Quantum Memory Stores Information

Researchers at University of Oxford have recently created a quantum memory within a trapped-ion quantum network node. Their unique memory design, introduced in a paper in Physical Review Letters, has been found to be extremely robust, meaning that it could store information for long periods of time despite ongoing network activity.

"We are building a network of quantum computers, which use trapped ions to store and process quantum information," Peter Drmota, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. "To connect quantum processing devices, we use single photons emitted from a single atomic ion and utilize quantum entanglement between this ion and the photons."

Trapped ions, charged atomic particles that are confined in space using electromagnetic fields, are a commonly used platform for realizing quantum computations. Photons (i.e., the particles of light), on the other hand, are generally used to transmit quantum information between distant nodes. Drmota and his colleagues have been exploring the possibility of combining trapped ions with photons, to create more powerful quantum technologies.

"Until now, we have implemented a reliable way of interfacing strontium ions and photons, and used this to generate high-quality remote entanglement between two distant network nodes," Drmota said. "On the other hand, high-fidelity quantum logic and long-lasting memories have been developed for calcium ions. In this experiment, we combine these capabilities for the first time, and show that it is possible to create high-quality entanglement between a strontium ion and a photon and thereafter store this entanglement in a nearby calcium ion."

Integrating a quantum memory into a network node is a challenging task, as the criteria that need to be fulfilled for such a system to work are higher than those required for the creation of a standalone quantum processor. Most notably, the developed memory would need to be robust against concurrent network activity.   READ MORE...

SpaceX

 

AI Dangers

 

Not A Chef

 For several years my wife and I watched just about every cooking show that was on the Food Network from Iron Chef to Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives to Beat Bobby Flay to 30-Minute Meals...  

In 2015 when my wife and I retired, she said that she did not want to cook anymore, except for maybe Thanksgiving and/or Christmas...    and, I understood and supported her right to want to do that...  so, I started cooking.

I am sure that watching those cooking shows, I learned some ideas but my cooking follows no recipes although I look over recipes to see what all is involved...  I still use the portion sizes that makes sense to me...  if it calls for a tablespoon, I might use 2-3 tablespoons...  if it calls for 1/4, I will use a handful.

All of my cooking, I have eaten except for 2-3 things that I made that were not very good and rather than force myself to eat it, just decided to throw it out.  About half of my cooking has been marginal when it comes to taste but about 1/4 has been delicious but duplicating the dish is problematic.

I have cooked homemade pizza, bread, baguettes, spaghetti, lasanga, caseroles, pies, cakes, omelettes, soups, fish, and lots of various rice/beans dishes.

What I use in my cooking are typically:  onions, garlic, celery, bell peppers, mushrooms, green onions, leeks, all sorts of beans, basmati rice, salmon, cod, chicken, turkey, cheese, eggs, pastas, all sorts of vegatables including potatoes and sweet potatoes.

When I cook and package for later use, I always count my calories.  If my cooking creates 5 meals than I freeze 2 and eat three.  More than 3 days of something and I lose interest.  My calorie range is 1,500 to 1,800  with the understanding that I do not want to exceed 2,000/day.

I avoid fried foods, sugars, and sweets although I have used a little honey, butter (1 tablespoon at a time), light brown sugar, and chocolate.  I use an air fryer to substitute for frying...  the only time I fry is when I want to cook a fried egg or maybe fry up come yellow squash, zucchini, and onions.

So, for the last 7 years, I have been cooking my own food and in so doing I have learned a lot of stuff concerning what works and what does not work...  what I like to cook and what I don't like to cook...  do I dice or make big cuts as one if fater and just as good.

I am not a chef and don't pretend to be a chef and don't want to invite anyone over to eat my cooking...  It is just for me...  sometimes, my wife will eat my eat my soups but doesn't like all the stuff I combine together...  but, that is the heart and soul of my cooking, combining stuff that you don't think should be combined.

Bon Appetit...

Traveling at Light Speed

David Burns produced an engine concept that, he says, could theoretically accelerate to 99 percent 

of the speed of light - all without using propellant. (CREDIT: Creative Commons)

When it comes to space, there's a problem with our human drive to go all the places and see all the things. A big problem. It's, well, space. It's way too big. Even travelling at the maximum speed the Universe allows, it would take us years to reach our nearest neighbouring star.


But another human drive is finding solutions to big problems. And that's what NASA engineer David Burns has been doing in his spare time. He's produced an engine concept that, he says, could theoretically accelerate to 99 percent of the speed of light - all without using propellant.


He's posted it to the NASA Technical Reports Server under the heading "Helical Engine", and, on paper, it works by exploiting the way mass can change at relativistic speeds - those close to the speed of light in a vacuum. It has not yet been reviewed by an expert.


Understandably this paper has caused buzz approaching levels seen in the early days of the EM Drive. And yes, even some headlines claiming the engine could 'violate the laws of physics'.


But while this concept is fascinating, it's definitely not going to break physics anytime soon.  READ MORE...

Classic Sunday Morning Newspaper Cartoons

 

Five Level Lower Back Fusion - 9 Months Later

 It has been 9 months since I had 5 lower back disks fused together...  While I have never experienced any pain, my right leg does not have the strength to walk up steps which may or may not be a byproduct of the surgery.  However, while I can walk, I cannot walk fast nor does my walking seem to be done without effort, like it was before...  

I also have difficulty putting on socks so all of my shoe wearing, including tennis shoes, is done without socks.

My sleeping positions on both sides or on my back.  I don't remember sleeping on my stomach but I don't even try as that would bend my back the wrong way, I think.

I have a little trouble stepping over the sides of the hot tub but it has not detered me from soaking in the hot water or using the therapeutic jets.

Bending over is a little bit of a problem but bening my knees or holding onto something compensates so the stuggle is minimal.

All in all, my choices were do nothing 9 months ago which was not really an option, take shots that would temporarily mask the pain and help the movement, or fuse the disks via surgery.  I saw no reason to postpone the inevitable.

Communications

 

Take ChatGPT to the Next Level

CHATGPT AND TOOLS like it have made AI available to the masses. We can now get all sorts of responses back on almost any topic imaginable. These bots can come up with sonnets, code, philosophy, and more.

However, while you can just type anything you like into ChatGPT and get it to understand you, there are ways of getting more interesting and useful results out of the bot. This “prompt engineering” is becoming a specialized skill of its own.

Sometimes all it takes is the addition of a few more words or an extra line of instruction and you can get ChatGPT responses that are a level above what everyone else is seeing—and we've included several examples below.

For the purposes of this guide, we tested these prompts with GPT-4: The latest version of ChatGPT at the time of writing, but only available to some users. However, they should work fine with older versions of ChatGPT too.

Get Your Answers in Tabular Form
ChatGPT can give you responses in the form of a table if you ask. This is particularly helpful for getting information or creative ideas. For example, you could tabulate meal ideas and ingredients, or game ideas and equipment, or the days of the week and how they're said in a few different languages.

Using follow-up prompts and natural language, you can have ChatGPT make changes to the tables its drawn and even produce them in a standard format that can be understood by another program (such as Microsoft Excel).

Output Text in the Style of Your Favorite Author
With some careful prompting, you can get ChatGPT out of its rather dull, matter-of-fact, default tone and into something much more interesting—such as the style of your favorite author, perhaps.

You could go for the searing simplicity of an Ernest Hemingway or Raymond Carver story, for instance, or the lyrical rhythm of a Shakespearean play, or the density of a Dickens novel. The end results don't come close to the genius of the actual authors themselves, but it's another way of being more creative with the output you get.  READ MORE...

Things Sciece Cannot Explain

 

A New Discovery at CERN

 

Strictly Political

 

PENTAGON: Alien Mothership Could be Lurking

Department of Defense official floats the idea that an alien mothership is cruising our solar system.

 (Image credit: Marc Ward/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images)

A draft paper by a Harvard scientist and the head of the Pentagon's UFO office has raised the idea an alien mothership could be in the solar system, sending out tiny probes dubbed "dandelion seeds" to explore the planets within.

Could an alien mothership be hovering around the solar system, sending out tiny probes to explore planets? According to a Harvard scientist and a Pentagon official, it's possible.

In a draft paper, the pair said it is feasible an extraterrestrial spaceship could be in our galactic neighborhood, exploring the region by the means of "dandelion seeds" — small spacecraft that can gather and send back information, similar to the way humans send out spacecraft to explore planets.

Avi Loeb(opens in new tab), an astronomer at Harvard University, and Sean M. Kirkpatrick, director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) — established in July 2022 by the Department of Defense (DoD) to detect and study "objects of interest" — released the draft, Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena(opens in new tab), on March 7. It is not an official Pentagon document but was carried out in partnership with the DoD. It has not been peer-reviewed.  READ MORE...

Humans

 

Cherokee Proverb

 

Love Your Enemies

 You have to have your head in the sand (or up somewhere else) if you are not aware that former President Donald Trump has been indicted by the Grand Jury of NYC as as result of the evidence presented to it by DA Alvin Bragg...  his case revolves around taking a misdemeaner that has expired by the statute of limitations and turned it into a felony...  Legal pundits, are not even sure if this is legal because of the foundation crime has expired...

No former President has ever been indicted...  what kind of precedent is this going to set in place?

Even before this case goes to a jury trial, Trump's lawyers will take appeals to the Supreme Court.

Trump's indictment will galvanize the Republican Party and maybe some open-minded liberals to the point that they put Donald Trump back in the white house in 2024.

The fight between liberals and conservatives is going to tear our country apart and while divided and weak, our enemies will use that to their advantage.  Our enemies will control the USA by having a stronger economy and a stronger military and the rest of the world will choose CHINA as their new global leader.

We are so silly and deserve what we get...

Most of you who read this will not see why I should be so alarmed... so my comment is simply this:  WAIT AND SEE.

Angel

 

Alien

 

Nervous About AI

OpenAI entered the Silicon Valley stratosphere last year with the release of two AI products, the image-generator DALLE-2 and the chatbot ChatGPT. (The company recently unveiled GPT-4, which can ace most standardized tests, among other improvements on its predecessor.) Sam Altman (above), OpenAI’s co-founder, has become a public face of the AI revolution, alternately evangelical and circumspect about the potent force he has helped unleash on the world.

In the latest episode of On With Kara Swisher, Swisher speaks with Altman about the many possibilities and pitfalls of his nascent field, focusing on some of the key questions around it. Among them: How do we best to regulate a technology even its founders don’t fully understand? And who gets the enormous sums of money at stake? Altman has lofty ideas for how generative AI could transform society. But as Swisher observes, he sounds like the starry-eyed tech founders she encountered a quarter-century ago — only some of whom stayed true to their ideals.

Kara Swisher: You started Loopt. That’s where I met you.

Sam Altman: Yeah.

Swisher: Explain what it was. I don’t even remember, Sam. I’m sorry.

Altman: That’s no problem. Well, it didn’t work out. There’s no reason to remember. It was a location-based social app for mobile phones.

Swisher: Right. What happened?

Altman: The market wasn’t there, I’d say, is the No. 1 thing.

Swisher: Yeah. Because?

TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

New Hydrogen Motor