A Japanese research team from NEC and RIKEN has constructed a fundamental building block for a viable quantum computer. The basic building blocks of a quantum computer are quantum bits or qubits using logic gates called CNOT s. Among the startling properties of qubits is that they do not just hold either binary 1 or binary 0, but can hold a superposition of the two states simultaneously. As the number of qubits grows, so does the number of distinct states which can be represented by ...

It looks we can do great things like removing toxic waste by creating a virus from scratch. So "we" now can design a real virus from scratch in a fourtnight. Everyone seems thrilled, but it gives me the creeps if I read about it. In one article I read: "However, the method is not yet suitable to make the artificial chromosome, the team concedes, as the viruses produced were not perfect, it turns out. They had mutations most probably introduced by initial errors in the original oligonucl...

Lugworms from a corner of France may hold the answer to worldwide blood shortages. Bizarrely, the blood of the sea worms bears a close biochemical resemblance to human blood and, if trials are successful, could be mass-produced and used for transfusions.

The Ig Nobel awards, a spoof of the Nobel Awards, have been presented in the US. Among the winners were a University College London team who showed the brains of London taxi drivers were different from average people, because they become enlarged in the zone associated with navigation. The annual awards, for people whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced", were presented at a spoof ceremony at Harvard University. They are handed out by the science/humour magazine, Annals ...

New research in Britain claims a single daily pill containing a combination of six drugs could eliminate 80% of heart attacks in the over 55s. Trials are set to begin soon on the proposed 'polypill', which could end the need for complex screening for heart problems.

Forget batteries, scientists have developed tiny engines - no bigger than a fingernail - which should be able to power gadgets like mobile phones or laptop computers within a few years.