(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

David Cuillier, University of Arizona

(THE CONVERSATION) In times of mortal strife, humans crave information more than ever, and its journalists responsibility to deliver it.

But what if that information is inaccurate, or could even kill people?

Thats the quandary journalists have found themselves in as they decide whether to cover President Donald J. Trumps press briefings live.

Some television networks have started cutting away from the briefings, saying the events are no more than campaign rallies, and that the president is spreading falsehoods that endanger the public.

If Trump is going to keep lying like he has been every day on stuff this important, we should, all of us, stop broadcasting it, MSNBCs Rachel Maddow tweeted. Honestly, its going to cost lives.

News decisions and ethical dilemmas arent simple, but withholding information from the public is inconsistent with journalistic norms, and while well-meaning, could actually cause more harm than good in the long run. Keeping the presidents statements from the public prevents the public from being able to evaluate his performance, for example.

Truth and falsehood can fight it out

The Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics, updated in 2014 during my term as president, states that the press must seek truth and report it, while also minimizing harm.

When the president of the United States speaks, it matters it is newsworthy, its history in the making. Relaying that event to the public as it plays out is critical for citizens, who can see and hear for themselves what their leader is saying, and evaluate the facts for themselves so that they may adequately self-govern.

Thats true even if leaders lie. Actually, its even more important when leaders lie.

Think of libertarian philosopher John Miltons plea for the free flow of information and end of censorship in 1600s England. Put it all out there and let people sort the lies from the truth, Milton urged: Let her and Falsehood grapple.

If a president spreads lies and disinformation, or minimizes health risks, then the electorate needs to know that to make informed decisions at the polls, perhaps to vote the person out to prevent future missteps.

Likewise, theres a chance the president could be correct in his representation of at least some of the facts.

Its not up to journalists to decide, but simply report what is said while providing additional context and facts that may or may not support what the president said.

Maddow is correct that journalists should not simply parrot information spoon fed by those in power to readers and viewers who might struggle to make sense of it in a vacuum. That is why its imperative journalists continuously challenge false and misleading statements, and trust the public to figure it out.

Craving information

Those who would urge the medias censorship of the presidents speeches may feel they are protecting citizens from being duped, because they believe the average person cant distinguish fact from fiction. Communication scholars call this third-person effect, where we feel ourselves savvy enough to identify lies, but think other more vulnerable, gullible and impressionable minds cannot.

It is understandable why journalists would try to protect the public from lies. Thats the minimizing harm part in the SPJ code of ethics, which is critical in these times, when inaccurate information can put a persons health at risk or cause them to make a fatal decision.

So how do journalists report the days events while minimizing harm and tamping down the spread of disinformation? Perhaps this can be accomplished through techniques already in use during this unorthodox presidential period:

-

Report the press briefings live for all to see, while providing live commentary and fact-checking, as PolitiFact and others have done for live presidential debates.

-

Fact-check the president after his talks, through contextual stories that provide the public accurate information, in the media and through websites such as FactCheck.org.

-

Call intentional mistruths what they are: Lies. With this administration, journalists have become more willing to call intentional falsehoods lies, and that needs to continue, if not even more bluntly.

-

Develop a deep list of independent experts that can be on hand to counter misinformation as it is communicated.

-

Report transparently and openly, clearly identifying sources, providing supplemental documents online, and acknowledging limitations of information.

The coronavirus pandemic is a critical time for the nations health and its democracy. Now, more than ever, we need information. As humans, we crave knowing what is going on around us, a basic awareness instinct, as termed by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in their foundational book, The Elements of Journalism.

People arent dummies

Sometimes people dont even realize they need information until after they have lost it.

In his autobiography, the late Sen. John McCain wrote that upon his release after five years as a Vietnamese prisoner of war, the first thing he did when he got to a Philippines military base was order a steak dinner and stack of newspapers.

I wanted to know what was going on in the world, and I grasped anything I could find that might offer a little enlightenment, McCain wrote. The thing I missed most was information free, uncensored, undistorted, abundant information.

People arent dummies. They can decipher good information from bad, as long as they have all the facts at their disposal.

And journalists are the ones best positioned to deliver it.

[You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read our newsletter.]

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/its-a-bad-idea-for-journalists-to-censor-trump-instead-they-can-help-the-public-identify-whats-true-or-false-134962.

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It's a bad idea for journalists to censor Trump instead, they can help the public identify what's true or false - Trumbull Times

Barring very few exceptions, nothing else in the modern world as of date, has posed graver risk to human life than the current menace of novel coronavirus (Covid-19 as tagged by WHO) in more than one way, be it physically, psychologically, socially, economically or spiritually. Some say that immune deficiencies render the contracted individuals susceptible. Some felt initially that the elderly are more vulnerable. Later, WHO clarified that none is invincible, including the youth, to viral attack. There was also confusion as to whether infection could be transmitted through the air but some authentic sources refuted doubts explaining that the disease is not airborne.

A lot of people took to social media, forwarding repeatedly different messages of curative suggestions and remedial precautions based on allopathic medicine and traditional procedures, despite the fact that medical scientists, including immunologists, epidemiologists and virologists, are still busy with their experiments and tests without any conclusive vaccine conception and administration so far.

On the other hand, the world also witnessed mutual allegations between some nations for wreaking havoc. Accusations include suppression of information about the health hazard having international ramifications with every possibility of infecting other countries. As the demonic corona began stretching out its tentacles to almost all the countries, WHO declared it a pandemic.

The public health situation soon went deteriorating in some countries even after they closed off their frontiers but those nations which sensed the impending catastrophe ahead of time and implemented tough and deterrent regulations ensuring full lockdowns at individual and city levels could avert large scale human devastation.

However, certain nations which could not respond to the emergency as expeditiously as warranted suffered heavily and are yet to get over the persisting worrisome state of affairs. Various national governments have been finding it difficult to enforce social distancing measures among their populations as per the stipulated protocols and the subsequent repercussions seem to be unimaginably dearer, expectedly as well as unexpectedly.

It is, of course, a pressing moment for global humanity as regards how to survive the pandemic with minimal damage. Because, the economic scenario anyhow has to dwindle further in the present circumstances as every household is adversely getting affected on the domestic budgetary front due to cessation of livelihood activities, despite governmental largesse. The basic instinct of group togetherness has been shattered to bits and pieces by the threat of destrudo, the death impulse.

Spiritual ambiguity has also been overwhelming to the extent that a sizeable number of faithfuls had to force their mindset for introspection as if their belief systems are beguiling. Intellectuals recollect the happenings during the days of the Second World War and its aftermath that brought forth a new thinking on life and living, reflecting atheistic existentialism and absurdism.

Meanwhile, what the American Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist Michael Levitt predicted about the probable statistics of corona fatalities in China proved true. And his convincingly calculated reasoning that the infectious disease is on the way to its end due to ongoing preventive and remedial efforts, being executed on a war footing by respective national machinery; has come out as soothing words for the tense world.

Such being the prevailing state with which we are conversant, the enigma that still keeps on lingering in our minds is about what makes one localised occurrence somewhere like the corona spark in a remote wildlife wet market of Wuhan could expand so rapidly and dangerously to everywhere across as huge as the globe itself.

If we dig deep into history, we find that certain phases of human condition act as triggers and they engulf the world in chaos, insecurity and uncertainty, sporadically or otherwise depending upon the degree of their intensity. I call them as 4 Is of global cataclysm, which ought to be redressed worldwide. They are impoverishment, injustice, illness and ignorance respectively. Apropos of the first i, that is impoverishment; the Philadelphia Declaration of ILO (International Labour Organisation) adopted a resolution in 1944 emphasising that poverty anywhere in the world is a threat to prosperity everywhere in the world. We are aware that the impoverished Karl Marx instigated the toiling masses in 19th century Britain with his provocative philosophy of class struggle to achieve economic equality through violent means. His ideology impacted many nations right from Cuba to China.

In a similar vein, the 1964 Nobel Peace laureate for civil rights Dr Martin Luther King Jr roared that injustice anywhere in the world is a threat to justice everywhere. Therefore, injustice is the second monster. Injustice, perpetrated on the basis of racial prejudice during Hitlers tyranny in Germany, led to the Second World War, involving more than two dozen countries.

Thirdly, the global politic realised that illness too anywhere in the world is a threat to wellness everywhere. This reality is literally being experienced at the moment by the whole world on account of corona contagion, which has been terrifying the humanity since the last few months, irrespective of national boundaries, cultures, races, religions, classes, castes and what not.

And the last i stands for ignorance. Almost all the countries, whether developed or developing, are struggling to cope with the pandemic as lockdowns, quarantines, isolations, self-home confinements, etc, are not fully successful as some people are heedless of seriousness owing to their ignorance. It is a fact that ignorance blocks common sense not only in the illiterate mind but also in the educated psyche. Hence, enlightenment plays a critical role in helping both the uneducated and the educated get wise for the safety and security of self and fellow humans.

It is here in this context that all the nations need to rethink their priorities and redesign their strategies so as to invest in economic equality rather than in one sided affluence, in universal social justice rather than in polarising the nations, in health rather than in weapons of mass destruction and in ethical enlightenment rather than in mindless research projects.

(The author is former DG Cyber Crimes, Bhopal)

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4 'i's of global cataclysm Redress impoverishment, injustice, illness and ignorance to make the world a - Telangana Today

Microscopic view of a Coronavirus. (Photo: PTI)

For Sri Aurobindo, behind every event that is happening in the world, there are forces at play. Some of these forces aredharmic, that is they tend towards the good of humanity; and others are asuric, destructive, striving to disrupt, to bring disharmony, to hurt even, and in general push for regression in human evolution.

This is nothing new. All great Scriptures, whether the Vedas, the Bible, or Buddhas precepts, have said the same thing the world is Maya (illusion); look behind appearances, search for Truth. Now if you take a glance at the Coronavirus epidemic in that light, it acquires a new dimension. On the medical angle, it is nothing compared to other deadly diseases, such as cancer, heart attacks, or AIDS. In India, for now, there are less than 0.0001% of the country infected. But just observe what comes along with the Coronavirus fear, suspicion, mistrust, and a worldwide panic that seems to have gripped all, the governments as well as individuals. This is the very psychosis, which comes with asuric forces. We perceive also that the Coronavirus is bringing with it tremendous economic damage to the world. Airlines, businesses, even the governments might go bankrupt, and individuals are right now undergoing tremendous financial and psychological stress. This also is the Asura.

Now what Sri Aurobindo also says is that these hostile forces need vehicles, instruments, to do their harm. In the case of the Coronavirus, this instrument has been the media, both printed and electronic,which has, with sensationalism, hyperbole, and photo-shopping, amplified a million time the fears and concerns of people, putting pressure on governments, which all fell prey to this bloodsucking blackmail.

During the Second World War, Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual companion, the Mother, clearly indicated that Hitler was anasura, an evil force, and they put their spiritual power in play to help the Allies defeat him. It is therefore clear that while taking all hygienic and medical precautions,the Coronavirus needs to be fought on a spiritual and occult level.

For having a clear occult indication on how to fight this Coronavirus epidemic, we need to look at its origin. Well, it does come from China. We are not anti-Chinese per se, but whether the Coronavirus is man-made, because the Chinese eat all kind of animals, from vampires to snakes, which are killed alive before being sold; or if it is a biological weapon, which accidentally escaped from a research laboratory. There is no doubt about its source. On a very material level, it is a timely reminder to the West of Chinas indomitable thirst for hegemonic dominance of the world. For example, 95% of the antibiotics consumed on this planet are made in China; so are most of the automobiles parts, computer chips, mobile phones such as the Apple etc. The world is therefore totally dependent on China today and this is a signal that it is a dangerous thing and the West needs to de-localize from the Chinese and re-localize in India, for instance a much more friendly, spiritual and democratic nation.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama often spoke of a black karma of the Chinese, not only because they massacred nearly a million Tibetans but also because Mao-Tse tung, in his megalomania, killed 20 million of his own people. Is the Coronavirus which has paralyzed the whole of China and which will damage its long-term ambitions, such as a new Silk Road that crosses the Himalayas to reach the Pakistani port of Gwadar, and hence flood the western world with Chinese goods, a consequence of that black karma? The future will say.

At any rate, while India needs to take all sanitary precautions, it isShe (India) only who can fight the invisible forces behind the Coronavirus. All the great gurus of the moment, His Holiness the Dalai-lama, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Amrita Anandamayi, Jaggi Sadhguru, the Shankarya, Gurumai, etc, should assemble together and performs pujasandyagnas; individually we can also fight the virus by repeating in our hearts the Mothers prayer:

In the name of the Divine,

For the sake of the Divine,

By the power of the Divine,

With the strength of the Divine,

To all adverse beings or forces,

I order you to quit this place at once and for ever.

Franois Gautier was born in Paris. In the early eighties, he began freelancing in India for different publications and finally ended up being the correspondent in South Asia, for the Geneva-based Journal de Geneve, then one of the best international newspapers in Europe. Franois has written several books: Un autre Regard sur lInde (Editions du Tricorne, Geneva-Paris), Arise O India (Har Anand, 1999), A Western journalist on India (Har Anand, 2001), Indias Self Denial (Editions Auroville Press, 2001), Swami, moine hindou et PDG (Editions Delville, Paris, 2003, 8000 copies sold), Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a Guru of Joy (India Today Book Club, 2003), La Caravane Intrieure (Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 2005), A New History of India (Har Anand, 2008). Franois is now the Editor-in-Chief of the Paris-based La Revue de lInde and a Director of a book collection on India with the same publisher.

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Let's understand Coronavirus in the light of Sri Aurobindo - News Intervention

Yet that difference between the common things a company can sell and the uncommon things they quietly develop is profoundly important. In Devs, the friendly exterior of Amaya with its enormous statue of a childa literal monument to Forests lost daughteris a public face to the actual profound work his Devs team is doing in a separate, highly secretive facility. Seemingly based in part on mysterious research and development wings of tech giantsthink Googles moonshot organizations at X Development and DeepMindDevs is using quantum computing to change the world, all while keeping Forests Zen ambition as its shield.

I think it helps, actually, Garland says about Forest not being a genius. Because I think what happens is that these [CEO] guys present as a kind of front between what the company is doing and the rest of the world, including the kind of inspection that the rest of the world might want on the company if they knew what the company was doing. So our belief and enthusiasm in the leader stops us from looking too hard at what the people behind-the-scenes are doing. And from my point of view thats quite common.

A lifelong man of words, Garland describes himself as a writer with a laymans interest in science. Yet its fair to say he studies almost obsessively whatever field of science hes writing about, which now pertains to quantum computing. A still largely unexplored frontier in the tech world, quantum computing is the use of technology to apply quantum-mechanical phenomena to data a traditional computer could never process. Its still so unknown that Google AI and NASA published a paper only six months ago in which they claimed to have achieved quantum supremacy (the creation of a quantum device that can actually solve problems a classical computer cannot).

Whereas binary computers work with gates that are either a one or a zero, a quantum qubit [a basic unit of measurement] can deal with a one and a zero concurrently, and all points in between, says Garland. So you get a staggering amount of exponential power as you start to run those qubits in tandem with each other. What the filmmaker is especially fascinated by is using a quantum system to model another quantum system. That is to say using a quantum computer with true supremacy to solve other theoretical problems in quantum physics. If we use a binary way of doing that, youre essentially using a filing system to model something that is emphatically not binary.

So in Devs, quantum computing is a gateway into a hell of a trippy concept: a quantum computer so powerful that it can analyze the theoretical data of everything that has or will occur. In essence, Forest and his team are creating a time machine that can project through a probabilistic system how events happened in the past, will happen in the future, and are happening right now. It thus acts as an omnipotent surveillance system far beyond any neocons dreams.

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Devs: Alex Garland on Tech Company Cults, Quantum Computing, and Determinism - Den of Geek UK

In the Budget 2020 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a welcome announcement for Indian science over the next five years she proposed spending 8,000 crore (~ $1.2 billion) on a National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications. This promises to catapult India into the midst of the second quantum revolution, a major scientific effort that is being pursued by the United States, Europe, China and others. In this article we describe the scientific seeds of this mission, the promise of quantum technology and some critical constraints on its success that can be lifted with some imagination on the part of Indian scientific institutions and, crucially, some strategic support from Indian industry and philanthropy.

Quantum mechanics was developed in the early 20th century to describe nature in the small at the scale of atoms and elementary particles. For over a century it has provided the foundations of our understanding of the physical world, including the interaction of light and matter, and led to ubiquitous inventions such as lasers and semiconductor transistors. Despite a century of research, the quantum world still remains mysterious and far removed from our experiences based on everyday life. A second revolution is currently under way with the goal of putting our growing understanding of these mysteries to use by actually controlling nature and harnessing the benefits of the weird and wondrous properties of quantum mechanics. One of the most striking of these is the tremendous computing power of quantum computers, whose actual experimental realisation is one of the great challenges of our times. The announcement by Google, in October 2019, where they claimed to have demonstrated the so-called quantum supremacy, is one of the first steps towards this goal.

Besides computing, exploring the quantum world promises other dramatic applications including the creation of novel materials, enhanced metrology, secure communication, to name just a few. Some of these are already around the corner. For example, China recently demonstrated secure quantum communication links between terrestrial stations and satellites. And computer scientists are working towards deploying schemes for post-quantum cryptography clever schemes by which existing computers can keep communication secure even against quantum computers of the future. Beyond these applications, some of the deepest foundational questions in physics and computer science are being driven by quantum information science. This includes subjects such as quantum gravity and black holes.

Pursuing these challenges will require an unprecedented collaboration between physicists (both experimentalists and theorists), computer scientists, material scientists and engineers. On the experimental front, the challenge lies in harnessing the weird and wonderful properties of quantum superposition and entanglement in a highly controlled manner by building a system composed of carefully designed building blocks called quantum bits or qubits. These qubits tend to be very fragile and lose their quantumness if not controlled properly, and a careful choice of materials, design and engineering is required to get them to work. On the theoretical front lies the challenge of creating the algorithms and applications for quantum computers. These projects will also place new demands on classical control hardware as well as software platforms.

Globally, research in this area is about two decades old, but in India, serious experimental work has been under way for only about five years, and in a handful of locations. What are the constraints on Indian progress in this field? So far we have been plagued by a lack of sufficient resources, high quality manpower, timeliness and flexibility. The new announcement in the Budget would greatly help fix the resource problem but high quality manpower is in global demand. In a fast moving field like this, timeliness is everything delayed funding by even one year is an enormous hit.

A previous programme called Quantum Enabled Science and Technology has just been fully rolled out, more than two years after the call for proposals. Nevertheless, one has to laud the governments announcement of this new mission on a massive scale and on a par with similar programmes announced recently by the United States and Europe. This is indeed unprecedented, and for the most part it is now up to the government, its partner institutions and the scientific community to work out details of the mission and roll it out quickly.

But there are some limits that come from how the government must do business with public funds. Here, private funding, both via industry and philanthropy, can play an outsized role even with much smaller amounts. For example, unrestricted funds that can be used to attract and retain high quality manpower and to build international networks all at short notice can and will make an enormous difference to the success of this enterprise. This is the most effective way (as China and Singapore discovered) to catch up scientifically with the international community, while quickly creating a vibrant intellectual environment to help attract top researchers.

Further, connections with Indian industry from the start would also help quantum technologies become commercialised successfully, allowing Indian industry to benefit from the quantum revolution. We must encourage industrial houses and strategic philanthropists to take an interest and reach out to Indian institutions with an existing presence in this emerging field. As two of us can personally attest, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), home to Indias first superconducting quantum computing lab, would be delighted to engage.

R. Vijayaraghavan is Associate Professor of Physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and leads its experimental quantum computing effort; Shivaji Sondhi is Professor of Physics at Princeton University and has briefed the PM-STIAC on the challenges of quantum science and technology development; Sandip Trivedi, a Theoretical Physicist, is Distinguished Professor and Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; Umesh Vazirani is Professor of Computer Science and Director, Berkeley Quantum Information and Computation Center and has briefed the PM-STIAC on the challenges of quantum science and technology development

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Picking up the quantum technology baton - The Hindu

The interdisciplinary team of researchers from UChicago, University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University and Argonne National Laboratory won the $2,500 first-place award for Best Paper. Their research examined how the VQE quantum algorithm could improve the ability of current and near-term quantum computers to solve highly complex problems, such as finding the ground state energy of a molecule, an important and computationally difficult chemical calculation the authors refer to as a killer app for quantum computing.

Quantum computers are expected to perform complex calculations in chemistry, cryptography and other fields that are prohibitively slow or even impossible for classical computers. A significant gap remains, however, between the capabilities of todays quantum computers and the algorithms proposed by computational theorists.

VQE can perform some pretty complicated chemical simulations in just 1,000 or even 10,000 operations, which is good, Gokhale says. The downside is that VQE requires millions, even tens of millions, of measurements, which is what our research seeks to correct by exploring the possibility of doing multiple measurements simultaneously.

Gokhale explains the research in this video.

With their approach, the authors reduced the computational cost of running the VQE algorithm by 7-12 times. When they validated the approach on one of IBMs cloud-service 20-qubit quantum computers, they also found lower error as compared to traditional methods of solving the problem. The authors have shared their Python and Qiskit code for generating circuits for simultaneous measurement, and have already received numerous citations in the months since the paper was published.

For more on the research and the IBM Q Best Paper Award, see the IBM Research Blog. Additional authors on the paper include Professor Fred Chong and PhD student Yongshan Ding of UChicago CS, Kaiwen Gui and Martin Suchara of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at UChicago, Olivia Angiuli of University of California, Berkeley, and Teague Tomesh and Margaret Martonosi of Princeton University.

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Research by University of Chicago PhD Student and EPiQC Wins IBM Q Best Paper - Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source

INTRODUCTION

Majorana zero modes (MZMs) localized at the ends of one-dimensional topological superconductors are promising candidates for fault-tolerant quantum computing. One approach among the proposals to realize MZMsbased on semiconducting nanowires with strong spin-orbit coupling subject to a Zeeman field and superconducting proximity effecthas received considerable attention, yielding increasingly compelling experimental results over the past few years. An alternative route to MZMs aims to create vortices in topological superconductors, for instance, by coupling a vortex in a conventional superconductor to a topological insulator.

We intoduce a conceptually distinct approach to generating MZMs by threading magnetic flux through a superconducting shell fully surrounding a spin-orbitcoupled semiconducting nanowire core; this approach contains elements of both the proximitized-wire and vortex schemes. We show experimentally and theoretically that the winding of the superconducting phase around the shell induced by the applied flux gives rise to MZMs at the ends of the wire. The topological phase sets in at relatively low magnetic fields, is controlled by moving from zero to one phase twist around the superconducting shell, and does not require a large g factor in the semiconductor, which broadens the landscape of candidate materials.

In the destructive Little-Parks regime, the modulation of critical temperature with flux applied along the hybrid nanowire results in a sequence of lobes with reentrant superconductivity. Each lobe is associated with a quantized number of twists of the superconducting phase in the shell, determined by the external field. The result is a series of topologically locked boundary conditions for the proximity effect in the semiconducting core, with a dramatic effect on the subgap density of states.

Tunneling into the core in the zeroth superconducting lobe, around zero flux, we measure a hard proximity-induced gap with no subgap features. In the superconducting regions around one quantum of applied flux, 0 = h/2e, corresponding to phase twists of 2 in the shell, tunneling spectra into the core show stable zero-bias peaks, indicating a discrete subgap state fixed at zero energy.

Theoretically, we find that a Rashba field arising from the breaking of local radial inversion symmetry at the semiconductor-superconductor interface, along with 2-phase twists in the boundary condition, can induce a topological state supporting MZMs. We calculate the topological phase diagram of the system as a function of Rashba spin-orbit coupling, radius of the semiconducting core, and band bending at the superconductor-semiconductor interface. Our analysis shows that topological superconductivity extends in a reasonably large portion of the parameter space. Transport simulations of the tunneling conductance in the presence of MZMs qualitatively reproduce the experimental data in the entire voltage-bias range.

We obtain further experimental evidence that the zero-energy states are delocalized at wire ends by investigating Coulomb blockade conductance peaks in full-shell wire islands of various lengths. In the zeroth lobe, Coulomb blockade peaks show 2e spacing; in the first lobe, peak spacings are roughly 1e-periodic, with slight even-odd alternation that vanishes exponentially with island length, consistent with overlapping Majorana modes at the two ends of the Coulomb island. The exponential dependence on length, as well as incompatibility with a power-law dependence, provides compelling evidence that MZMs reside at the ends of the hybrid islands.

While being of similar simplicity and practical feasibility as the original nanowire proposals with a partial shell coverage, full-shell nanowires provide several key advantages. The modest magnetic field requirements, protection of the semiconducting core from surface defects, and locked phase winding in discrete lobes together suggest a relatively easy route to creating and controlling MZMs in hybrid materials. Our findings open the possibility of studying an interplay of mesoscopic and topological physics in this system.

(A) Colorized electron micrograph of a tunneling device composed of a hybrid nanowire with hexagonal semiconducting core and full superconducting shell. (B) Tunneling conductance (color) into the core as a function of applied flux (horizontal axis) and source-drain voltage (vertical axis) reveals a hard induced superconducting gap near zero applied flux and a gapped region with a discrete zero-energy state around one applied flux quantum, 0. (C) Realistic transport simulations in the presence of MZMs reproduce key features of the experimental data.

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Flux-induced topological superconductivity in full-shell nanowires - Science Magazine

airspacemag.com March 27, 2020

In a new paper published in The International Journal of Astrobiology, Joseph Gale from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and co-authors make the point that recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI)particularly in pattern recognition and self-learningwill likely result in a paradigm shift in the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life.

While futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted 15 years ago that the singularitythe time when the abilities of a computer overtake the abilities of the human brainwill occur in about 2045, Gale and his co-authors believe this event may be much more imminent, especially with the advent of quantum computing. Its already been four years since the program AlphaGO, fortified with neural networks and learning modes, defeated Lee Sedol, the Go world champion. The strategy game StarCraft II may be the next to have a machine as reigning champion.

If we look at the calculating capacity of computers and compare it to the number of neurons in the human brain, the singularity could be reached as soon as the early 2020s. However, a human brain is wired differently than a computer, and that may be the reason why certain tasks that are simple for us are still quite challenging for todays AI. Also, the size of the brain or the number of neurons dont equate to intelligence. For example, whales and elephants have more than double the number of neurons in their brain, but are not more intelligent than humans.

The authors dont know when the singularity will come, but come it will. When this occurs, the end of the human race might very well be upon us, they say, citing a 2014 prediction by the late Stephen Hawking. According to Kurzweil, humans may then be fully replaced by AI, or by some hybrid of humans and machines.

What will this mean for astrobiology? Not much, if were searching only for microbial extraterrestrial life. But it might have a drastic impact on the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life (SETI). If other civilizations are similar to ours but older, we would expect that they already moved beyond the singularity. So they wouldnt necessarily be located on a planet in the so-called habitable zone. As the authors point out, such civilizations might prefer locations with little electronic noise in a dry and cold environment, perhaps in space, where they could use superconductivity for computing and quantum entanglement as a means of communication.

We are just beginning to understand quantum entanglement, and it is not yet clear whether it can be used to transfer information. If it can, however, that might explain the apparent lack of evidence for extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations. Why would they use primitive radio waves to send messages?

I think it also is still unclear whether there is something special enough about the human brains ability to process information that casts doubt on whether AI can surpass our abilities in all relevant areas, especially in achieving consciousness. Might there be something unique to biological brains after millions and millions of years of evolution that computers cannot achieve? If not, the authors are correct that reaching the singularity could be humanitys greatest and last advance.

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Reaching the Singularity May be Humanity's Greatest and Last Accomplishment - Air & Space Magazine

New Jersey, United States:The Quantum Computing Market is carefully researched in the report while largely concentrating on top players and their business tactics, geographical expansion, market segments, competitive landscape, manufacturing, and pricing and cost structures. Each section of the research study is specially prepared to explore key aspects of the Quantum Computing market. For instance, the market dynamics section digs deep into the drivers, restraints, trends, and opportunities of the Quantum Computing Market. With qualitative and quantitative analysis, we help you with thorough and comprehensive research on the Quantum Computing market. We have also focused on SWOT, PESTLE, and Porters Five Forces analyses of the Quantum Computing market.

Global Quantum Computing Market was valued at USD 89.35 million in 2016 and is projected to reach USD 948.82 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 30.02% from 2017 to 2025.

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The main players featured in the Quantum Computing market report are:

Leading players of the Quantum Computing market are analyzed taking into account their market share, recent developments, new product launches, partnerships, mergers or acquisitions, and markets served. We also provide an exhaustive analysis of their product portfolios to explore the products and applications they concentrate on when operating in the Quantum Computing market. Furthermore, the report offers two separate market forecasts one for the production side and another for the consumption side of the Quantum Computing market. It also provides useful recommendations for new as well as established players of the Quantum Computing market.

Quantum Computing Market by Regional Segments:

The chapter on regional segmentation describes the regional aspects of the Quantum Computing market. This chapter explains the regulatory framework that is expected to affect the entire market. It illuminates the political scenario of the market and anticipates its impact on the market for Quantum Computing.

Analysts who have authored the report have segmented the market for Quantum Computing by product, application and region. All segments are the subject of extensive research, with a focus on CAGR, market size, growth potential, market share and other important factors. The segment study provided in the report will help players focus on the lucrative areas of the Quantum Computing market. The regional analysis will help the actors to strengthen their position in the most important regional markets. It shows unused growth opportunities in regional markets and how they can be used in the forecast period.

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Highlights of TOC:

Overview: In addition to an overview of the Quantum Computing market, this section provides an overview of the report to give an idea of the type and content of the study.

Market dynamics: Here the authors of the report discussed in detail the main drivers, restrictions, challenges, trends and opportunities in the market for Quantum Computing.

Product Segments: This part of the report shows the growth of the market for various types of products sold by the largest companies.

Application segments: The analysts who have authored the report have thoroughly evaluated the market potential of the key applications and identified the future opportunities they should create in the Quantum Computing.

Geographic Segments: Each regional market is carefully examined to understand its current and future growth scenarios.

Company Profiles: The top players in the Quantum Computing market are detailed in the report based on their market share, served market, products, applications, regional growth and other factors.

The report also includes specific sections on production and consumption analysis, key results, key suggestions and recommendations, and other issues. Overall, it offers a complete analysis and research study of the Quantum Computing market to help players ensure strong growth in the coming years.

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Tags: Quantum Computing Market Size, Quantum Computing Market Trends, Quantum Computing Market Forecast, Quantum Computing Market Growth, Quantum Computing Market Analysis

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