HOUSTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- In the 1970s, physicists proposed a theory that superconductivity could be induced at the point where two different non-superconductive materials are enjoined, the interface. Several decades later, scientists have for the first time successfully demonstrated the concept. The breakthrough promises to propel the commercial viability of superconductors. "Superconductivity is used in many things, of which MRI, magnetic resonance imaging, is perhaps the best known," Paul C.W. Chu, chief scientist at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston, said in a news release. Superconductors, unlike semiconductors, carry electricity without resistance. But
Researchers at Aalto University and the University of Jyväskylä have developed a new method of measuring microwave signals extremely accurately. This method can be used for processing quantum information, for example by efficiently transforming signals from microwave circuits to the optical regime. Important quantum limit If you are trying to tune in a radio station but the tower is too far away, the signal gets distorted by noise. The noise results mostly from having to amplify the information carried by the signal in order to transfer it into an audible form. According to the laws of quantum mechanics, all amplifiers add noise. In the early 1980s, US physicist Carlton Caves proved theoretically