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One of IBM’s latest quantum processor has improved the reliability of its qubits.Credit: Ryan Lavine for IBM
The first ever 1,000-qubit quantum chip
IBM has unveiled the first quantum computer with 1,121 superconducting qubits (qubits are the quantum equivalent of digital bits in a classical computer). Quantum computers could outperform classical computers in certain areas by exploiting phenomena such as entanglement and superposition. However, these quantum states are notoriously fickle and prone to error, so simply having more qubits does not necessarily make a system better. IBM says it will now focus on more error-resistant systems, rather than larger ones.
Earliest mosquito was a bloodsucking male
The discovery of the earliest known fossil mosquitoes, preserved in Lebanese amber, had a sting in the tail: the insects were bloodsucking males. Today, only female mosquitoes eat blood, with males living on nectar and plant juices. The 125-million-year-old fossils have mouthparts that look perfect for piercing skin, as well as mate-grabbing appendages that confirm their sex. The finding could turn current thinking — that blood-sucking evolved after plant-eating — on its head. “We think now that, originally, the mosquito could be bloodsucking,” says palaeontologist and study co-author Dany Azar. “With the appearance of the flowering plant, this function could be just forgotten later on.”
The New York Times | 5 min read
Reference: Current Biology paper
A wobbly space-time theory of everything
A new attempt to reconcile the physics of the very big and very small offers up a testable prediction: time itself might be ‘wobbly’. Physicists have long sought a unifying theory that integrates the spectacularly successful — but mathematically incompatible — general theory of relativity and quantum theory. The “postquantum theory of classical gravity” suggests that space-time is smooth and continuous, not ‘quantized’ into discrete chunks. But it has fluctuations — which could be revealed by precise table-top mass measurements. “It’s quite mathematical,” admits physicist Jonathan Oppenheim. “Picturing it in your head is quite difficult.”
References: Physical Review X paper & Nature Communications paper
Features & opinion
Why I launched a science newspaper
Biotechnology graduate Mahaletchumy Arujanan launched The Petri Dish, Malaysia’s first scientific newspaper, to improve scientific literacy in the country. More than a decade later, it’s still going strong. “We’ve covered everything from mushroom scientists to criminologists,” Arujanan explains. Funding remains a challenge, as does getting the writing style right. “People who are formally educated in science are not usually trained in writing in an engaging manner.”
Great natural-history hoaxes
“The most successful hoaxers give their targets exactly what these individuals most desire,” writes palaeontologist Daniel Ksepka, the curator of an exhibition that aims to get inside the mind of the deceiver. Exhibits at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, include an early fake by Charles Dawson, the British solicitor behind ‘Piltdown Man’ — a fusion of a human skull and a modern orangutan jawbone that misled anthropologists for decades. “Piltdown Man escaped detection for so long because it gave British anthropologists exactly what they yearned for: the perfect missing link,” writes Ksepka — and modern audiences should not consider themselves immune to such deceptions.
Scientific American | 13 min read
The mysterious nutrient collapse
Studies have suggested that fruits and vegetables contain lower levels of micronutrients — such as iron, vitamins and zinc — than they used to. It can be hard to know whether the effect is real, however, because most studies use historical data and compare different crop varieties, levels of ripeness, soil types and farming methods. But for some crops, such as wheat, the evidence is clear: the introduction of high-yielding varieties in the 1960s led to a nutritional decline. When plants produce more carbohydrates, this dilutes other grain components, including micronutrients. And the same mechanism seems to apply when plants respond to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Image of the week
Credit: Jacquie Matechuk/NPOTY 2023
Wildlife-conservation photographer Jacquie Matechuk endured days of difficult terrain and challenging weather in the Ecuadorean Andes for this snap of a spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) that won the Nature Photographer of the Year competition.
See more of the month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team. (Jacquie Matechuk/NPOTY 2023)
