How to overcome noise in quantum computations

Researchers Ludovico Lami (QuSoft, University of Amsterdam) and Mark M. Wilde (Cornell) have made significant progress in quantum computing by deriving a formula that predicts the effects of environmental noise. This is crucial ...

Why icicles are rippled

Winter is coming to an end; the last nights of below zero temperatures are here. In the morning, one still spots the occasional icicle on a gutter or car bumper. When you look at these icicles carefully, you may notice that ...

How does gecko tape work?

To solve practical issues, sometimes all we have to do is study nature. An often quoted example is that of the gecko, a small animal known for the phenomenal adhesive strength in its feet, which allows it to walk on walls ...

New method flips the script on topological physics

The branch of mathematics known as topology has become a cornerstone of modern physics thanks to the remarkable—and above all reliable—properties it can impart to a material or system. Unfortunately, identifying topological ...

Microbot toys demonstrate how biological machines move

By connecting small self-propelling toys in a chain, researchers at the UvA Institute of Physics have found the key to studying the movement of microscopic organisms and molecular motors inside our cells.

Control over friction, from small to large scales

Friction is hard to predict and control, especially since surfaces that come in contact are rarely perfectly flat. New experiments demonstrate that the amount of friction between two silicon surfaces, even at large scales, ...

Kinks, skinks and supersymmetry

Supersymmetry is symmetry of nature that is often hypothesized to exist among elementary particles. In a new paper that appeared in Physical Review Letters this week, physicists from the University of Amsterdam and QuSoft ...

How did the old masters make their ultramarine?

Researchers at the Rijksmuseum, the University of Amsterdam, VU Amsterdam and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) have developed a method that reveals how the costly pigment ultramarine was prepared from the ...

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