The advent of laser cooling techniques revolutionized the study of many atomic-scale systems, fuelling progress towards quantum computing with trapped ions and generating new states of matter with ...Bose-Einstein condensates. Analogous cooling techniques can provide a general and flexible method of preparing macroscopic objects in their motional ground state. Cavity optomechanical or electromechanical systems achieve sideband cooling through the strong interaction between light and motion. However, entering the quantum regime--in which a system has less than a single quantum of motion--has been difficult because sideband cooling has not sufficiently overwhelmed the coupling of low-frequency mechanical systems to their hot environments. Here we demonstrate sideband cooling of an approximately 10-MHz micromechanical oscillator to the quantum ground state. This achievement required a large electromechanical interaction, which was obtained by embedding a micromechanical membrane into a superconducting microwave resonant circuit. To verify the cooling of the membrane motion to a phonon occupation of 0.34 ± 0.05 phonons, we perform a near-Heisenberg-limited position measurement within (5.1 ± 0.4)h/2π, where h is Planck's constant. Furthermore, our device exhibits strong coupling, allowing coherent exchange of microwave photons and mechanical phonons. Simultaneously achieving strong coupling, ground state preparation and efficient measurement sets the stage for rapid advances in the control and detection of non-classical states of motion, possibly even testing quantum theory itself in the unexplored region of larger size and mass. Because mechanical oscillators can couple to light of any frequency, they could also serve as a unique intermediary for transferring quantum information between microwave and optical domains.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Mountains contribute disproportionately to the terrestrial biodiversity of Earth, especially in the tropics, where they host hotspots of extraordinary and puzzling richness. With about 25% of all ...land area, mountain regions are home to more than 85% of the world's species of amphibians, birds, and mammals, many entirely restricted to mountains. Biodiversity varies markedly among these regions. Together with the extreme species richness of some tropical mountains, this variation has proven challenging to explain under traditional climatic hypotheses. However, the complex climatic characteristics of rugged mountain regions differ fundamentally from those of lowland regions, likely playing a key role in generating and maintaining diversity. With ongoing global changes in climate and land use, the role of mountains as refugia for biodiversity may well come under threat.
The form of the species richness-productivity relationship (SRPR) is both theoretically important and contentious. In an effort to distill general patterns, ecologists have undertaken meta-analyses, ...within which each SRPR data set is first classified into one of five alternative forms: positive, humped (unimodal), negative, U-shaped (unimodal), and no relationship. Herein, I first provide a critique of this approach, based on 68 plant data sets/studies used in three meta-analyses published in
Ecology.
The meta-analyses are shown to have resulted in highly divergent outcomes, inconsistent and often highly inappropriate classification of data sets, and the introduction and multiplication of errors from one meta-analysis to the next. I therefore call on the ecological community at large to adopt a far more rigorous and critical attitude to the use of meta-analysis. Second, I develop the argument that the literature on the SRPR continues to be bedeviled by a common failing to appreciate the fundamental importance of the scale of analysis, beginning with the confusion evident between concepts of grain, focus, and extent. I postulate that variation in the form of the SRPR at fine scales of analysis owes much to artifacts of the sampling regime adopted. An improved understanding may emerge from combining sampling theory with an understanding of the factors controlling the form of species abundance distributions and species accumulation curves.
We present GlobSed, a new global 5‐arc‐minute total sediment thickness grid for the world's oceans and marginal seas. GlobSed covers a larger area than previously published global grids and ...incorporates updates for the NE Atlantic, Arctic, Southern Ocean, and Mediterranean regions, which results in a 29.7% increase in estimated total oceanic sediment volume. We use this new global grid and a revised global oceanic lithospheric age grid to assess the relationship between the total sediment thickness and age of the underlying oceanic lithosphere and its latitude. An analytical approximation model is used to mathematically describe sedimentation trends in major oceanic basins and to allow paleobathymetric reconstructions at any given geological time. This study provides a much‐needed update of the sediment thickness distribution of the world oceans and delivers a model for sedimentation rates on oceanic crust through time that agrees well with selected drill data used for comparison.
Plain Language Summary
We have constructed a new global ocean sediment thickness map, GlobSed, from previously published maps and new data compiled in this study. GlobSed is used together with a new map of lithospheric ages developed for this study to analyze how sediment thickness changes with respect to the age of the underlying oceanic crust and latitude. The results show a clear age‐latitude dependence where sediment thickness increases with age of the oceanic crust, toward high southern and northern latitudes and toward the equator. In addition, we calculate the total volume of sediments in the oceans, which shows an increase of 29.7%, compared to previously published global maps. Further, we develop a mathematical formula for sediment thickness as a function of age and latitude that describes the sediment thickness pattern in the oceans within reasonable error, and we suggest that this is a good approximation for estimating sediment thickness in oceanic basins through time.
Key Points
We compile a new global total sediment thickness grid (GlobSed)
Sediment thickness distribution correlates with both age and latitude of the oceanic lithosphere
Our new compilation covers a larger area and thereby increases the total sediment volume in the oceans by ~29.7% compared to previous data sets
Demonstrating and exploiting the quantum nature of macroscopic mechanical objects would help us to investigate directly the limitations of quantum-based measurements and quantum information ...protocols, as well as to test long-standing questions about macroscopic quantum coherence. Central to this effort is the necessity of long-lived mechanical states. Previous efforts have witnessed quantum behaviour, but for a low-quality-factor mechanical system. The field of cavity optomechanics and electromechanics, in which a high-quality-factor mechanical oscillator is parametrically coupled to an electromagnetic cavity resonance, provides a practical architecture for cooling, manipulation and detection of motion at the quantum level. One requirement is strong coupling, in which the interaction between the two systems is faster than the dissipation of energy from either system. Here, by incorporating a free-standing, flexible aluminium membrane into a lumped-element superconducting resonant cavity, we have increased the single-photon coupling strength between these two systems by more than two orders of magnitude, compared to previously obtained coupling strengths. A parametric drive tone at the difference frequency between the mechanical oscillator and the cavity resonance dramatically increases the overall coupling strength, allowing us to completely enter the quantum-enabled, strong-coupling regime. This is evidenced by a maximum normal-mode splitting of nearly six bare cavity linewidths. Spectroscopic measurements of these 'dressed states' are in excellent quantitative agreement with recent theoretical predictions. The basic circuit architecture presented here provides a feasible path to ground-state cooling and subsequent coherent control and measurement of long-lived quantum states of mechanical motion.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Island biogeography Whittaker, Robert J.; Fernández-Palacios, José María; Matthews, Thomas J. ...
Science,
09/2017, Letnik:
357, Številka:
6354
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Islands provide classic model biological systems. We review how growing appreciation of geoenvironmental dynamics of marine islands has led to advances in island biogeographic theory accommodating ...both evolutionary and ecological phenomena. Recognition of distinct island geodynamics permits general models to be developed and modified to account for patterns of diversity, diversification, lineage development, and trait evolution within and across island archipelagos. Emergent patterns of diversity include predictable variation in island species-area relationships, progression rule colonization from older to younger land masses, and syndromes including loss of dispersability and secondary woodiness in herbaceous plant lineages. Further developments in Earth system science, molecular biology, and trait data for islands hold continued promise for unlocking many of the unresolved questions in evolutionary biology and biogeography.
Mountain regions are unusually biodiverse, with rich aggregations of small-ranged species that form centers of endemism. Mountains play an array of roles for Earth's biodiversity and affect ...neighboring lowlands through biotic interchange, changes in regional climate, and nutrient runoff. The high biodiversity of certain mountains reflects the interplay of multiple evolutionary mechanisms: enhanced speciation rates with distinct opportunities for coexistence and persistence of lineages, shaped by long-term climatic changes interacting with topographically dynamic landscapes. High diversity in most tropical mountains is tightly linked to bedrock geology-notably, areas comprising mafic and ultramafic lithologies, rock types rich in magnesium and poor in phosphate that present special requirements for plant physiology. Mountain biodiversity bears the signature of deep-time evolutionary and ecological processes, a history well worth preserving.
Understanding magnetic phases in quantum mechanical systems is one of the essential goals in condensed matter physics, and the advent of prototype quantum simulation hardware has provided new tools ...for experimentally probing such systems. We report on the experimental realization of a quantum simulation of interacting Ising spins on three-dimensional cubic lattices up to dimensions 8 × 8 × 8 on a D-Wave processor (D-Wave Systems, Burnaby, Canada). The ability to control and read out the state of individual spins provides direct access to several order parameters, which we used to determine the lattice's magnetic phases as well as critical disorder and one of its universal exponents. By tuning the degree of disorder and effective transverse magnetic field, we observed phase transitions between a paramagnetic, an antiferromagnetic, and a spin-glass phase.
A lifespan approach to osteoarthritis prevention Whittaker, J.L.; Runhaar, J.; Bierma-Zeinstra, S. ...
Osteoarthritis and cartilage,
December 2021, 2021-12-00, 20211201, Letnik:
29, Številka:
12
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Prevention is an attractive solution for the staggering and increasingly unmanageable burden of osteoarthritis. Despite this, the field of osteoarthritis prevention is relatively immature. To date, ...most of what is known about preventing osteoarthritis and risk factors for osteoarthritis is relative to the disease (underlying biology and pathophysiology) of osteoarthritis, with few studies considering risk factors for osteoarthritis illness, the force driving the personal, financial and societal burden. In this narrative review we will discuss what is known about osteoarthritis prevention, propose actionable prevention strategies related to obesity and joint injury which have emerged as important modifiable risk factors, identify where evidence is lacking, and give insight into what might be possible in terms of prevention by focussing on a lifespan approach to the illness of osteoarthritis, as opposed to a structural disease of the elderly. By targeting a non-specialist audience including scientists, clinicians, students, industry employees and others that are interested in osteoarthritis but who do not necessarily focus on osteoarthritis, the goal is to generate discourse and motivate inquiry which propel the field of osteoarthritis prevention into the mainstream.
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