Embracing chaos just might help physicists build a quantum brain. A new study shows that disorder can enhance the coupling between light and matter in quantum systems, a find that could eventually lead to fast, easy-to-build quantum computers.
Quantum computers promise superfast calculations that precisely simulate the natural world, but physicists have struggled to design the brains of such machines. Some researchers have focused on designing precisely engineered materials that can trap light to harness its quantum properties. To work, scientists have thought, the crystalline structure of these materials must be flawlessly ordered — a nearly impossible task.
The new study, published in the March 12 Science, suggests that anxious physicists should just relax. A group of researchers at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby have shown that randomly arranged materials can trap light just as well as ordered ones.
“We took a very interesting, different approach: relaxing all these ordered structures and using disorder” as a resource, says study coauthor Peter Lodahl. “Let it play with you instead of playing against you.”
One approach to quantum computing relies on entangling photons and atoms, or binding their quantum states so tightly that they can influence each other even across great distances. Once entangled, a photon can carry any information stored in the atom’s quantum state to other parts of the computer. To get that entangled state, physicists pin light in tiny cavities to increase the likelihood of quantum interaction with neighboring atoms.
Lodahl and his colleagues didn’t set out to trap light. They wanted to build a waveguide, a structure designed to send light in a particular direction, by drilling carefully spaced holes in a gallium arsenide crystal. Because the crystal bends light much more strongly than air does, light should have bounced off the holes and traveled down a channel that had been left clear of holes.
But in some cases, the light refused to move. It kept getting stuck inside the crystal.
“At first we were scratching our heads,” Lodahl says. “Then we realized it was related to imperfections in our structures.” If imperfect materials could trap light, Lodahl thought, then physicists could couple light and matter with much less frustration.
To see if disorder could help materials trap light, Lodahl and colleagues built a new waveguide, this time deliberately placing the holes at random intervals. They also embedded quantum dots, tiny semiconductors that can emit a single photon at a time, in the waveguide as a proxy for atoms that could become entangled with the photons. After zapping the quantum dots with a laser to make them emit photons, the researchers found that 94 percent of the photons stayed close to their emitters, creating spots of trapped light in the crystal. That’s about as good as previous results using more precisely ordered materials. Intuitively, physicists expect light to scatter in the face of disorder, but in this case colliding light waves built each other up and collected in the material.
The quantum dots also emitted photons 15 times faster after a light spot formed around them.
“This is the essence of our discovery: We used localized modes not just to trap light but to enhance interaction between light and matter,” Lodahl says.
That’s the first mile marker on the road to entanglement, notes Diederik Wiersma, a physicist at the European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy in Florence, Italy. “It has not been achieved as quantum entanglement yet, but it’s the important step that everyone has to make to get there.”
The system produced several separate light traps at once. If the light traps can be entangled with each other, the system could someday lead to a quantum network in a randomly organized crystal.
Wiersma thinks of the potential product as a “quantum brain.” Like a human brain, a quantum brain is not a perfectly ordered structure, he says. “Nature doesn’t need a symmetric structure. It just needs your brain to be working.”
Images: 1) Artist’ impression of light emission in a disordered photonic crystal waveguide./Soren Stobbe. 2) Light bouncing around a disordered crystal spontaneously arranged itself in bright spots, represented by the tall spikes./Luca Sapienza.
A computer algorithm, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), and neuroscientists working together have been able to identify what people are remembering by measuring blood flow levels, according to new research out of the University College London.
First, a group of 10 volunteers (average age 21) was shown three very short (as in 7 seconds) films, each of a woman on a city street doing a simple task, such as mailing a letter. Then, each of the volunteers was placed inside an fMRI scanner and asked to recall each film, first in a specific order, then at random.
One of the three short films showed this woman mailing a letter.
(Credit: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging/UCL)
Using the scanner to measure changes in the brain's blood flow and a computer algorithm, researchers were able to identify which short film each person was remembering at a level the study's lead author describes in a news release to be "significantly above what would be expected by chance."
The researchers homed in on the medial temporal lobe, a region of the brain thought to be most involved in episodic memory. The computer algorithm performed best when analyzing the hippocampus, which the team has already studied.
Across all participants, the rear right, front left, and front right areas of the hippocampus appeared to be consistently involved. While it remains unclear exactly what role the front two regions play, the rear right was found in a previous study--identifying where a person was standing in a virtual reality simulation--to be where spatial information is recorded.
"Now that we are developing a clearer picture of how our memories are stored, we hope to examine how they are affected by time, the aging process and by brain injury," says Eleanor Maguire, who helmed the study as an extension of last year's work on spatial memory.
It's arguable whether the algorithm's accuracy is good enough to celebrate, since it identified the film being thought about correctly less than half of the time (40 to 45 percent, to be precise). But that is better than 33 percent, which is the rate at which a blind guess between three films would be accurate.
Probably the most exciting discovery is that the memory traces associated with each film were consistent throughout not only the study, but from one volunteer to the next, suggesting that memories may in fact have some sort of fixed, identifiable pattern.
Source: Elizabeth Armstrong Moore - a freelance journalist based in Portland, Ore. She has contributed to Wired magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and public radio. Her semi-obscure hobbies include unicycling, slacklining, hula-hooping, scuba diving, billiards, Sudoku, Magic the Gathering, and classical piano. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
No one knows exactly how much Google plans to invest, but its reputation as cash giant alone has cities from Anchorage, Alaska, to Sarasota, Florida battling to become the search giant's new test market. Faster than you could say Google Fiber (though not faster than the company's proposed gigabit speeds) metros whipped up Facebook pages and took to Twitter to raise awareness and offer instruction on how to nominate their hometown. FastCompany.com combed through this rapidly growing list of cities and pulled together a few of the more creative efforts--some snarky, some tongue-in-cheek, all earnestly hoping that when the application process ends on March 26 and the dust clears in this social media-fueled Thunderdome, they'll claim Google Fiber's bountiful business. Many towns enter. One burgh leaves.
Columbia, Missouri
Columbia has all the advantages of a big city coupled with the access problems of small-town America: low-performance, high-cost broadband, and next to no fiber infrastructure, says Amberly Engert, a social media manager. So she created a Facebook page, and Ian Eyberg, a software developer started the Como Fiber Group to tout the potentially massive opportunity Google Fiber posed. Engert says that while no one in Columbia is jumping in a lake or renaming the town (read on), residents have submitted video kudos to the growing art scene and the "groovy culture" on the group's Web site. The effort really coalesced on Saturday when some 15,000 signs printed with Google's logo were distributed to the sell-out crowd at the nationally televised Missouri-Kansas men's basketball game.
Grand Rapids, Michigan
The Google Fiber for Grand Rapids steering committee points out that the typical Comcast & AT&T U-verse connection is about 6mbps--a far cry from Google's gigs. So they're planning a "Flash Mob" citywide rally on March 19 that is expected to include a "human fiber" chain of joined hands (Hands Across Grand Rapids?) to create what organizers hope will be a huge show of support. As it is, Grand Rapids currently has the distinction of collecting the most fans on its Facebook fan page (over 22,000 at last count) since it started on February 10. And, hey! Here's a local "television personality" making her case.
Greenville, South Carolina
Greenville's feeling lucky. The campaign to woo Google started by a group of twelve well-connected individuals and has spread like wildfire through the local tech community. Trey Pennington, an organizer, says this is not surprising given the community's mindset "dominated by commitment to collaborate." The group quickly produced a video playing off of Google's "Feeling Lucky" search theme and is planning a unique "community expression project"--Google on Main. Set to unfold the night of March 20th, citizens armed with glowsticks will gather in downtown Greenville--on Main Street -- to rave show their support for the coming of Google Fiber. Rumor has it the event will be filmed by helicopter.
Peoria, Illinois
The denizens of Peoria, Illinois, want Google to know that it hasn't yet taken a turn in the "geographic center of the universe." Not yet anyway. A special Web site, Google Plays in Peoria, features a video rife with slides of bucolic cityscapes and stirring music from Vangelis. Peoria announces that on March 26, Google "will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to play in Peoria." But that's not all. Photographs of the seven wonders of Peoria ensue, and once again the city pitches Google, this time for a chance to join the ranks of a larger-than-life bikini clad sculpture, a Twistee Treat, and others as the city's "eighth wonder." If all else fails, Peoria says to Google, "Do it for the children." Media coverage includes a story of ways Peoria schools could benefit from faster Internet access.
Topeka, Kansas
Jared Starkey, the president of LAMP Development, LLC, says the campaign started as Facebook group and spun out into a new group called "Think Big Topeka." Now over 14,000 volunteer members strong (with no dues, and therefore, no bank account), they are relying on donated advertising and promotional support to spread the word further. Most famously, Topeka's mayor issued a proclamation (on Google Docs, natch) that for the entire month of March, Topeka would be renamed Google, Kansas. Starkey would like to remind Google that the city served as the testbed for Pokemon in the U.S. back in 1998, so they are uniquely qualified to be Google's control group. And he says, theirs is the only city to make international headlines with their bid for Fiber.
Sarasota, Florida
Taking note of the gauntlets thrown by Topeka and Duluth, Sarasota renamed its City Island, Google Island, and produced a (rather hilarious) video juxtaposing the positives of the city nestled in the Sunshine State with the less-than-picturesque landscape of the Heartland, and the shoulder-high snow drifts and freezing temperature of Minnesota. 'Nuff said.
Duluth, Minnesota
But wait! Patrick Garmoe, public information officer of the Google Twin Ports Initiative laughs sheepishly as he explains Googlefest, an event that is one part rally, one part carnival and all parts enthusiasm for the promise of Google Fiber. In the midst of bands, choirs and other entertainment, "We'll be shooting a movie with real actors and a Hollywood director and live-streaming the event to impress Google," Garmoe says. The new initiative comes on the heels of Deluth mayor Don Ness's own stunts. In a spoof video proclamation that in honor of Google, all first born males would be henceforth named GoogleFiber and first born females would of course be Googlette. Also, he literally sunk to a new low in the brutal battle for business. He jumped into the freezing waters of Lake Superior. Hizzoner, perhaps you'll be deterred from further lunacy by these extremely gnarly Google Image results for "frostbite."
Google, which has always striven towards a goal of "doing no evil" has recently been involved in successive lawsuits. Three of Google's executives were sentenced to 6 months in jail in Italy on February 24 for the criminal invasion of privacy.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has decided to launch anti-monopoly investigations into Google’s search engine and advertising search services. The reporter learned from Microsoft's official blog, that following Google's rapid expansion, an increasing number of small and large companies have begun filing lawsuits against Google. The lawsuits are related to every segment of the market that Google is involved in.
Some lawsuits reveal the tough stance taken by Google in relevant markets and some lawsuits reflect secrets behind Google's business operations. Other lawsuits are related to antitrust issues. What Google products have suffered from lawsuits? Why did these products merit lawsuits?
How could lawsuit and criticism-distressed Google still boast of "doing no evil"
"Offensive" product No. 1: Photos and videos
Groups offended: Parents and Internet regulators of various countries Three Google executives in Italy were prosecuted after Google released a video on youtube.com, which is owned by Google, in which a disabled child was bullied – an autistic child was hit and insulted by 4 classmates on their school's campus. Google claimed in court that it just provided an Internet platform and assumes no obligation to check the content. Google has used similar excuses after being required to check pornography-related content in China.
It is worth noting that when Google claims its innocence, it is repeating the same tactic, hoping to turn a commercial criminal case into a political event. It has even urged U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to impose pressure on Italy. This tends to make people think of the "Google's possible exit from China" event that has yet to be settled.
Li Siyi, deputy director of the Institute of Journalism and Media under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said that every country around the world has an information censorship system, particularly the censorship of content relating to terrorism and child pornography. Google is skilled at using the media to protect itself, but all the countries will not compromise when it come to the cases involved with such content. Even the U.S., where Google is headquartered, does not permit the free transmission of certain information in light of security. Such information includes information on national security, territory integrity and religious harmony as well as ill information that may hurt children's physical and mental health.
Analysts believe that this is the first case that a video sharing service has been convicted by a court because of a video posted by users. The conviction by the Italian court has a far-reaching impact on the development of the Internet industry, because it not only will likely change the business model of mainstream video sharing websites, but may even also change the industry’s understanding of the Internet.
"Offensive" product No. 2: news, videos and maps
Groups offended: the media, websites of various kinds and antitrust authorities Google's products, such as news, videos and maps are all information service products, and the information is gleaned from media and websites around the world. These search service products offered by Google are greatly welcomed by users. However, Google's money-making strategy of "obtaining advertisement resources by using information free of charge" has led to complaints and alertness among information suppliers.
Newspapers and magazines in Germany have blamed Google, saying that Google stole their readers by using unfair competitive methods. German map websites claimed that Google has destroyed their rural markets. The American Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) has removed its videos from Google's YouTube website. The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has also required Google to take some videos of the Academy Award ceremony off its YouTube website… Obviously, we can see that these information suppliers are no longer willing to allow Google a free ride.
The increasing influence of Google also offended some antitrust authorities. These authorities worry that Google is abusing its dominant position on the Internet. What Google is doing is that it always uses the headline news or the brief descriptions of the news published on other news websites unless these websites clearly state the news cannot be re-published. In addition, an Internet engineer disclosed that Google might use filtering software to eliminate some websites from relevant search results, and that would make the websites suffer commercial losses.
"Offensive" product No. 3: Gmail's Buzz
Groups offended: common users On February 11, Iran Telecoms announced that Iran would permanently suspend Google's Gmail service and launch a national e-mail service. On the same day, Google launched its Buzz service. As soon as Buzz, a service which is quite similar to the micro-blogging website Twitter, was launched, it quickly began to receive criticism. The reasons are 3 automatic settings. First, Google automatically registers its Gmail users for the Buzz service. In other words, Gmail users already have this service before they apply for it or choose to use it. Second, Buzz automatically creates a Buzz friend list for a user using names in the user's Gmail contacts list. Third, Buzz automatically sends the latest contents on a user's Buzz micro-blog to the e-mail boxes of the user's Gmail friends. All of these settings make it possible that users' private information could possibly be leaked. On February 16, the U.S. Electronic Privacy Information Centre announced that the Buzz service had violated Federal Consumer Protection Laws.
After using Buzz, a woman angrily wrote that she used Gmail to communicate mostly with her mother and boyfriend, but the person who was next to them was her ex-husband. Google's Buzz automatically set that they (including her ex-husband) could see some of her private information, but only she and her boyfriend had the right to read the information.
"It does not matter whether users are active on Buzz. Many claim that Google's real purpose is to learn what you are chatting about or watching, to observe the messages you write so that they will have all of your things at their fingertips. After doing so, Google can do a lot, including pushing advertising and personalized searches," said a technologist from a dot-com company.
"Google keeps and analyzes all users' search records, IP addresses, and preferences. Maybe some rabid technology admirers think that Google stores the information just to provide more personalized and considerate service, but I care more about the security of personal information," said Zhang Lei, a college student.
"Offensive" product No. 4: digital library
The offended: writers and publishers Google Digital Library has enraged a large number of writers and publishers in many countries.
Google unilaterally quit negotiations with the Chinese Written Works Copyright Society January 12, causing a dilemma for both sides. It was also in big trouble in the U.S., because 15 Indian writers and publishers, as well as 2 copyright protection organizations, have filed lawsuits collectively in a U.S. court against Google's settlement agreement on digital books. Before the Indians brought in their objections, a large number of writers, publishers and other organizations from many countries across the world had already submitted their documents to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the revised settlement agreement, and the court decided to indefinitely postpone a decision on whether to allow Google to ultimately carry out the digital library project.
Furthermore, Google Digital Library Project has raised wide concerns over cultural security in many countries that would prefer to build their own digital libraries. For example, after the launch of European Digital Library, Japan and France followed to build national digital library. Germany also officially launched the German Digital Library Project, and the digital library, involving more than 30,000 libraries and museums, is expected to be put into use this year.
Google's settlement agreement, which allows the company to scan and make available millions of books online and induce copyright owners to accept the agreement via a "waiver of copyright" clause, is a serious violation of international copyright protection laws. "It is absurd, unconscionable, and illegal that anyone can copy what they want from copyrighted works without permission, and then ask the copyright owner to give up the right, but that is exactly what the autocratic Google has been doing so far," writers said.
If you lived on a street where a neighbour frequently and flagrantly broke the law, you would want something done about it, especially if that neighbour took part of your garden, replaced the fence with a 30ft wall, cut down your trees and redirected your water supply.
Suppose the authorities to whom you complained merely denounced the illegalities and took no action? You might think that this situation is inconceivable. But that is precisely what has been happening to the Palestinians for the best part of 60 years.
On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague (ICJ) produced a strong advisory opinion on the legal consequences of the construction of a wall in the occupied territories.
Fourteen of 15 judges agreed the core findings: that the construction was contrary to international law, both human rights and humanitarian; that it should be dismantled with reparations being made for all damage caused. This was adopted by a UN General Assembly resolution on July 20, 2004.
This resolution, like so many before it concerning violations perpetrated by Israel, was fundamentally ignored. The ICJ had not only specified the obligations owed by Israel under international law but also spelt out very clearly the obligations incumbent on third-party states to ensure that the core values or peremptory norms — such as the right to self-determination — are upheld by those states that break them. This is a matter of common sense and ordinary reason; for, were it to be otherwise, the rule of law and the authority of international justice would be completely undermined.
It was in this context that the Russell Tribunal was reconvened in Barcelona on March 1 to 3 to examine the legal responsibility for violations in the Palestinian Territories. Four more international sessions are planned.
The tribunal has an illustrious history with its origins in the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation launched in 1963. The first tribunal concerned the war in Vietnam, and led to citizens’ commissions of inquiry held in several American cities. A second tribunal was established to investigate human rights violations in South America in 1974-75.
These are tribunals of conscience, created in response to the demands of citizens in many countries who feel that perpetrators must be held to account and that states cannot be allowed to act with impunity; which is often the result of inaction and complicity by others.
The first session examined the responsibility of the European Union and its member states. The hearings dealt with six topics: self-determination; the annexation of East Jerusalem; settlements and the plundering of natural resources; the EU Israel Association agreement; the Gaza blockade/Operation Cast Lead; and the wall.
Proceedings were opened by Stéphane Hessel, a co-author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, followed by 27 witnesses with a range of expertise and experience (lawyers, academics, aid workers, human rights advisers, members of the European and British parliaments and a military adviser).
Israel’s violations are well known and well documented through to the Goldstone report on the invasion of Gaza in early 2009 and were summarised in the tribunal’s report under ten separate headings. The Palestinian Territories determined that a form of apartheid is being practised. The EU and its member states were found to have transgressed the EU Treaty itself as well as international obligations under the UN Charter and the 1966 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The real question, however, is not just inaction but positive action undertaken by Europe that supports the illegality. This can be exemplified by the export of weapons and components; the trade in produce from settlements in the occupied territories and above all the multibillion EU Israel Association agreement that confers benefits on Israel. The EU is the third most important trading partner for Israel and the EU Parliament has passed a resolution requiring the suspension of the association agreement, but like so much else this has not been implemented.
It was obvious to the tribunal, therefore, that the EU may not be prepared to comply with international law. In these circumstances it is necessary for concerned citizens to examine ways in which accountability may be effected. There are a number of legal avenues that can be pursued against individual European governments and their agencies, and individual private companies that maintain the regime of illegality. Additionally Israeli perpetrators of war crimes are susceptible to universal jurisdiction and are liable to be arrested should they travel to Europe.
So far the exercise of this power has not been overwhelmingly embraced by European states; instead it has been left to the endeavours of committed individuals on behalf of the victims and their families in the Palestinian Territories.
BY Michael Mansfield, QC, From Times Online March 11, 201,
The author, a QC, was one of the eight member international jury panel of the RTP. See their full report at www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com
After zapping the quantum dots with a laser to make them emit photons, the researchers found that 94 percent of the photons stayed close to their emitters, creating spots of trapped light in the crystal. That’s about as good as previous results using more precisely ordered materials. Intuitively, physicists expect light to scatter in the face of disorder, but in this case colliding light waves built each other up and collected in the material.
