Science

A tiny drone powered by soft muscle-like actuatorsKevin Chen An insect-inspired robot that only weighs as much as a raisin can perform acrobatics and fly for much longer than any previous insect-sized drone without falling apart. For tiny flying robots to make nimble manoeuvres, they need to be lightweight and agile but also capable of withstanding large forces. Such forces mean that most tiny robots can only fly for around 20 seconds before breaking, which makes it difficult to collect enough data to properly calibrate and test the robots’ flying abilities. Now, Suhan Kim at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues have developed an insect-like flying robot about the size of a postage stamp that can execute acrobatic manoeuvres, such as double...

An ion trap can control atoms for quantum experimentsY. Colombe/NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY After decades of looking, researchers have seen a string of atoms go through a 1D phase change so elusive that it could only happen inside a quantum simulator. “One motivation [for our experiment] is really trying to understand fundamental physics. We’re trying to understand just the basic states that matter can be in,” says Alexander Schuckert at the University of Maryland. He and his colleagues used electromagnetic fields to arrange 23 ions of the element ytterbium into a line, forming a nearly one-dimensional chain. This device can be used for quantum computing, but in this case, the researchers used the chain as a simulator inste...

2024 is officially the hottest year on record. The ocean is heating faster than ever as glaciers lose ice and sea levels rise. And this past year, extreme weather and wildfires devastated communities and economies across the world.  As we start the new year, we can’t allow ourselves to feel discouraged about fighting climate change. While bigger actions by the government are needed to really make a difference, there are many individual actions that can help.  Here is some advice from climate experts on ways to stay involved in the fight against climate change.    Engage in Green Networking  Radhika Iyengar, an associate research scholar at Columbia Climate School’s Center for Sustainable Development, believes we need more grassroots initiatives. “Meet people old school–styl...

Quantum computing chips could use heat to eliminate errorsChalmers University of Technology, Lovisa Håkansson A tiny cooling device can automatically reset malfunctioning components of a quantum computer. Its performance suggests that manipulating heat could also enable other autonomous quantum devices. Quantum computers aren’t yet fully practical because they make too many errors. In fact, if qubits – key components of this type of computer – accidentally heat up and become too energetic, they can end up in an erroneous state before the calculation even begins. One way to “reset” the qubits to their correct states is to cool them down. Simone Gasparinetti at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and his colleagues have delegated this task to an autonomous q...

© William Horton, William Horton Photography Every now and then, it is worth pausing for a second and giving thanks to the many, ever so slightly different versions of you that exist in parallel realities. It is these alternative selves that help to keep these universes in balance. At least, that is what’s going on if you happen to subscribe to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory. First proposed more than 65 years ago, the idea is that reality is constantly splitting off into parallel paths, due to subtle interactions at the level of quantum particles. Though it may boggle the mind, it also smooths over some devilishly tricky problems in physics and, for that reason, plenty of clear-eyed physicists believe it to be true. But now this strange idea migh...