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Magnets in a spin bath
April 15, 2005
Is quantum mechanics relevant to everyday life? Latest scientific evidence suggests that it is. A paper published in Science based on research from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland and others, reports how quantum computers behave as if they are isolated devices. The extent to which they do this can be regulated by the environment they are in. So future quantum computers will have to be in a carefully controlled environment. It's a little like concerns about turbulent air conditions when designing aircraft. One of the most important questions in the natural sciences is whether quantum mechanics is relevant to everyday experience. Once only a problem in the realm of theoretical physics, the recent demand for secure communications and ultra-high speed computation has made the answer highly relevant to future technology where interacting quantum bits (qubits) replace the classical binary bits '0' and '1' on which current digital electronics and communications rely.
From experiment to reality
To engineer quantum computers it is necessary for the 'qubits' to be stable in realistic settings, such as the integrated circuit packages in a typical office computer. Physicists refer to such settings as the 'environment', or more picturesquely, the 'bath' and the challenge is to control and minimize the interactions of the 'qubits' with the 'bath'. 'Baths' by their very nature can be difficult to define and therefore the systematic study of interactions between qubits and 'baths' is in its infancy. The new research shows how a well-specified bath affects the 'qubits' in a crystal which behaves as a very primitive quantum computer.
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
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When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give, how could you not give it? If it was someone you truly loved? To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one...
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"Softly he brushed my cheek, then held my face between his marble hands. 'Be very still,' he whispered, as if I wasn't already frozen. Slowly, never moving his eyes from mine, he leaned toward me. Then abruptly, but very gently, he rested his cold cheek against the hollow at the base of my throat." As Shakespeare knew, love burns high when thwarted by obstacles. In Twilight, an exquisite...
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| Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3) by Stephenie Meyer
Readers captivated by Twilight and New Moon will eagerly devour Eclipse, the much anticipated third book in Stephenie Meyer's riveting vampire love saga. As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward...
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| New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2) by Stephenie Meyer
Legions of readers entranced by Twilight are hungry for more and they won't be disappointed. In New Moon, Stephenie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural twist. The "star-crossed" lovers theme continues as Bella and Edward find themselves facing new obstacles, including a devastating separation, the mysterious appearance of dangerous wolves...
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| Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by American Psychological Association
...offers updated information on reporting statistics, writing withour bias, preparing manuscripts with a word processor for electronic production, and publishing research in accordance with ethical...
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| Watchmen by Alan Moore
Has any comic been as acclaimed as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen? Possibly only Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, but Watchmen remains the critics' favorite. Why? Because Moore is a better writer, and Watchmen a more complex and dark and literate creation than Miller's fantastic, subversive take on the Batman myth. Moore, renowned for many other of the genre's finest creations (Saga...
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| Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished...
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| The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality by Jerome R. Corsi
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