Researcher surprised how early feds, mine officials, knew of Giant's arsenic problem
A Yellowknife researcher says decades-old communications show the government, health authorities and mining officials knew Giant Mine was polluting water and putting people's health at risk shortly after it started operating. A chief with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation says it reaffirms what elders in the communities of Dettah and Ndilǫ said happened back in the late 40s and early 50s.
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Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Canada's Xanadu achieves worldwide first with error-resistant quantum chip
Toronto startup Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc. is reporting a new milestone in the effort to develop a form of light-based quantum computing that can operate at commercial scale. For the first time anywhere, Xanadu researchers have created a single chip that embodies a powerful type of error-detection code in a pulse of laser light. If a number of such chips could be harnessed together, it would open the door to a quantum computer that can deliver reliable results with practical value. 'This is something that's been on our roadmap for a long time,' Zachary Vernon, Xanadu's chief technology officer for hardware, told The Globe and Mail. A technical description of the chip was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The development is significant 'because the chip platform is supposed to be scalable,' said Daniel Soh, an associate professor of optical science at the University of Arizona in Tucson. 'In the future, we will need millions or billions of this kind of devices on a chip. This result is a massive step towards that goal,' said Dr. Soh, who is not affiliated with Xanadu. Canada 'a sweet spot' for growing quantum computing industry, expert says Christian Weedbrook, Xanadu's founder and chief executive officer, said the development means it is possible to envision a quantum-computing system operating at the scale of a data centre, with some 5,000 servers fitting into a facility less than 10,000 square metres in size. 'We're also thinking ahead to how we can add more density in there, so that'll change,' he said. Earlier this year Xanadu published a result showing how its form of quantum computing could be easily modularized. This latest step is aimed at making a machine large enough to solve relevant problems but not so large that it becomes impractical for commercial purposes. It is the latest example of a shift in the focus and tempo of advancements in the quantum computing world. Overall, the goal remains to create a computer that runs on qubits – interconnected physical elements that exhibit quantum behaviour – instead of the standard bits of a conventional digital system. Where a bit can be used to represent a one or a zero in a mathematical calculation, a qubit can be a mixture of both. This dual nature, when combined with many other qubits, is what allows a quantum computer, in principle, to vastly outperform a conventional computer at certain kinds of calculations that are important for data security and other applications. While various companies, including Google, IBM and Microsoft, have experimented with different types of qubits, all of them face the same challenge: Quantum systems are sensitive to disturbance and difficult to isolate from the rest of the world, which makes quantum computers especially error-prone. To counter this, qubits can be linked to check each other for signs of failure during a calculation. But the price for such redundancy is that many more qubits are needed to build a reliable computer powerful enough to solve real-world problems. More recently, teams have sought to exploit various mathematical codes, which are ways of tying qubits together, to make error correction more robust. Of particular interest are Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) codes. First proposed in 2001, they are challenging to implement but especially amenable for quantum computer builders such as Xanadu, whose machines use qubits made of light moving through a fibre-optic network. Xanadu's new chip corrals incoming particles of light, called photons, into a quantum state that allows them to work together to form a GKP qubit. The chip has four outputs, three of which are connected to detectors that can reveal whether the fourth is in a state that would allow it to be useful for a quantum calculation. In a working quantum computer, such chips would provide an initial layer of error detection that would then be further augmented by other error-correction techniques when chips are combined. Similar strategies are being explored by other companies. Last week, Nord Quantique, based in Sherbrooke, Que., demonstrated that it had successfully encoded microwave photons bouncing around inside a metal cavity with a GKP code. Meanwhile, Xanadu still has more obstacles to overcome. Chief among them is finding ways to overcome signal loss, which occurs when photons are absorbed by the materials they are moving through. In addition to making its light-based technology work, Xanadu and direct competitors such as PsiQuantum, Corp. of Palo Alto, Calif., are racing against big tech companies developing computers with qubits that rely on special superconducting materials kept at extremely cold temperatures. Light-based systems offer a different set of advantages, including the fact that they can operate at room temperature. While no system has yet emerged as a clear winner, Dr. Soh says light-based quantum computers may end up inching ahead because once the key technical challenges are solved, they will be easier to scale up.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Woman hit and killed by VIA train in Windsor appears to be 'accidental,' police say
Social Sharing A 71-year-old woman is dead after police say she was hit by a VIA Rail passenger train in the city's east end Tuesday afternoon. It happened just before 4 p.m. near Lauzon Parkway, between Catherine Street and Lauzon Line. In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for Windsor police said "the incident appears accidental." "A preliminary investigation determined the woman attempted to cross the train tracks and was hit by an oncoming locomotive," police said in a separate statement. VIA Rail confirmed on Tuesday the train involved was carrying 63 passengers and no one on board was injured. "Our thoughts, of course, are with those affected by this event," the passenger rail company said. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. Traffic was stalled in the area for several hours for the investigation. Police are asking anyone who may have witnessed the incident to contact them.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Barn demolished, horse killed in fire near Chatham
A fire in Chatham-Kent has levelled a barn along a rural road and killed a horse. Emergency crews got the call to 7544 Eighth Line around 9 p.m. ET Tuesday. That's near Highway 401, and southwest of Chatham. Local fire officials say once the blaze was brought under control, other livestock were found in a pasture beside the barn. The horse that died was inside. Losses are expected to total $400,000. Aside from the one animal, no other injuries were reported.
