food experiments
The mayonnaise texture is perfect for mimicking the way a fuel capsule passes through when a laser fires it to ignite fusion. emily conover Reported in “Mayonnaise could shed light on nuclear fusion experiments” (SN: 10/5/24, p. 5).
leader linda ferrazzara I wondered if mayonnaise is a non-Newtonian fluid whose viscosity changes depending on the applied stress. If so, could researchers instead use oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid made from cornstarch and water, as a substitute for nuclear fuel capsules in experiments? ferrazzara he asked. Oobleck may be easier to maintain consistency between experiments than mayonnaise, which has different formulations from brand to brand.
Mayonnaise is a non-Newtonian fluid, say mechanical engineers Arindam Banerjee However, Oobleck cannot be used for nuclear fusion experiments. When an external force is applied, a substance becomes thicker, or more viscous. This is called shear thickening. As a result, “when you start an experiment, it freezes.” Banerjee Say. Mayonnaise is the opposite, with a lower viscosity.
Reproducibility is critical to the team’s scientific process, so the materials used in each experiment must be well-characterized and consistent. Banerjee Say. “We’ve been using Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise for the past 12 years. We’ve measured the properties of each batch and found them to be surprisingly consistent. We don’t make our own mayonnaise. It’s not,” he says. “Before choosing mayonnaise, I tried yogurt. However, my students at the time were unable to reproduce the consistency of yogurt, resulting in different properties and large variations in observed behavior. Ta.”
machines make mistakes
Quantum computers improved results by repeatedly correcting mistakes during calculations. emily Conover Reported in “Quantum Computers Correct Errors” (SN: 10/5/24, p. 6).
X user @Lightning456243 I asked how a quantum computer could identify its own errors.
“Quantum computers correct their own errors by injecting redundancy into the data and periodically checking whether the information is still self-contradictory.” Conover Say.
Traditional computers also do this by copying bits that have a value of 0 or 1. For example, copying 1 three times becomes 111. If one of these bits is unintentionally flipped (for example, 111 becomes 110), a mismatch occurs. Anything between 3 bits indicates an error. By seeing which values are in the majority, the computer can determine which bits need to be modified.
The intricacies of quantum physics complicate this process, but quantum computers similarly encode information redundantly. Conover Say. However, rather than directly copying individual qubits, computers distribute information between multiple qubits that are entangled or linked (SN: June 20, 2020, p. 18).