Scientists discover why blood type may matter for COVID infection

A new study provides further evidence that people with certain blood types may be more likely to contract COVID-19.

Specifically, it found that the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is particularly attracted to the blood group A antigen found on respiratory cells.

The researchers focused on a protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus called the receptor binding domain (RBD), which is the part of the virus that attaches to the host cells. That makes it an important target for scientists trying to learn how the virus infects people.

In this laboratory study, the team assessed how the SARS-CoV-2 RBD interacted with respiratory and red blood cells in A, B and O blood types.

The results showed that the SARS-CoV-2 RBD had a strong preference for binding to blood group A found on respiratory cells, but had no preference for blood group A red blood cells, or other blood groups found on respiratory or red cells.

The SARS-CoV-2 RBD's preference to recognize and attach to the blood type A antigen found in the lungs of people with blood type A may provide insight into the potential link between blood group A and COVID-19 infection, according to the authors of the study. It was published March 3 in the journal Blood Advances.

https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article/5/5/1305/475250/T...

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-scientists-blood-covid-infec...

Astrocytes derived from patients with bipolar disorder malfunction

Brain cells called astrocytes derived from the induced pluripotent stem cells of patients with bipolar disorder offer suboptimal support for neuronal activity. In a paper in the journal Stem Cell Reports, researchers show that this malfunction can be traced to an inflammation-promoting molecule called interleukin-6 (IL-6), which is secreted by astrocytes. The results highlight the potential role of astrocyte-mediated inflammatory signaling in the psychiatric disease, although further investigation is needed.

Artificial ‘brain’ reveals why we can’t always believe our eyes

Researchers have captured the first detailed images of newborn babies’ lungs as they take their first breaths.

Economic benefits of protecting nature now outweigh those of exploiting it, global data reveal

The economic benefits of conserving or restoring natural sites "outweigh" the profit potential of converting them for intensive human use, according to the largest-ever study comparing the value of protecting nature at particular locations with that of exploiting it.

A research team  analysed dozens of sites—from Kenya to Fiji and China to the UK—across six continents. A previous breakthrough study in 2002 only had information for five sites.

For the latest study, scientists calculated the monetary worth of each site's "ecosystem services", such as carbon storage and flood protection, as well as likely dividends from converting it for production of goods such as crops and timber.

The team initially concentrated on 24 sites and compared their "nature-focused" and "alternative" states by working out the annual net value of a range of goods and services for each site under each state, then projected the data over the next 50 years.

A major economic benefit of natural habitats comes from their regulation of the greenhouse gases driving climate change, including the sequestration of carbon.

 The economic consequences of conserving or restoring sites for nature, Nature Sustainability (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-021-00692-9 , dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00692-9

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-economic-benefits-nature-outweigh-exp...

Do photosynthetic complexes use quantum coherence to increase their...

In a new report now published on Science Advances, Elinor Zerah Harush and Yonatan Dubi in the departments of chemistry and nanoscale science and technology, at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, discussed a direct evaluation of the effects of quantum coherence on the efficiency of three natural photosynthetic complexes. The open quantum systems approach allowed the researchers to simultaneously identify the quantum-nature and efficiency under natural physiological conditions. These systems resided in a mixed quantum-classical regime, which they characterized using dephasing-assisted transport. The efficiency was minimal at best therefore the presence of quantum coherence did not play a substantial role in the process. The efficiency was also independent of any structural parameters, suggesting the role of evolution during structural design for other uses.

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How the growth of ice depends on the fluid dynamics underneath

Researchers of the Toschi group of Eindhoven University of Technology think the water phase change problem with considering the water density anomaly is of great importance relating to common natural phenomena. Their research plan is firstly to understand the physics fundamentals, that is, the coupled problem of the stably and unstably stratified layers with considering the density anomaly.

At Dubai airport, travelers' eyes become their passports

Dubai's airport, the world's busiest for international travel, can already feel surreal, with its cavernous duty-free stores, artificial palm trees, gleaming terminals, water cascades and near-Arctic levels of air conditioning.

Now, the key east-west transit hub is rolling out another addition from the realm of science fiction—an iris-scanner that verifies one's identity and eliminates the need for any human interaction when entering or leaving the country.

That's because the airport debuted a new "smart tunnel" that uses biometric technology, instead of human checks, to allow some air travelers to complete passport control in just 15 seconds.

It's the latest artificial intelligence program the United Arab Emirates has launched amid the surging coronavirus pandemic, contact-less technology the government promotes as helping to stem the spread of the virus. But the efforts also have renewed questions about mass surveillance in the federation of seven sheikhdoms, which experts believe has among the highest per capita concentrations of surveillance cameras in the world.

Dubai's airport started offering the program to all passengers last month. On Sunday, travelers stepped up to an iris scanner after checking in, gave it a good look and breezed through passport control within seconds. Gone were the days of paper tickets or unwieldy phone apps.

In recent years, airports across the world have accelerated their use of timesaving facial recognition technology to move passengers to their flights. But Dubai's iris scan improves on the more commonplace automated gates seen elsewhere, authorities said, connecting the iris data to the country's facial recognition databases so the passenger needs no identifying documents or boarding pass.

Now, all the procedures have become 'smart,' around five to six seconds

 Iris biometrics are considered more reliable than surveillance cameras that scan people's faces from a distance without their knowledge or consent.

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-dubai-airport-eyes-passports.ht...

https://phys.org/news/2018-10-dubai-airport-biometric-tech.html

How to cut onions without crying using science

Humidity in breath makes cotton masks more effective at slowing the spread of COVID-19

Researchers have come up with a better way to test which fabrics work best for masks that are meant to slow the spread of COVID-19. By testing those fabrics under conditions that mimic the humidity of a person's breath, the researchers have obtained measurements that more accurately reflect how the fabrics perform when worn by a living, breathing person.

The new measurements show that under humid conditions, the filtration efficiency—a measure of how well a material captures particles—increased by an average of 33% in cotton fabrics. Synthetic fabrics performed poorly relative to cotton, and their performance did not improve with humidity. The material from medical-procedure masks also did not improve with humidity, though it performed in roughly the same range as cottons.

The filtration efficiency of cotton fabrics increases in humid conditions because cotton is hydrophilic, meaning it likes water. By absorbing small amounts of the water in a person's breath, cotton fibers create a moist environment inside the fabric. As microscopic particles pass through, they absorb some of this moisture and grow larger, which makes them more likely to get trapped.

Most synthetic fabrics, on the other hand, are hydrophobic, meaning they dislike water. These fabrics do not absorb moisture, and their filtration efficiency does not change in humid conditions.

Christopher D. Zangmeister et al, Hydration of Hydrophilic Cloth Face Masks Enhances the Filtration of Nanoparticles, ACS Applied Nano Materials (2021). DOI: 10.1021/acsanm.0c03319

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-humidity-cotton-masks-effective-covid...

Bacterial film separates water from oil

Researchers have demonstrated that a slimy, yet tough, type of biofilm that certain bacteria make for protection and to help them move around can also be used to separate water and oil. The material may be useful for applications such as cleaning contaminated waters.

They reported the findings of an experiment in which they used a material produced by the bacteria Gluconacetobacter hansenii as a filter to separate water from an oil mixture.

The biofilm the bacteria make and release into their environment is made of cellulose, which is the same material that gives plants a sturdy structure in their cell walls. However, when bacteria make cellulose, it has a tightly packed, crystalline structure. It's one of the purest, if not the purest, forms of cellulose out there. The bacteria make the film to protect themselves.

The material was effective at removing water, and it 's sturdy. The oil doesn't want to go through the membrane; it has a repulsive effect to it. It's super fat-hating.

Researchers see a variety of potential applications for the material in situations where you need to recover water from an oily mixture—whether it be to clean water contaminated with a textile dye or for environmental remediation.

Zahra Ashrafi et al. Bacterial Superoleophobic Fibrous Matrices: A Naturally Occurring Liquid-Infused System for Oil–Water Separation, Langmuir (2021). DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c02717

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-bacterial-oil.html?utm_source=nwlette...

How trees secretly talk to each other

Scientists develop new magnetic nanomaterial for counterfeit money prevention

An international research team  has developed a new iron-cobalt-nickel nanocomposite with tunable magnetic properties. The nanocomposite could be used to protect money and securities from counterfeiting. 

The new iron-cobalt-nickel nanocomposite was obtained by chemical precipitation, followed by a reduction process.

The new composite was observed to possess high value of coercivity, which makes the technology applicable e.g. to magnetic rubbers and different magnetically coupled devices. Another potential application is protecting money and securities from counterfeiting.

Tien Hiep Nguyen et al, Impact of Iron on the Fe–Co–Ni Ternary Nanocomposites Structural and Magnetic Features Obtained via Chemical Precipitation Followed by Reduction Process for Various Magnetically Coupled Devices Applications, Nanomaterials (2021). DOI: 10.3390/nano11020341

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-scientists-magnetic-nanomaterial-coun...

Bacteria know how to exploit quantum mechanics, study finds

Photosynthetic organisms harvest light from the sun to produce the energy they need to survive. A new paper published by University of Chicago researchers reveals their secret: exploiting quantum mechanics.

Before this study, the scientific community saw quantum signatures generated in biological systems and asked the question, were these results just a consequence of biology being built from molecules, or did they have a purpose?" said Greg Engel, Professor of Chemistry and senior author on the study. "This is the first time we are seeing biology actively exploiting quantum effects.

The scientists studied a type of microorganism called green sulfur bacteria. These bacteria need light to survive, but even small amounts of oxygen can damage their delicate photosynthetic equipment. So they must develop ways to minimize the damage when the bacterium does encounter oxygen.

To study this process, researchers tracked the movement of energy through a photosynthetic protein under different conditions—with oxygen around, and without.

They found that the bacterium uses a quantum mechanical effect called vibronic mixing to move energy between two different pathways, depending on whether or not there's oxygen around. Vibronic mixing involves vibrational and electronic characteristics in molecules coupling to one another. In essence, the vibrations mix so completely with the electronic states that their identities become inseparable. This bacterium uses this phenomenon to guide energy where it needs it to go.

If there's no oxygen around and the bacterium is safe, the bacterium uses vibronic mixing by matching the energy difference between two electronic states in an assembly of molecules and proteins called the FMO complex, with the energy of the vibration of a bacteriochlorophyll molecule. This encourages the energy to flow through the 'normal' pathway toward the photosynthetic reaction center, which is packed full of chlorophyll.

But if there is oxygen around, the organism has evolved to steer the energy through a less direct path where it can be quenched. (Quenching energy is similar to putting a palm on a vibrating guitar string to dissipate energy.) This way, the bacterium loses some energy but saves the entire system.

Jacob S. Higgins et al, Photosynthesis tunes quantum-mechanical mixing of electronic and vibrational states to steer exciton energy transfer, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2018240118

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-bacteria-exploit-quantum-mechanics.ht...

Face masks are a ticking plastic timebomb

Recent studies estimate that we use an astounding 129 billion face masks globally every month—that is 3 million a minute. Most of them are disposable face masks made from plastic microfibers.

With increasing reports on inappropriate disposal of masks, it is urgent to recognize this potential environmental threat and prevent it from becoming the next plastic problem.

Disposable masks are plastic products, that cannot be readily biodegraded but may fragment into smaller plastic particles, namely micro- and nanoplastics that widespread in ecosystems.

The enormous production of disposable masks is on a similar scale as plastic bottles, which is estimated to be 43 billion per month. However, different from plastic bottles, (of which app. 25 pct. is recycled), there is no official guidance on mask recycle, making it more likely to be disposed of as solid waste

If not disposed of for recycling, like other plastic wastes, disposable masks can end up in the environment, freshwater systems, and oceans, where weathering can generate a large number of micro-sized particles (smaller than 5 mm) during a relatively short period (weeks) and further fragment into nanoplastics (smaller than 1 micrometer).

"A newer and bigger concern is that the masks are directly made from microsized plastic fibers (thickness of ~1 to 10 micrometers). When breaking down in the environment, the mask may release more micro-sized plastics, easier and faster than bulk plastics like plastic bags.

How can you solve it?

Researchers recommend these solutions:

1. Set up mask-only trash cans for collection and disposal
2. consider standardization, guidelines, and strict implementation of waste management for mask wastes
3. replace disposable masks with reusable face masks like cotton masks
4. consider development of biodegradable disposal masks.

Elvis Genbo Xu et al, Preventing masks from becoming the next plastic problem, Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering (2021). DOI: 10.1007/s11783-021-1413-7

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-masks-plastic-timebomb.html?utm_sourc...

A scarf that speaks? Scientists develop message display fabric

At first glance, the fabric looks like a pretty if not especially original scarf, with turquoise, blue and orange stripes in an open weave. But this fabric can communicate.

It's wearable, foldable and washable, but it's also a fully functioning display—capable of flashing messages or images, or even being used with a keyboard.

it could revolutionize communication and "help individuals with voice, speech or language difficulties to express themselves to others".

Large-area display textiles integrated with functional systems, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03295-8 , dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03295-8

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-scarf-scientists-message-fabric...

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The Chemical Origins of Life

How did life get started on Earth? And how are we using what we know to look for it throughout the galaxy?

Observing the birth of a quasiparticle

Over the past decades, physicists worldwide have been trying to gain a better understanding of non-equilibrium dynamics in quantum many-body systems. Some studies investigated what are known as quasiparticles, disturbances or entities in physical systems that exhibit behavior similar to that of particles.

Researchers at Aarhus University recently carried out a study investigating the non-equilibrium dynamics of a quantum impurity immersed in a bosonic environment. Their paper, published in Nature Physics, sheds light on the dynamical behavior of interacting many-body systems, while also improving the current understanding of how Bose polarons are formed.

Quasiparticles are extremely interesting, since they may consist of countless particles and their excitations.

The idea of quasiparticles was first introduced in the 1930s by physicist Lev Landau, who was trying to gain a better understanding of complex quantum systems. The experiments carried out now build on models created by Landau.

In their studies, the researchers prepared coherent superposition states of atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate with a small impurity-state component using an interferometric technique. Subsequently, they monitored the evolution of these quantum superpositions and their transition into polaronic quasiparticles.

Remarkably, the researchers were able to observe the birth of a unique class of quasiparticles, called Bose polarons, for the very first time. While in the past several research groups detected signs of these quasiparticles in laboratory settings, so far observing their gradual formation over time proved highly challenging, mainly because the processes through which they are formed are exceedingly fast.

Non-equilibrium quantum dynamics and formation of the Bose polaron. Nature Physics(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-021-01184-5.

Bipolarons in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Physical Review Letters(2018).
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.013401.

Observation of attractive and repulsive polarons in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Physical Review Letters(2016). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.055302.

Bose polarons in the strongly interacting regime. Physical Review Letters(2016). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.055301.

Bose polarons near quantum criticality. Science(2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aax5850.

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-birth-quasiparticle.html?utm_source=n...

Foodborne fungus impairs intestinal wound healing in Crohn's disease

Eating is a dangerous business. Naturally occurring toxins in food and potentially harmful foodborne microbes can do a number on our (injure) intestines, leading to repeated minor injuries. In healthy people, such damage typically heals in a day or two. But in people with Crohn's disease, the wounds fester, causing abdominal pain, bleeding, diarrhea and other unpleasant symptoms.

Crohn's is a subtype of inflammatory bowel disease. As the name suggests, it is driven by chronic inflammation in the digestive tract and primarily treated with immunosuppressive medications. Crohn's patients endure repeated cycles of gastrointestinal symptom flare-up and remission. During a flare, their digestive tracts are dotted with inflamed, open sores that can persist for weeks or even months.

Researchers discovered that a fungus found in foods such as cheese and processed meats can infect sites of intestinal damage in mice and people with Crohn's and prevent healing. Moreover, treating infected mice with antifungal medication eliminates the fungus and allows the wounds to heal.

The findings, published March 12 in the journal Science, suggest that antifungal drugs and dietary changes are potential new approaches to improving intestinal wound healing and reducing symptoms of Crohn's disease.

 U. Jain el al., "Debaryomyces is enriched in Crohn's disease intestinal tissue and impairs healing in mice," Science (2021). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.abd0919

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-foodborne-fungus-impairs-int...

The secrets of the best rainbows on Earth

Why Hawai'i the rainbow capital of the world

Rainbows are some of the most spectacular optical phenomena in the natural world

Hawai'i's location in the subtropical Pacific means the overall weather pattern is dominated by trade winds, with frequent rain showers and clear skies between the showers.

Businger outlines four additional factors affecting the prevalence of rainbows throughout the islands.

"At night a warm sea surface heats the atmosphere from below, while radiation to space cools cloud tops, resulting in deeper rain showers in the morning that produce rainbows in time for breakfast," said Businger.

Another critical factor in producing frequent rainbows is Hawai'i's mountains, which cause trade wind flow to be pushed up, forming clouds and producing rainfall. Without mountains, Hawai'i would be a desert with a scant 17 inches annual rainfall.

A third factor conducive to rainbow sightings is daytime heating, which drives island-scale circulations. During periods of lighter winds, showers form over the ridge crests over Oahu and Kauai in the afternoon, resulting in prolific rainbows as the sun sets.

Due to the remoteness of the Hawaiian Islands, the air is exceptionally clean and free of pollution, continental dust, and pollen. This is the fourth factor that contributes to the numerous bright rainbows with the full spectrum of colors.

Steven Businger, The Secrets of the Best Rainbows on Earth, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (2020). DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0101.1

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-secrets-rainbows-earth.html?utm_sourc...

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Classic math problem solved: Computer scientists have developed a s...

One of the most classic algorithmic problems deals with calculating the shortest path between two points. A more complicated variant of the problem is when the route traverses a changing network—whether this be a road network or the internet. For 40 years, researchers have sought an algorithm that provides an optimal solution to this problem. Now, computer scientist Christian Wulff-Nilsen of the University of Copenhagen and two research colleagues have come up with a recipe.

When heading somewhere new, most of us leave it to computer algorithms to help us find the best route, whether by using a car's GPS, or public transport and map apps on their phone. Still, there are times when a proposed route doesn't quite align with reality. This is because road networks, public transportation networks and other networks aren't static. The best route can suddenly be the slowest, e.g. because a queue has formed due to roadworks or an accident.

People probably don't think about the complicated math behind routing suggestions in these types of situations. The software being used is trying to solve a variant for the classic algorithmic "shortest path" problem, the shortest path in a dynamic network. For 40 years, researchers have been working to find an algorithm that can optimally solve this mathematical conundrum. Now, Christian Wulff-Nilsen of the University of Copenhagen's Department of Computer Science has succeeded in cracking the nut along with two colleagues.

The researchers represent a network as a so-called dynamic graph. In this context, a graph is an abstract representation of a network consisting of edges, roads for example, and nodes, representing intersections, for example. When a graph is dynamic, it means that it can change over time. The new algorithm handles changes consisting of deleted edges—for example, if the equivalent of a stretch of a road suddenly becomes inaccessible due to road work.

Traditional algorithms assume that a graph is static, which is rarely true in the real world. When these kinds of algorithms are used in a dynamic network, they need to be rerun every time a small change occurs in the graph—which wastes time.

Aaron Bernstein, et al. Near-Optimal Decremental SSSP in Dense Weighted Digraphs. arXiv:2004.04496v2 [cs.DS] arxiv.org/abs/2004.04496

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-classic-math-problem-scientists...

How to spot deepfakes? Look at light reflection in the eyes

Computer scientists have developed a tool that automatically identifies deepfake photos by analyzing light reflections in the eyes.

The tool proved 94% effective with portrait-like photos in experiments described in a paper accepted at the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing to be held in June in Toronto, Canada.

The cornea is almost like a perfect semisphere and is very reflective. So, anything that is coming to the eye with a light emitting from those sources will have an image on the cornea. The two eyes should have very similar reflective patterns because they're seeing the same thing. It's something that we typically don't typically notice when we look at a face.

When we look at something, the image of what we see is reflected in our eyes. In a real photo or video, the reflections on the eyes would generally appear to be the same shape and color.

However, most images generated by artificial intelligence—including generative adversary network (GAN) images—fail to accurately or consistently do this, possibly due to many photos combined to generate the fake image.

Now the researchers tool exploits this shortcoming by spotting tiny deviations in reflected light in the eyes of deepfake images.

While promising, this new technique has limitations.

For one, you need a reflected source of light. Also, mismatched light reflections of the eyes can be fixed during editing of the image. Additionally, the technique looks only at the individual pixels reflected in the eyes—not the shape of the eye, the shapes within the eyes, or the nature of what's reflected in the eyes.

Finally, the technique compares the reflections within both eyes. If the subject is missing an eye, or the eye is not visible, the technique fails.

Exposing GAN-generated Faces Using Inconsistent Corneal Specular Highlights. arXiv:2009.11924v2 [cs.CV] arxiv.org/abs/2009.11924

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-deepfakes-eyes.html?utm_source=...

Using softened wood to create electricity in homes

A multi-institutional team of researchers has found that it is possible to use a type of fungus to soften wood to the point that it could be used to generate electricity. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their process and how they tested it.

As the world works its way toward cleaner energy-producing systems, scientists seek novel approaches to producing electricity. One possibility is the use of piezoelectric devices that generate electricity by harnessing movement such as footsteps. In this new effort, the researchers have noted that much energy is wasted when people walk around. And while some have attempted to harness some of that energy with devices designed for shoes or legs, the researchers with this new effort wondered if it might be possible to add piezoelectrics to the floor to make use of that energy.

In studying the kinds of wood that are used to make floors, particularly in homes, the researchers noted that they do not have much give—a necessary component of an energy-harvesting system. To solve that problem, they found that applying a type of white rot fungus to pieces of balsa wood for a few weeks sped up the decaying process in a useful way. It made the wood spongier, which translated to give. When stepping on the wood, the researchers could feel it depress. They also found that after the wood returned to its former shape when pressure was removed.

To test their idea, the researchers treated a wooden veneer with the fungus and then added a piezoelectric device, which sent the power it produced through a wire attached to an LED light. The wood was then placed on a floor where people could walk on it. Each time they did so, the light came on. The researchers note that the amount of electricity generated was just 0.85 volts but the system could very easily be scaled up to include all the flooring in a home, generating enough electricity, perhaps, to power certain devices.

Jianguo Sun et al. Enhanced mechanical energy conversion with selectively decayed wood, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abd9138

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-softened-wood-electricity-homes...

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How can some planets be hotter than stars? We’ve started to unravel the mystery

Data from the Kepler mission has shown that large, gaseous exoplanets can orbit very close to their star – rather than far away from it, as is the case in our Solar System, causing them to reach temperatures exceeding 1,000K (727°C). These have been dubbed “hot” or “ultra-hot” Jupiters.

But how can hot, gaseous planets form and exist so close to their star? What kind of extreme physical processes happen here? Answers to those questions have large implications in our understanding of exoplanets and solar system planets. In our recent study, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, we have added another piece to the puzzle of planet formation and evolution.

The hottest exoplanet known so far is Kelt-9 b, which was discovered in 2016. Kelt-9 b orbits a star that is twice as hot as our Sun, at a distance ten times closer than Mercury orbits our star. It is a large gaseous exoplanet, with a radius 1.8 times that of Jupiter and temperatures reaching 5,000K. For comparison, this is hotter than 80% of all the stars in the universe and a similar temperature to our Sun.

In essence, hot Jupiters are a window into extreme physical and chemical processes. They offer an incredible opportunity to study physics in environmental conditions that are near impossible to reproduce on Earth. Studying them enhances our understanding of chemical and thermal processes, atmospheric dynamics and cloud formation. Understanding their origins can also help us improve planetary formation and evolution models.

To find out, we need to learn more about exoplanet compositions by observing their atmospheres.

There are two main methods to study exoplanet atmospheres. In the transit method, we can pick up stellar light that is filtered through the exoplanet’s atmosphere when it passes in front of its star, revealing the fingerprints of any chemical elements that exist there.

The other method to investigate a planet is during an “eclipse”, when it passes behind its host star. Planets also emit and reflect a small fraction of light, so by comparing the small changes in the total light when the planet is hidden and visible, we can extract the light coming from the planet.

Both types of observations are performed at different wavelengths, or colours, and since chemical elements and compounds absorb and emit at very specific wavelengths, a spectrum (light broken down by wavelength) can be produced for the planet to infer the composition of its atmosphere.

Part 2 - extreme hot planets

In our study, we used publicly available data, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, to obtain the eclipse spectrum of this planet.

We then used open-source software to extract the presence of molecules and found there were plenty of metals (made from molecules). This discovery is interesting as it was previously thought that these molecules would not be present at such extreme temperatures – they would be broken apart into smaller compounds.

Subject to the strong gravitational pull from its host star, Kelt-9 b is “tidally locked”, which means that the same face of the planet permanently faces the star. This results in a strong temperature difference between the planet’s day and night sides. As the eclipse observations probe the hotter day-side, we suggested that the observed molecules could in fact be dragged by dynamic processes from the cooler regions, such as the night-side or from deeper in the interior of the planet. These observations suggest that the atmospheres of these extreme worlds are ruled by complex processes that are poorly understood.

Kelt-9 b is interesting because of its inclined orbit of about 80 degrees. This suggests a violent past, with possible collisions, which in fact is also seen for many other planets of this class. It is most likely that this planet formed away from its parent star and that the collisions happened as it migrated inwards toward the star. This supports the theory that large planets tend to form away from their host star in proto-stellar disks – which give rise to solar systems – capturing gaseous and solid materials as they migrate toward their star.

https://theconversation.com/how-can-some-planets-be-hotter-than-sta...

Physicists measure smallest gravitational field yet

Physicists in Austria have measured the gravitational field from the smallest ever object: a gold sphere with a diameter of just 2 mm. Carried out using a miniature torsion balance, the measurement paves the way to even more sensitive gravitational probes that could reveal gravity’s quantum nature.

The latest work, in contrast, uses a gold sphere with a mass of just 92 mg as its source. Markus Aspelmeyer and Tobias Westphal of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Vienna and colleagues positioned this mass a few millimetres away from another tiny gold sphere with about the same mass located at one end of a 4 cm-long glass rod. The rod was suspended at its centre via a silica fibre, while a third sphere at the far end of the rod acted as a counterbalance.

Such “torsion balances” have been used for more than 200 years to make precise measurements of gravity. The idea is that the source mass pulls the near end of the bar towards itself, causing the suspending fibre or wire to rotate. By measuring this rotation and balancing it against the stiffness of the wire, the strength of the gravitational interaction can be calculated. The fact that the bar moves horizontally means it is less exposed to the far larger gravitational field of the Earth.

A major challenge with such experiments is screening out noise. Aspelmeyer and colleagues did this by placing the balance in a vacuum to limit acoustic and thermal interference, while also grounding the source mass and placing a Faraday shield between it and the test mass to reduce electromagnetic interactions. In addition, they mainly collected data at night to minimize ambient sources of gravity. This is important because the gravitational attraction of the source mass is equivalent to the pull of a person standing 2.5 m from the experiment or a Vienna tram 50 m away.

To generate signals above the remaining noise, the researchers used a bending piezoelectric device to cyclically move the source towards and away from the test mass. Doing this at a fixed frequency (12.7 mHz) allowed them to look for a corresponding variation in the rotation of the balance – which they measured by bouncing a laser beam off a mirror below the silica fibre.

After repeating this process hundreds of times over a 13.5-hour period and then converting the time-series data into a frequency spectrum, Aspelmeyer and colleagues identified two clear signals above the background. These were the principle oscillation at 12.7 mHz and, at 25.4 mHz, the second harmonic generated by the gravitational field’s nonlinear variation in space. As the researchers point out, both harmonics were well above the resonant frequency of the oscillating balance and below the frequencies of readout noise.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03250-7.epdf?sharing_tok...

https://physicsworld.com/a/physicists-measure-smallest-gravitationa...

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Antarctic detector spots cosmic antineutrino

A huge neutrino detector in the Antarctic ice sheet might have seen the first evidence of a rare neutrino-interaction process called the Glashow resonance.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, buried in the deep ice near the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, observes eye-wateringly powerful neutrinos produced by sources such as active galactic nuclei and supernovae. The observatory detected a shower of secondary particles that look likely to have been caused by a collision between an electron antineutrino travelling close to th.... If confirmed by more observations, the finding provides further confirmation of the standard model of particle physics, proves the existence of cosmic antineutrinos and opens the door to a better understanding of the wild stuff going on in the cosmos.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00486-1?utm_source=Natur...

Membrane around tumors may be key to preventing metastasis

For cancer cells to metastasize, they must first break free of a tumor’s own defenses. Most tumors are sheathed in a protective “basement” membrane — a thin, pliable film that holds cancer cells in place as they grow and divide. Before spreading to other parts of the body, the cells must breach the basement membrane, a material that itself has been tricky for scientists to characterize. Now MIT engineers have probed the basement membrane of breast cancer tumors and found that the seemingly delicate coating is as tough as plastic wrap, yet surprisingly elastic like a party balloon, able to inflate to twice its original size. But while a balloon becomes much easier to blow up after some initial effort, the team found that a basement membrane becomes stiffer as it expands. This stiff yet elastic quality may help basement membranes control how tumors grow. 

The fact that the membranes appear to stiffen as they expand suggests that they may restrain a tumor’s growth and potential to spread, or metastasize, at least to a certain extent.

The findings, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may open a new route toward preventing tumor metastasis, which is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths.

Now scientists can think of ways to add new materials or drugs to further enhance this stiffening effect, and increase the toughness of the membrane to prevent cancer cells from breaking through

https://news.mit.edu/2021/membrane-tumors-metastasis-0308

Sonolithography: In‐Air Ultrasonic Particulate and Droplet Patterning

Sonolithography is based on the application of acoustic radiation forces arising from the interference of ultrasonic standing waves to direct airborne particle/droplet accumulation. Sonolithography is capable of rapidly patterning micrometer to millimeter scale materials onto a wide variety of substrates over a macroscale (cm2) surface area and can be used for both indirect and direct cell patterning.

I ain't afraid of no ghosts: people with mind-blindness not so easily spooked

People with aphantasia – that is, the inability to visualise mental images – are harder to spook with scary stories, a new UNSW Sydney study shows.

The study, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, tested how aphantasic people reacted to reading distressing scenarios, like being chased by a shark, falling off a cliff, or being in a plane that’s about to crash.

The researchers were able to physically measure each participant’s fear response by monitoring changing skin conductivity levels – in other words, how much the story made a person sweat. This type of test is commonly used in psychology research to measure the body’s physical expression of emotion.

According to the findings, scary stories lost their fear factor when the readers couldn’t visually imagine the scene – suggesting imagery may have a closer link to emotions than scientists previously thought.

Researchers found the strongest evidence yet that mental imagery plays a key role in linking thoughts and emotions.

Aphantasia affects 2-5 per cent of the population, but there is still very little known about the condition.

A UNSW study published last year found that aphantasia is linked to a widespread pattern of changes to other cognitive processes, like remembering, dreaming and imagining.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.0267

https://researchnews.cc/news/5578/I-ain-t-afraid-of-no-ghosts--peop...

Three Ways Quantum Physics Affects Your Daily Life

Quantum physics is all around us. The universe as we know it runs on quantum rules, and while the classical physics that emerges when you apply quantum physics to enormously huge numbers of particles seem very different, there are lots of familiar, everyday phenomena that owe their existence to quantum effects. Here are a few examples of things you probably run into in your everyday life without realizing that they're quantum:

Toasters: The red glow of a heating element as you toast a slice of bread or a bagel is a very familiar sight for most of us. It's also the place where quantum physics got its start: Explaining why hot objects glow that particular color of red is the problem that quantum physics was invented to solve.

"quantum hypothesis" (giving the eventual theory its name) that the light could only be emitted in discrete chunks of energy, integer multiples of a small constant times the frequency of the light. For high-frequency light, this energy quantum is larger than the share of heat energy allotted to that frequency, and thus no light is emitted at that frequency. This cuts off the high-frequency light, and leads to a formula that matches the observed spectrum of light from hot objects to great precision.

So, every time you toast bread, you're looking at the place where quantum physics got its start.

Fluorescent Lights: Old-school incandescent light bulbs make light by getting a piece of wire hot enough to emit a bright white glow, which makes them quantum in the same way that a toaster is. If you have fluorescent bulbs around-- either the long tubes or the newer twisty CFL bulbs, you're getting light from another revolutionary quantum process.

Computers: While Bohr's quantum model was undeniably useful, it didn't initially come with a physical reason as to why there should be special states for electrons within atoms. That didn't come for almost ten years, but once the idea got locked it, it turned out to be the basis for the most transformative technological revolution of the last century.

So, every time you turn on your computer (say, to read a blog post about quantum physics), you're exploiting the wave nature of electrons, and the unprecedented control of materials that allows. It may not be the sexy kind of quantum computer, but every modern computer needs quantum physics to work properly.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chadorzel/2018/12/04/three-ways-quantu...

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Astronomers detect a black hole on the move

Scientists have long theorized that supermassive black holes can wander through space—but catching them in the act has proven difficult. Now, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have identified the clearest case to date of a supermassive black hole in motion. Their results are published today in the Astrophysical Journal.

We don't expect the majority of supermassive black holes to be moving; they're usually content to just sit around. They're just so heavy that it's tough to get them going. Consider how much more difficult it is to kick a bowling ball into motion than it is to kick a soccer ball—realizing that in this case, the 'bowling ball' is several million times the mass of our Sun. That's going to require a pretty mighty kick.

Usually the velocities of the black holes the same as the velocities of the galaxies they reside in. We expect them to have the same velocity. If they don't, that implies the black hole has been disturbed.

For their search, the team initially surveyed 10 distant galaxies and the supermassive black holes at their cores. They specifically studied black holes that contained water within their accretion disks—the spiral structures that spin inward towards the black hole.

As the water orbits around the black hole, it produces a laser-like beam of radio light known as a maser. When studied with a combined network of radio antennas using a technique known as very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), masers can help measure a black hole's velocity very precisely.

The technique helped the team determine that nine of the 10 supermassive black holes were at rest—but one stood out and seemed to be in motion.

Located 230 million light-years away from Earth, the black hole sits at the center of a galaxy named J0437+2456. Its mass is about three million times that of our Sun.

Using follow-up observations with the Arecibo and Gemini Observatories, the team has now confirmed their initial findings. The supermassive black hole is moving with a speed of about 110,000 miles per hour inside the galaxy J0437+2456.

But what's causing the motion is not known. The team suspects there are two possibilities.

blackhole movement  - 2

We may be observing the aftermath of two supermassive black holes merging. The result of such a merger can cause the newborn black hole to recoil, and we may be watching it in the act of recoiling or as it settles down again.

But there's another, perhaps even more exciting possibility: the black hole may be part of a binary system.

Further observations, however, will ultimately be needed to pin down the true cause of this supermassive black hole's unusual motion.

Dominic W. Pesce et al, A Restless Supermassive Black Hole in the Galaxy J0437+2456, The Astrophysical Journal (2021). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/abde3d

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-astronomers-black-hole.html?utm_sourc...

Accurate aging of wild animals thanks to first epigenetic clock for bats

A new study  by  researchers found that DNA from tissue samples can be used to accurately predict the age of bats in the wild. The study also showed age-related changes to the DNA of long-lived species are different from those in short-lived species, especially in regions of the genome near genes associated with cancer and immunity. This work provides new insight into causes of age-related declines.

This is the first research paper to show that animals in the wild can be accurately aged using an epigenetic clock, which predicts age based on specific changes to DNA. This work provides a new tool for biologists studying animals in the wild. In addition, the results provide insight into possible mechanisms behind the exceptional longevity of many bat species. The study appears in the March 12, 2021, issue of the journal Nature Communications.

The researchers looked at DNA from 712 bats of known age, representing 26 species, to find changes in DNA methylation at sites in the genome known to be associated with aging. DNA methylation is a process that switches genes off. It occurs throughout development and is an important regulator for cells. Overall, methylation tends to decrease throughout the genome with age. Using machine learning to find patterns in the data, the researchers found that they could estimate a bat's age to within a year based on changes in methylation at 160 sites in the genome. The data also revealed that very long-lived bat species exhibit less change in methylation overall as they age than shorter-lived bats.

1. Gerald S. Wilkinson, Danielle M. Adams, Amin Haghani, Ake T. Lu, Joseph Zoller, Charles E. Breeze, Bryan D. Arnold, Hope C. Ball, Gerald G. Carter, Lisa Noelle Cooper, Dina K. N. Dechmann, Paolo Devanna, Nicolas J. Fasel, Alexander V. Galazyuk, Linus Günther, Edward Hurme, Gareth Jones, Mirjam Knörnschild, Ella Z. Lattenkamp, Caesar Z. Li, Frieder Mayer, Josephine A. Reinhardt, Rodrigo A. Medellin, Martina Nagy, Brian Pope, Megan L. Power, Roger D. Ransome, Emma C. Teeling, Sonja C. Vernes, Daniel Zamora-Mejías, Joshua Zhang, Paul A. Faure, Lucas J. Greville, Steve Horvath. DNA methylation predicts age and provides insight into exceptional longevity of bats. Nature Communications, 2021; 12 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21900-2

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210312095814.htm#:~:t....

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-accurate-aging-wild-animals-epigeneti...

Bacterial communities vary on different parts of the eye surface

A pioneering study led by University of Saskatchewan (USask) veterinary ophthalmologist Dr. Marina Leis (DVM, DACVO) shows that bacterial communities vary on different parts of the eye surface—a finding that significantly alters understanding of the mechanisms of eye disease and can lead to developing new treatments.

Researchers identify off switch for alcoholism

 A study led by the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health uncovered a potential therapeutic target to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD) by targeting a specific receptor in the brain. The researchers found that by targeting the muscarinic M4 receptor in the brain, both habitual drinking and the likelihood to relapse could be improved in those suffering from alcohol addiction.

 The team performed genome-wide RNA sequencing and protein expression studies in human tissue samples from people with AUD and non-drinkers to identify potential therapeutic targets.

https://www.monash.edu/pharm/about/news/news-listing/2020/researche...

https://researchnews.cc/news/5598/Researchers-identify-off-switch-f...

Scientists Find a Natural Protein That Stops Allergies And Autoimmune Conditions

It's called neuritin.

Using transgenic mice and cultures of cells taken from human tonsils, researchers have now found evidence of how our bodies might defend against the mistakes that result in conditions such as asthma, food allergies, and lupus. They found a protein called neuritin, produced by immune cells. It acts a bit like an inbuilt, boss-level antihistamine.

Neuritin suppresses formation of rogue plasma cells which are the cells that produce harmful antibodies.

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00177-X?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS009286742100177X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

https://www.sciencealert.com/our-bodies-do-have-a-natural-answer-fo...

Faster-Than-Light Travel Is Possible Within Einstein's Physics, Astrophysicist Shows

Physicists are not the kind of people who give up easily, though. Give them an impossible dream, and they'll give you an incredible, hypothetical way of making it a reality. Maybe.

In a new study by physicist Erik Lentz from Göttingen University in Germany, we may have a viable solution to the dilemma, and it's one that could turn out to be more feasible than other would-be warp drives.

This is an area that attracts plenty of bright ideas, each offering a different approach to solving the puzzle of faster-than-light travel: achieving a means of sending something across space at superluminal speeds.

There are some problems with this notion, however. Within conventional physics, in accordance with Albert Einstein's theories of relativity, there's no real way to reach or exceed the speed of light, which is something we'd need for any journey measured in light-years.

That hasn't stopped physicists from trying to break this universal speed limit, though.

While pushing matter past the speed of light will always be a big no-no, spacetime itself has no such rule. In fact, the far reaches of the Universe are already stretching away faster than its light could ever hope to match.

To bend a small bubble of space in a similar fashion for transport purposes, we'd need to solve relativity's equations to create a density of energy that's lower than the emptiness of space. While this kind of negative energy happens on a quantum scale, piling up enough in the form of 'negative mass' is still a realm for exotic physics.

In addition to facilitating other kinds of abstract possibilities, such as wormholes and time travel, negative energy could help power what's known as the Alcubierre warp drive.

This speculative concept would make use of negative energy principles to warp space around a hypothetical spacecraft, enabling it to effectively travel faster than light without challenging traditional physical laws, except for the reasons explained above, we can't hope to provide such a fantastical fuel source to begin with.

https://www.sciencealert.com/faster-than-light-travel-is-possible-w...

Skin-immersion study shows serious damage after 12 hours in water
A new study from Binghamton University researchers could change the way that medical professionals and scientists think about the long-term effects of skin immersion in water.
Researchers tested samples of stratum corneum (the outer layer of human skin) from subjects 27 to 87 years old.

After 12 hours of immersion, the skin loses plasticity because of reduced ability to hold water. It also depletes both lipids and natural moisturizing factors, which can lead to long-term problems.

Essity, a global hygiene and health firm based on Sweden, helped to fund the study and assisted in the research to better understand skin damage caused by diaper dermatitis, when infants or incontinent adults are not regularly changed.
the findings have implications in a variety of different fields, including cryo-preservation, organ transport for transplantation, divers’ health, forensics and various foot-immersion syndromes.
https://pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/271007/1-s2.0-S0022202X73X90005...

https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/2913/skin-immersion-study-sho....
https://researchnews.cc/news/5641/Skin-immersion-study-shows-seriou...

Juno Discovers Mars’ Dust Storms Fill Solar System

Wearable microgrid runs on renewable energy from the body

Scientists  discovered plants beneath mile-deep Greenland ice

In 1966, US Army scientists drilled down through nearly a mile of ice in northwestern Greenland—and pulled up a fifteen-foot-long tube of dirt from the bottom. Then this frozen sediment was lost in a freezer for decades. It was accidentally rediscovered in 2017.

In 2019, University of Vermont scientist Andrew Christ looked at it through his microscope—and couldn't believe what he was seeing: twigs and leaves instead of just sand and rock. That suggested that the ice was gone in the recent geologic past—and that a vegetated landscape, perhaps a boreal forest, stood where a mile-deep ice sheet as big as Alaska stands today.

Over the last year, Christ and an international team of scientists—led by Paul Bierman at UVM, Joerg Schaefer at Columbia University and Dorthe Dahl-Jensen at the University of Copenhagen—have studied these one-of-a-kind fossil plants and sediment from the bottom of Greenland. Their results show that most, or all, of Greenland must have been ice-free within the last million years, perhaps even the last few hundred-thousand years.

Ice sheets typically pulverize and destroy everything in their path," says Christ, "but what we discovered was delicate plant structures—perfectly preserved. They're fossils, but they look like they died yesterday. It's a time capsule of what used to live on Greenland that we wouldn't be able to find anywhere else."

The discovery helps confirm a new and troubling understanding that the Greenland ice has melted off entirely during recent warm periods in Earth's history—periods like the one we are now creating with human-caused climate change.

Understanding the Greenland Ice Sheet in the past is critical for predicting how it will respond to climate warming in the future and how quickly it will melt. 

Andrew J. Christ el al., "A multimillion-year-old record of Greenland vegetation and glacial history preserved in sediment beneath 1.4 km of ice at Camp Century," PNAS (2021). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2021442118

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-scientists-stunned-beneath-mile-deep-...

Study finds cancer cells may evade chemotherapy by going dormant

Cancer cells can dodge chemotherapy by entering a state that bears similarity to certain kinds of senescence, a type of "active hibernation" that enables them to weather the stress induced by aggressive treatments aimed at destroying them, according to a new study by scientists.

These findings have implications for developing new drug combinations that could block senescence and make chemotherapy more effective.

The investigators reported that this biologic process could help explain why cancers so often recur after treatment. The research was done in both organoids and mouse models made from patients' samples of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) tumors. The findings were also verified by looking at samples from AML patients that were collected throughout the course of treatment and relapse.

Acute myeloid leukemia can be put into remission with chemotherapy, but it almost always comes back, and when it does it's incurable.

For years, cancer researchers have studied how tumors are able to rebound after they appear to be completely wiped out by chemotherapy. One theory has been that because not all cells within a tumor are the same at the genetic level—a condition called tumor heterogeneity—a small subset of cells are able to resist treatment and begin growing again. Another theory involves the idea of tumor stem cells—that some of the cells within a tumor have special properties that allow them to re-form a tumor after chemotherapy has been given. The idea that senescence is involved does not replace these other theories. In fact, it could provide new insight into explaining these other processes.

In the study, the researchers found that when AML cells were exposed to chemotherapy, a subset of the cells went into a state of hibernation, or senescence, while at the same time assuming a condition that looked very much like inflammation. They looked similar to cells that have undergone an injury and need to promote wound healing—shutting down the majority of their functions while recruiting immune cells to nurse them back to health.

"These characteristics are also commonly seen in developing embryos that temporarily shut down their growth due to lack of nutrition, a state called embryonic diapause. Further research revealed that this inflammatory senescent state was induced by a protein called ATR, suggesting that blocking ATR could be a way to prevent cancer cells from adopting this condition. The investigators tested this hypothesis in the lab and confirmed that giving leukemia cells an ATR inhibitor before chemotherapy prevented them from entering senescence, thereby allowing chemotherapy to kill all of the cells.

Importantly, studies published at the same time from two other groups reported that the role of senescence is important not just for AML, but for recurrent cases of breast cancer, prostate cancer and gastrointestinal cancers as well.

Cihangir Duy et al. Chemotherapy induces senescence-like resilient cells capable of initiating AML recurrence, Cancer Discovery (2021). DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-20-1375

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-cancer-cells-evade-chemother...

Practical nanozymes discovered to fight antimicrobial resistance

Nanozymes, a group of inorganic catalysis-efficient particles, have been proposed as promising antimicrobials against bacteria. They are efficient in killing bacteria, thanks to their production of reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Despite this advantage, nanozymes are generally toxic to both bacteria and mammalian cells, that is, they are also toxic to our own cells. This is mainly because of the intrinsic inability of ROS to distinguish bacteria from mammalian cells.

In a study published in Nature Communications, the research team proposed a novel method to construct efficient-while-little-toxic nanozymes.

The researchers showed that nanozymes that generate surface-bound ROS selectively kill bacteria, while leaving the mammalian cells safe.

The selectivity is attributed to, on the one hand, the surface-bound nature of ROS generated by the nanozymes prepared by the team, and on the other hand, an unexpected antidote role of endocytosis, a cellular process that is common for mammalian cells while absent in bacteria.

Feng Gao et al. Surface-bound reactive oxygen species generating nanozymes for selective antibacterial action, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-20965-3

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-nanozymes-antimicrobial-resistance.ht...

When memory qubits and photons get entangled

Encrypting data in a way that ensures secure communication is an ever-growing challenge because crucial components of today's encryption systems cannot withstand future quantum computers. Researchers around the world are therefore working on technologies for novel encryption methods that are also based on quantum effects. The phenomenon of so-called quantum entanglement plays a particularly important role here. This means that in a quantum network, the stationary qubits of the network are entangled with the communication channel, which usually consists of photons (light particles). For the first time, physicists at the University of Bonn have now been able to demonstrate quantum entanglement between a stationary qubit, i.e. a two-state quantum system, and a photon with direct coupling to an optical fiber. The study has been published in the journal npj Quantum Information.

Pascal Kobel et al. Deterministic spin-photon entanglement from a trapped ion in a fiber Fabry–Perot cavity, npj Quantum Information (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41534-020-00338-2

Quantum systems originate from the world of particles and smallest structures and may be relevant for future technologies. If different quantum information carriers (quantum nodes) are interconnected by quantum channels, researchers speak of quantum networks. 

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-memory-qubits-photons-entangled.html?...

The Mating Dance of a bird