DNA storage

wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_digital_data_storage 

Microsoft DNA data storage
http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/imaging/microsoft-buys-into-dna-data-storage

Microsoft Buys Into DNA Data Storage

By Eliza Strickland

Posted 27 Apr 2016 | 13:00 GMT

  Bodies are fragile and prone to the eventual failure known as death. But the DNA that encodes all the instructions for creating and operating those perishable bodies? That stuff sticks around. Thanks to 7000-year-old DNA from a tooth found in a Spanish cave, for example, we know that the “caveman” who died there had blue eyes and was probably lactose intolerant.

Now Microsoft is making an investment in DNA data storage, a cutting-edge technique that takes advantage of genetic material’s durability and efficiency. The company has taken a chunk of data that would normally be stored in a file on a hard drive, and has translated it into the genetic code of As, Cs, Gs, and Ts that represent the chemical building blocks of DNA. Then it asked synthetic biology startup Twist Bioscience to manufacture 10 million DNA strands with those sequences of letters.

A single gram of DNA can store almost a zettabyte of digital data.

 

“They give us the DNA sequence, we make the DNA from scratch,” Twist CEO Emily Leproust says in a phone interview. Once the data has been transformed into invisible molecules at the bottom of a test tube, Twist will send it back to Microsoft for testing. The company can experiment with using the DNA for long-term data storage (there are ways to simulate the passing of millennia) and reading the data back out from those test tubes.

Interestingly, Twist doesn’t know what data it’s encoding. “We don’t have the decoder key, so I have no idea what it is,” says Leproust. Microsoft hasn’t divulged that information either.

Twist, a San Francisco-based biotech startup, uses machines of its own devising to mass-produce DNA. Its primary customers are researchers creating novel bits of DNA to stick into microbes. The DNA gives the microbes useful new properties such as, say, the natural ability to produce an industrial chemical typically manufactured from petroleum. But synthesizing DNA for data storage would open up an entirely new market.

The idea of storing data in DNA has intrigued researchers for decades, and got a serious push forward in 2012 when Harvard geneticist George Church encoded an entire book in DNA. As a storage medium, genetic material is not only durable, but also incredibly compact: A single gram of DNA can store almost a zettabyte (one trillion gigabytes) of digital data.

As our Information Age society generates ever-increasing amounts of data, researchers are worrying about where to put it, and how long it can be stored using existing technologies. DNA is one idea in the running for stashing away data that doesn’t need to be accessed often. Its read-out mechanism is DNA sequencing, which has become cheap and easy in the past two decades (the price of sequencing an entire human genome has dropped from about $1 billion in the year 2001 to about $1000 today).

Researchers are still looking into the error rate of coding and decoding information into DNA, and costs still have to come down quite a bit before it will be considered a real alternative to existing technologies. How much? “We have to lower the cost by about 10,000 times from where it is today,” says Leproust. But that’s no deal-breaker, she says; costs in electronics have dropped by millions of times.

As for Microsoft, the company seems willing to give it a go. “The initial test phase with Twist demonstrated that we could encode and recover 100 percent of the digital data from synthetic DNA,” says Doug Carmean of Microsoft Research in a press release. “We’re still years away from a commercially viable product, but our early tests with Twist demonstrate that in the future we’ll be able to substantially increase the density and durability of data storage.”

3D printed shoes - Under Armour

http://www.solidsmack.com/cad-design-news/worlds-first-3d-printed-training-shoe-is-coming-from-under-armour/

We’ve seen 3D printed shoes as far back as 2012. Adidas has innovated with ocean waste, and some even adapt to your foot. Now, Under Armour has created the world’s first commercially available 3D printed training shoes.

Under Armour teamed up with Autodesk to create these innovative shoes in an effort to make training shoes both lightweight and supportive. The result is the UA Architech, training shoes that promise to be comfortable, durable, and supportive.

To make sure the new shoes hit all the right marks, Under Armour had to use a new structure for the midsole. The final design uses a lattice structure – an idea they got from a computer program rather than an athletic expert. During the design stages, the company consulted an algorithmic systems to create structures based on the desired criteria, a process known as generative design. When it was time to actually build the shoes, the task proved to be too difficult for existing manufacturing methods. In comes Autodesk with their software Autodesk Within used to create the new stable heel.


“Traditional manufacturing processes like injection molding typically don’t work well for the complex structures that come out of a generative design,” said Senior Director of Design, Mark Davis. “3D printing does give more flexibility to produce shoes that benefit from the lattice—in this case it provides greater stability and cushioning than conventional designs.”

But the 3D printing technology doesn’t just stop at the midsole. These elements are also found in the heel and the upper area of the shoe where the “Clutchfit Auxetic” design is meant to adapt to the shape and movement of the wearer for a more precise fit. These new features are an addition to Under Armour’s trademark “Charged Foam” cushioning for comfort and responsiveness and a thin rubber outsole for traction. All of these elements combined, result in Under Armour’s ultimate performance trainer.

Under Armour is not the only company to implement 3D printing technology in their shoes. Last year, New Balance created the first 3D printed running shoe. Before that Adidas revealed its own 3D printed midsole molded for an athlete’s foot. But the thing that makes the UA Architech different is it’ll be available commercially as a limited edition starting March 18 via Under Armour’s website. The shoes costs $299.99 and 96 pairs – a reference to the company being founded in 1996 – will be available for the masses.

“One of the real benefits of 3D printing is that it will allow for an era of mass customization,” Davis said. “Meaning that every individual consumer could have a custom designed shoe just for them, based on their height, weight, athletic needs.”

Combining 3D printing with wearables has been successful in the past, so hopefully these new shoes will prove to be a hit. (They’re already “sold out” on the website. A good sign?) With the promise of being lightweight, supportive, and comfortable the UA Architech promises to be the ultimate trainers for all athletes.

jet-powered hoverboard

Zapata Racing Flyboard Air

The voice of Bernie Sanders

When I first heard Bernie Sanders, I immediately thought of the voice of the aardvark from
"The Ant and the Aardvark" cartoon.

I've searched for that cartoon in the past but for some reason it's scarce to find.

I found the name of the voice actor, John Byner, and I found his impression act in which he imitates Jackie Mason, which inspired the voice of the Aardvark.


THE ANT AND THE AARDVARK - Never Bug An Ant (TV... by paul-iverson

Jackie Mason's stand up routines:



Here's an ironic interview with Jackie Mason, speaking on Fox News:




...and here's a video breakdown of Bernie Sander's accent:

Cancer Immunotherapy

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/sean-parker-donates-250-million-launch-cancer-immunotherapy-institute-n555196

Sean Parker Donates $250 Million to Launch Cancer Immunotherapy Institute

by Reuters

 

Silicon Valley billionaire Sean Parker will donate $250 million to launch a new institute aimed at developing more effective cancer treatments by fostering collaboration among leading researchers in the field.

"Any breakthrough made at one center is immediately available to another center without any kind of IP (intellectual property) entanglements or bureaucracy," Parker, the co-founder of music-sharing website Napster and the first president of Facebook, told Reuters in an interview.

Sean Parker Kevin Mazur / WireImage file

The new Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy will focus on the emerging field of cancer immunotherapy, which harnesses the body's immune system to fight cancer cells.

It will include over 40 laboratories and more than 300 researchers from six key cancer centers: New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering, Stanford Medicine, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, San Francisco, Houston's University of Texas MD Anderson and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Recently approved drugs have helped some patients sustain remission. But those first-generation therapies do not work for everyone, and scientists are trying to understand how to make them more effective.

"Very little progress has been made over the last several decades," Parker said, referring to cancer drug research. "Average life expectancy has only increased three to six months with some of these drugs that cost billions to develop."

Parker said the current system of cancer drug development discouraged the kinds of risk-taking that could lead to a major breakthrough.

The new institute "is paradigm shifting," said Dr. Jedd Wolchok, chief of the melanoma and immunotherapeutics unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

He said it would alleviate the need for scientists to secure grants, which he said took up at least 30 percent of his time, foster collaboration among accomplished scientists and provide access to the newest information processing and data technology.

"I have no doubt this will allow us to make progress, and to make it much more quickly," Wolchok said.

Reverse Photosynthesis Uses Sunlight To Convert Plant Biomass Into Fuel

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/147122/20160405/reverse-photosynthesis-uses-sunlight-to-convert-plant-biomass-into-fuel.htm

By Alyssa Navarro, Tech Times | April 5, 7:24 AM

 

A vast majority of the planet's industrial system is fueled by petroleum, a naturally-occurring liquid found in formations beneath the surface of the Earth. This makes the petrochemical industry completely indispensable in society.

However, petrochemicals have a huge impact on both the environment and climate.
Now, a team of scientists from Denmark has discovered a new method called reverse photosynthesis which could potentially revolutionize industrial production of chemicals and fuels.

How Reverse Photosynthesis Works

Photosynthesis is a process used by most plants to convert light energy from the Sun into chemical energy, often resulting to vital products such as oxygen.
Just like photosynthesis, the reverse process collects sunlight thru the chlorophyll, a green pigment found in leaves.

But instead of building plant material, the process allows energy in solar rays to break down with the help of a specific enzyme that combines with light energy.

Here is how it works: researchers collect a large sugar molecule broken down from biomass, and then mix it with the special enzyme from bacteria and fungi.

The special enzymes used in reverse photosynthesis are called monooxygenases, natural enzymes applied in the production of industrial fuel. When exposed to sunlight, the plant biomass is completely broken down.

Klaus Benedikt Møllers, one of the study's researchers, said with reverse photosynthesis, the breaking down of sunlight transforms carbon bonds, instead of building plants and producing oxygen.

The revolutionary process takes place within five minutes with sunlight, but without sunlight, it would take hours to achieve the energy transformation.

Although researchers have yet to determine whether reverse photosynthesis is natural process that occurs in the environment, there are many indications that bacteria and fungi actually use reverse photosynthesis to access nutrients and sugar in plants.

The Impact Of Reverse Photosynthesis

David Cannella, one of the researchers of the study, said their discovery means that the production of biofuels and biochemicals for things like plastic could be faster and more efficient.
"Some of the reactions, which currently take 24 hours, can be achieved in just 10 minutes by using the Sun," said Cannella.

The new method's ability to split chemical bonds between hydrogen and carbon may be developed to turn biogas-planted source methane into liquid fuel methanol, an "attractive" raw material that can be processed into fuels.

Claus Felby, a professor from University of Copenhagen and lead researcher of the study, believes that the discovery is a "game-changer" that could change how the industry produces chemicals and fuels, "thus serving to reduce pollution significantly."

In the meantime, further investigations must be done before their discovery could directly benefit society, but the potential is "one of the greatest we have seen in years," added Felby.
The findings of the study are featured in the journal Nature Communications.




 

New state of matter: Quantum spin liquids

http://phys.org/news/2016-04-state-two-dimensional-material.html

An international team of researchers have found evidence of a mysterious new state of matter, first predicted 40 years ago, in a real material. This state, known as a quantum spin liquid, causes electrons -- thought to be indivisible building blocks of nature -- to break into pieces. The researchers, including physicists from the University of Cambridge, measured the first signatures of these fractional particles, known as Majorana fermions, in a two-dimensional material with a structure similar to graphene. Their experimental results successfully matched with one of the main theoretical models for a quantum spin liquid, known as a Kitaev model. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials. Quantum spin liquids are mysterious states of matter which are thought to be hiding in certain magnetic materials, but had not been conclusively sighted in nature. The observation of one of their most intriguing properties -- electron splitting, or fractionalisation -- in real materials is a breakthrough. The resulting Majorana fermions may be used as building blocks of quantum computers, which would be far faster than conventional computers and would be able to perform calculations that could not be done otherwise.

n international team of researchers have found evidence of a mysterious new state of matter, first predicted 40 years ago, in a real material. This state, known as a quantum spin liquid, causes electrons - thought to be indivisible building blocks of nature - to break into pieces.

The researchers, including physicists from the University of Cambridge, measured the first signatures of these fractional particles, known as Majorana fermions, in a two-dimensional material with a structure similar to graphene. Their experimental results successfully matched with one of the main theoretical models for a quantum spin liquid, known as a Kitaev model. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials.
Quantum spin liquids are mysterious states of matter which are thought to be hiding in certain magnetic materials, but had not been conclusively sighted in nature.
The observation of one of their most intriguing properties—electron splitting, or fractionalisation—in real materials is a breakthrough. The resulting Majorana fermions may be used as building blocks of quantum computers, which would be far faster than conventional computers and would be able to perform calculations that could not be done otherwise.
"This is a new quantum state of matter, which has been predicted but hasn't been seen before," said Dr Johannes Knolle of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, one of the paper's co-authors.
In a typical magnetic material, the electrons each behave like tiny bar magnets. And when a material is cooled to a low enough temperature, the 'magnets' will order themselves, so that all the north magnetic poles point in the same direction, for example.
But in a material containing a spin liquid state, even if that material is cooled to absolute zero, the bar magnets would not align but form an entangled soup caused by quantum fluctuations.
"Until recently, we didn't even know what the experimental fingerprints of a quantum spin liquid would look like," said paper co-author Dr Dmitry Kovrizhin, also from the Theory of Condensed Matter group of the Cavendish Laboratory. "One thing we've done in previous work is to ask, if I were performing experiments on a possible quantum spin liquid, what would I observe?"


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-state-two-dimensional-material.html#jCp

An international team of researchers have found evidence of a mysterious new state of matter, first predicted 40 years ago, in a real material. This state, known as a quantum spin liquid, causes electrons - thought to be indivisible building blocks of nature - to break into pieces.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-state-two-dimensional-material.html#jCp

An international team of researchers have found evidence of a mysterious new state of matter, first predicted 40 years ago, in a real material. This state, known as a quantum spin liquid, causes electrons - thought to be indivisible building blocks of nature - to break into pieces.

The researchers, including physicists from the University of Cambridge, measured the first signatures of these fractional particles, known as Majorana fermions, in a two-dimensional material with a structure similar to graphene. Their experimental results successfully matched with one of the main theoretical models for a quantum spin liquid, known as a Kitaev model. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials.
Quantum spin liquids are mysterious states of matter which are thought to be hiding in certain magnetic materials, but had not been conclusively sighted in nature.
The observation of one of their most intriguing properties—electron splitting, or fractionalisation—in real materials is a breakthrough. The resulting Majorana fermions may be used as building blocks of quantum computers, which would be far faster than conventional computers and would be able to perform calculations that could not be done otherwise.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-state-two-dimensional-material.html#jCp

An international team of researchers have found evidence of a mysterious new state of matter, first predicted 40 years ago, in a real material. This state, known as a quantum spin liquid, causes electrons - thought to be indivisible building blocks of nature - to break into pieces.

The researchers, including physicists from the University of Cambridge, measured the first signatures of these fractional particles, known as Majorana fermions, in a two-dimensional material with a structure similar to graphene. Their experimental results successfully matched with one of the main theoretical models for a quantum spin liquid, known as a Kitaev model. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials.
Quantum spin liquids are mysterious states of matter which are thought to be hiding in certain magnetic materials, but had not been conclusively sighted in nature.
The observation of one of their most intriguing properties—electron splitting, or fractionalisation—in real materials is a breakthrough. The resulting Majorana fermions may be used as building blocks of quantum computers, which would be far faster than conventional computers and would be able to perform calculations that could not be done otherwise.
"This is a new quantum state of matter, which has been predicted but hasn't been seen before," said Dr Johannes Knolle of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, one of the paper's co-authors.
In a typical magnetic material, the electrons each behave like tiny bar magnets. And when a material is cooled to a low enough temperature, the 'magnets' will order themselves, so that all the north magnetic poles point in the same direction, for example.
But in a material containing a spin liquid state, even if that material is cooled to absolute zero, the bar magnets would not align but form an entangled soup caused by quantum fluctuations.
"Until recently, we didn't even know what the experimental fingerprints of a quantum spin liquid would look like," said paper co-author Dr Dmitry Kovrizhin, also from the Theory of Condensed Matter group of the Cavendish Laboratory. "One thing we've done in previous work is to ask, if I were performing experiments on a possible quantum spin liquid, what would I observe?"
Knolle and Kovrizhin's co-authors, led by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, used neutron scattering techniques to look for experimental evidence of fractionalisation in crystals of ruthenium chloride (RuCl3). The researchers tested the magnetic properties of the RuCl3 crystals by illuminating them with neutrons, and observing the pattern of ripples that the neutrons produced on a screen.
A regular magnet would create distinct sharp spots, but it was a mystery what sort of pattern the Majorana fermions in a quantum spin liquid would make. The theoretical prediction of distinct signatures by Knolle and his collaborators in 2014 match well with what experimentalists observed on the screen, providing for the first time direct evidence of a quantum spin liquid and the fractionalisation of electrons in a two dimensional material.
"This is a new addition to a short list of known quantum states of matter," said Knolle.
"It's an important step for our understanding of quantum matter," said Kovrizhin. "It's fun to have another new quantum state that we've never seen before - it presents us with new possibilities to try new things."

Explore further: Quantum mapmakers complete first voyage through spin liquid

More information: Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid behaviour in a honeycomb magnet, Nature Materials, DOI: 10.1038/nmat4604

Journal reference: Nature Materials
Provided by: University of Cambridge

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-state-two-dimensional-material.html#jCp

An international team of researchers have found evidence of a mysterious new state of matter, first predicted 40 years ago, in a real material. This state, known as a quantum spin liquid, causes electrons - thought to be indivisible building blocks of nature - to break into pieces.

The researchers, including physicists from the University of Cambridge, measured the first signatures of these fractional particles, known as Majorana fermions, in a two-dimensional material with a structure similar to graphene. Their experimental results successfully matched with one of the main theoretical models for a quantum spin liquid, known as a Kitaev model. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials.
Quantum spin liquids are mysterious states of matter which are thought to be hiding in certain magnetic materials, but had not been conclusively sighted in nature.
The observation of one of their most intriguing properties—electron splitting, or fractionalisation—in real materials is a breakthrough. The resulting Majorana fermions may be used as building blocks of quantum computers, which would be far faster than conventional computers and would be able to perform calculations that could not be done otherwise.
"This is a new quantum state of matter, which has been predicted but hasn't been seen before," said Dr Johannes Knolle of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, one of the paper's co-authors.
In a typical magnetic material, the electrons each behave like tiny bar magnets. And when a material is cooled to a low enough temperature, the 'magnets' will order themselves, so that all the north magnetic poles point in the same direction, for example.
But in a material containing a spin liquid state, even if that material is cooled to absolute zero, the bar magnets would not align but form an entangled soup caused by quantum fluctuations.
"Until recently, we didn't even know what the experimental fingerprints of a quantum spin liquid would look like," said paper co-author Dr Dmitry Kovrizhin, also from the Theory of Condensed Matter group of the Cavendish Laboratory. "One thing we've done in previous work is to ask, if I were performing experiments on a possible quantum spin liquid, what would I observe?"
Knolle and Kovrizhin's co-authors, led by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, used neutron scattering techniques to look for experimental evidence of fractionalisation in crystals of ruthenium chloride (RuCl3). The researchers tested the magnetic properties of the RuCl3 crystals by illuminating them with neutrons, and observing the pattern of ripples that the neutrons produced on a screen.
A regular magnet would create distinct sharp spots, but it was a mystery what sort of pattern the Majorana fermions in a quantum spin liquid would make. The theoretical prediction of distinct signatures by Knolle and his collaborators in 2014 match well with what experimentalists observed on the screen, providing for the first time direct evidence of a quantum spin liquid and the fractionalisation of electrons in a two dimensional material.
"This is a new addition to a short list of known quantum states of matter," said Knolle.
"It's an important step for our understanding of quantum matter," said Kovrizhin. "It's fun to have another new quantum state that we've never seen before - it presents us with new possibilities to try new things."

Explore further: Quantum mapmakers complete first voyage through spin liquid

More information: Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid behaviour in a honeycomb magnet, Nature Materials, DOI: 10.1038/nmat4604

Journal reference: Nature Materials
Provided by: University of Cambridge

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-state-two-dimensional-material.html#jCp

An international team of researchers have found evidence of a mysterious new state of matter, first predicted 40 years ago, in a real material. This state, known as a quantum spin liquid, causes electrons - thought to be indivisible building blocks of nature - to break into pieces.

The researchers, including physicists from the University of Cambridge, measured the first signatures of these fractional particles, known as Majorana fermions, in a two-dimensional material with a structure similar to graphene. Their experimental results successfully matched with one of the main theoretical models for a quantum spin liquid, known as a Kitaev model. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials.
Quantum spin liquids are mysterious states of matter which are thought to be hiding in certain magnetic materials, but had not been conclusively sighted in nature.
The observation of one of their most intriguing properties—electron splitting, or fractionalisation—in real materials is a breakthrough. The resulting Majorana fermions may be used as building blocks of quantum computers, which would be far faster than conventional computers and would be able to perform calculations that could not be done otherwise.
"This is a new quantum state of matter, which has been predicted but hasn't been seen before," said Dr Johannes Knolle of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, one of the paper's co-authors.
In a typical magnetic material, the electrons each behave like tiny bar magnets. And when a material is cooled to a low enough temperature, the 'magnets' will order themselves, so that all the north magnetic poles point in the same direction, for example.
But in a material containing a spin liquid state, even if that material is cooled to absolute zero, the bar magnets would not align but form an entangled soup caused by quantum fluctuations.
"Until recently, we didn't even know what the experimental fingerprints of a quantum spin liquid would look like," said paper co-author Dr Dmitry Kovrizhin, also from the Theory of Condensed Matter group of the Cavendish Laboratory. "One thing we've done in previous work is to ask, if I were performing experiments on a possible quantum spin liquid, what would I observe?"
Knolle and Kovrizhin's co-authors, led by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, used neutron scattering techniques to look for experimental evidence of fractionalisation in crystals of ruthenium chloride (RuCl3). The researchers tested the magnetic properties of the RuCl3 crystals by illuminating them with neutrons, and observing the pattern of ripples that the neutrons produced on a screen.
A regular magnet would create distinct sharp spots, but it was a mystery what sort of pattern the Majorana fermions in a quantum spin liquid would make. The theoretical prediction of distinct signatures by Knolle and his collaborators in 2014 match well with what experimentalists observed on the screen, providing for the first time direct evidence of a quantum spin liquid and the fractionalisation of electrons in a two dimensional material.
"This is a new addition to a short list of known quantum states of matter," said Knolle.
"It's an important step for our understanding of quantum matter," said Kovrizhin. "It's fun to have another new quantum state that we've never seen before - it presents us with new possibilities to try new things."

Explore further: Quantum mapmakers complete first voyage through spin liquid

More information: Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid behaviour in a honeycomb magnet, Nature Materials, DOI: 10.1038/nmat4604

Journal reference: Nature Materials
Provided by: University of Cambridge

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-state-two-dimensional-material.html#jCp

An international team of researchers have found evidence of a mysterious new state of matter, first predicted 40 years ago, in a real material. This state, known as a quantum spin liquid, causes electrons - thought to be indivisible building blocks of nature - to break into pieces.

The researchers, including physicists from the University of Cambridge, measured the first signatures of these fractional particles, known as Majorana fermions, in a two-dimensional material with a structure similar to graphene. Their experimental results successfully matched with one of the main theoretical models for a quantum spin liquid, known as a Kitaev model. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials.
Quantum spin liquids are mysterious states of matter which are thought to be hiding in certain magnetic materials, but had not been conclusively sighted in nature.
The observation of one of their most intriguing properties—electron splitting, or fractionalisation—in real materials is a breakthrough. The resulting Majorana fermions may be used as building blocks of quantum computers, which would be far faster than conventional computers and would be able to perform calculations that could not be done otherwise.
"This is a new quantum state of matter, which has been predicted but hasn't been seen before," said Dr Johannes Knolle of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, one of the paper's co-authors.
In a typical magnetic material, the electrons each behave like tiny bar magnets. And when a material is cooled to a low enough temperature, the 'magnets' will order themselves, so that all the north magnetic poles point in the same direction, for example.
But in a material containing a spin liquid state, even if that material is cooled to absolute zero, the bar magnets would not align but form an entangled soup caused by quantum fluctuations.
"Until recently, we didn't even know what the experimental fingerprints of a quantum spin liquid would look like," said paper co-author Dr Dmitry Kovrizhin, also from the Theory of Condensed Matter group of the Cavendish Laboratory. "One thing we've done in previous work is to ask, if I were performing experiments on a possible quantum spin liquid, what would I observe?"
Knolle and Kovrizhin's co-authors, led by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, used neutron scattering techniques to look for experimental evidence of fractionalisation in crystals of ruthenium chloride (RuCl3). The researchers tested the magnetic properties of the RuCl3 crystals by illuminating them with neutrons, and observing the pattern of ripples that the neutrons produced on a screen.
A regular magnet would create distinct sharp spots, but it was a mystery what sort of pattern the Majorana fermions in a quantum spin liquid would make. The theoretical prediction of distinct signatures by Knolle and his collaborators in 2014 match well with what experimentalists observed on the screen, providing for the first time direct evidence of a quantum spin liquid and the fractionalisation of electrons in a two dimensional material.
"This is a new addition to a short list of known quantum states of matter," said Knolle.
"It's an important step for our understanding of quantum matter," said Kovrizhin. "It's fun to have another new quantum state that we've never seen before - it presents us with new possibilities to try new things."

Explore further: Quantum mapmakers complete first voyage through spin liquid

More information: Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid behaviour in a honeycomb magnet, Nature Materials, DOI: 10.1038/nmat4604

Journal reference: Nature Materials
Provided by: University of Cambridge

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-state-two-dimensional-material.html#jCp

Impressions, Dana Carvey

http://splitsider.com/2016/04/here-are-the-season-1-contestants-on-dana-carveys-usa-series-first-impressions/