, this new work stands as an elegant demonstration of the quantum advantage by using quantum states of light that exhibit entanglement, says quantum-optics expert Laurent Labont from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in France.

Its a very novel and ingenious synthesis of quantum metrology concepts, says Bill Plick from the University of Dayton, Ohio, who studies the foundations of quantum mechanics. Though I dont think this work could be called perception of something fundamentally quantum, it does kind of give people a way to get their hands around quantum effects and see that they can have a recognizable impactwhich is really cool.

Michael Schirber

Michael Schirber is a Corresponding Editor forPhysics Magazine based in Lyon, France.

Raphael Nold, Charles Babin, Joel Schmidt, Tobias Linkewitz, Mara T. Prez Zaballos, Rainer Sthr, Roman Kolesov, Vadim Vorobyov, Daniil M. Lukin, Rdiger Boppert, Stefanie Barz, Jelena Vukovi, J. Christof M. Gebhardt, Florian Kaiser, and Jrg Wrachtrup

PRX Quantum 3, 020358 (2022)

Published June 17, 2022

Quantum sensors can now detect signals of arbitrary frequencies thanks to a quantum version of frequency mixinga widely used technique in electronics. Read More

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Physics - Hearing the Quantum Difference - Physics

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aqemia, the next-gen pharmatech company leveraging artificial intelligence and quantum physics announced, today that it has entered a new research collaboration with Sanofi.

This new agreement is a follow-up to a Research Collaboration initiated at the end 2020 by Sanofi to bring the unique technologies of Aqemia to the design and discovery of novel molecules in several projects in oncology, a priority therapeutic area for Sanofi.

This initial collaboration resulted in promising molecules for an oncology program, for which Sanofi and Aqemia decided to pursue joint efforts.

Aqemia will take responsibility for the AI-based design of optimized molecules that fulfill several small molecule design goals among which potency and selectivity in a priority project in oncology. Unlike most AI-based technologies that need experimental data to train their algorithms prior to starting the design, Aqemia will tackle the drug discovery project by generating its own data with quantum and statistical physics-based calculations.

This collaboration includes an undisclosed upfront payment from Sanofi.

Maximilien Levesque, CEO and co-founder of Aqemia, commented, We are really proud of the results obtained in the first Sanofi-Aqemia oncology collaboration and are very excited to continue working together to accelerate important projects in oncology. He added, This follow-up of our first collaboration project with Sanofi, a global leader in the Pharmaceutical industry, demonstrates our ability to quickly generate novel potent and selective compounds for a given target, and we cant wait to scale it up to dozens of drug discovery projects.

We are also extremely excited by the promising results obtained by Aqemia using their proprietary and disruptive technology to design potent inhibitors on given targets. We are eager to prolong our collaboration to speed up our candidate finding process for the sake of patients suffering from cancer, said Laurent Schio, head of Integrated Drug Discovery of Sanofi France,

About Aqemia

Aqemia is a next-gen pharmatech company generating one of the world's fastest-growing drug discovery pipeline. Our mission is to design fast innovative drug candidates for dozens of critical diseases. Our differentiation lies in our unique quantum and statistical mechanics algorithms fueling a generative artificial intelligence to design novel drug candidates. The disruptive speed and accuracy of our technological platform enables us to scale drug discovery projects just like tech projects.

For more information visit us on http://www.aqemia.com or follow us on LinkedIn

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Aqemia Announces an Extension of Its First Collaboration With Sanofi About AI and Quantum Physics-driven Drug Discovery in Oncology - Business Wire

The relationship between the mind and the brain is a mystery that is central to how we understand our very existence as sentient beings. Some say the mind is strictly a function of the brain consciousness is the product of firing neurons. But some strive to scientifically understand the existence of a mind independent of, or at least to some degree separate from, the brain.

The peer-reviewed scientific journal NeuroQuantology brings together neuroscience and quantum physics a crossroads that some scientists have used to explore this fundamental relationship between mind and brain.

An article published in NeuroQuantologys September 2017 edition reviews and expands on current theories of consciousness that arise from this meeting of neuro and quantum sciences.

Dr. Dirk K.F. Meijer, a professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, hypothesizes that consciousness resides in a field surrounding the brain, a field which lies in another dimension. It shares information with the brain through a concept known as quantum entanglement, among other processes. This has certain similarities with a black hole.

This field may be able to pick up information from the Earths magnetic field, dark energy, and other sources. It then transmits wave information into the brain tissue, that is instrumental in high-speed conscious and subconscious information processing,wrote Dirk.

In other words, the mind is a field that exists around the brain; it picks up information from outside and communicates it into the brain at an extremely fast speed.

He described this field alternately as a holographic structured field, a receptive mental workspace, a meta-cognitive domain, and the global memory space of the individual.

Theres an unsolved mystery in neuroscience called the binding problem.Different parts of the brain handle different tasks: some work on processing color, some on processing sound, etc. But thisall somehow comes together as a unified perception, or consciousness.

Information merges and interacts in the brain more quickly than can be explained by current understandings of neural transmissions in the brain.It thus seems the mind is more than just neurons firing in the brain.

Neuroscientists are still searching for a mechanism behind this binding of disparate parts of the brains information processing. Meijerhas turned to quantum entanglement and tunneling for part of the answer.

Quantum entanglement is where particles appear to be connected despite vast distances between them. When actions are performed on one of the particles, corresponding changes are observed on the others simultaneously and instantaneously.

Quantum tunneling is a phenomenon where a particle tunnels through a barrier it shouldnt be able to according to classical physics.

These quantum phenomena allow for processes so rapid exceeding the speed of lightthey cant be explained with classical physics. So they could help explain ultra-fast subconscious mental processes.

If a mind or mental field could interact with the brain this way, that could be a step toward explaining the rapidity of mental processes.Meijer also used the wave-particle fluctuation of matter in quantum physics to explain the relationship between the mental field and brain. The idea is that particles, such as electrons and photons, exist as waves of probability, but also exist as particles in the event of those probabilities collapsing.

Similarly, Meijer said the mental field is both non-material and, simultaneously, part of the physical brain: The proposed mental workspace is regarded to be non-material, but in relation to the individual brain, entertains a non-dual wave/particle relation according to quantum physical principles: it is directly dependent on the brain physiology but not reducible to it.

The mind and the brain, said Meijer, are connected. They are unified, yet separate. Such an apparent paradox is a signature of quantum physics.

He hypothesizes that the mental field lies in another dimension: That we cannot directly perceive this information aspect is traditionally ascribed to a hidden fourth spatial dimension which cannot be observed in our 3-D world, but can be mathematically derived.

This fourth spatial dimension isnt time. Rather, it is a concept of space-time which includes four spatial dimensions, plus time a 4+1 space-time structure.

He cited studies that have suggested this concept of dimensions could reconcile the mismatches between traditional physics and quantum physics that plague scientists today.

Thus, the mind would exist in the fourth spatial dimension.

Meijer envisions a sort of screen or boundary between the outside world and the individual mental field. He likens this boundary to the event horizon of a black hole.

It is assumed that information entering a black hole from the outside is not lost, but rather is being projected on its outer screen, called the event horizon, Meijer wrote.

Consciousness is a boundary condition between a singularity (black hole) and space within the brain, he added, noting that the event horizon separates a mental model of reality for internal use in each individual from all that exists outside of it. Yet it is connected to a universal information matrix.

This dynamic holographic boundary collects information from inside the brain as well as from the information fields in which our brain is permanently embedded, he told The Epoch Times. In this manner, it is implicitly connected to a universal information matrix.

The geometrical shape known as a torus is well suited for the nature and functions Meijer attributes to this mental field.

A torus is described by the Merriam Webster dictionary as a doughnut-shaped surface generated by a circle rotated about an axis in its plane that does not intersect the circle.

Meijer presented various reasons related to physics theories for this shape. One is related to a theory of how electrical activity in the brain oscillates.

The torus structure is found in physics from the microscale, to the extreme macroscale of black holes, and the universe as a whole, Meijer explained. It could be instrumental in dynamically integrating information in the mind and brain.

Our paper, may directly contribute to an answer on the famous question of [cognitive scientists and philosopher David] Chalmers : how can something immaterial like subjective experience and self-consciousness arise from a material brain?Meijer wrote.

The ability of the mental field to pick up information from other fields, as conceived by Meijer, could also explain some anomalous phenomena, such as extrasensory perception, he noted.

In his view, consciousness can be regarded as the most basic building block of nature and consequently is present at all levels of the fabric of reality.

Since quantum physics emerged, scientists have been exploring its ability to explain consciousness, which Meijers work fits into.

Another theory called orchestrated objective reduction, or Orch-OR, was developed by physicist Sir Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Dr. Stuart Hameroff, which on Hameroffswebsite hedescribesthusly: It suggests consciousness arises from quantum vibrations in protein polymers called microtubules inside the brains neurons.

Like Meijer, Penrose and Hameroff believethere is a connection between the brains biomolecular processes and the basic structure of the universe. They have also called for a major change in how scientists view consciousness.

Hameroff said in an interview with the blog Singularity: Most scientists cant explain consciousness in the brain, so they cant say that consciousness out of the brain is impossible.

Update:Dr. Dirk Meijer has provided The Epoch Times with an update on his paper, clarifying that quantum tunneling and entanglement are not the most likely methods of information transfer between the mental field and the brain. These two phenomena have been shown to provide only a correlation between two particles, not necessarily information transfer (although that may prove to be the case with further research).

Rather, quantum wave resonance is a more likely mechanism of extremely rapid information processing in the brain. This means, instead of signals being sent between neurons in the brain, a wave pattern that encompasses all neurons, as well as the mental field, transmits the information instantaneously.

Picture a vibration wave going up and down in a consistent pattern and running all through your brain and even outside of it. That pattern communicates information that can be understood by vibratory receptors in your brain. All of this is happening in a dimension and at a microscopic level not directly perceptible through conventional scientific instrumentation at our disposal today, yet can be inferred through physical and mathematical modeling.

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Scientist Reveals 'Quantum Entanglement' May Explain the Mind Existing as a Field Separate From the Brain - The Epoch Times

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, theatrically released in early May, develops the concept of the multiverse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) by establishing how different universes interact with each other. As with most good science fiction, it represents a combination of both fiction and science in this case, quantum physics.

In quantum physics, multiverse hypotheses suggest that Earths universe may be one of many. Dr. Tony Crider, an astrophysics professor from Elon University, clarifies that theres no evidence of a multiverse yet, only untested models.

Multiple hypotheses about parallel universes exist, but Dr. Crider narrows it down to the three most prevalent, distinct and different models: Bubble Universes, Extra Dimensions and Many-Worlds models. The Many-Worlds model relates to the MCU most directly.

In classical physics, existing laws allow scientists to predict the outcome of certain situations. When a ball is thrown into the air with a certain amount of force, scientists can calculate how high it will go and when it will come back down.

However, this predictability does not work for the smaller scale of quantum physics. On a quantum level, each action can have many outcomes, and each potential outcome has a certain probability of happening.

Dr. Chris Richardson, another astrophysics professor at Elon University, explains that, in the Many-Worlds model, All of these different possible outcomes do occur, but only one of them occurs in our universe. All of the other possible outcomes occur in different universes.

In the Many-Worlds model, the universe diverges every time a decision is made, so that there are an infinite number of possible universes that can differ based on the smallest detail. For example, if a car has the option to turn left or right at an intersection, the Many Worlds model holds that the car turns in both directions a divergence into two different universes.

These universes can differ in the slightest way, such as the subtle difference in the direction that the car is turning, but eventually, over time, they can grow to become more distinct from one another.

In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, theres a Doctor Strange in every universe, all variants of Stephen Strange played by Benedict Cumberbatch. The existence of the different versions of superhero Doctor Strange establishes that the car accident that caused Doctor Stranges injury and subsequent journey to study the mystic arts likely occurred in each universe.

Therefore, the divergence between those universes transpired after the accident at different points in time. Understanding the physics behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is not paramount, but establishing that concepts in science fiction, such as the multiverse in the MCU, are based on genuine science promotes an interest in science and makes the story more believable. By making the plot more credible, the film itself becomes more incredible.

The Martian, a film released in 2015 based on a book of the same name, follows the journey and trials of a human mission on Mars. Though the trip itself is aspirational and fictional, the film pulls from some scientific discoveries and hypotheses. Mark Watney can grow crops in the soil on Mars, which aligns with scientific evidence that the soil on Mars may even be more suitable for crops than Earths soil. Using human waste as fertilizer would make Watneys crops richer, which is also seen in the film.

Other science fiction evokes scientific discoveries as well. Prior to the Moon landing in 1969, multiple science fiction narratives and films from decades earlier imagined journeys to the Moon. The silent film Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon) from 1929 presented whats considered the first relatively well-known science fiction narrative that introduced traveling to the Moon by rocket.

The film was predated by Le Voyage Dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) in 1902, which was seen by a smaller audience and was inspired by novels by both Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Science fiction often creatively imagines what could be possible with some scientific evidence.

Frau im Mond and Le Voyage Dans la Lune prove that the fantasy of going to the Moon began decades before the space race. At the time, it seemed impossible to land humans on the Moon, but in 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced the United States ambition to send an American to Earths natural satellite.

With The Martian, the writers imagined a future with the resources for space travel to Mars that is safe for humans. The imagined future is growing closer, as some scientists believe humans may land on Mars as early as the 2030s. Earlier this year, Elon Musk had considered a mission to Mars in 2029.

Yet, while based on scientific theory, science fiction remains just that: fiction. Science fiction stories are often illogical and depart from science to enhance the plot. The ability to walk between parallel universes that America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) shows off in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is improbable, if not impossible.

Dr. Crider contradicts the logic behind the Sacred Timeline from Loki, by explaining that the Copernican Theory establishes that every time that you think that youre special, you should recognize that youre not. Despite the relations between the multiverse as seen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the Many-Worlds theory, other MCU films and television shows appear less able to follow the model.

What If presents the closest resemblance to the Many-Worlds model, as one slight alteration in the timeline creates an entirely different world and story, but both Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home have the same characters from different universes looking physically different.

How does Peter Parker exist in different universes with the same relatives but look completely different and age at a different rate? How does Lokis character have a crocodile variant?

Following the Many Worlds theory, all variants of Parker and all variants of Loki should appear in the same form, but the differences in appearance establish that science fiction is first and foremost fiction. Even with a scientific basis, the writers create a narrative that is marketable to an audience over one that follows scientific theories.

The multiverse that exists in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and in the MCU relates to actual scientific models about parallel universes, but the films and television shows distance themselves from science by presenting narratives that align more with the writers visions and the audiences desires. The best science fiction is often linked to actual scientific theories because science provides ideas that writers can enhance to create stories that people want to read and see.

Where will the MCU go next? The MCUs next steps are anyones guess as audiences cannot predict the direction of the future of the MCU any more than scientists can predict the future of multiverse modeling. Fans can only be sure that the multiverse will continue to play a role in future MCU films.

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The Multiverse in 'Doctor Strange' Has a Basis in Quantum Physics - Study Breaks

Sometimes the discovery of new physics demands insane levels of energy. Big machines. Fancy equipment. Countless hours of sifting through reams of data.

And then sometimes the right combination of materials can open a doorway to invisible realms in a space little bigger than a tabletop.

Take this new kind of relative to the Higgs boson, for example. It was found lurking in a room temperature chunk of layered tellurium crystals. Unlike its famous cousin, it didn't take years of smashing up particles to spot it, either. Just a clever use of some lasers and a trick for unweaving their photon's quantum properties.

"It's not every day you find a new particle sitting on your tabletop," saysKenneth Burch, a Boston College physicist and the lead co-author of the study announcing the discovery of the particle.

Burch and his colleagues caught sight of what's known as an axial Higgs mode, a quantum wiggle that technically qualifies as a new kind of particle.

Like so many discoveries in quantum physics, observing theoretical quantum behaviors in action get us closer to uncovering potential cracks in the Standard Model and even helps us hone in on solving some of the remaining big mysteries.

"The detection of the axial Higgs was predicted in high-energy particle physics to explain dark matter," says Burch.

"However, it has never been observed. Its appearance in a condensed matter system was completely surprising and heralds the discovery of a new broken symmetry state that had not been predicted."

It's been 10 years since the Higgs boson was formally identified amid the carnage of particle collisions by CERN researchers. This not only ended the hunt for the particle but loosely closed the final box in the Standard Model the zoo of fundamental particles making up nature's complement of bricks and mortar.

With the Higgs field's discovery, we could, at last, confirm our understanding of how components of the model gained mass while at rest. It was a huge win for physics, one we're still using to understand the inner mechanics of matter.

While any single Higgs particle exists for barely a fraction of a second, it's a particle in the truest sense of the word, blinking briefly into reality as a discrete excitation in a quantum field.

There are, however, other circumstances in which particles can bestow mass. A break in the collective behavior of a surge of electrons called a charge density wave, for example, would do the trick.

This 'Frankenstein's monster' version of Higgs, called a Higgs mode, can also appear with traits that aren't seen in its less patchwork cousin, such as a finite degree of angular momentum (or spin).

A spin-1 or axial Higgs mode not only does a similar job to the Higgs boson under very specific circumstances, it (and quasiparticles like it) could provide interesting grounds for studying the shadowy mass of dark matter.

As a quasiparticle, the axial Higgs mode can only be seen emerging from the collective behaviors of a crowd. Spotting it requires knowing its signature amid a wash of quantum waves and then having a way to sift it out of the chaos.

By sending perfectly coherent beams of light from two lasers through such material and then watching for telltale patterns in their alignment, Burch and his team uncovered the echo of an axial Higgs mode in layers of rare-earth tritelluride.

"Unlike the extreme conditions typically required to observe new particles, this was done at room temperature in a table top experiment where we achieve quantum control of the mode by just changing the polarization of light," says Burch.

It's possible there could be plenty of other such particles emerging from the tangle of body parts making up exotic quantum materials. Having a means of easily catching a glimpse of their shadow in the light of a laser could reveal a whole litany of new physics.

This research was published in Nature.

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Researchers Discovered a New Kind of Higgs Relative in The Unlikeliest of Places - ScienceAlert

Steve Israel for the Times Herald-Record| Times Herald-Record

As a boy whose father died when I was a baby, the most important man in my life never threw me a baseball or football. He barely knew Willie Mays from Joe Willie Namath. Yet my grandpa Max Botwinick was my ideal of a man. He had an inner strength fueled by his compassion for his fellow men and women that inspires me to this day.

When he was just a teenager in early 20thcentury Russia, he was exiled to Siberia for life for protesting the murder and beatings of thousands of Jews like him. He escaped after 11 months and came to America where he became a housepainter and union leader who fought for the rights of all workers. As Ive written before, I never heard him say a negative word about anyone because of their religion, race or ethnicity or describe people that way. At family gatherings, when someone said something negative about someone elses race, religion or ethnicity, he called them on it.

He lived by a creed that still guides me and is exemplified by a story he often told me that his father told to him: If your mother makes you a new coat, you wouldnt want someone to throw mud on it. So you shouldnt throw mud on someone elses coat.

The most important man in my life as a grown up may at first seem so different than my grandpa. My father-in-law, Joe Curtis, was a semi pro baseball player who played a nifty first base. Yet his kindness and compassion are as much a part of him as his Brooklyn accent and also inspire me to this day.

I once wrote about how my mom, who raised me by herself, tried to do what other little boys fathers did, and buy me my first baseball glove. But because she knew as much about baseball as I did about quantum physics, she bought me a flimsy little plastic one not a real leather one like dads bought their sons.

After Joe read the story, he gave me his leather baseball glove when I was in my 50s.

On this Fathers Day, when blustery tough-talking still masquerades as manliness, the two most important men in my life taught me that kindness, compassion and integrity are what really matter. My father-in-law and my late grandpa are reminders that even when we despair at the worlds often unfathomable cruelty, we can still find comfort in the goodness that exists around us.

I only heard my grandpa raise his voice once, when I was a little boy. He was talking on the phone with a doctor caring for his other daughter, my moms sister, who was hospitalized. Apparently, my grandfather was upset that the treatment he had been told would help her only made her worse. His yelling may have frightened me, but I eventually realized he was only expressing the depth of his love for his daughter.

And almost until the day he died at 93, this shortish man stood tall for the causes he believed in. In his late 80s, he joined protests against the Vietnam War. Even after he turned 90, he took the bus from Bayonne, New Jersey, to his union meetings on 14thStreet in New York City just to support his fellow workers.

Joe Curtis, now 97 and also a union man who distributed the New York Times, has his kindness as deeply engrained as the tattoo on his arm that he got serving in the Navy during World War II. A few years ago, Joe saw me walking outside without a hat on a cool, drizzly summers day. He was so worried, youd think I was walking naked in a blizzard. When I once told him I was about to drive back to Sullivan County from New York City in the rain, he was so concerned, youd think I was driving in a blizzard.

On this Fathers Day, my grandpa Max Botwinick and my father-in-law, Joe Curtis, are examples of what the world so desperately needs: hearts that beat with kindness and integrity that makes them stand tall as inspirations to us all.

steveisrael53@outlook.com

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Steve Israel: Reflections on two inspiring men whose values endure - Times Herald-Record