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The innards of an IBM quantum computer show the tangle of cables used to control and read out its qubits.Credit: IBM
First quantum computer to pack 100 qubits
IBM’s newest quantum-computing chip packs in 127 quantum bits (qubits), making it the first such device to reach 3 digits. But the achievement is only one step in an aggressive agenda boosted by billions of dollars in investments across the industry. IBM and other companies — including the technology behemoths Google and Honeywell, and a slew of well-funded start-ups — ultimately aim to make quantum computers capable of performing certain tasks that are out of reach of even the largest supercomputers that use classical technology.
Climate research expands in China
China is experiencing a “national movement” as companies, regional governments and academia shift gears to help the country meet its climate goals. The world’s top carbon emitter has, for the first time, published plans broadly outlining how it might achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2060, and a peak of emissions before 2030 — promises it made in 2019. The move has spurred more than ten prominent universities and institutions to set up carbon-neutrality-research institutes already this year; the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched a centre last month. But some researchers are still disappointed with the climate commitments the country has made so far.
Concern over equality at Max Planck Society
A group of 145 leading female scientists from around the world has signed an open letter to Germany’s Max Planck Society (MPS), expressing concern over “the highly publicized dismissals, demotions, and conflicts involving female directors of Max Planck Institutes”. The MPS is Germany’s most powerful basic-research organization, with 86 institutes and research facilities. In the past three years, at least four of the most senior researchers at these institutes — called directors — have been charged with bullying, three of them women. “Female leaders are judged more harshly, and allegations of leadership shortcomings are more often made against female leaders than male ones,” states the letter.
Features & opinion
Advice for academics wanting to adopt
On their journey to becoming adoptive parents, Tony Ly and Nathan Bailey discovered that the process has unique challenges for academics. They were warned by social workers that their careers could disadvantage them with the adoption panel “because members might have preconceived ideas that academic workloads are not family friendly, or that academics are ‘tiger parents’ who demand unrealistic achievement from their children,” they write. “As academics who have invested heavily in our careers, it was a major reality check… but we also tried to take the question on board, and we examined our own ways of working.”
International students form web of support
When Hurricane Elsa hit her home nation of Barbados, PhD student Sheri McDowell could only watch from her laboratory at McGill University in Canada. Thankfully, she had somewhere to turn for support: a committee she founded in 2020 in response to global injustices. “This story is just one example of the emotional toll faced by many international students when their home countries are subject to crises, a toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has generally intensified,” she writes. “I was lucky to have people I could relate to through my group, and it made waiting to hear back from my parents during the hurricane much easier.”
What to do with the animals that thrive
On Staten Island in New York City, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are thriving among homes, warehouses and former landfills. For some people, they are “icons of the American wilderness”. For others, “rats with hooves”. An ambitious and controversial project aims to sterilize 98% of the male deer on the island. It highlights the complex conflicts that arise on the imaginary boundaries between our conurbations and the places we think of as ‘nature’.
Infographic of the week
Nuclear fusion is widely considered to be an essential technology for meeting future demand for clean energy — but it has also seemed a distant one. Fusion produces energy by merging very light nuclei, typically hydrogen, and this can happen only at very high temperatures and pressures. Now fusion finally seems to be approaching commercial viability, with more than 30 private fusion firms around the world. Key to these efforts are advances in materials research and computing that are enabling technologies beyond the standard designs. This graphic — available in more detail in our Feature on nuclear fusion — shows five prominent designs. (Nature | 15 min read)
See more of the week’s key infographics, selected by Nature’s news and art teams.
