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For mathematicians and computer scientists, this was often a year of double takes and closer looks. Some reexamined foundational principles, while others found shockingly simple proofs, new techniques or unexpected insights in long-standing problems. Some of these advances have broad applications in physics and other scientific disciplines. Others are purely for the sake of gaining new knowledge (or just having fun), with little to no known practical use at this time.

Quanta covered the decade-long effort to rid mathematics of the rigid equal sign and replace it with the more flexible concept of equivalence. We also wrote about emerging ideas for a general theory of neural networks, which could give computer scientists a coveted theoretical basis to understand why deep learning algorithms have been so wildly successful.

Meanwhile, ordinary mathematical objects like matrices and networks yielded unexpected new insights in short, elegant proofs, and decades-old problems in number theory suddenly gave way to new solutions. Mathematicians also learned more about how regularity and order arise from chaotic systems, random numbers and other seemingly messy arenas. And, like a steady drumbeat, machine learning continued to grow more powerful, altering the approach and scope of scientific research, while quantum computers (probably) hit a critical milestone.

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Quanta's Year in Math and Computer Science (2019) - Quanta Magazine

NEW DELHI: An image of the black hole, the stuff of science fiction down the decades, was at the centre of a year that saw science breaching new frontiers with exciting firsts such as the development of a quantum computer that can outperform its classical counterparts and artificial embryos.

Cutting edge innovations in research and technology celebrated science and forwarded humankind's understanding of complex realities of the universe. The year will also be remembered as the year of testing biological and ethical limits in the laboratory, helping researchers find new avenues in the treatment of critical diseases.

In April, the International Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, consisting of a global network of radio telescopes, unveiled the first actual image of a black hole, a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot escape.

To produce the image, the researchers combined data from a network of radio telescopes to take simultaneous readings from around the world.

Science magazine named the image of the supermassive black hole situated at the centre of the Messier 87 galaxy, 54 million light years away, as the 2019 Breakthrough of the Year.

The imaging of the black hole is a fantastic revelation that is simultaneously a validation and a celebration of science, Ayan Banerjee, from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Kolkata, told PTI.

Although it does not uncover something that we did not know earlier, it does convert science fiction into science -- which is crucial for the acceptance of science in the daily lives of human beings, and the generation of future scientists, Banerjee said.

In a year that marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landings, lunar exploration was high on the agendas of space agencies.

In January, China's Chang'e-4 probe became the first spacecraft to land safely on the far side of the Moon. Its rover Yutu-2 continues to roll across the dusty soils of Von Karman crater on the lunar body.

Other attempts to explore the Earth's natural satellite were not so successful.

To produce the image, the researchers combined data from a network of radio telescopes to take simultaneous readings from around the world. In April, an Israeli-led effort to put the first private spacecraft on the Moon's surface ended in a crash landing. The same fate was met by India's ambitious Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander in September.

The ongoing Mars missions returned a host of results. In April, NASA announced that its robotic Mars InSight lander had recorded a marsquake for the first time ever.

The marsquake' is the first recorded trembling that appears to have come from inside the planet, as opposed to being caused by the forces above the surface, such as wind.

There were many firsts in the micro world of laboratories too.

US researchers restored cellular function in 32 pig brains that had been dead for hours, opening up a new avenue in treating brain disease -- and shaking our definition of brain death to its core.

Announced in April in the journal Nature, the researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine devised a system roughly analogous to a dialysis machine, called BrainEx, that restores circulation and oxygen flow to a dead brain.

In another out-of-body experiment, scientists grew monkey embryos in a dish for nearly three weeks -- longer than primate embryos have ever been grown in the laboratory before.

The advance raised ethical concerns of whether lab-grown human embryos should be allowed to develop beyond 14 days, a restriction imposed in most countries.

In September, researchers at the University of Michigan in the US provided a possible circumvention of the 14-day limit by using human stem cells to make artificial embryos' that mimic the early development of a real human embryo.

Our stem cell structures that mimic embryos can help fill critical gaps in knowledge about early human development, and that could lead to a lot of good, Jianping Fu, an associate professor at Michigan, who led the study, said in a statement.

In October, Google took a quantum leap in computer science. Using its state-of-the-art quantum computer, called Sycamore, the tech giant claimed "quantum supremacy" over the most powerful supercomputers in the world by solving a problem considered virtually impossible for normal machines.

The quantum computer completed the complex computation in 200 seconds. That same calculation would take even the most powerful supercomputer approximately 10,000 years to finish, according to researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, who published their results in the journal Nature.

A fantastic discovery has been that of Google's 53 qubit quantum computer ('quantum supremacy), Banerjee said.

And for the first time in July, an artificial intelligence (AI) bot beat human champions at multiplayer poker.

The AI programme developed by Carnegie Mellon University in the US in collaboration with Facebook AI defeated leading professionals in six-player no-limit Texas hold'em poker, the world's most popular form of poker.

The AI, called Pluribus, defeated poker professional Darren Elias, who holds the record for most World Poker Tour titles, and Chris Ferguson, winner of six World Series of Poker events.

In August, researchers from Oxford University and IBM Research made the first-ever ring-shaped molecule of pure carbon in the lab by using an atomic-force microscope to manipulate individual molecules.

Carbon can be arranged in a number of configurations. For example when each of its atoms is bonded to three other carbon atoms, it's relatively soft graphite.

A ring of carbon atoms, where each atom is bonded to just two others, and nothing else has eluded scientists for 50 years. Their best attempts have resulted in a gaseous carbon ring that quickly dissipated.

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From the image of a black hole to 'artificial embryos', 2019 was the year of many firsts in science - Economic Times

In line with Newtons famous quote, standing on the shoulders of giants, this year, science has made considerable advances, building on feats of the past. Discoveries, insights and inventions in astronomy, biology, medicine,paleontology and physics marked the year...

1. Detailing the Denisovans

This year revealed some fantastic facts about our ancient ancestors, the Denisovans, who lived about 100,000 years ago. So far, we knew about them through scrap fossils from the Denisova cave in Siberia, Russia. This year, researchers found a fossilised jawbone in the Tibetian plateau, which on DNA analysis showed that it belonged to the Denisovans, who were the regions first hominin inhabitants. It was also believed earlier that Denisovans were closely related to Neanderthals than to present-day humans. On the contrary, genomic analysis of the fossils from the Denisova cave showed that they were closer to humans than to Neanderthals. But, how did our ancestors look like? Based on patterns of chemical changes in their DNA, researchers have reconstructed the anatomy of Denisovans. The findings reveal that some traits, like a sloping forehead, long face and large pelvis resemble Neanderthals, while others, like a large dental arch and wide skull, are unique. Based on these findings, they even reconstructed the face of a teenage Denisovan girl.

2. An elusive cure to Ebola

Ebola, a deadly viral disease that shook the African continent, affects humans and other primates, and a cure for this disease has eluded science so far. Although an experimental vaccine is being developed, without a therapeutic cure, those infected are doomed to die. This year, two drugs that were tested during an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may have hopes as they dramatically increased patients chances of survival. The two drugs, named REGN-EB3 and mAb-114, contain a cocktail of antibodies that are injected into the bloodstream of those infected. These drugs have shown a success rate of about 90 per cent , bringing hopes to those battered by the disease.

3. The first image of a black hole

We did not even know how black holes, the most dense objects of our Universe, looked. This year, scientists used a combination of telescope observations around the globe to reveal the first ever photograph of a supermassive black hole present at the heart of the distant galaxy Messier 87 in the Virgo constellation. The image, which captures the shadow of the black hole, shows a black hole that is 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass of 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. Researchers believe that this epic photograph opens a new window into the study of black holes, their event horizons,and gravity.

4. Conquering quantum computing

Physicists and engineers at Google claim to have developed the first functional quantum computer that can perform a set of computations in 200 seconds, which would have otherwise taken the worlds fastest supercomputer 10,000 years! This quantum computer has a 54-qubit processor, named Sycamore, comprised of quantum logic gates.

5. Beating malnutrition in gut

While it was long known that microbes in our gut played a vital role in our health and well-being, two studies published this year showed how they could be used to address malnutrition a condition that affects millions of children. The researchers analysed the types of microbes present in the gut of healthy and malnourished children and focused on boosting crucial gut microbes in the children using affordable, culturally acceptable foods.

6. Pushing gene-editing

After tasting success and controversies last year for genetically editing babies, researchers in China this year reported to have cloned five genetically edited macaques for research purposes for the first time. These monkeys have reduced sleep, increased movements in the night, increased anxiety and depression, and schizophrenia-like behaviours. Although it raises ethical questions, the researchers believe that cloned monkeys could replace the wild monkeys used in laboratories today. In the UK, scientists used gene therapy to arrest a form of age-related blindness and in the US, CRISPR, the gene-editing software, was used to treat cancer.

7. The rampant loss of worlds ice

With the rising global temperature, ice on the Earths surface is melting at a rapid rate. In Greenland, the ice sheets are melting seven times faster than they did in the 90s. Greenland has lost 3.8 trillion tonnes of ice since 1992, a quantity enough to push global sea levels up by 10.6 millimetres. In Antartica, studies have detected significant changes in the thickness of the floating ice shelves, which hold the land-based ice in place. As a result, there could be more ice moving from the land into the sea. Similar loss of ice has been reported in the Alps and the Himalayas. The rising sea levels are estimated to displace 300 million people all over the world, affecting coastal cities and their livelihoods.

8. Taking a closer look at the Moon

This year, Chinas National Space Administration achieved the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon with its Change 4 mission. This mission will attempt to determine the age and composition of an unexplored region of the Moon. India launched its second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, to map and study the variations in the lunar surface composition, and the location and abundance of water.

9. Biodiversity on the brink of extinction

This year, an extensive report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found that of the estimated eight million species of animals and plants on the planet, about a million face the threat of extinction, many within decades. About 40 per cent of amphibians, a third of marine life and about 10 per cent of the insects are at the brink of extinction. The report mentions that changes in land and sea use, exploitation of organisms; climate change, pollution and invasive alien species as primary reasons behind this situation.

10. Reading dinosaurs end game

Dinosaurs went extinct about 66 million years ago when an asteroid crashed into Earth at the Chicxulub crater in Mexico. This year, scientists detailed fallouts of the impact that resulted in a mass extinction by examining the topography of the centre of the crater. When the asteroid struck, the melt rocks and breccia sat at the bottom of the crater within minutes and over a few hours, another 90 metres were deposited. There was also a tsunami and a wildfire that followed, which emitted sulphur aerosols that cooled the earth and blocked much of the sunlight.

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2019: The Year in Science - Deccan Herald

The world's favorite Lego toys have a hidden superpower. They can survive temperatures that are 200,000 times colder than room temperature and 2,000 times colder than deep space, researchers have found.

This resilience implies that Lego toys can be used to help build more efficient quantum computers, say experts. What is more, according to the research team from Lancaster University, these toys can pull this off at lower costs.

Quantum computers have the potential to solve complex problems in seconds. Modern computers, on the other hand, could take years. But building practical quantum computers is a challenge. These devices are way too sensitive to their surroundings too much heat, for instance, can prevent quantum computers from operating efficiently. To make these devices immune to their surroundings, scientists are on the lookout for suitable materials that can cool the system down.

While suitable materials do exist, they have limitations. "The best materials for these applications are very expensive and are difficult to machine to a needed shape, so it would be desirable to come up with a better solution," Dr Dmitry Zmeev, who led the research team, told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW).

This led Zmeev and his colleagues to hunt for an alternative material. They specifically looked for strong materials that could prevent heat from moving around at very low temperatures.

And Lego toys fit the bill. The Lego blocks looked like good candidates: the contact area between two Lego blocks that are clamped together is very small, which could prevent the transfer of heat. This means if these materials find use in quantum computers, they could prevent heat from moving around, and thereby preventing heat from interfering with the functioning of quantum computers, say experts.

When the team tested blocks at very low temperatures, they survived unscathed. "The resulting structure is very robust. And indeed, our measurements confirmed this," Zmeev told MEAWW.

In the future, Zmeev and the team will perform this experiment again, albeit by tweaking it a little. "While its unlikely that Lego blocks will be used as a part of a quantum computer, we have found the right direction for creating these cheap materials: 3D printing," says Zmeev. "Lego is made from ABS plastic and one can also create ABS structures simply by 3D printing them," says Zmeev,

The study has been published in Scientific Reports.

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Lego toys can be used to build quantum computers as they can survive temperatures 2,000 times colder than deep - MEAWW

Back in September, IBM Q announced a host of new tools catered to making quantum computing more accessible. Amongst the new additions were a bunch of 5-qubit quantum computers, which extended the IBM's fleet of quantum computers.

Today, IBM has taken yet another step in the same direction. The tech giant IBM has partnered with the University of Tokyo forming the Japan IBM Quantum Partnership to advance quantum computing and use it to benefit science, industry, and society. Essentially, the partnership will have three 'tracks of engagement':

...one focused on the development of quantum applications with industry; another on quantum computing system technology development; and the third focused on advancing the state of quantum science and education.

But one of the most marked developments under the agreement is that the IBM Q System One will be installed in an IBM facility in Japan. This feat will make Japan the third country to house such an installation after the United States and Germany, and the only one in the region to do so. Once in Japan, the System One will delve into research on quantum algorithms and the development of practical applications leveraging the power of the quantum realm.

Besides directly collaborating on research topics, IBM and the University of Tokyo will also establish a novel quantum system technology center under the same agreement. This center will be primarily focused on developing and testing hardware for quantum computers and in particular, will focus on cryogenic and microwave test capabilities for the same.

Vis--vis the initiative, the Director of IBM Research, Dario Gil, was hopeful that it will lead to the expansion of quantum computing in Japan and have various added advantages:

"This partnership will spark Japan's quantum research capabilities by bringing together experts from industry, government and academia to build and grow a community that underpins strategically significant research and development activities to foster economic opportunities across Japan."

While the President of the University of Tokyo, Makoto Gonokami, emphasized the relevance of quantum computing and what the initiative entails for Japan:

"Quantum computing is one of the most crucial technologies in the coming decades, which is why we are setting up this broad partnership framework with IBM, who is spearheading its commercial application. We expect this effort to further strengthen Japan's quantum research and development activities and build world-class talent."

As such, in addition to all of the above, the University of Tokyo will also be giving high priority to quantum programming and technical development of its students and researchers to help push the envelope of quantum computing.

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IBM and Japan join hands in the development of quantum computers - Neowin