The practicality of quantum computing hangs on the integrity of the quantum bit, or qubit. Qubits, the logic elements of quantum computers, are coherent two-level systems that represent quantum information. Each qubit has the strange ability to be in a quantum superposition, carrying aspects of both states simultaneously, enabling aContinue Reading
Obesity is the main cause of type 2 diabetes and related chronic illnesses that together will kill more people around the globe this year than the Covid-19 coronavirus. Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have delivered a proof of concept for a novel cell-based therapy against this dangerous condition. The potentialContinue Reading
The mummy had an undigested piece of woolly rhino in its stomach. Just before a tiny pup died during the last ice age, it ate a piece of meat from one of Earth’s last woolly rhinos. Researchers made this discovery while doing a necropsy (an animal autopsy) on the mummifiedContinue Reading
Future telescopes could make similar maps to predict solar eruptions The sun’s wispy upper atmosphere, called the corona, is an ever-changing jungle of sizzling plasma. But mapping the strength of the magnetic fields that largely control that behavior has proved elusive. The fields are weak and the brightness of theContinue Reading
It’s related to an elephant, has a long nose, a fur tuft on its tail and big, spectacled eyes. A teensy animal, with a long nose, a fur tuft on its tail and big, spectacled eyes hadn’t been seen in nearly half a century. That is, until a whiff ofContinue Reading
Microscopy revealed the stunning compound structure in trilobite eyes. Trilobites: Those ubiquitous, half-billion-year-old armored sea bugs — had eyes that were faceted like disco balls. Now, new images reveal that these eyes were remarkably similar to those of bees and dragonflies. Trilobites were buglike, many-legged marine arthropods that appeared duringContinue Reading
Nearly 40 years of satellite data from Greenland shows that glaciers on the island have shrunk so much that even if global warming were to stop today, the ice sheet would continue shrinking. The finding, published today, Aug. 13, in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment, means that Greenland’sContinue Reading
This enormous predator had jaws powerful enough to subdue massive dinosaur prey. An enormous Cretaceous crocodile relative hunted dinosaurs, ripping them apart using powerful jaws lined with teeth “the size of bananas,” researchers say. Known as Deinosuchus, which means “terrible crocodile” in Greek, this lineage of semiaquatic reptiles certainly livedContinue Reading
The jury is still out. In recent years, the notion of an insect apocalypse has become a hot topic in the conservation science community and has captured the public’s attention. Scientists who warn that this catastrophe is unfolding assert that arthropods — a large category of invertebrates that includes insectsContinue Reading
Telescope observations of thousands of these stripped-down stars confirm the trend Telescope observations have confirmed a weird property of white dwarf stars: As they pack on more mass, they shrink in size. White dwarfs, the stripped cores of dead stars, are thought to have this counterintuitive quality because they containContinue Reading