Another great week for science!

A world first! Success at complete quantum teleportation

Furusawa group at the University of Tokyo has succeeded in demonstrating complete quantum teleportation of photonic quantum bits by a hybrid technique for the first time worldwide.

The hybrid technique was developed by combining technology for transporting light waves with a broad frequency range, and technology for reducing the frequency range of photonic quantum bits. This has made it possible to incorporate photonic quantum bit information into light waves without disruption by noise. This research result has been published in Nature, and is attracting attention worldwide, as a step toward quantum information processing technology.

SIV Vaccine Success

A cytomegalovirus-based vaccine eliminated simian immunodeficiency virus from rhesus macaques, raising hopes of a similarly effective HIV vaccine.Which remained uninfected for as long as three years post-treatment, Previously, researchers had shown that about half of rhesus macaques given the vaccine were protected from SIV infection. The new study showed that monkeys given the vaccine and then infected with SIV showed no signs of the virus in their systems even though it had originally taken hold.“The virus got in, it infected some cells, moved about in various parts of the body, but it was subsequently cleared, so that by two or three years later the monkeys looked like normal monkeys,” 

Putting Bad Memories to Bed

Researchers selectively erase methamphetamine-related memories in mice and rats.The scientists taught mice and rats to associate methamphetamine with various stimuli. Then, after the rodents consolidated their drug-related memories, the scientists infused some of the animals’ amygdalas with an actin-depolymerizing agent and then tested their behavior when exposed to drug-related stimuli. The control mice showed signs of methamphetamine-related memories, while mice with inhibited actin polymerization did not respond to the stimuli. The treatment mice did not experience global memory loss, however; they still responded to stimuli associated with food rewards or electric shocks.The researchers chose to depolymerize actin because F-actin is known to be important for rapid changes in neural structures called dendritic spines, which are thought to be involved in memory maintenance.

Preliminary Analysis of Life within a Former Subglacial Lake Sediment in Antarctica

Since the first descriptions of Antarctic subglacial lakes, there has been a growing interest and awareness of the possibility that life will exist and potentially thrive in these unique and little known environments. The unusual combination of selection pressures, and isolation from the rest of the biosphere, might have led to novel adaptations and physiology not seen before, or indeed to the potential discovery of relic populations that may have become extinct elsewhere. The first microbiological analysis of a sample taken from a former subglacial lake sediment in Antarctica (Lake Hodgson, on the Antarctic Peninsula). This is one of a number of subglacial lakes just emerging at the margins of the Antarctic ice sheet due to the renewed onset of deglaciation. Microbial diversity was divided into 23.8% Actinobacteria, 21.6% Proteobacteria, 20.2% Planctomycetes and 11.6% Chloroflexi, characteristic of a range of habitat types ( Overall, common sequences were neither distinctly polar, low temperature, freshwater nor marine). Twenty three percent of this diversity could only be identified to “unidentified bacterium”. Clearly these are diverse ecosystems with enormous potential.

NASA Spacecraft Embarks on Historic Journey Into Interstellar Space

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from our sun. "Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before, marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science, and adding a new chapter in human scientific dreams and endeavors," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington. "Perhaps some future deep space explorers will catch up with Voyager, our first interstellar envoy, and reflect on how this intrepid spacecraft helped enable their journey."

Found: The First Mechanical Gear in a Living Creature

U.K. scientists find the first biological gears on a jumping insect half the size of a fire ant.With two diminutive legs locked into a leap-ready position, the tiny jumper bends its body taut like an archer drawing a bow. At the top of its legs, a minuscule pair of gears engage—their strange, shark-fin teeth interlocking cleanly like a zipper. And then, faster than you can blink, think, or see with the naked eye, the entire thing is gone. In 2 milliseconds it has bulleted skyward, accelerating at nearly 400 g's—a rate more than 20 times what a human body can withstand. At top speed the jumper breaks 8 mph—quite a feat considering its body is less than one-tenth of an inch long.

"Just like if your car has a gear train missing a tooth. Every time you get to that missing tooth, the gear train jerks."