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Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Business
- Al Jazeera
Is the US losing its place as the world leader in science?
By cracking down on immigration and defunding scientific research, the United States is slowly losing its position as the world leader in research and development, argues Holden Thorp, editor of Science journal and former chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Thorp tells host Steve Clemons that the US government had made a concerted effort over the past 80 years to fund scientific research, but with the changes ushered in by the administration of President Donald Trump, Thorp predicts the results will be 'bad for science in general, and also for the US role in innovation'.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Physicists force atoms into state of quantum 'hyper-entanglement' using tweezers made of laser light
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Using optical tweezers composed of laser light, researchers have developed a novel way to manipulate individual atoms and create a state of hyper-entanglement. This breakthrough could lead to new forms of quantum computing and advances in quantum simulations designed to answer fundamental questions about physics. Caltech scientists have been using optical tweezers to control individual atoms for several decades, leading to a number of advances, including quantum error correction and a method for creating the world's most accurate clocks. One persistent issue in the process, however, has been the natural motion of atoms, which can introduce noise (and errors) into a quantum system. But in the breakthrough study, published in the journal Science, that weakness has been transformed. "We show that atomic motion, which is typically treated as a source of unwanted noise in quantum systems, can be turned into a strength," said Adam Shaw in a statement on Caltech's website, a postdoctoral researcher and first author on the study. Instead of a disruptive influence, Shaw and colleagues have harnessed that movement to create hyper-entangled sets of atoms. Hyper-entanglement is distinct from traditional quantum entanglement, which describes two or more particles that are in-sync and share a property across vast distances. Hyper-entangled atoms, by contrast, can share multiple properties at the same time. In the experiment, the Caltech team was able to link both the states of motion and electronic states (a measure of an atom's internal energy level) in a pair of atoms at the same time. Related: Physicists create hottest Schrödinger's cat ever in quantum technology breakthrough This achievement is an important step in terms of both volume and efficiency, according to Manuel Endres, a professor of physics at Caltech and co-lead author of the study. "This allows us to encode more quantum information per atom," he said in the statement. "You get more entanglement with fewer resources." To achieve that state of hyper-entanglement, the team first had to cool an alkaline earth atom with no charge using a novel method that Endres said involved "detection and subsequent active correction of thermal motional excitations." By deploying this method, the team was able to almost completely freeze the atom's motion. The next step was to cause atoms to oscillate like a pendulum on a tiny scale in two different directions simultaneously, creating a state of superposition — when a particle exhibits opposite properties at the same time. These oscillating atoms were then entangled with partners that matched their motion, and finally hyper-entangled to also mirror their electronic states. RELATED STORIES —Quantum computing: What is quantum error correction (QEC) and why is it so important? —Quantum 'miracle material' can store information in a single dimension thanks to newly discovered magnetic switching —Building quantum supercomputers: Scientists connect two quantum processors using existing fiber optic cables for the first time According to Endres, the point of the experiment was to find the limit of control they could exercise over the atoms. "We are essentially building a toolbox," he said. "We knew how to control the electrons within an atom, and we now learned how to control the external motion of the atom as a whole — it's like an atom toy that you have fully mastered." One of the most exciting facets of this discovery is the implication that even more states or properties could be entangled, which Endres said could lead to a number of potential applications. "Motional states could become a powerful resource for quantum technology, from computing to simulation to precision measurements."
Associated Press
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
The US has world-class scientific talent. The rest of the world is hoping to lure that away
As the Trump administration cut billions of dollars in federal funding to scientific research, thousands of scientists in the U.S. lost their jobs or grants — and governments and universities around the world spotted an opportunity. The 'Canada Leads' program, launched in April, hopes to foster the next generation of innovators by bringing early-career biomedical researchers north of the border. Aix-Marseille University in France started the 'Safe Place for Science' program in March — pledging to 'welcome' U.S.-based scientists who 'may feel threatened or hindered in their research.' Australia's 'Global Talent Attraction Program,' announced in April, promises competitive salaries and relocation packages. 'In response to what is happening in the U.S.,' said Anna-Maria Arabia, head of the Australian Academy of Sciences, 'we see an unparalleled opportunity to attract some of the smartest minds here.' Since World War II, the U.S. has invested huge amounts of money in scientific research conducted at independent universities and federal agencies. That funding helped the U.S. to become the world's leading scientific power — and has led to the invention of cell phones and the internet as well as new ways to treat cancer, heart disease and strokes, noted Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the journal Science. But today that system is being shaken. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has pointed to what it calls waste and inefficiency in federal science spending and made major cuts to staff levels and grant funding at the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, NASA and other agencies, as well as slashing research dollars that flow to some private universities. The White House budget proposal for next year calls to cut the NIH budget by roughly 40% and the National Science Foundation's by 55%. 'The Trump administration is spending its first few months reviewing the previous administration's projects, identifying waste, and realigning our research spending to match the American people's priorities and continue our innovative dominance,' said White House spokesperson Kush Desai. Already, several universities have announced hiring freezes, laid off staff or stopped admitting new graduate students. On Thursday, the Trump administration revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students, though a judge put that on hold. Research institutions abroad are watching with concern for collaborations that depend on colleagues in the U.S. — but they also see opportunities to potentially poach talent. 'There are threats to science ... south of the border,' said Brad Wouters, of University Health Network, Canada's leading hospital and medical research center, which launched the 'Canada Leads' recruitment drive. 'There's a whole pool of talent, a whole cohort that is being affected by this moment.' Promising a safe place to do science Universities worldwide are always trying to recruit from one another, just as tech companies and businesses in other fields do. What's unusual about the current moment is that many global recruiters are targeting researchers by promising something that seems newly threatened: academic freedom. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this month that the European Union intends to 'to enshrine freedom of scientific research into law.' She spoke at the launch of the bloc's 'Choose Europe for Science' — which was in the works before the Trump administration cuts but has sought to capitalize on the moment. Eric Berton, president of Aix-Marseille University, expressed a similar sentiment after launching the institution's 'Safe Place for Science' program. 'Our American research colleagues are not particularly interested by money,' he said of applicants. 'What they want above all is to be able to continue their research and that their academic freedom be preserved.' Too early to say 'brain drain' It's too early to say how many scientists will choose to leave the U.S. It will take months for universities to review applications and dole out funding, and longer for researchers to uproot their lives. Plus, the American lead in funding research and development is enormous — and even significant cuts may leave crucial programs standing. The U.S. has been the world's leading funder of R&D — including government, university and private investment — for decades. In 2023, the country funded 29% of the world's R&D, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. But some institutions abroad are reporting significant early interest from researchers in the U.S. Nearly half of the applications to 'Safe Place for Science' — 139 out of 300 total — came from U.S.-based scientists, including AI researchers and astrophysicists. U.S.-based applicants in this year's recruitment round for France's Institute of Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology roughly doubled over last year. At the Max Planck Society in Germany, the Lise Meitner Excellence Program — aimed at young female researchers — drew triple the number of applications from U.S.-based scientists this year as last year. Recruiters who work with companies and nonprofits say they see a similar trend. Natalie Derry, a U.K.-based managing partner of the Global Emerging Sciences Practice at recruiter WittKieffer, said her team has seen a 25% to 35% increase in applicants from the U.S. cold-calling about open positions. When they reach out to scientists currently based in the U.S., 'we are getting a much higher hit rate of people showing interest.' Still, there are practical hurdles to overcome for would-be continent-hoppers, she said. That can include language hurdles, arranging childcare or eldercare, and significant differences in national pension or retirement programs. Community ties Brandon Coventry never thought he would consider a scientific career outside the United States. But federal funding cuts and questions over whether new grants will materialize have left him unsure. While reluctant to leave his family and friends, he's applied to faculty positions in Canada and France. 'I've never wanted to necessarily leave the United States, but this is a serious contender for me,' said Coventry, who is a postdoctoral fellow studying neural implants at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But it's not easy to pick up and move a scientific career — let alone a life. Marianna Zhang was studying how children develop race and gender stereotypes as a postdoctoral fellow at New York University when her National Science Foundation grant was canceled. She said it felt like 'America as a country was no longer interested in studying questions like mine.' Still, she wasn't sure of her next move. 'It's no easy solution, just fleeing and escaping to another country,' she said. The recruitment programs range in ambition, from those trying to attract a dozen researchers to a single university to the continent-wide 'Choose Europe' initiative. But it's unclear if the total amount of funding and new positions offered could match what's being shed in the U.S. A global vacuum Even as universities and institutes think about recruiting talent from the U.S., there's more apprehension than glee at the funding cuts. 'Science is a global endeavor,' said Patrick Cramer, head of the Max Planck Society, noting that datasets and discoveries are often shared among international collaborators. One aim of recruitment drives is to 'to help prevent the loss of talent to the global scientific community,' he said. Researchers worldwide will suffer if collaborations are shut down and databases taken offline, scientists say. 'The U.S. was always an example, in both science and education,' said Patrick Schultz, president of France's Institute of Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology. So the cuts and policies were 'very frightening also for us because it was an example for the whole world.' ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New CRISPR alternative can 'install' whole genes, paving the way to treatment for many genetic disorders
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Scientists have developed a new gene-editing system that can weave whole genes into human DNA. It could one day lead to a better method of treating genetic diseases triggered by a diverse range of mutations. So far, the approach has been tested only in human cells in the laboratory. But if it's shown to be safe and effective for patients, it could provide an alternative to gene-editing tools that target only specific typos in DNA. Rather than correcting a single gene mutation, the new technique would instead introduce a working copy of the gene into a person's cells. "A single genetic disease can be caused by many different mutations in that gene," said Isaac Witte, a doctoral student at Harvard University and co-lead author of the new research. For example, cystic fibrosis can be triggered by more than 2,000 different mutations in a specific gene. "Treating it [these types of conditions] with genome editing often requires many, mutation-specific approaches. That's labor-intensive, and also intensive from a regulatory standpoint" to get all those approaches approved, Witte told Live Science. An alternative strategy is to introduce a whole new gene to make up for the broken one. The gene editor, described in a report published Thursday (May 15) in the journal Science, enables these types of edits and can insert the new gene directly "upstream" of where the broken one is found in human DNA. More work is needed to get the new gene editor out of the lab and into medical practice, but "we are quite excited by this," Witte said. Related: CRISPR 'will provide cures for genetic diseases that were incurable before,' says renowned biochemist Virginijus Šikšnys Classical CRISPR systems are often nicknamed "molecular scissors" because they use proteins to cut DNA. These systems are found naturally in bacteria, which use CRISPR to defend themselves against invaders, such as viruses. The core of the new gene editor is also borrowed from bacteria, but it does not cut DNA. Rather, it moves large sections of a host's DNA from one location to another in a highly targeted manner. These systems — called CRISPR-associated transposases (CASTs) — have been known about since 2017 and act as a way for "jumping genes" to leap around, either within the same cell's DNA or possibly into other cells' genomes. CASTs are attractive for gene editing because, unlike molecular scissors, they don't cut DNA and thus don't rely on cellular machinery to patch up the DNA that's sustained the cut. That repair process makes it tricky to add new DNA to the genome, in part because it can introduce unwanted mutations. CASTs, on the other hand, sidestep that issue. But CASTs found naturally in bacteria don't play well with human cells. In previous studies led by Samuel Sternberg, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at Columbia University and a co-senior author of the new paper, researchers characterized naturally occurring CASTs and then attempted to use them to edit DNA in human cells. But the systems proved very inefficient, inserting DNA into only 0.1% or less of the cells, Witte said. So Witte, Sternberg and colleagues set out to make CASTs more useful for human therapies. They started with a CAST from Pseudoalteromonas bacteria, which, in previous studies, had shown a teensy bit of activity in human cells. Then, they used an experimental approach called PACE to speed up the evolution of that CAST, introducing new tweaks to the system in each successive round. Through this process, the team evolved a new CAST that could integrate DNA into human cells with 200-fold more efficiency than the original, on average. "It took over 200 hours in PACE, which corresponds to several hundreds of evolutionary generations," Witte said. The same process would have taken years with more conventional methods of directing evolution in lab dishes. Related: 188 new types of CRISPR revealed by algorithm The evolved CAST — dubbed evoCAST — includes 10 key mutations that are needed for it to work well in human cells, Witte said. However, the system works better in some types of human cells than in others, and more research will be needed to understand why that is, he said. The team assessed how well evoCAST worked at regions of the genome that carry genes that are mutated in certain diseases, such as Fanconi anemia, Rett syndrome and phenylketonuria. The team found evoCAST worked in about 12% to 15% of treated cells. Although 100% efficiency is likely not necessary to treat genetic diseases, Witte noted, the exact efficiency needed to cure a given condition likely varies and will require study. RELATED STORIES —New CRISPR system pauses genes, rather than turning them off permanently —CRISPR used to 'reprogram' cancer cells into healthy muscle in the lab —CRISPR therapy for high cholesterol shows promise in early trial The team also tested evoCAST as a method for editing immune cells used in CAR T-cell therapy, a cancer treatment, and found it was similarly efficient for that purpose. That raises the idea of using this gene-editing approach not only inside the human body, but also in the lab to manufacture these types of cell-based therapies. Future research will need to figure out how to best deliver evoCAST to the right cells in the body. "There are a lot of areas for further studies," Witte said. Of course, those studies will need to be funded, and on that front, "it's a difficult time," he added. The new Science study was supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Now, the NIH's funding has been slashed by sweeping cuts, some of which specifically singled out Ivy League universities like Harvard. "It is something that we're actively dealing with," Witte said.
