A pioneering team of scientists at Simon Fraser University have created a new type of silicon-based quantum device controlled both optically and electrically, marking the latest breakthrough in the global quantum computing race.

Published in the journal Nature Photonics, researchers at the SFU Silicon Quantum Technology Lab and leading Canada-based quantum company Photonic Inc. reveal new diode nanocavity devices for electrical control over silicon colour centre qubits.

The devices have achieved the first-ever demonstration of an electrically-injected single-photon source in silicon. The breakthrough clears another hurdle toward building a quantum computer – which has enormous potential to provide computing power well beyond that of today’s supercomputers and advance fields like chemistry, materials science, medicine and cybersecurity.

Researchers at the ESRF - the European Synchrotron-, together with CNRS, ENS Lyon and the Institute of Marine Research in Norway, have unveiled how Atlantic Bluefin tuna transforms the toxic form of mercury into less harmful forms. Their study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, shows that the tuna’s edible muscle contains not only toxic methylmercury, but also mercury bound in stable, non-toxic compounds.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), in partnership with and with funding support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Northrop Grumman’s SpaceLogistics, has reached a historic milestone in satellite servicing technology, completing on Sept. 5 a critical round of space-readiness testing on a robotic spacecraft designed to extend and upgrade satellites already in orbit.