Latest news with #atom
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Science
- South China Morning Post
Chinese scientists build largest array of atoms for quantum computing in the world
A team led by renowned Chinese physicist Pan Jianwei has built a key component for an atom-based quantum computer, raising hopes it could be scaled up to an array using tens of thousands of the tiny building blocks. The approach taken by Pan and his team from the University of Science and Technology of China overcomes a major hurdle to atom-based quantum computing, according to a paper published last week in the peer-reviewed Physical Review Letters. The researchers designed an artificial intelligence system capable of arranging more than 2,000 rubidium atoms – each serving as a qubit, the two-state basic unit of quantum computing – into perfect patterns in a mere 60,000th of a second, it said. The milestone array was hailed by the paper's reviewers as 'a significant leap forward in computational efficiency and experimental feasibility within atom-related quantum physics', according to a press release on the university's website. Three main ways to build a quantum computer have emerged since the concept was first envisioned in the 1980s, with the atom-based approach considered especially promising. Unlike the alternatives, which use superconducting circuits or trapped ions as qubits, neutral atoms are more stable and easier to control in large numbers. However, atom-based systems have so far been limited to arrays of just a few hundred. In an atom-based quantum computer, the atoms are held in place by focused laser beams called optical tweezers, which manipulate their energy levels and link them to perform calculations.
BBC News
03-08-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Rishton street named after nuclear physicist Sir Ernest Marsden
An internationally famous Lancashire scientist who helped unlock the secrets of the atom is to have a street named after him in his physicist Sir Ernest Marsden will be honoured in a new 30-home estate on the site of the former Albert Mill in Wednesday Hyndburn Council's street naming committee will be asked to approve the title of Ernest Marsden Close for the road leading off Mary Ernest - who was born in Rishton's Hermitage Street in 1889, and attended Blackburn's Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School - conducted ground-breaking work into the construction of the atom while an undergraduate at Manchester University in 1909. 'Old mills and canals' Working in the dark, the young physicist painstakingly counted the flashes produced when recently discovered alpha particles hit a piece of gold years after his work was published his professor Lord Ernest Rutherford - credited with splitting the atom in 1932 - was able to assess the Ernest's study found that only a tiny part of the atom is made up of a charge, rather than the whole atom, helping the understanding of how they attract each physics was born, enabling new mathematical calculations and leading to many of the advances of the 20th Ernest died in 1970 aged 81 in New Zealand where he has worked as leading naming of the new street after him was proposed by Rishton councillors Kate Walsh and Bernard Dawson and backed by Hyndburn MP Sarah Walsh said: "While I am proud of our industrial heritage it would be lovely to give the children of Rishton a former resident to look up to whose scientific work was internationally recognised."We aren't just old mills and canals but renowned scientists too."In 2002 Sir Ernest was honoured with the unveiling of a plaque at his birthplace, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
