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Categories: Offbeat: General, Physics: Quantum Computing
Published Two fins are better than one: Fish synchronize tail fins to save energy



They say two heads are better than one. But in the world of fish, it appears two fins are better than one. Researchers have produced a theoretical model that demonstrates the underlying mechanisms behind how fish will synchronize their fin movements to ride each other's vortices, thereby saving energy.
Published Mystery resolved: Black hole feeding and feedback at the center of an active galaxy



Almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center. An international research team has recently observed the Circinus galaxy, which is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way, with high enough resolution to gain further insights into the gas flows to and from the black hole at its galactic nucleus.
Published Long-distance weaponry identified at the 31,000-year-old archaeological site of Maisières-Canal



The hunter-gatherers who settled on the banks of the Haine, a river in southern Belgium, 31,000 years ago were already using spearthrowers to hunt their game. The material found at the archaeological site of Maisières-Canal permits establishing the use of this hunting technique 10,000 years earlier than the oldest currently known preserved spearthrowers. This discovery is prompting archaeologists to reconsider the age of this important technological innovation.
Published Vacuum in optical cavity can change material's magnetic state without laser excitation



Researchers in Germany and the USA have produced the first theoretical demonstration that the magnetic state of an atomically thin material, ?-RuCl3, can be controlled solely by placing it into an optical cavity. Crucially, the cavity vacuum fluctuations alone are sufficient to change the material's magnetic order from a zigzag antiferromagnet into a ferromagnet.
Published Rats have an imagination, new research suggests



Researchers have developed a novel system to probe a rat's thoughts, finding that animals can control their brain activity to imagine remote locations.
Published Chimpanzees use hilltops to conduct reconnaissance on rival groups, study finds



Research on neighboring chimpanzee communities in the forests of West Africa suggests a warfare tactic not previously seen beyond humans is regularly used by our closest evolutionary relatives.
Published Black holes are messy eaters



New observations down to light-year scale of the gas flows around a supermassive black hole have successfully detected dense gas inflows and shown that only a small portion (about 3 percent) of the gas flowing towards the black hole is eaten by the black hole. The remainder is ejected and recycled back into the host galaxy.
Published What a '2D' quantum superfluid feels like to the touch



Researchers have discovered how superfluid helium 3He would feel if you could put your hand into it. The interface between the exotic world of quantum physics and classical physics of the human experience is one of the major open problems in modern physics. Nobody has been able to answer this question during the 100-year history of quantum physics.
Published Optical-fiber based single-photon light source at room temperature for next-generation quantum processing



Single-photon emitters quantum mechanically connect quantum bits (or qubits) between nodes in quantum networks. They are typically made by embedding rare-earth elements in optical fibers at extremely low temperatures. Now, researchers have developed an ytterbium-doped optical fiber at room temperature. By avoiding the need for expensive cooling solutions, the proposed method offers a cost-effective platform for photonic quantum applications.
Published Learning to forget -- a weapon in the arsenal against harmful AI



With the AI summit well underway, researchers are keen to raise the very real problem associated with the technology -- teaching it how to forget.
Published Exploding stars



When massive stars or other stellar objects explode in the Earth's cosmic neighborhood, ejected debris can also reach our solar system. Traces of such events are found on Earth or the Moon and can be detected using accelerator mass spectrometry, or AMS for short.
Published How 'blue' and 'green' appeared in a language that didn't have words for them



A new study suggests the way a language divides up color space can be influenced by contact with other languages. Tsimane' people who learned Spanish as a second language began to classify blue and green into using separate words, which their native tongue does not do.
Published Researchers engineer colloidal quasicrystals using DNA-modified building blocks



A new study unveils a novel methodology to engineer colloidal quasicrystals using DNA-modified building blocks. The implications of this breakthrough are far-reaching, offering a potential blueprint for the controlled synthesis of other complex structures previously considered beyond reach.
Published Hebrew prayer book fills gap in Italian earthquake history



The chance discovery of a note written in a 15th century Hebrew prayer book fills an important gap in the historical Italian earthquake record, offering a brief glimpse of a previously unknown earthquake affecting the Marche region in the central Apennines.
Published In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate without heat



At the interface of water and air, light can, in certain conditions, bring about evaporation without the need for heat, according to a new study.
Published Giant dinosaur carcasses might have been important food sources for Jurassic predators



Carnivorous dinosaurs might have evolved to take advantage of giant carcasses, according to a new study.
Published Where is a sea star's head? Maybe just about everywhere



A new study that combines genetic and molecular techniques helps solve the riddle of sea star (commonly called starfish) body plans, and how sea stars start life with bilateral body symmetry -- just like humans -- but grow up to be adults with fivefold 'pentaradial' symmetry.
Published The remains of an ancient planet lie deep within Earth



The remnants of an ancient planet that collided with Earth to form the Moon lie deep within the earth, according to a new model.
Published Sperm adjust their swimming style to adapt to fluctuating fluid conditions



Sperm can modulate their energetics by regulating their flagellar waveform -- how the sperm oscillate their tails -- in order to adapt to varying fluid environments, potentially optimizing their motility and navigation within the reproductive tract, according to new research.
Published Reverse engineering Jackson Pollock



Researchers combined physics and machine learning to develop a new 3D-printing technique that can quickly create complex physical patterns -- including replicating a segment of a Pollock painting -- by leveraging the same natural fluid instability that Pollock used in his work.