🐤 A quantum vanishing act

Did you know teleportation isn't just a sci-fi gimmick? Here's how scientists are making it happen IRL.

Wednesday | January 18th, 2023
Early Chirp

Happy Wednesday, chirpers! It’s the middle of the workweek, so you might feel the need for a bit of stress relief. For some folks, that might include a visit to a local pub for happy hour.

Many of you are abstaining from alcohol for any number of reasons, though, so if you miss the experience of a bar but don’t want the booze, you can head to the Big Apple.

An array of alcohol-free pop-up bars and clubs have sprouted throughout New York City recently, offering all of the atmosphere with none of the hangovers.

-Chris Agee

Markets
Nasdaq
IXIC
$11,095.11
$15.95 (0.14%)
Dow Jones
DJI
$33,910.85
-$391.76 (-1.14%)
S&P 500
GSPC
$3,990.97
-$8.12 (-0.20%)
EUR-USD
EURUSD
$1.08
$0.00 (0.04%)
Bitcoin
BTC-USD
$21,272.27
$102.63 (0.48%)
Roblox
RBLX
$37.12
$3.91 (11.77%)
*Market data for this issue is from January 17th, 2023 at 7:31pm EST

🏦 Markets: Wall Street kicked off a truncated holiday week with a sell-off that broke a four-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 1.14% and the S&P 500 dropped by 0.2%, but the Nasdaq Composite managed to eke out a 0.14% gain by the closing bell.

A hodgepodge of quarterly earnings statements from major banks had a big impact on Tuesday’s trades as experts look forward to an increasingly likely recession this year.

A recent survey of U.S. CEOs found that three-fourths are expecting a global economic slowdown in the coming months.

World

The Breakdown

A quick look around the world.

Tenor

🌬️ Weird winter weather: We’re well past hurricane season, but meteorologists have sent out a warning about a highly uncommon event out in the Atlantic Ocean. According to the National Hurricane Center, a non-tropical low-pressure system formed to the north of Bermuda but did not strengthen into a more powerful cyclone. Although the powerful storm won’t directly impact the East Coast, experts say it was responsible for a snowstorm that blanketed much of New England this week. The last time a full-fledged hurricane formed in January was seven years ago.

🏀 Selling the floor: The world lost a legend when retired NBA player Kobe Bryant died in a plane crash about three years ago. His death came nearly four years after he played his final game in the league — and now a collector has a piece of the floor from that game. Bryant put up 60 points during that outing and autographed a section of the floor before walking away from the game that meant so much to him. A firm called Rally initially bought the autographed memorabilia and sold shares to the public, but it recently went to a single buyer who was willing to pay $800,000 for the piece of sports history.

🐛 Insect insult: If you’re interested in supporting the Toronto zoo and would like to throw a little shade at someone who’s been getting on your nerves, you can take care of both at once. The Canadian wildlife conservancy is offering an encore of its successful fundraising effort by allowing donors to name a cockroach after someone that they don’t particularly like. While the approach of Valentine’s Day means many people are choosing to “honor” a former love interest, spokesperson Kelsey Godel said the sky’s the limit, explaining: “Naming opportunities are not limited to exes. You can name a roach after your boss, ex-friend, relative, or anyone else that has been ‘bugging’ you.”

📱 Prioritizing child safety: By now, we’re all aware that there are some dangers lurking around almost any corner of the internet — and kids are especially susceptible. In order to address such concerns, the United Kingdom has advanced a new law that would land tech executives behind bars if they’re convicted of “deliberately” providing harmful content to children. Some legislators wanted stiffer penalties, but the prime minister put forward a compromise in order to ensure that the measure ultimately passes. Among the types of off-limits content included in the proposition are self-harm, eating disorders, and abuse. Jail sentences could be as long as two years for violators.

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technology

Scientists Say They Successfully Teleported Energy For The First Time Ever

It's a huge step toward developing a functional quantum internet.

Tenor

It’s been a mainstay in the sci-fi genre for generations as people and equipment essentially disintegrate in one place and materialize somewhere far away, completely unchanged.

The process is called teleportation, and that type of transport is still firmly within the realm of fantasy. But teleportation itself is very realand it just got a lot cooler.

A brief history of teleportation

Although the internet isn’t a teleportation tool, it might be helpful to start by thinking about the way we’re all able to send messages instantaneously from one place to another via email and other platforms.

In technical terms, the first teleportation involved quantum information. In the 1990s, scientists were able to successfully send tiny bits of data from one spot to a distant location.

The information was literally reconstituted in its new location and was exactly the same as it was before it was teleported. After that initial breakthrough, teleportation has become a big part of quantum science and will likely be integral in the continued development of a so-called “quantum internet.”

From information to energy

As researchers began to understand more about teleportation, one Japanese scientist early this century advanced the idea that energy could theoretically be relocated in the same manner.

It took about 20 years for that idea to become reality, but a researcher in New York says he made it happen with a quantum computer.

It all gets really complicated, really quickly if you’re not a quantum physicist (and I’m not), but Stony Brook University’s Kazuki Ikeda explained that his breakthrough took advantage of the inherent fluctuations in a quantum system to transfer energy instantly and without any loss along the way.

“The ability to transfer quantum energy over long distances will bring about a new revolution in quantum communication technology,” he said.

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history

Archaeologists Dig Up The Oldest Known Runestone In Existence

The ancient text dates back roughly 2,000 years.

YouTube/Nursu News

There have been a number of important ancient relics and artifacts unearthed in archaeological missions over the past several years, but few have been enrobed in as much mystery as the runestone recently found by a research team near Oslo, Norway.

What is a runestone?

Before we get into how interesting it is, let’s start with a definition. A “rune” refers to any of the characters used in alphabets across much of Europe long before the Latin alphabet became dominant.

These characters have Germanic origins and were frequently engraved onto runestones and other items to record messages. Now, historians are left with the difficult task of trying to translate them.

Who made it?

Historians believe that the recently uncovered runestone dates back about 2,000 years and came from the early Iron Age. Not only is it the oldest known example of such a stone, but it’s also among the earliest evidence of writing to come out of Scandinavia.

It was likely etched onto the sandstone between the beginning of the common era and 250 A.D.

According to reports, it was found in a grave and cremation pit, which might shed some light on the nature of its message and the individuals responsible for its creation.

What does it say?

The runestone was initially found in 2021, but experts needed some time to study it and provide an estimated age before going public with the discovery.

Only some of the runes have been translated so far and it’s not entirely clear what it means. The roughly footlong stone includes eight references to “idiberug,” though, which experts say likely refers to an individual or family name.

If you’d like to check it out yourself, it will be on display starting next week at the Museum of Cultural History in Norway.

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food

Research Reveals The Hidden Health Hazards In Your Seafood Dinner

The amount of dangerous chemicals in some types of fish is astronomical.

Tenor

There’s not much better than a grilled salmon filet or a nice piece of fried cod, but eating certain fish caught within the United States could come with some potentially serious consequences.

According to a new report, digesting just one of these fish can have the same negative impact as drinking contaminated water for an entire month.

It’s all about the chemicals

For decades, manufacturers have increasingly used chemicals known as PFAS, which have useful applications in the textile industry, food packaging, nonstick cookware, and other specialties.

The clear downside of these so-called “forever chemicals,” however, is that they tend to pollute just about everything they come in contact with — including the land, air, and water.

Among the possible health problems that have been associated with ingesting too many of these chemicals include:

  • Liver damage
  • Certain cancers
  • High cholesterol
  • Compromised immune response

Fish is a major source

Focusing on freshwater fish caught in rivers and lakes between 2013 and 2015, researchers found that there was an average of 9,500 nanograms per kilogram. There are many variations of PFAS, but the majority discovered in this study were so-called PFOS, which are especially common and particularly dangerous.

To put the risk in perspective, the study determined that eating one of these fish is about the same as drinking water with 48 parts per trillion of PFOS. The Environmental Protection Agency has ruled that anything above 0.02 parts per trillion exceeds its limits for safety.

Furthermore, the findings showed PFAS levels a staggering 278 times higher than those found in fish sold commercially.

Study authors hope the report will help spur new regulations against these forever chemicals while giving consumers some important information to consider before dining on freshwater fish.

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Early Chirp

Written by Chris Agee

90 N Church St, The Strathvale House
Grand Cayman KY1, 9006, Cayman Islands

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