An ion trap helped create a quantum defect in two places at once
ANDREW BROOKES, NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Exotic quantum rifts have been created with charged atoms, and they exist in a superposition of being in two places at once. This is a first step towards better understanding the behaviour of such quantum defects in everything from materials to an entire universe.
Defects are ubiquitous – think of tears in textiles or cloudy imperfections in shiny crystals – but in quantum systems, they can have the extra property of being topological. That means the overall structure of the…
X-ray boosting fabric could make mammograms less painful
Mammograms can be painful, but they may not need to beDaria Artemenko/Alamy Getting an X-ray can be uncomfortable – you...
Women’s pelvises are shrinking – how is that changing childbirth?
Medical advances have changed childbirth – potentially enough to impact human evolutionFatCamera/Getty Images Women’s pelvises have become narrower over the...
Sea spiders ‘farm’ methane-eating bacteria on their bodies
Sea spider from the genus SericosuraBiance Dal Bó Spider-like creatures living near methane seeps on the seafloor appear to cultivate...
28 Years Later review: Danny Boyle’s long-awaited zombie sequel is a triumph
An infected in 28 Years LaterMiya Mizuno/Sony 28 Years Later Directed by Danny Boyle, written by Alex Garland In cinemas...
