Top TechTop Tech #88: Quantum barriers, 3D hearts, super batteries
Important innovations in science and technology, every day
By Paul Worthington
Wednesday’s Top Tech:
• Quantum Computing Barrier Broken
• Multiple imaging techniques make 3D-printed Heart
• Samsung supes up Silicon for better battery
Quantum Computing Barrier Broken
D-Wave Systems reports it has broken the 1000-qubit quantum computing barrier.
No, I don’t know what that means either.
The new processor is double the size of its previous generation, and “far exceeds the number of qubits ever developed by D-Wave or any other quantum effort,” the company says. This is a major technological and scientific achievement that will allow significantly more complex computational problems to be solved than was possible on any previous quantum computer.”
D-Wave says its quantum computer runs an annealing algorithm to find the lowest points, corresponding to optimal or near optimal solutions, in a virtual “energy landscape.” Every additional qubit doubles the search space of the processor. At 1000 qubits, the new processor considers 2^1000 possibilities simultaneously, a search space which dwarfs the 2^512 possibilities available to the 512-qubit D-Wave Two.
“In fact, the new search space contains far more possibilities than there are particles in the observable universe.”
Phew.
Multiple imaging techniques make 3D-printed Heart
Congenital heart experts produced a three-dimensional anatomic model of a patient’s heart by being the first to integrate computed tomography (CT) and three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3DTEE).
The result: a more detailed and anatomically accurate 3D model for “enhanced visualization of individual cardiac structures and characteristics… which can potentially enhance diagnosis, as well as interventional and surgical planning.”
It’s part of a proof-of-concept study by the not-for-profit Spectrum Health at the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.
Next: they’ll add magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to the mix.
Samsung supes up Silicon for better battery
Growing carbide-free graphene growth on silicon, scientists at Samsung are developing a lithium-ion battery with high volumetric energy density — that is, a longer lasting battery for mobile computing devices.
Almost twice as long, so far.
The full report in Nature is here, where you can read such comments as “Silicon is receiving discernable attention as an active material for next generation lithium-ion battery anodes because of its unparalleled gravimetric capacity.”
However, the silicon anode research project “could take years before” Samsung gets it to market, Engadget adds here.
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