Latest news with #PaulStevenson
RNZ News
14-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Dismantling of historic Dunedin Gasworks chimney begins
The Dunedin City Council says the chimney at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum is in worse condition than first thought. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton Workers will start the careful, brick by brick dismantling of a historic Dunedin landmark - aiming to repair it and put it back together in the future. The Dunedin Gasworks Museum was closed last month to assess the safety of the 25-metre tall chimney after possible earthquake damage. Dunedin City Council owns the Category 1 historic place, and said a recent update found it was in worse condition than first thought. The chimney - a relic of the country's only gasworks - has stood proud over South Dunedin since the 1800s. But last month, an assessment found there was an imminent risk to public safety. The latest news painted a grim picture: once work to repair the cracks got underway, the chimney might collapse. Naylor Love is tasked with the urgent work. Its project and interiors manager Paul Stevenson said it was a big job ahead. "The cracks are appearing quite considerably. We're having corrosion inside the chimney, which is expanding, which is opening up those joints now," he said. A crane carrying what looked like a skip hovered near the top of the chimney, as workers secured the walers - 12 metre long timbers - to minimise the risk of it falling down. Naylor Love project and interiors manager Paul Stevenson. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton Below the chimney is a no-go zone. "We have to bring it down piece by piece, record it with the hope in the future of rebuilding it and the concern was if we didn't put the walers around we'd lose a lot of that ... it'll just naturally want to fall out," Stevenson said. At least the top four to six metres will come down before the chimney is reassessed, but he was not ruling out more going if that was what it took to make it safe again. He was working within tight rules because the gasworks is a Category 1 historic place. "So we photograph, we pull them out, we number them, we record them, we bring them down, we put them on pallets and store them so we can, in theory, piece the whole thing back together," he said. "Each layer, three bricks all the way around, also maintaining the ladder rungs that are in there and all that, we need to record all that with the hope of being able to rebuild it in the future." Dunedin City Council property services group manager Anna Nilsen said it was trying to save as much of the chimney as possible. It had been a difficult time for the Dunedin Gasworks Museum Trust, which operates the museum. "It's not their best news, for sure, but they're supportive of the work that we're doing. They're supportive of keeping the bricks aside for future restoration so we're working together pretty closely," Nilsen said. Last year, an engineering review recommended the council do a more detailed seismic assessment of the chimney. Dunedin City Council property services group manager Anna Nilsen said detailed inspections had been carried out using drones and crane access. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton Anna Nilsen did not believe the problems and risks should have been noticed earlier. "The review that we did last year was a starting point so it was the beginning of a seismic assessment," she said. "That first step was a desk based seismic assessment where it was just the start, we were getting ready to do the full seismic assessment which would have uncovered these things that we now know." It was not known how much the work would cost, but she said it had to be done. "I'd hate to give you a ballpark [be]cause I'd just be guessing at this stage. Look, it's health and safety. It's human life that we're talking about so we're always going to be able to find funds to do that and that's what we're challenged to do," Nilsen said. The dismantling is expected to take about three weeks. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
The Guardian
19-02-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Topoconductor chip could bring quantum computing breakthrough, says Microsoft
Quantum computers could be built within years rather than decades, according to Microsoft, which has unveiled a breakthrough that it said could pave the way for faster development. The tech firm has developed a chip which, it says, echoes the invention of the semiconductors that made today's smartphones, computers and electronics possible by miniaturisation and increased processing power. The chip is powered by the world's first topoconductor, which can create a new state of matter that is not a solid, liquid, or gas – making it possible to design quantum systems that fit in a single chip smaller than the palm of a hand, and to create more reliable hardware, a peer-reviewed paper published in Nature reports. Paul Stevenson, a professor of physics at the University of Surrey, said Microsoft could be 'very serious competitors' in the race to build the first reliable quantum computers if the company successfully built on this research. 'The new papers are a significant step, but as with much promising work in quantum computing, the next steps are difficult and until the next steps have been achieved, it is too soon to be anything more than cautiously optimistic,' he said. George Booth, a professor of theoretical physics at King's College London, said the research represented an 'impressive technical achievement', albeit one whose value would probably only become clear with hindsight. 'Whether a claim of 'years' [rather than decades before meaningful development] is accurate will remain to be seen,' he said. Microsoft claims that the topoconductor offers a path to developing quantum systems that can scale to a million qubits – the delicate building blocks of quantum computers that are analogous to the ones and zeros computers currently use. This could eventually produce the most powerful computers yet, based on quantum mechanics rather than classical physics, which would be capable of solving highly complex industrial and societal problems. This could include breaking down microplastics into harmless byproducts; inventing self-healing materials for construction, manufacturing or healthcare; solving complex logistics supply chain problems; or cracking encryption codes. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion Earlier this month, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) selected Microsoft's topoconductor as one of two pathways to quantum computing it is exploring as part of a programme intended to determine whether it is possible to build an industrially useful quantum computer by 2033, much faster than most predictions. The other approach is created by PsiQuantum, which is using silicon-based photonics, meaning light wave-based technology, to create a quantum computer based on a lattice-like fabric of photonic qubits. Microsoft previously claimed to have developed topological qubits in a paper which had to be retracted after scientific flaws were pointed out. Booth said that although Microsoft's progress had been slow relative to some other companies, it had instead 'focused on the long game by working on a system which is inherently more resilient to noise and interference' than the fragile basic quantum computers that competitors have been building for a few years. 'These topological qubits protect the information they carry by using the properties of a new type of emergent particle, a Majorana fermion, which means that it is harder for this information to be lost as it is processed. However, [there is an] added layer of complexity when constructing these qubits when compared to competing architectures,' he said. These Majorana particles had never previously been seen or made. Microsoft said they had to be 'coaxed into existence with magnetic fields and superconductors', which is why most quantum computing research has focused on other approaches. Booth said the research represented a step in the direction of a very different platform that could 'compete with the more mature technologies pioneered by the likes of Google', though he added that there was still a long way to go in demonstrating that the technology could be scaled up.
