Quantum Entanglement & Teleportation

Quantum mechanics is full of weird phenomena, but perhaps none as weird as the role measurement plays in the theory. Since a measurement tends to destroy the "quantumness" of a system, it seems to be the mysterious link between the quantum and classical world. 

And in a large system of quantum bits of information, known as "qubits," the effect of measurements can induce dramatically new behavior, even driving the emergence of entirely new phases of quantum information.

This happens when two competing effects come to a head: interactions and measurement. In a quantum system, when the qubits interact with one another, their information becomes shared nonlocally in an "entangled state." 

But if you measure the system, the entanglement is destroyed. The battle between measurement and interactions leads to two distinct phases: one where interactions dominate and entanglement is widespread, and one where measurements dominate, and entanglement is suppressed.

As reported in the journal Nature, researchers at Google Quantum AI and Stanford University have observed the crossover between these two regimes—known as a "measurement-induced phase transition"—in a system of up to 70 qubits. This is by far the largest system in which measurement-induced effects have been explored.  READ MORE...

Sleeping Giant in Our Oceans

Red medusa found just off the bottom of the deep sea in Alaska. 

Credit: Hidden Ocean 2005/NOAA

A previously overlooked factor — the position of continents — helps fill Earth’s oceans with life-supporting oxygen. Continental movement could ultimately have the opposite effect, killing the majority of deep ocean creatures.

“Continental drift seems so slow, like nothing drastic could come from it, but when the ocean is primed, even a seemingly tiny event could trigger the widespread death of marine life,” said Andy Ridgwell, University of California, Riverside geologist. Ridgwell is co-author of a new study on forces affecting oceanic oxygen.

As the water at the ocean’s surface approaches the north or south pole, it becomes colder and denser and then sinks. When the water sinks, it transports oxygen pulled from Earth’s atmosphere down to the ocean floor.

Eventually, a return flow brings nutrients released from sunken organic matter back to the ocean’s surface, where it fuels the growth of plankton. Today’s oceans feature an incredible diversity of fish and other animals that are supported by both the uninterrupted supply of oxygen to lower depths and organic matter produced at the surface.

New research has found that this circulation of oxygen and nutrients can end quite suddenly. Using complex computer models, the scientists investigated whether the locations of continental plates affect how the ocean moves oxygen around. They were surprised to find that it does.

This finding led by researchers based at UC Riverside is detailed in the journal Nature. It was published today (August 17, 2022).  READ MORE...

Restoring Cell & Organ Function After Death

Illustration of organ perfusion and cellular recovery with OrganEx technology. 

The cell-saving blood analog is delivered to vital organs one hour after death. 

Credit: Marin Balaic

Yale-developed technology restores cell and organ function in pigs after death, a potential organ transplant breakthrough.

Within just minutes of the final heartbeat, a cascade of biochemical events triggered by a lack of blood flow, nutrients, and oxygen begins to destroy a body’s cells and organs. However, a team of researchers at Yale University has discovered that massive and permanent cellular failure doesn’t have to happen so quickly.

Using a new technology the scientists developed that delivers a specially designed cell-protective fluid to organs and tissues, the team restored blood circulation and other cellular functions in pigs a full hour after their deaths. They report their findings in the August 3 edition of the journal Nature.

Their results may help extend the health of human organs during surgery and expand the availability of donor organs, the authors said.

“All cells do not die immediately, there is a more protracted series of events,” said David Andrijevic, associate research scientist in neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine and co-lead author of the study. “It is a process in which you can intervene, stop, and restore some cellular function.”  READ MORE...

Cancer Drug Toxicity

3D rendition of T cells attacking cancer cells. Credit: La Jolla Institute for Immunology

Researchers uncover a new strategy to avoid cancer immunotherapy side effects.  It’s not often that a failed clinical trial leads to a scientific breakthrough.


When patients in the UK started experiencing negative side effects during a cancer immunotherapy trial, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Center for Cancer Immunotherapy and University of Liverpool went back, examined the data, and worked with patient samples to determine what went wrong.


Their findings, published today (May 4, 2022) in the journal Nature, provide critical clues to why many immunotherapies trigger dangerous side effects—and point to a more effective strategy for treating patients with solid tumors.

“This work shows the importance of learning from early stage clinical trials,” says La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Professor Pandurangan Vijayanand, M.D., Ph.D., who co-led the new research with Christian H. Ottensmeier, M.D., Ph.D., FRCP, a professor with the University of Liverpool, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, and adjunct professor at LJI.  READ MORE...

Restore Hearing

According to a new study, scientists have uncovered a single master gene that programs ear hair 

cells into either outer or inner ones, overcoming a major hurdle that had prevented the 

development of these cells to restore hearing.

‘We have overcome a major hurdle’ to restore hearing, investigators say.

• Gene discovery allows the production of inner or outer ear hair cells 
• Death of outer hair cells due to aging or noise cause most hearing loss 
• Master gene switch turns on ear hair cell development

Hearing loss caused by aging, noise, and some cancer therapy medications and antibiotics has been irreversible because scientists have not been able to reprogram existing cells to develop into the outer and inner ear sensory cells — essential for hearing — once they die.

But Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered a single master gene that programs ear hair cells into either outer or inner ones, overcoming a major hurdle that had previously prevented the development of these cells to restore hearing, according to new research published today (May 4, 2022) in the journal Nature.

“Our finding gives us the first clear cell switch to make one type versus the other,” said lead study author Jaime García-Añoveros, PhD, professor of Anesthesiology and Neuroscience and in the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology. “It will provide a previously unavailable tool to make an inner or outer hair cell. We have overcome a major hurdle.”

About 8.5% of adults aged 55 to 64 in the U.S. have disabling hearing loss. That increases to nearly 25% of those aged 65 to 74 and 50% of those who are 75 and older, reports the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).  READ MORE...