IBM is Rolling out the World's First Universal 'Quantum Computing' Service

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We're all excited about the potential of quantum computers - devices that will harness strange quantum phenomena to perform calculations far more powerful than anything conventional computers can do today.

Unfortunately, we still don't have a tangible, large-scale quantum computer to freak out over just yet, but IBM is already preparing for a future when we do, by announcing that they're rolling out a universal 'quantum-computing' service later this year.

The service will be called IBM Q, and it will give people access to their early-stage quantum computer over the internet to use as they wish - for a fee.

The big elephant in the room is that, for now, IBM's quantum computer only runs on five qubits, so it's not much faster (if any faster) than a conventional computer.

But their technology is improving all the time. The company has announced it hopes to get to 50 qubits in the next few years, and in the meantime, it's building the online systems and software so that anyone in the world can access the full power of its quantum computer when it's ready. IBM Q is a crucial part of that.

QuantumComputing. The three types of quantum computing. Credit: ExtremeTech

Unlike conventional computers, which use 'bits' of either 1 or 0 to code information, quantum computers use a strange phenomenon known as superposition, which allows an atom to be in both the 1 and 0 position at the same time. These quantum bits, or qubits, give quantum computers far more processing power than traditional computers.

But right now, qubits are hard to make and manipulate, even for more the most high-tech labs. Which is why IBM only has five qubits working together in a computer, despite decades of research. And those qubits have to be cooled to temperatures just above absolute zero in order to function.

Companies such as Google, and multiple university research labs, have also built primitive quantum computers, and Google has even used theirs to simulate a molecule for the first time, showing the potential of this technology as it scales up.

But instead of just focussing on the hardware itself, IBM is also interested in the software around quantum computers, and how to give the public access to them.

"IBM has invested over decades to growing the field of quantum computing and we are committed to expanding access to quantum systems and their powerful capabilities for the science and business communities," said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president of Hybrid Cloud and director for IBM Research.

IBM Q universal quantum computer Credit: YouTube

The system builds on the company's Quantum Experience, which was rolled out last year for free to approved researchers. IBM Q will use similar cloud software, but will also be open to businesses - and, more importantly, any programmers and developers who want to start experimenting with writing code for quantum systems.

The goal is to have a functional, commercial, cloud-based service ready to go when a fully realised quantum computer does come online.

"Putting the machine on the cloud is an obvious thing to do," physicist Christopher Monroe from the University of Maryland, who isn't involved with IBM, told Davide Castelvecchi over at Scientific American. "But it takes a lot of work in getting a system to that level."

The challenge is that while, on paper, a five-qubit machine is pretty easy to simulate and program for, real qubits don't quite work that way, because you're working with atoms that can change their behaviour based on environmental conditions

"The real challenge is whether you can make your algorithm work on real hardware that has imperfections," Isaac Chuang, a physicist at MIT who doesn't work with IBM, told Scientific American.

In their announcement, IBM said that in the past few months, more than 40,000 users have already used Quantum Experience to build and run 275,000 test applications, and 15 research papers have been published based off of it so far.

And they predict that in future, the quantum service will become even more useful.

"Quantum computers will deliver solutions to important problems where patterns cannot be seen because the data doesn't exist and the possibilities that you need to explore to get to the answer are too enormous to ever be processed by classical computers," said IBM in its announcement.

There's no word as yet on how much IBM Q will cost to use, or how users will be approved. But we have to admit it'd be pretty cool to be among the first to play around with quantum computing.



Other articles on the same theme:

• Quantum computer simulates hydrogen molecule

• The new supercomputer “Minerva” has been put into operation at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute, AEI).

• IBM developed the first artificial neurons

• New Particle zoo in a quantum computer First experimental quantum simulation of particle physics phenomena

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Sciencealert . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

How to influence a dreams content before sleep? Research shows there are ways to train yourself to take control of your dreams.

photo: pinterest

Updated 20/05/2020 and before Updated 03.12.2018


If your dreams are particularly boring, or if you just want to have a little more fun at night, scientists say you may be able to control what you dream about.

Even better is that it’s possible to take control of your dream and do whatever you want!

There’s only one obstacle – you have to practice.

If you have no self-discipline, forget about it. However, if you can easily make a plan and stick to it, these research-based techniques (suggested by many psychologists and sleep experts) could be just what you need to change your dream life.

Eastern Orthodox Spirituality

Problem solving

It’s possible to use your dreams to find solutions to your problems. Start by thinking about the problem before sleeping – if this generates an image, hold it in your mind so it’s the last thing you see before falling asleep.

You can also place objects on your nightstand that represent the problem. For example, an artist experiencing a creative block could place a blank canvas next to the bed. In order to remember your dream, stay in the same position you wake up in. The distraction of moving can cause you to forget half of what you dreamed about.

Lucid Dreaming: Can You Control Your Dreams? The Ghost Diaries

Choosing your dream


If you want to dream about a particular subject or person, or if you used to have dreams of flying and want them back, use the same technique described for problem solving. Looking at a photo of the person or idea you want to dream of could be enough to trigger it.

New technique increases chance of lucid dreaming Cosmos Magazine

Lucid dreaming

This is the difficult part. The other techniques have a much higher success rate and don’t require as much practice or discipline.

Lucid dreams aren’t easy to come by, but studies show that following these steps can help you achieve them:

Color Lucid Dream by sheikhrouf23 on DeviantArt

1. Start keeping a dream journal


Place a pen and notebook next to where you sleep. When you wake up after dreaming, remain still until you’ve remembered everything you can. Then, write down as many details as possible.

Keeping a Dream Journal Lucid Guide

Over the coming weeks, you’ll be able to see patterns that will help you with some of the other steps in the process.

2. Give yourself “reality checks”

If you stop to ask yourself if you’re dreaming, you’ll likely know the answer. But getting into the habit of asking yourself during the day increases your chances of asking yourself while you’re dreaming – and the only way to have a lucid dream is to realize that you aren’t awake.

How to Avoid Nightmares and Get More Restful Sleep Amerisleep

Throughout the day, keep asking yourself if you’re dreaming. Do it as you read text or flip on a light switch. It may seem silly, but if you were asleep, those tasks wouldn’t work in the same way. If you flip a light switch and the sky turns purple, and you’re able to ask yourself “Am I dreaming?”, you’ll know that you’re inside a dream and you can begin to control it.


3. Redistribute your sleep

Scientists believe that late morning dreams are the longest and most intense, and many agree that redistributing your sleep is the most reliable method for inducing lucid dreaming.

I had a dream … between Heaven and Hell. Now, I want some answers.' image OB Rag

This is how it works: set an alarm to wake you up four hours earlier than normal. Get up and go about your business for two hours while imagining that you can control your dreams. Then get back in bed and sleep for another two hours.

Those delayed final two hours of sleep are the most rich with REM activity, and they’re your best chance at achieving lucidity.


4. Identify your personal dream signs


Here’s where your dream journal comes back into play.

Go through your dream entries and highlight anything that appears more than once. Identifying the objects, animals, or people that recur is another way to tell yourself that you’re dreaming.

Infinty model of healing

For example, if you always dream about your deceased grandmother, keep saying to yourself “The next time I see Grandma, I’ll be dreaming.” With any luck, the next time you dream about her, you’ll realize you aren’t awake.

Many of these techniques seem either simple or extraordinarily difficult to put into practice, but sleep experiments have shown that about half the people who consistently use them are able to see results.

What do you think? Can you make it happen? Let us know in the comments or send us your best dream stories!



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• Tunnel of light "between life and death has found scientific explanation

• After millennia, Harvard researchers appear to have finally discovered the origin of forming consciousness

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Didyouknowfacts. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length

The genes of extinct species, unidentified, were found in Melanesian DNA, ( NATURAL BLACK BLONDES ) the population is located in the South Pacific

Melanesian Unic People photo: Pinterest

The genes of extinct species, unidentified, were found in Melanesian DNA, the population is located in the South Pacific.

According to new research, this species did not belong to Neanderthal or denisovan, but could represent a third species, unidentified so far.

Ryan BOHLENDER, a geneticist at the University of Texas, said that "perhaps I have missed a species or omitted links between species." He and his team tried to find out the percentage of DNA specific hominids that people today still do have and the result was represented by discrepancies revealing that the pairing of our ancestors with Neanderthal and Denisovan there is In fact, the primary explanation. It is believed that, far from 10,000 years to 60,000 years ago, they migrated from Africa and had contacts with populations living in Eurasia and these contacts have left a footprint specified in our DNA that lasts until today, Europeans and Asians having choices Neanderthal genetic distinct.


Moreover, researchers discovered earlier this year that Europeans have inherited from Neanderthal genes that put them at the disposition emergence of diseases and increased risk of depression. The percentage of DNA that Europeans and Asians have inherited from them is 2.8%.


But when it comes to DNA inherited from denisovan, things get a bit more complicated, especially if the population of Melanesia, an area in the South Pacific that includes Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Papua Western and Maluku Islands. One of the researchers involved in the project said: "Europeans show no gene denisovan and population in China only a very small percentage, 0.1%. However, if Melanesian this percentage is 1.11%." After these investigations, those who started the study concluded that the three species would have much to do with the current population of the Melanesian.

Melanesian People photo: Pinterest

Interaction with other species prehistoric ancestors may have been more complex than we had expected and even if there were no findings that show the existence of other species, that does not mean they did not exist.




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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Science Alert . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Where the brain retains memories

For the first time in the history of research, scientists were able to identify what they think are the places where memories are formed and stored our. Briefly, neurons working with information about who we are and about the things you've done or I've lived in the past.

"Because we were able to highlight these places in laboratory mice brains, hopefully we can get to know more about how memories are formed in our brains," said the researchers behind this study

Queensland Brain Institute - University of Queensland

A team from the Institute of Neurobiology in France have made this discovery by using a fluorescent protein in neurons of four mice. This protein illuminate the cells containing calcium ions, in this case showing that the existence of the respective neuron functions.

Laboratory mice were tested so as they ran on a running wheel. During the "race" their neurons were lit, which means that in their minds already formed memories that helped them remember the distance traveled. When the animals were resting, light only appear in certain parts of the brain representing that there is stocaseră information that helped the rats to remember different parts of "race" covered.

"We managed to outline how memories are formed," explained Rosa Cossart, study leader.

Of course, the study was questioned by other researchers who claim that you can not know for sure if these neurons are indeed those responsible for storing memories. They argue that there is no reason why that experience for the running wheel mice on them to be stored in memory and divide into distinct cell blocks. However, these studies represent an interest for them, only to be taken further, detailed and analyzed in other ways.


Currently scientists clear a few aspects regarding how the storage of memories in the brain, such as that in the hippocampus there are cells that help the rats to remember the surrounding world, but they could not explain at this time how and why illuminate these neurons and that this process has traveled to the brain.









Source: Descopera

Romans killed their newborn girls? A discovery highlights the mystery '' barbaric practice '

Foto:themysteryvault.com/Wikimedia 

Scientists say that the results we have obtained can help to analyze the skeletons of different periods of Roman.

According to some historians, the skeletal remains of children found in ancient tombs in different areas of the UK, suggests that the Romans practiced infanticide. Recently, researchers have shown, however, that the bones belong to stillbirths identified and buried by their families in accordance with the customs of that time.

So far, Some argue that the Romans killed their children in an attempt to have more boys than girls. However, a team led by researchers from the Natural History Museum, Museum of London and Durham University have shown that infaticide was not a practice widespread in the Roman province of Britannia, and most of the remains of children found belonged to individuals born dead.

Distinguishing ,, stillbirths remains from those of children born alive is important for archaeologists to study the health of populations in the past and understand how they pertained to cases where children died, "says Dr. Thomas Booth, one of the study coordinators conducted by British experts.

In their research, experts analyzed the skeletons of 10 children buried in Roman cemeteries near London. With the help of the X-ray microtomografiei, researchers were able to study the material composition osteological and found that the biggest part of it was unaffected by bioeroziune process during which the bacteria in the intestines begin to cause bone deterioration immediately after the body dies. In this way, scientists have learned that the bones belonged to stillbirths.

,, The ability to differentiate stillbirths remains from those of children born alive, without affecting the skeletons analyzed, will have a profound impact on the study of past human life, "added Thomas Booth.

Now researchers hope that further studies will be done to improve the knowledge we have so far about how people lived in Britannia.


,, Now we can apply the results of this research to study the skeletons of different periods of Roman, to investigate the risks of death and find out how they are related to the changes undergone by London, "says Dr. Rebecca Redfern, another coordinator of the study.

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source: Mail Online

IBM developed the first artificial artificial neurons brains

Updated 08/05/2020

Made of conventional materials and readily miniaturized to nanometer scale for the future composition "artificial brains", created by IBM researchers neurons can be grouped into networks capable of transferring electrical signals in a manner similar biological brain.

Designing artificial brains can help us learn more about real ones The Conversation

The experiment conducted at a research center in Zurich included a network of artificial neurons 500, connect to simulate the interactions that normally occur in the brains of animals. But the real challenge was miniaturization artificial neurons on a microscopic scale without losing functionality and finding ways of getting to use only materials and processes well known.

According Go4It, while organic neurons use membranes acting as gateway to electrical signals, requiring a certain level of energy for activating version artificial suggested by IBM researchers replace this item with a barrier made of a mixture called GST (germanium-antimony -teluriu), already used as an ingredient in the production of optical discs. GST barrier function by phase change from the amorphous state (insulator) in the crystal (elctricitate conductor), and is started by heating that occurs at the application of electrical signals.

New technique follows single neurons from birth to brain circuit Spectrum 

Similar biological analogue, provided with artificial neurons are activated when the GST barrier electrical load exceeds a predetermined minimum level, then self-resets to its original state non-conductors of electricity. Crucial to duplicate the functionality of a real brain, artificial neurons were designed to have a certain level of unpredictability in the sense that no barriers GST never return to exactly the same configuration after activation. Thus, interactions between neurons can never be fully predictable, the same "thought" processed by the neural network leading to "conclusions" vary by state in which the brain is artificial and previously processed information.

Brain Connections: No Neuron Is An Island Live Science

With these neurons, IBM researchers hope to create computers capable of mimicking how efficient parallel processing in the brain of living organisms encountered. Once overcome this obstacle, a greater challenge would be to create a "software" proper functioning parallel with unpredictable results not just compatible with existing programming languages.


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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Go4it . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Quantum computer simulates hydrogen molecule

A prototype quantum computer has been used to calculate the electronic structure of a hydrogen molecule for the first time, demonstrating the possibility of performing complex quantum-mechanical simulations of molecular processes on such devices.


Updated 02/05/2020

The quantum computer was constructed by researchers at Google’s research laboratories in California, US. Together with colleagues elsewhere in the US and in the UK, a team led by John Martinis used the device to perform electronic structure calculations that they say can be readily scaled up to more complex cases.1

IBM BrandVoice: The Quantum Computing Era Is Here. Why It Matters Forbes

The possibility of simulating quantum systems without the approximations necessary with classical computers was what prompted Richard Feynman to propose quantum computing back in 1982. As quantum computers have come closer to reality, much of the attention has been focused on the greater speed they should achieve relative to classical devices. But some feel that quantum simulation will end up being the ‘killer application’ that makes the effort worthwhile.

Roche - Quantum computers - Calculating the unimaginable

This is not the first time that a quantum-chemistry algorithm has been implemented on a proto-quantum computer. But previous efforts have not been able to exploit the full advantages of a quantum-based approach, because they have required costly ‘pre-computation’ steps on a classical computer, which limits the degree of complexity that can be handled this way. ’What is new here is that this work uses a scalable quantum computing architecture,’ says Matthias Troyer of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, who was not involved in the research.


A combined approach

Google’s digital quantum computer uses superconducting devices for its quantum bits (qubits), in which information can be encoded in the quantum states of the supercurrent.2 To carry out the electronic structure calculation for a hydrogen molecule, the researchers used two different methods, called the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) and phase-estimation algorithm (PEA).

Wired Google's Quantum Victory Is a Huge Deal—and a Letdown

‘We might soon see quantum computers that outperform classical ones for certain problems’‘Both are efficient quantum algorithms for finding ground-state energies,’ says team member Peter O’Malley, ‘but they take different approaches and have different advantages and disadvantages.’ The PEA method can in principle get the answer with arbitrary precision, but only if there are no errors in the process.

In practice errors are always present, in which case the VQE method works better. This involves using a series of successive algorithms that gradually improve on an initial guess at the molecule’s wavefunction. By adjusting the parameters in the wavefunction, it is possible to compensate for errors incurred in the computational steps and still get an answer – for the dissociation energy, say – essentially the same as that obtained from a detailed classical simulation of the molecule.

The researchers say that it is already possible to simulate more complicated molecules than hydrogen with their device. ‘The benefit of quantum simulation is that you only need a quantum simulator roughly the size of the molecule you want to simulate,’ says O’Malley. The calculation used only a third of the available qubits, and the team is now building quantum chips that should be able to model small transition-metal complexes.


‘All of these problems are still trivial and the effort of just controlling the quantum computer is still much more than that of solving the problem classically,’ says Troyer. He adds that we may soon see quantum computers that outperform classical ones for certain problems, but that doing quantum-chemistry calculations beyond the power of classical computers will take a few years longer.

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source: rsc