Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Exotic wheat DNA helps breed 'climate-proof' crops      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Wheat containing exotic DNA from wild relatives benefits from up to 50 per cent higher yields in hot weather compared with elite lines lacking these genes.

Computer Science: Quantum Computers Physics: Quantum Computing
Published

The optical fiber that keeps data safe even after being twisted or bent      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An optical fiber that uses the mathematical concept of topology to remain robust, thereby guaranteeing the high-speed transfer of information, has been created by physicists.

Computer Science: Quantum Computers
Published

The thermodynamics of quantum computing      (via sciencedaily.com) 

In research on quantum computers, one aspect that has been mostly neglected until now is the generation of heat. Physicists now focus their attention on heat as an interference factor -- and have developed a method to experimentally measure the heat generated by a superconducting quantum system.

Environmental: Ecosystems Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Fathoming the hidden heatwaves that threaten coral reefs      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The severity of marine heatwaves (MHWs) that are increasingly impacting ocean ecosystems, including vulnerable coral reefs, has primarily been assessed using remotely sensed sea-surface temperatures (SSTs), without information relevant to heating across ecosystem depths. Here, using a rare combination of SST, high-resolution in-situ temperatures, and sea level anomalies observed over 15 years near Moorea, French Polynesia, we document subsurface MHWs that have been paradoxical in comparison to SST metrics and associated with unexpected coral bleaching across depths. Variations in the depth range and severity of MHWs was driven by mesoscale (10s to 100s of km) eddies that altered sea levels and thermocline depths and decreased (2007, 2017 and 2019) or increased (2012, 2015, 2016) internal-wave cooling.

Computer Science: Quantum Computers Physics: Quantum Computing
Published

New quantum computing architecture could be used to connect large-scale devices      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have demonstrated an architecture that can enable high fidelity and scalable communication between superconducting quantum processors. Their technique can generate and route photons, which carry quantum information, in a user-specified direction. This method could be used to develop a large-scale network of quantum processors that could efficiently communicate with one another.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Spring sunny heat waves caused record snow melt in 2021, adding to severe water supply impacts across the Western US      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers examine the role of spring heatwaves on the melting rates of mountain snowpacks across the West. They found that in April 2021, record-breaking snowmelt rates occurred at 24% of all mountain snowpack monitoring sites in the region, further compounding the impacts of extended drought conditions.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Cyclone researchers: Warming climate means more and stronger Atlantic tropical storms      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Tropical cyclone researchers report a warming climate could increase the number of tropical cyclones and their intensity in the North Atlantic, potentially creating more and stronger hurricanes. In a second research paper, researchers examine a possible explanation for the relatively constant number of tropical cyclones around the globe every year.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

How climate change impacts the Indian Ocean dipole, leading to severe droughts and floods      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers now have a much better understanding of how climate change can impact and cause sea water temperatures on one side of the Indian Ocean to be so much warmer or cooler than the temperatures on the other -- a phenomenon that can lead to sometimes deadly weather-related events like megadroughts in East Africa and severe flooding in Indonesia.

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Climate risk insurance can effectively mitigate economic losses      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Global warming is expected to lead to an accumulation of particularly intense hurricanes in the United States. This may substantially increase the economic losses caused by these storms. Better insurance could effectively mitigate the climate change-induced increase in economic losses. This is shown in a new study examining the effectiveness of climate risk insurance in the US.

Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

The adverse health effects of disaster-related trauma      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study has found that individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to experience disaster-related home loss, and they are also more likely to develop functional limitations following the disaster. 

Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Skiing over Christmas holidays no longer guaranteed -- even with snow guns      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

For many people, holidays in the snow are as much a part of the end of the year as Christmas trees and fireworks. As global warming progresses, however, white slopes are becoming increasingly rare. Researchers have calculated how well one of Switzerland's largest ski resorts will remain snow reliable with technical snow-making by the year 2100, and how much water this snow will consume.

Computer Science: Quantum Computers Physics: Quantum Computing
Published

Researchers show a new way to induce useful defects using invisible material properties      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Much of modern electronic and computing technology is based on one idea: add chemical impurities, or defects, to semiconductors to change their ability to conduct electricity. These altered materials are then combined in different ways to produce the devices that form the basis for digital computing, transistors, and diodes. Indeed, some quantum information technologies are based on a similar principle: adding defects and specific atoms within materials can produce qubits, the fundamental information storage units of quantum computing.

Energy: Alternative Fuels Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Geomagnetic Storms Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

New study models the transmission of foreshock waves towards Earth      (via sciencedaily.com) 

As the supersonic solar wind surges towards Earth, its interaction with our planet's magnetic field creates a shock to deflect its flow, and a foreshock filled with electromagnetic waves. How these waves can propagate to the other side of the shock has long remained a mystery.

Chemistry: Thermodynamics Computer Science: Quantum Computers Physics: Quantum Computing
Published

Chaos gives the quantum world a temperature      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Two seemingly different areas of physics are related in subtle ways: Quantum theory and thermodynamics. How can the laws of thermodynamics arise from the laws of quantum physics? This question has now been pursued with computer simulations, which showed that chaos plays a crucial role: Only where chaos prevails do the well-known rules of thermodynamics follow from quantum physics.

Computer Science: Quantum Computers Physics: Quantum Computing
Published

Quantum dots at room temp, using lab-designed protein      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Quantum dots are normally made in industrial settings with high temperatures and toxic, expensive solvents -- a process that is neither economical nor environmentally friendly. But researchers have now pulled off the process at the bench using water as a solvent, making a stable end-product at room temperature. Their work opens the door to making nanomaterials in a more sustainable way by demonstrating that protein sequences not derived from nature can be used to synthesize functional materials.

Computer Science: Quantum Computers Mathematics: Modeling Space: Cosmology
Published

Curved spacetime in the lab      (via sciencedaily.com) 

In a laboratory experiment, researchers have succeeded in realizing an effective spacetime that can be manipulated. In their research on ultracold quantum gases, they were able to simulate an entire family of curved universes to investigate different cosmological scenarios and compare them with the predictions of a quantum field theoretical model.

Computer Science: Quantum Computers
Published

New quantum dots study uncovers implications for biological imaging      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers report the synthesis of semiconductor 'giant' core-shell quantum dots with record-breaking emissive lifetimes. In addition, the lifetimes can be tuned by making a simple alteration to the material's internal structure.

Computer Science: Quantum Computers
Published

New instrument measures supercurrent flow, data has applications in quantum computing      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An extreme-scale nanoscope is beginning to collect data about how pulses of light at trillions of cycles per second can control supercurrents in materials. The instrument could one day help optimize superconducting quantum bits, which are at the heart of quantum computing, a new and developing technology.

Computer Science: Quantum Computers
Published

Changing the color of quantum light on an integrated chip      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Recently, researchers have developed an integrated electro-optic modulator that can efficiently change the frequency and bandwidth of single photons. The device could be used for more advanced quantum computing and quantum networks.