Researchers have been trying for many years to build a quantum computer that industry could scale up, but the building blocks of quantum computing, qubits, still aren’t robust enough to handle the noisy environment of what would be a quantum computer. A theory developed only two years ago proposed a way to make qubits more…
Determining the Importance of Connections in Unstructured Data
Discovering information in unstructured data is a major research topic today because it underlies everything from web-search engines to finding recommendations for movies and restaurants. At the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Keshav Pingali, the W.A. “Tex” Moncrief Chair of Grid and Distributed Computing, leads a team of scientists who use supercomputers at the…
Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning Accelerate Efforts to Develop Clean, Virtually Limitless Fusion Energy
The Science On Earth, the most widely used devices for capturing the clean and virtually limitless fusion energy that powers the sun and stars must avoid disruptions. These devices are bagel-shaped tokamaks. Massive disruptions can halt fusion reactions and potentially damage the fusion reactors. By applying deep learning—a powerful version of the machine learning form…
Scientists Create First Billion-atom Biomolecular Simulation
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have created the largest simulation to date of an entire gene of DNA, a feat that required one billion atoms to model and will help researchers to better understand and develop cures for diseases like cancer. “It is important to understand DNA at this level of detail because we…
Drones, Supercomputers and Sonar Deployed Against Floods
An arsenal of new technology is being put to the test fighting floods this year as rivers inundate towns and farm fields across the central United States. Drones, supercomputers and sonar that scans deep under water are helping to maintain flood control projects and predict just where rivers will roar out of their banks. Together,…
World-record Quantum Computing Result for Sydney Teams
A world-record result in reducing errors in semiconductor “spin qubits,” a type of building block for quantum computers, has been achieved using the theoretical work of quantum physicists at the University of Sydney Nano Institute and School of Physics. The experimental result by University of New South Wales engineers demonstrated error rates as low as 0.043…
Using Supercomputers to Identify Synthesizeable Photocatalysts for Greenhouse CO2 Gas Reduction
Testing nearly 69,000 materials for specific properties was the challenge faced by scientists conducting extensive research on using photocatalytic conversion to reduce the greenhouse gas CO2. The main goal is to find a way to reduce CO2 into chemicals that can provide a source of clean, low-cost renewable energy. But researchers have located very few…
Researchers Use Noise Data to Increase Reliability of Quantum Computers
A new technique by researchers at Princeton University, University of Chicago and IBM significantly improves the reliability of quantum computers by harnessing data about the noisiness of operations on real hardware. In a paper presented this week, researchers describe a novel compilation method that boosts the ability of resource-constrained and “noisy” quantum computers to produce…
Research Provides Speed Boost to Quantum Computers
A new finding by researchers at the University of Chicago promises to improve the speed and reliability of current and next generation quantum computers by as much as 10 times. By combining principles from physics and computer science, the researchers developed a new scalable compiler that makes software aware of the underlying quantum hardware, offering…
Singapore and Australian Scientists Build a Machine to See All Possible Futures
In the 2018 movie Infinity War, a scene featured Dr. Strange looking into 14 million possible futures to search for a single timeline where the heroes would be victorious. Perhaps he would have had an easier time with help from a quantum computer. A team of researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and…
Getting to the Root of Plant Simulations
If you’ve ever tended a garden or potted a plant, you know a few simple truths about green things—they require water and nutrients to survive and their roots are good indicators of their overall health. So we water on a regular schedule, provide for root growth and add nutrient-rich soils to ensure a balanced diet.…
New Algorithm Optimizes Quantum Computing Problem-solving
Tohoku University researchers have developed an algorithm that enhances the ability of a Canadian-designed quantum computer to more efficiently find the best solution for complicated problems, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. Quantum computing takes advantage of the ability of subatomic particles to exist in more than one state at the same…
Supercomputers Aid Our Understanding of Complex Brain Waves
Even though electroencephalography (EEG) has been used for almost 100 years, this safe and painless test of brain activity remains an efficient method for recording aspects of rapid brain activity patterns supporting our thoughts and actions. Leveraging the power of the Comet supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego, campus researchers have…
Scientists Discover How RNA Pol II Maintains Accurate Transcription With Supercomputer
The message of life is encoded in our genomic DNA through transcription of messenger RNAs and translation of proteins to perform cellular functions. To ensure accurate transcription—a process that transcribes genomic DNA into messenger RNA by adding nucleotides one by one like letters in the alphabet, an enzyme called RNA polymerase II would synthesize and…
Supercomputers Help Supercharge Protein Assembly
Red blood cells are amazing. They pick up oxygen from our lungs and carry it all over our body to keep us alive. The hemoglobin molecule in red blood cells transports oxygen by changing its shape in an all-or-nothing fashion. Four copies of the same protein in hemoglobin open and close like flower petals, structurally coupled to…
Modified Deep-learning Algorithms Unveil Features of Shape-shifting Proteins
Using artificial neural networks designed to emulate the inner workings of the human brain, deep-learning algorithms deftly peruse and analyze large quantities of data. Applying this technique to science problems can help unearth historically elusive solutions. One such challenge involves a biophysical phenomenon known as protein folding. Although researchers know that proteins must morph into…
Extremely Accurate Measurements of Atom States for Quantum Computing
A new method allows the quantum state of atomic “qubits”—the basic unit of information in quantum computers—to be measured with 20 times less error than was previously possible, without losing any atoms. Accurately measuring qubit states, which are analogous to the one or zero states of bits in traditional computing, is a vital step in…
Semiconductor: A New Contender for Scalable Quantum Computing
Quantum computing, along with 5G and AI, has been the focus for next-generation technology in the last few decades. Up to now, numerous physical systems have been investigated to build a test device for quantum computing, including superconducting Josephson junctions, trapped ions and semiconductors. Among them, the semiconductor is a new star for its high…
Supercomputer Simulations Shed Light on How Liquid Drops Combine
U.S. Department of Energy and Intel to Deliver First Exascale Supercomputer
Intel Corporation and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will deliver the first supercomputer with a performance of one exaFLOP in the United States. The system being developed at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago—named “Aurora”—will be used to dramatically advance scientific research and discovery. The contract is valued at more than $500 million and will be delivered to…
Computer Program Developed to Find ‘Leakage’ in Quantum Computers
Artificial Intelligence Speeds Up
Exascale Computing Project Highlights Its ‘EXAALT’ Molecular Dynamics Effort
Researchers can run computer simulations of the physical movements of atoms and molecules and make inferences about the dynamic evolution of the system. This method of simulation, called molecular dynamics, is used at many computing centers across the country in areas such as materials science and biology. These simulations can yield extremely detailed understanding of…
Physicists Reverse Time Using Quantum Computer
Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology teamed up with colleagues from the U.S. and Switzerland and returned the state of a quantum computer a fraction of a second into the past. They also calculated the probability that an electron in empty interstellar space will spontaneously travel back into its recent past. The study comes…
ORNL-led Collaboration Solves a Beta-Decay Puzzle With Advanced Nuclear Models
An international collaboration including scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory solved a 50-year-old puzzle that explains why beta decays of atomic nuclei are slower than what is expected based on the beta decays of free neutrons. The findings, published in Nature Physics, fill a long-standing gap in physicists’ understanding of beta decay,…