Best of Last Week – Superconducting secrets solved, simulating time travel and possible breakthrough in treating autism
(Phys.org) —It's been a big week for solving mysteries—first up, a breakthrough has been made in identifying the origin of superconductivity in high temperature superconductors. A team at the University of Cambridge found that moving electrons created twisted "pockets" of electrons in the materials from which superconductivity emerged. Also an Egyptologist unravels an ancient mystery—turns out an ancient army wasn't destroyed by a sand storm after all, it was conquered by another army and then covered up by the losing side. And in Quantum biology: Algae evolved to switch quantum coherence on and off—researchers at UNSW in Australia have uncovered how a type of algae is able to exist in extremely low-light conditions and the discovery adds to the growing list of observations that indicate that quantum phenomena are operating in nature.