Research published in Science demonstrates the ability of photons to bind together in a way previously thought impossible – creating a new form of light. “The photon dance happens in a lab at MIT where the physicists run table-top experiments with lasers,” writes Marissa Fessenden for Smithsonian. “Photons bound together in this way can carry information – a quality that is useful for quantum computing.”
Writing for Newsweek, Katherine Hignett reports that for the first time, scientists have observed groups of three photons interacting and effectively producing a new form of light. “Light,” Prof. Vladan Vuletic, who led the research, tells Hignett, “is already used to transmit data very quickly over long distances via fiber optic cables. Being able to manipulate these photons could enable the distribution of data in much more powerful ways.”
Research by Physics PhD candidate Sergio Cantu has led to the discovery of a new form of light, which happens when photos stick together, as opposed to passing through one another. “’We send the light into the medium, it gets effectively dressed up as if it were atoms, and then when it turns back into photons they remember interactions that happened in the medium,” Cantu explains to Leah Crane at New Scientist.
MIT physicists have created a new form of light that allows up to three photons to bind together, writes Daniel Oberhaus for Motherboard. While the research is experimental, Oberhaus writes that the trio of photons “are much more strongly bound together and are, as a result, better carriers of information” than other photonic qubits.
MIT researchers have made improvements to liquid-sodium batteries, potentially paving the way for the battery to be used for renewable energy storage, reports Laney Ruckstuhl for The Boston Globe. “Unlike lithium-ion batteries used in cellphones and laptops, the liquid-sodium batteries won’t lose their capacity quickly.”
In an article for Physics Today, Prof. Anna Frebel details the formation of the heaviest elements. While scientists previously thought that supernova explosions were responsible for the creation of elements heavier than iron, Frebel notes that evidence from LIGO and from a faint galaxy known as Reticulum II suggest, “neutron-star mergers are the universe’s way to make elements such as gold and platinum.”
Boston Globe reporter Marin Finucane writes that with the help of around 10,000 citizen scientists, a team of astronomers has discovered five planets outside our solar system. “It’s exciting because we’re getting the public excited about science, and it’s really leveraging the power of the human cloud,” says Prof. Ian Crossfield of the discovery.
Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss has been named to The Boston Globe’s list of the 2017 Bostonians of the Year for his work starting a new revolution in astronomy. Globe reporter Eric Moskowitz notes that Weiss, “shared the Nobel Prize for Physics for conceiving and shepherding a set of observatories that allowed scientists to prove Einstein’s assertion about gravitational waves.”
The discovery of the oldest and most distant black hole ever detected has provided a team of astronomers new insights into our universe, writes Alyssa Meyers for The Boston Globe. “In some sense, what we’ve done is determine with a high degree of accuracy when the first stars in the universe turned on,” explains Prof. Robert Simcoe.
The discovery of the oldest and most distant black hole ever observed could provide scientists with insights into the early stages of our universe, reports Will Dunham for Reuters. “This object provides us with a measurement of the time at which the universe first became illuminated with starlight,” explains Prof. Robert Simcoe.
NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce reports that scientists have discovered the most distant supermassive black hole every discovered, and that the findings are shedding light on when starlight first appeared in our universe. "We have an estimate now, with about 1 to 2 percent accuracy, for the moment at which starlight first illuminated the universe,” explains Prof. Robert Simcoe.
USA Today reporter Doyle Rice writes that a team of astronomers, including several from MIT, has discovered the oldest and most distant supermassive black hole ever detected. “The black hole resides in a quasar and its light reaches us from when the universe was only 5% of its current age — over 13 billion years ago,” explains Rice.
Newsweek reporter Katherine Hignett writes that MIT and Harvard researchers have successfully manipulated individual atoms using lasers in one of the largest quantum computer simulations. Hignett writes that, “their technology could help make superfast quantum computers a working reality.”
Boston Globe reporter Alyssa Meyers writes that researchers from MIT and Harvard have demonstrated one of the largest quantum simulators that can trap individual atoms in laser beams. Prof. Vladan Vuletić explains that it is, “a major advance is to be able to align and arrange individual atoms so we can hold on to them and track them.”
Prof. Nergis Mavalvala speaks with Massive reporter Prabarna Ganguly about her work engineering high-precision laser beams to detect signals from deep space, the long hunt for gravitational waves and her hopes for future generations of scientists. Ganguly writes that Mavalvala is, “one of the stalwarts in a long, arduous, and deeply human discovery of faraway perturbations rippling through the universe.”