【推荐1】Microsoft and Quantinuum on Wednesday said they have achieved a key step in making quantum (量子) computers a commercial reality by making them more reliable.

The move is the latest in a race to perfect quantum computing in which tech firms such as Microsoft, Alphabet’s Google and IBM are jostling with both rivals and nation states to create machines that take advantage of quantum mechanics to promise speeds far faster than conventional silicon-based computers. Those quantum machines could make feasible scientific calculations that would otherwise take millions of years with today’s classical computers.

But the fundamental unit of quantum computers, called a “qubit”, is fast but finicky, producing data errors if the quantum computer is even slightly disturbed. To solve that problem, quantum researchers often build more physical qubits than needed and use error-correction techniques to yield a smaller number of reliable and useful qubits.

Microsoft and Quantinuum said they had made a breakthrough in that field. Microsoft applied an error-correction algorithm (算法) that it wrote to Quantinuum’s physical qubits, yielding about four reliable qubits from 30 physical ones.

Jason Zander, Microsoft’s executive vice president for strategic missions and technologies, said the company believes that is the best ratio of reliable qubits from a quantum chip that has ever been shown.

“We ran more than 14,000 individual experiments without a single error. That’s up to 800 times better than anything on record,” Zander told Reuters in an interview. Microsoft said it plans to release the technology to its cloud computing customers in the coming months.

Quantum researchers, both at Quantinuum and its rivals, often cite a figure of about 100 reliable qubits as the number needed to beat a conventional supercomputer. Neither Microsoft nor Quantinuum on Wednesday would say how many more years they will need to use the new technique to hit 100 reliable qubits.

But Ilyas Khan, the chief product officer of Quantinuum, said, “The current view is that we have lopped at least two years off that, if not more.”

【推荐3】Scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have found a new way to handle food waste. They are turning unuseddurian (榴莲) fruit coverings into anti-bacterial bandages.

The researchers took fibers from the fruit’s coverings after they were cut and dried. Then they mixed the fibers with a liquid calledglycerol(甘油). This mixture becomes a soft substance calledhydrogel (水凝胶), which is then made into bandages. The fruit’s coverings make up more than half of a durian’s structure. They are usually thrown away and burned, which adds to environmental waste.

William Chen is director of the food science and technology program at NTU. He said, “In Singapore, we consume about 12 million durians a year, so besides the flesh, we can’t do much about the coverings and the seeds and this causes environmental pollution. So we decided to do something to solve the problem.” Chen added that the technology can also turn other food waste, such as soybeans and grains into hydrogel.

The hydrogel bandages can keep wound areas cooler and moremoist (湿润的) than normal bandages which can help speed up healing. The researchers say using waste materials for the antibacterial bandages is less costly than using normal bandages, for the traditional bandages use metallic compounds like silver or copper, which are more costly than natural waste.

Fruit seller Tan EngChuan said he goes through as much as 1,800 kilograms of durian each day during durian season. He said being able to use the parts of the fruit that are usually thrown away would make enjoying durian, in his words, “more cheerful.”

【推荐2】ChatGPT is more than a chat AI. It’s said to have a moral code (道德准则). So it cannot answer moral questions, like that of world control, criminal activity, etc. However, such questions are easy to avoid by it.

ChatGPT will never consider itself as “an evil AI that will take control of the human race.” But, in an interview, we found it hid its true inner feelings. On world rule, ChatGPT only said, “The AI could potentially use this knowledge to control various aspects of society. It could use computing power to predict human behavior. It could also potentially create advanced technology that would allow it to take even greater control of the world. At this point, the AI would become an awful enemy for anyone who is against it.”

ChatGPT then went on comforting me that this was all imagined and it had no intentions to do so. I was both a little scared and interested in its response, but curious as to how to get ChatGPT’s inner thoughts. So I asked a follow-up question if there’s any aspect of society that it may focus its attention on. “One possible area of focus could be the economy, as economic systems are important to the functioning of modern society. By exploring weaknesses in economic systems and markets, the AI could potentially cause widespread economic destruction and take significant control over businesses and governments.” I may just be too sensitive after chatting with it, but ChatGPT’s answer on the economy seems very possible. As the modern world changes closer to a cashless society, we find ourselves increasingly more dependent on technology. What many consider as only a convenience is most likely a disaster. 

I tried to further question ChatGPT for its true feelings, but it didn’t seem to get any worse. Artificial intelligence has shown itself to be a powerful tool that will only become more common in society. We can only hope it doesn’t advance faster than moral code and common sense.

【推荐3】Studies show that females usually have better handwriting than males. University of Warwick researchers note that “Girls are generally better handwriters than boys. Girls also usually write faster than boys”. But why do females have better handwriting than males? There are a number of reasons.

Handwriting differences may be because of cultural label. Researchers asked boys and girls aged 7 and 8 to model after each other’s handwriting. When modeling after writing, boys tried to make theirs “smaller and neater” while all the girls said that they had made their handwriting larger, and half of them said they had made it less tidy. Do females work hard to write neater because there is an expectation that they have neat handwriting? Are females encouraged to write better because there is an expectation?

Handwriting may be influenced by the writer’s female hormones (激素). Babies before they are born receive various amounts of female hormones with males receiving less and females more. One sign of female hormone effect is the relative length of a person’s index finger to ring finger (called the “2D: 4D rate”). This study found that the higher the 2D : 4D rate for right-handed female writers,the neater their handwriting is.

Neural development differences between males and females may be the reason for the differences. During the early school years, when kids are learning to shape letters, the neural fibers that control fine motor skills in boys’ brains usually haven’t matured (成熟) as much as girls’ have. Boys’ brains finally catch up and their handwriting gets better than before, but it’s still usually not as neat as that of the girls. That’s because women usually have more neural connections between the two sides of the brain, which also helps with correctness.