Generally speaking, magnetism and the lossless flow of electrical current (“superconductivity”) are competing phenomena that cannot coexist in the same sample. However, for building supercomputers, synergetically combining both states comes with major advantages as compared to today’s semiconductor technology, which has come under pressure due to its high power consumption and resulting heat production. Researchers…
Shielded Quantum Bits
A theoretical concept to realize quantum information processing has been developed by Professor Guido Burkard and his team of physicists at the University of Konstanz. The researchers have found ways to shield electric and magnetic noise for a short time. This will make it possible to use spins as memory for quantum computers, as the…
Sea Urchin Nanostructure Inspires Better Cement
Sea urchin spines are made mostly of calcite, but the spines are much more durable than this raw material alone. The reason for their strength is the way that nature optimizes materials using a brick wall-style architecture. A research team headed by Professor Helmut Cölfen has successfully synthesized cement at the nano-level according to this…
On the Trail of Parkinson’s Disease
In a complex series of experiments they examined what the effects were of changing a single amino acid in the protein. The physicochemists were able to prove how this tiny change disturbs the binding of alpha-synuclein to membranes. “We hope that the finding of this selectively defective membrane binding will help us to understand how…