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Physics
Oh,
What a Tangled Web These Particles Weave!
Researchers
in the Time and
Frequency Division of NIST’s
Boulder, Colo., Laboratories have made the first observation
of quantum entanglement of four particles. Featured as the cover
story in the March 16, 2000, issue of Nature, the experiment
is considered an essential step toward the future development
of a quantum computer—a device whose computing capabilities would
be defined by the laws of quantum physics, far surpassing any
conventional computer in power and efficiency when applied to
certain problems.
Entanglement
is a form of linking between two or more particles in which some
of the quantum properties of those particles become “shared.”
Subsequently, information about one particle’s properties is instantly
and “mysteriously” linked to the others, even when the particles
become widely separated. Albert Einstein termed this phenomenon
“spooky action-at-a-distance,” and it remains one of the most
puzzling features of quantum mechanics.
To
achieve the entanglement, NIST researchers confined four singly
ionized beryllium atoms in an electromagnetic trap so that they
were spaced along a line. They then used lasers to cool the atoms
to near absolute zero and forced them all to be in the same spin
state (atoms can be in one of two states: spin-up or spin-down).
Suitably tuned laser light then entangled the atoms by exploiting
their mutual electrical repulsion, creating a superposition of
all four atoms being both spin-up and spin-down simultaneously.
Quantum
superpositions are often explained in terms of the famous cat
postulated in 1935 by physicist Erwin Schroedinger. Schroedinger
considered the possibility that a cat could be made to be both
dead and alive at the same time when the rules of quantum mechanics
are followed to an extreme. “Schroedinger’s cat” soon became a
shorthand way to refer to a whole class of superposed quantum
states.
Although
the NIST result represents the largest entangled superposition
ever achieved, four atoms is still far removed from the complexity
of a cat. However, as NIST researcher Christopher Monroe explains,
“Our technique is scalable to a lot more atoms. If we get to that
level, we’ll not only bring the strangest feature of quantum mechanics
closer to the macroscopic world, but we also may have a quantum
computer.”
Scientists
predict that such a computer could store and process superpositions
of numbers in parallel, using the extra linkage afforded by entanglement.
A quantum computer would quickly solve problems such as the factoring
of extremely large numbers and the handling of huge arrays of
data—tasks requiring so much memory that conventional computers
cannot handle them.
For
technical information, contact Christopher Monroe at (303) 497-7415,
monroe@boulder.nist.gov.
Media
Contact:
Collier
Smith (Boulder), (303) 497-3198
Manufacturing
MEP
Helps Small Firms Get Leaner, Cleaner and More Productive
Smaller
manufacturers now will have access to “lean manufacturing” training
previously available only to large companies, thanks to a recently
formed partnership between The Modernization Forum, the association
for America’s manufacturing extension community, and Productivity
Inc.
Originating
in Japan in the 1970s, lean manufacturing is a concept that eliminates
manufacturing activities or actions that add no real value to
the product or service. Under the agreement, field manufacturing
specialists at NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers
around the country will receive training in Productivity’s “5-S
Visual Systems,” a lean manufacturing course previously available
only to large manufacturers.
The
course teaches how to map a current situation at a manufacturing
plant, create an optimal condition and keep it that way. The training
also teaches workers how to organize their workplace for increased
efficiency, safety and cleanliness. These techniques have become
standard practices in large manufacturing plants but are used
by very few smaller manufacturers.
For
assistance with lean manufacturing techniques, as well as other
business and technical projects, small manufacturers can call
(800) MEP-4MFG (637-4634) or go to NIST MEP’s World Wide Web site,
www.mep.nist.gov, to reach
the NIST MEP center serving their region.
Media
Contact:
Jan
Kosko, (301) 975-2767
ATP
Carbon-Copy
Pigs Are Latest Milestone in Organ Transplant Research
PPL
Therapeutics Inc., of Blacksburg, Va., announced on March 14,
2000, that it had achieved the world’s first successful cloning
of pigs from adult cells. Pigs are a particularly difficult species
to clone because cloning is a very inefficient process and a sow
must have a minimum number of viable fetuses to carry any to term.
The five piglets born on March 5, 2000, say PPL researchers, mark
an important milestone in the development of genetically engineered
pigs to supply tissues and organs for transplant into humans.
Because they share with humans relatively similar physiologies,
pigs are considered a potentially valuable source of transplant
organs—hearts and kidneys, for example—that are in critically
short supply.
One
of the main technical barriers to such “xenotransplants” is the
“hyperacute rejection” reaction from the human immune system,
which recognizes a particular sugar complex on the surface of
pig cells as foreign. One particular pig gene is responsible for
this tell-tale sugar, and researchers hope that organs from a
genetically engineered pig lacking this gene could be transplanted
without triggering the host’s immune system. A U.S. subsidiary
of London-based PPL Therapeutics Plc, PPL received a 1999 award
from the NIST Advanced Technology Program to develop the technology
to clone “knock-out” pigs—swine with that specific gene inactivated.
In addition, more genes will have to be introduced into pig cells
to prevent more delayed rejection responses.
The
use of pig organs would offer tremendous health, economic and
social benefits by providing sufficient organs to meet demand,
reducing the tens of billions of dollars now spent annually caring
for patients with organ failure, and improving their quality of
life. In their ATP application, PPL pro- jected a market for animal
transplants of nearly $6.5 billion within 10 years of launch.
In addition, the new technology will create new industries and
enable advances in other fields, such as treatment of vascular
disease, the science of embryology, the development of animal
models for human diseases and livestock improvement.
The
PPL news release is available on the web at www.ppl-therapeutics.com/Welcome/News/news.cfm.
More information on the Advanced Technology Program, along with
a description of the PPL project, may be found at www.atp.nist.gov.
Media
Contacts:
Michael
Baum, (301) 975-2763
Cryogenics
NIST
Helps Develop Some of World’s Coldest Refrigerators
For
most people, refrigeration means a large box where milk is kept
cool and ice cream is kept frozen. But there are some people for
whom refrigeration means cooling things down to just a few degrees
above absolute zero. Now, that’s really cold! NIST has
been a pioneer in the development of these extremely low temperature
refrigerators, called cryocoolers.
Since
1950, about 100,000 cryocoolers have been manufactured in the
United States for military applications such as cooling infrared
sensors in tanks, airplanes and missiles. However, the past decade
saw the market for cryocoolers move to the civilian side—a trend
that appears to be growing strong. For example, cryopumps for
the semiconductor fabrication industry have been the primary application
of the technology since 1990, with the devices being produced
at a rate of about 20,000 per year. And as semiconductor components
continue to shrink, companies will need cryocoolers with less
vibration and that can reach temperatures as low as 10 to 15 Kelvin
above absolute zero. At the other end of the scale, large cryocoolers
are being developed for liquefying natural gas and methane-rich
gas emitted from large landfills. Perhaps the application most
familiar to the public is the use of cryocoolers in superconducting
magnets for magnetic resonance imaging systems where temperatures
can get down to 4 Kelvin above absolute zero.
A
new paper from NIST reviews the history and development of cryocoolers,
focusing on one type called a pulse-tube refrigerator. Because
these refrigerators have no moving parts at the cold end, they
provide less vibration, higher reliability and lower cost. They
also have a longer lifespan—from three to 10 years—and are desirable
for applications in outer space. Other potential uses for pulse-tube
refrigerators include industrial gas liquefaction and power applications
of superconductors.
For
a copy of the paper, “Development of the Pulse Tube Refrigerator
as an Efficient and Reliable Cryocooler” (no. 11-00), contact
Sarabeth Harris, MC104, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3337; (303)
497-3237; sarabeth@boulder.nist.gov.
Media
Contact:
Fred
McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246
Administration
Kayser,
Mehuron to Head Tech Services, Information Tech Units
Richard
F. Kayser and William O. Mehuron have been named directors of
NIST’s Technology Services Unit
and Information Technology Laboratory,
respectively. Both men have been acting directors of their organizational
units since last year; Kayser since August and Mehuron since April.
As
head of Technology Services, Kayser leads the unit whose components
include the Standard
Reference Materials Program, Standard
Reference Data Program, the Office
of Weights and Measures, the National
Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program, the NIST
Calibration Program, the Office
of Technology Partnerships, NIST’s Small Business Innovation
Research Program and the Metric Program. He started at NIST’s
predecessor, the National Bureau of Standards, in 1976 as a National
Science Foundation Fellow and joined the Thermophysics Division
as a staff member the following year. He became the division’s
chief in 1989 and chief of the Physical and Chemical Properties
Division in 1996.
Mehuron
joined NIST in 1999 to direct the information technology portion
of the Advanced Technology Program.
Previously, he had served since 1995 as director of the Systems
Acquisition Office (and as acting deputy undersecretary from 1997-1998)
for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Earlier
in his career, Mehuron was deputy director for research and engineering
at the National Security Agency and held senior management positions
with several private-sector technology organizations. As ITL director,
he is responsible for the laboratory whose programs for industry
include high performance computing and communications systems;
emerging network technologies; access to, exchange, and retrieval
of complex information; computational and statistical methods;
information security; and testing tools and methods to improve
the quality of software.
Media
Contact:
Michael
Newman, (301) 975-3025
Editor:
Michael Newman
HTML conversion: Crissy
Robinson
Last updated: March 28, 2000
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