Best of Last Week – Onset of mass investigated, wormhole time travel possibility and net encryption cracked in two hours
(Phys.org) —Last week saw many interesting developments in several areas of science. In one effort, a team of physicists investigated onset of effective mass—in looking into what happens to effective mass when an external force is applied very abruptly, they found it was characterized by bare mass. Also making headlines this past week: Google engineers opened the gates to the Quantum Computing Playground. It's a web page that allows prospective quantum computer programmers to hone their skills on a simulated 22 qubit machine. And a team in China devised a system that allows for building complicated integrated circuits by putting FETs on carbon nanotubes—their latest effort led to forty-six transistors constructed on six CNTs—the most complicated device of its kind to date. It had 46 FETs on six CNTs. Meanwhile in Texas, engineers built the world's smallest, fastest nanomotor—it's the longest running, fastest and smallest synthetic motor ever made.