Category: Mean machines
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Creating random numbers the quantum way
The stream of high quality papers continues from the lab of Andrew Shields at Toshiba Research in Cambridge, UK. Today, his team unveils a new type of quantum random number generator and a fine looking machine it appears to be. Here’s the idea. Create a stream of single photons are emitted at random intervals that…
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Terminator 0.0.1 (alpha)
The French start up Aldebaran-Robotics based in Paris has high hopes for its humanoid robot called NAO. The device is 57 cm high and weighs 4.5 kilograms (about the size of a 6 month old baby) and you may be about to see a lot more of it. The company has sent a simplified version…
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The magnetic magic of liquid mirrors
Liquid mirror telescopes are amazing contraptions. They start life as a puddle of mercury in a bowl. Set the whole thing spinning and the mercury spreads out in a thin film up the sides of the bowl. The result is a fabulously cheap mirror that can be used for a variety of astronomical surveys.…
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If invisibility cloaks don’t work, try the invisibility sheet
When it comes to invisibility cloaks, nobody has done more to advance the field than John Pendry, a theoretical physicist at Imperial College, London. It was he who suggested the idea in the first place and mapped out how one could be built in theory. He even got his hands dirty by collaborating with the…
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Simple mod turns diode into photon counter
Counting photons is a tricky business. They’re slippery beasts that arrive silently, often and in packs, in ways that are almost impossible to count. One of the most widely used of devices that can spot the arrival of a single photon is the avalanche photodiode. These cheap and easy to use devices rely on the…
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Let the SPIT wars begin
If SPAM arrives in your inbox at 4am, the chances are your antispam software will catch it. But even if it doesn’t, you won’t lose much sleep over its arrival. But it’ll be a different story with SPIT (spam over internet telephony). Junk phone calls at 4am are going to drive you mad because the…
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First test of exotic space thruster ends in explosion
In 2006, Mason Peck at Cornell University in Ithaca dreamt up with an entirely new way to control satellites orbiting planets that have a magnetic field. The idea is based on the Lorentz force: that a charged particle moving through a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to both its velocity and the field. So…
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The puzzling discovery of a motor made from liquid film
Here’s an interesting effect discovered by a group of Iranian physicists at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran (it’s not often we hear from these guys). They placed a thin film of water in a square cell and applied two perpendicular electric fields. One was an external electric field. For the other, they used…
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Why tiny helicopters are so hard to fly
Tiny remote control helicopters have become all the rage in the last few years as lightweight motors and materials have plummeted in price. But if you’ve ever played with one, you’ll know how hard they are to control. That’s not the result of poor construction. Small helicopters are harder to control than big ones because…
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Qutrit breakthrough brings quantum computers closer
The folks playing with quantum computers have been claiming for years that their gadgets will one day make today’s supercomputers look like quivering lumps of jelly. But so far, their computers have yet to match the calculating prowess of a 10-year old with ADHD. The most exciting work so far has been on universal quantum…