FasterThanLight
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Researchers claim 'almost instantaneous' quantum computing breakthrough
Silicon is great, but we're tickling the edges of its speed limit. As a result, researchers at Oregon State University have been plugging away at a low-cost, faster alternative for the past three years: tiny quantum devices called metal-insulator-metal diodes, or MIM diodes for short. Silicon chips involve electrons traveling through a transistor, but MIM diodes send electrons "tunneling" through the insulator in a quantum manner, such that they appear "almost instantaneously" on the other side. The tech's latest development doubles the insulator fun -- transforming the MIM into a MIIM (pictured above) -- giving the scientists another method for engineering quantum mechanical tunneling. With MIIMs, super fast transistor-less computers could be around the corner. The Oregon researchers aren't bold enough to put a date on making any of this happen outside of the lab, but they promise entire new industries may "ultimately emerge" from their work, and we're far too under-qualified to doubt them.
Faster-than-light neutrinos are back in the game
Back in September, CERN dropped the improbable news about its faster-than-light neutrinos, causing eggheads worldwide to cry foul. Understandable really, as if true, a lot of what we think we know about the universe essentially falls apart. So, expect severe bouts of head-scratching once more, as a second round of experiments from the same OPERA collaborative has reported similar results. The initial experiments used a long chain of neutrinos, fired from point A to B. Skeptics claimed that this might have introduced an element of uncertainty to the results -- the new tests used much shorter blasts, meaning that if they arrived just as quickly, then this potential cause for error is scratched out. The new data still needs to undergo the usual peer review, and other possible causes for error remain. For now though, it looks like one of the main arguments against has been addressed, making the Einstein-challenging neutrinos one step closer (or is that ahead?) to re-writing the rule book.
Remember those faster-than-light neutrinos? Great, now forget 'em
A week ago the world went wild over CERN's tentative claim that it could make neutrinos travel faster than light. Suddenly, intergalactic tourism and day trips to the real Jurassic Park were back on the menu, despite everything Einstein said. Now, however, a team of scientists at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands reckons it's come up with a more plausible (and disappointing) explanation of what happened: the GPS satellites used to measure the departure and arrival times of the racing neutrinos were themselves subject to Einsteinian effects, because they were in motion relative to the experiment. This relative motion wasn't properly taken into account, but it would have decreased the neutrinos' apparent journey time. The Dutch scientists calculated the error and came up with the 64 nanoseconds. Sound familiar? That's because it's almost exactly the margin by which CERN's neutrinos were supposed to have beaten light. So, it's Monday morning, Alpha Centauri and medieval jousting tournaments remain as out of reach as ever, and we just thought we'd let you know.
