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Like something from‘ Star Wars’
ANU physicists’ light trap is no sci-fi special effect, and it could be the key to quantum computing.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens villain Kylo Ren and a team of physicists at the Australian National University have something in common: they’ ve
Lead researcher Jesse Everett with the light-trap. Photo: ANU.
managed to stop light in mid-air. Unfortunately, the physicists didn’ t use the mystical Force that permeates the Star
Wars galaxy. Nor were they searching for rogue Jedi on the planet Jakku. Instead, they created a light trap by shining infrared lasers into ultra-cold atomic vapour, as part of the race to build the world’ s first quantum computer.
“ It’ s pretty amazing to look at a sci-fi movie and say we did something that’ s a bit like that,” lead researcher Jesse Everett said.“ It’ s clear [ in our experiment ] that the light is trapped; there are photons circulating around the atoms. The atoms absorbed some of the trapped light, but a substantial proportion of the photons were frozen inside the atomic cloud.”
Researchers said that because the functions of quantum computers are based on light, the light trap could become an integral part of such machines.
“ Corralling a crowd of photons in a cloud of ultra-cold atoms creates more opportunities for them to interact,” researcher Dr Geoff Campbell said.“ We’ re working towards a single photon changing the phase of a second photon. We could use that process to make a quantum logic gate, the building block of a quantum computer.”
Local universities, the federal government, and parts of the private sector are pumping millions of dollars into quantum computing in hopes that Australia will develop the technology.
The study is published in the journal Nature Physics. ■
Watch Everett and Campbell discuss their research at: w youtu. be / jW _ 80CmdV _ k
ADHD linked to disadvantage
Study finds that children who have behavioural difficulties are more likely to struggle with school and more later in life.
University of Queensland researchers have linked attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder( CD) to a trajectory of disadvantage, as children with these conditions are more
Associate professor James Scott and Dr Holly Erskine Photo: UQ
likely to drop out of high school and not enrol in tertiary education.
A study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry concluded that“ ADHD and CD are associated with disability beyond immediate health loss.” ADHD – or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – is characterised by the inability to pay attention. It is one of the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders in children.
CD presents itself as a consistent pattern of antisocial behaviour. It is often seen as the precursor to antisocial personality disorder.
Dr Holly Erskine, the study’ s lead author, said the findings demonstrated that children with these conditions need adequate support.
“ ADHD and CD are disorders that need to be taken seriously in childhood,” Erskine said.“ At the same time, it’ s not all about doom and gloom and self-fulfilling prophecies. I think what’ s important to note is this study shows we can potentially avoid many of these adverse outcomes with appropriate intervention at the appropriate time.”
Erskine’ s study comes after University of California, Los Angeles, researchers found that girls with ADHD are more prone to developing other mental disorders than those without ADHD. The researchers said this can lead to other problems, such as teen pregnancies, abusive relationships, drug abuse and poor educational outcomes.
More research from Australian mental health foundation headspace found up to 50 per cent of 12- to 25-year-olds wait six months before they get help. Half of people in the same age group said they didn’ t get support because of financial barriers, 45 per cent believed they couldn’ t be helped, and 50 per cent were afraid of being stigmatised for getting help. ■
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