Quantum connections
Harvard physicists have achieved the first quantum entanglement of photons and solid-state materials. Their achievement marks a key advance toward practical quantum networks, as the first experimental demonstration of a means by which quantum bits, or “qubits,” can communicate with one another over great distances.A team led by physicist Mikhail D. Lukin reported the findings in the latest edition of the journal Nature.“In quantum computing and quantum communication, a big question has been whether or how it would be possible to actually connect qubits, separated by long distances, to one another,” said Lukin, a professor of physics at Harvard. “As the first demonstration of quantum entanglement between a solid-state material and photons, our work is an important advance toward linking qubits together into a quantum network.”Quantum networking applications such as long-distance communication and distributed computing (in which computers interact through a network) would require the nodes that process and store quantum data in qubits to be connected to one another by entanglement: a state where two atoms become indelibly linked so that one inherits the properties of the other. This state has previously been demonstrated only with photons and individual ions or atoms.“Our work takes this one step further, showing how one can engineer and control the interaction between individual photons and matter in a solid-state material,” said first author Emre Togan, a Harvard graduate student in physics. “What’s more, we show that the photons can be imprinted with the information stored in a qubit.”Quantum entanglement, famously termed “spooky action at a distance” by a skeptical Albert Einstein, is a fundamental property of quantum mechanics. It allows distribution of quantum information over tens of thousands of kilometers, limited only by how fast and how far members of the entangled pair can propagate in space.The new result builds on earlier work by Lukin’s group, using single-atom impurities in diamonds as qubits. Lukin and colleagues have previously shown that these impurities can be controlled by focusing laser light on a diamond lattice flaw, where nitrogen replaces an atom of carbon. That work showed that the so-called “spin degrees of freedom” of these impurities make excellent quantum memory.Lukin and his co-authors now say that these impurities are also remarkable because, when excited with a sequence of finely tuned microwave and laser pulses, they can emit photons one at a time, so that photons are entangled with quantum memory. Such a stream of photons can be used for secure transmission of information.Lukin and Togan’s co-authors on the Nature paper are Yiwen Chu, Alexei Trifonov, Jeronimo Maze, and Alexander S. Zibrov, all at Harvard; Liang Jiang of Harvard and the California Institute of Technology; Lilian I. Childress of Harvard and Bates College; M.V. Gurudev Dutt of Harvard and the University of Pittsburgh; A.S. Sorensen at the University of Copenhagen; and Philip R. Hemmer of Texas A&M University. The work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, the National Science Foundation, the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship, and the Packard Foundation.
A native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Dr. J. Richard (“Dick”) Gaintner received his undergraduate education at Lehigh University and his M.D. degree four years later in 1962 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Following residency in medicine at the University Hospitals of Cleveland, he served as Captain in the US Army Medical Corps, first at the Army Hospital in Fort Carson, Colorado, and then as Assistant Chief of Staff at the 85th Evacuation Hospital in Qui Nhon, receiving in 1966 the Army Commendation Medal for “Meritorious Service in the Republic of Vietnam.”He returned to Hopkins for a year as Fellow in Hematology and then, in 1967, joined the first faculty of the newly-established University of Connecticut School of Medicine. In 1975, he became Vice President for Medical Affairs at New Britain General Hospital. This experience, combining the context of medical practice, its teaching and administration, led to his appointment in 1977 as Associate Dean for Administration at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and subsequently as Vice President and Deputy Director of Johns Hopkins Hospital.In 1983, Dr. Gaintner moved to Albany Medical Center as President and CEO, and six years later to New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston as its President and CEO, joining the faculty of Harvard Medical School where he rose to Professor of Medicine. Shortly after assuming these responsibilities, while reviewing the history of the New England Deaconess Hospital, Dr. Gaintner came upon a statement by Mary E. Lunn, who was the Superintendent at the founding of the institution in 1896, wherein she envisioned the hospital as a place where “science and kindliness unite in combating disease”. Her comment resonated with Dr. Gaintner such that he adopted it as the institution’s mission statement and used it as a guiding principle for the development of the New England Deaconess Hospital under his leadership.During his seven year tenure as President and CEO of the New England Deaconess Hospital (NEDH) he quickly restored the hospital to fiscal stability while providing the underpinning for a remarkable growth in the clinical and academic programs. Under his leadership the new Clinical Center was conceived, financed and built, giving the NEDH one of the finest inpatient clinical facilities in Boston. With subsequent events, this facility became a major component of the merger with the Beth Israel Hospital (BI). During his tenure he brought together with Deaconess a variety of neighboring hospitals to form Pathway Health Network, to include New England Baptist Hospital, Nashoba Hospital in Ayer, Deaconess-Glover in Needham, and Deaconess-Waltham Hospital.In the early 1990’s it became clear that despite formation of the Pathway Health Network, the Deaconess needed a major partner to continue to grow. His vision and statesmanship played a major role in the merger of the NEDH and BI to form the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which has subsequently been proven to be one of the most successful true mergers of major academic medical centers in the country.With the 1996 merger of Deaconess and Beth Israel Hospitals, and the inclusion of Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Hospital to the Pathway group, the CareGroup HealthCare System was formed, with Dr. Gaintner becoming President, then the second largest hospital network in New England. A year later, he was recruited as CEO of Shands Healthcare in Gainesville, Florida, bringing more than a modicum of order and forward thrust to a relatively young network that initially confronted him with what was characterized by The Free Library as “…the usual complement of internal divisions and conflicts, reflecting an underlying uncertainty about mission, frustration over the lack of alignment among the system’s components, and the natural tendency to try to fix blame rather than confront the fundamental changes underway in health care.” This report goes on to characterize the basis of his success at Shands: “Gaintner’s mild-mannered complexity reflects both developmentally acquired attributes – blue collar upbringing, undergraduate philosophy major, physician, businessman, insatiable reader – as well as core personality characteristics – inevitable optimist, empathetic listener, pragmatist and conciliator. This constellation of attributes underlies clinical and managerial intuition that blends into an artful style…. Gaintner’s approach is characterized by consistent, straightforward messages. His skill is honing in on values and the critical issues upon which complex decisions pivot. He continually returns to the fundamentals, believes in collaboration, meets with everybody (even competitors) and keeps the lines of communication open. He believes that discussion can illuminate common ground, even in the most complicated and contentious relationships.”After four years at Shands, Dr. Gaintner retired, only to be called to Georgetown University as Interim Executive Vice President for Health Services, but was shortly obliged by illness to return home to Gainesville. A beloved second home for many years was in Duxbury, Massachusetts where he maintained a long-standing interest in nearby Plymouth’s Jordan Hospital. In 2001 he was invited to join the Jordan Health Systems Board.Widely recognized as an outstanding member of American academic medicine, Dr. Gaintner had been a member of the Executive Board of the Association of American Medical Colleges and Chair of its Council of Teaching Hospitals, Board member of the American Hospital Association and of the American College of Physician Executives.Dick Gaintner died of pancreatic cancer on May 25, 2004. He was survived by his wife, Suzanne Butler Gaintner, three daughters, Wendy Holcomb of Tacoma, Washington, Sally G. Hess of Phoenix, Arizona, and Jenny Gaintner of Freeland, Maryland, and seven grandchildren.On May 19, 2004, Dr. J. Richard Gaintner was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, a fitting honor bestowed upon highly selected former Hopkins faculty members who have gained marked distinction in their respective fields.Respectfully submitted,Mitchell T. Rabkin, M.D.Robert C. Moellering, Jr., M.D.Adolf W. Karchmer, M.D., Chair
As a cash-strapped College student completing a summer internship in the notoriously expensive city of San Francisco, Joshua Meier ’18 discovered he could save money by using Uber for his commute. But as Meier waited for his driver to arrive during the height of morning rush hour, he kept his eyes nervously glued to the clock.“I was always rushing around to get out the door in the morning, and the time I spent waiting for my Uber to arrive started to add up,” said Meier, a computer science and chemistry concentrator at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “If I could just call it for 8:30 a.m. every day, that would be perfect.”Scheduling a pickup is not an available option in the Uber app, so Meier began developing his own mobile application to solve the problem. He launched TaxiLater, an iPhone app that lets users arrange an Uber pickup hours, days, or even months in advance.Using TaxiLater, an individual enters his or her pickup location and then sets a time and date. The app’s server continually polls Uber to locate the closest drivers, and then automatically calls a driver at exactly the right time, Meier explained. For example, if a user needs an Uber pickup at 8:30 a.m. and the app determines the closest driver is six minutes away, it will send the request to that driver six minutes in advance.“Those estimates are always updating because drivers are constantly moving around in their cars,” Meier said. “The algorithm generates very good estimates and there is a very high probability that the Uber driver will show up when someone wants.” “… Building apps or working on research projects that impact people — that is what science is all about.” Joshua Meirer ’18 Because the back-end computations are worked out in a cloud-based server, users do not need to have their phone turned on for TaxiLater to contact the driver. In fact, after entering the information into the app, a user could even throw away his or her phone and the Uber request would still be sent. The app, which is free to download from the Apple Store, ties directly with a user’s Uber account to process payments and provide receipts.One of the biggest challenges of developing TaxiLater was designing an interface that was both user-friendly and closely resembled the Uber app. Working with the Apple Store presented its own set of challenges: Meier made several revisions to the app’s name and design based on Apple’s requests.He launched TaxiLater in May, and its popularity exploded overnight. Meier never expected it to take off so quickly — the day he launched TaxiLater, he pulled an all-nighter to reinforce the engineering stack after thousands of users signed up in a matter of hours. TaxiLater has continued to attract more than 1,000 new users a day.Drawing on user feedback, Meier is already planning to build additional features for the app. He is adjusting the algorithm so a user can set a destination and arrival time, and then the app determines the best time to notify a nearby Uber driver, taking into account the time it will take to travel to the pickup location.“There is a huge opportunity to take TaxiLater into other verticals,” he said. “What I’ve shown here is that people are very interested in scheduling their on-demand services.”Meier, who built the application in his spare time between classes, homework, and his work in a genome engineering research lab at the Broad Institute, is looking forward to seeing where this project will lead.“It is really rewarding when I can mix what I think is fun with something that others find useful,” he said. “Developing something to give back to the world — building apps or working on research projects that impact people — that is what science is all about.”
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Park officials reported more than 3.8 million people visited Yellowstone National Park last year despite the closures related to the coronavirus pandemic, down only 5% compared to 2019. The Billings Gazette reported that the park closed March 24 to help limit the spread of COVID-19 and was closed all of April. The two entrances in Wyoming reopened on May 18 and the three entrances in Montana reopened June 1. Officials say visitation in September and October were the busiest on record with more than 837,000 people in September and more than 359,000 people in October. In comparison, visitation at Yellowstone reached 4 million in 2019, 4.11 million in 2018 and 2017 and 4.25 million in 2016.
Inspired by the 1984 murder of controversial shock jock Alan Berg, Talk Radio is set in a Cleveland radio station over the course of Barry Champlain’s (Gostkowski) two-hour broadcast as he’s being scrutinized that night by producers fixated on taking the show national, and fueled as always by coffee, cocaine and Jack Daniel’s. Barry’s jousts with his unseen callers—ranging from a white supremacist to a woman obsessed with her garbage disposal—are interspersed with confrontations by his ex-deejay pal and his sometime girlfriend/producer. The production will be designed by Aaron Gonzalez. Kirk Gostkowski (Hurlyburly) will star in Eric Bogosian’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated play Talk Radio off-Broadway. Directed by Greg Cicchino, the production will begin performances on September 12, with opening night set for September 16 at the Chain Theatre. The cast will also feature Lauren Allison (Pinkalicious), Kelly Jean Clair (TV’s Scrubs), Timothy J. Cox (Picasso at the Lapin Agile), Rebecca Hoodwin (TV’s Nurse Jackie), Mark A. Keeton (Alligator Summer), Peter Osterweil (A Question of Time), Gordon Palagi (Dracula: Dragon Prince), Christina Perry (Hurlyburly), Patrick Pizzolorusso (Getting Even with Shakespeare) and Doug Shapiro (Disney’s Finding Nemo: The Musical). View Comments
By April ReeseUniversity of GeorgiaBill Fox has pleasant memories of the first alternative-fuel buses he rode as a University of Georgia student.”Back in the 1980s, alternative fuel was used in buses for campus transit,” said Fox, now director of the university’s motor pool. “They were fueled by peanut oil and smelled like a big Nutter Butter rolling down the road.”Unfortunately, the cost of running the peanut-oil buses was too high, Fox said. But great strides have been made over the past 20 years, and the UGA motor pool now has a number of alternative-fuel vehicles, including bifuel passenger vans and trucks, electric vehicles and a compressed-natural-gas passenger van.Bifuel vehicles use two types of fuel. Equipped with two tanks and a switch that converts from one tank to the other, these autos combine propane and gasoline or CNG and gasoline. They’re classified as low-emission vehicles.Big car on campusThe electric cars are ideal for campus use, he said, as most campus vehicles travel just 5 miles a day.”Electric cars are perfect for people who live in cities and residential areas,” he said. “Their top speed is 25 mph. And they can only operate in areas with a speed limit of 35 mph or less.”But don’t plan any long trips. The $3,000 battery pack, which lasts about three years, has to be recharged at a 110-volt outlet every 35 to 40 miles.While neighborhood electric vehicles are classified as having zero emissions, Fox said, you have to remember how the electricity was produced to begin with.Distant tailpipe”You consider them (emission free) because they have no tailpipe,” he said. “But the tailpipe is somewhere else. It just wasn’t attached to the car.”Alternative-fuel vehicles are making their way into the automobile market.”We have to reduce our dependence on foreign oil as a means to national security,” said Susan Varlamoff of the Office of Environmental Sciences of the UGA College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. “As a nation, we are confronted with this big problem of how to wean ourselves off of gasoline.”Testing bifuel vehiclesFor the past 20 years, UGA agricultural engineers have researched the use of alternative fuels. Biodiesel is derived from crops like peanuts, corn, soybeans and canola. The CAES is testing two bifuel vehicles on loan from the Ford Motor Company.”With the flip of a switch, these vehicles give you the choice of running either on gasoline or an alternative fuel source,” Varlamoff said.”Our college has been developing and testing various alternative fuels for years,” she said. “So it only seems right that we would test vehicles that use these fuels.”Biomass fuel, powerThe U.S. Department of Energy Industries of the Future provided a grant to the CAES Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering’s outreach program for an on-campus office to study biomass fuel and power.Other government agencies, industry and Georgia Tech will collaborate with the UGA engineers, Varlamoff said.”Alternative fuels such as biodiesel burn cleaner,” she said. “More and more cities are choosing to use alternative fuels in their buses and fleet vehicles.”Many alternative fuelsMany alternative fuels can help reduce the pollution problems associated with cars burning gasoline. Cars can run on compressed natural gas (CNG), biodiesel, electricity or any combination of these fuels.CNG cars are considered ultralow-emission vehicles. CNG burns much cleaner than gasoline.The biggest reason more public vehicles don’t use alternative fuels, Varlamoff said, is the matter of supply. Bio-diesel, compressed natural gas and liquid propane gas aren’t among the choices at your neighborhood filling station yet.”Liquid propane is available at most RV and U-Haul stores and at companies that sell LP gas,” Varlamoff said.”Major cities like Atlanta have compressed natural gas pumping stations,” she said, “because the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) requires government entities to include alternative-fuel vehicles in their fleets.”
By Dialogo July 25, 2012 When they realized how much talent their daughter had, her parents tried to convince her to play for Rosario Jockey Club, the best team in the city. But Aymar resisted, as she wanted to keep playing with her friends at Fisherton. She eventually switched clubs, launching her career. “Lucha was promoted to the better teams because she had so much skill,” Calvano said. “At the time, she was also playing tennis – and playing very well. Her coach said she could become a professional tennis player if she dedicated herself exclusively to the sport.” But Aymar chose field hockey. In 1997, when she was 20, she led her team to the Junior Pan American Games title. The next year, she wore the official jersey of the Argentine national team for the first time. The coach at the time, Sergio “Cachito” Vigil and trainer Luis Bruno Barrionuevo helped her reach the top of the sport. In 2000, Aymar led Las Leonas to a silver medal in Sydney. “It was during this tournament that the Argentine national team transformed into Las Leonas,” Calvano said. “The team needed to win a number of games in order to reach the final match and, at the suggestion of the psychologist, they used the lioness as a kind of super ego.” Since then, the team jersey has featured the image of a lioness prepared to strike. The logo was designed by one of the players, Inés Arrondo. “Until that moment, Argentina didn’t have a sport that was as popular among girls as soccer is among boys. Las Leonas helped to change that, which is why we have so many qualified players now,” Calvano said. “Luciana represents this change. She’s an example of good sportsmanship and honesty.” Matías González, 27, the coach of the women’s field hockey team at Moorlands Club in Pilar in Greater Buenos Aires, said it’s hard to imagine Las Leonas coming back from London without a medal. “During the past 10 years, they have never placed below third at an international tournament,” said González, who will be travelling to London as a reserve player for the men’s field hockey team. “So they have a very good chance of winning a medal at the Olympics.” Aymar is complemented by defender Noel Barrionuevo, 28, the best penalty corner shooter in the world. “In field hockey, the most competitive national teams right now are the Netherlands and Argentina,” he says. “The rest are one step behind them.” If it all goes as expected for Las Leonas in London, Aymar will have a memorable 35th birthday on Aug. 10 – playing in the gold medal game. “If she plays for the gold on her birthday, it will be a way to finish her career with a flourish,” Calvano said. BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – The best field hockey player of all time is carrying the hopes of a nation to the Olympic Games in London. The record-breaking, seven-time International Hockey Federation (IHF) player of the year Luciana Aymar, 34, is the star player for the current world champion, Argentina, whose women’s field hockey team is known as Las Leonas (The Lionesses). Argentines call Aymar, a prolific scorer, the “Maradona of field hockey.” But unlike the former soccer star, she is also admired for her humility and the warm manner with which she treats journalists and fans. Argentines often affectionately refer to Aymar as “Lucha” (her nickname) and “La Maga” (The Magician). Aymar, the team’s captain, has won almost every international tournament. She took home the gold in the Field Hockey World Cup in 2002 and 2010, silver at the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000), and bronze in Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008), as well as winning the Champions Trophy, Americas Cup and the Pan American Games. The only medal Aymar has yet to win in 286 international games is Olympic gold. The London Olympics will be her last chance before she hangs up her cleats. “I want the gold medal – it’s the only one that’s missing,” Aymar said at a June press conference. “The team is very ambitious and we’re going to fight to accomplish our goal. That’s what we’re working for, but we know it won’t be easy.” Women’s field hockey represents Argentina’s best chances for a medal in London, said Oswaldo Arsenio, the national technical director of Argentina’s Ministry of Sports. “Las Leonas is a well-balanced team. There are experienced players competing alongside younger players. They’re completely integrated and will keep us competing at the top level internationally,” Arsenio said. “The Netherlands and Great Britain will be our biggest rivals.” The team’s success at the Games of the XXX Olympiad hinges on Aymar’s play. “Aymar is the author behind memorable plays and goals at key moments in decisive games,” he added. “For these reasons, Aymar will be the flag bearer for our delegation.” From Rosario to the world stage Aymar began playing field hockey when she was 8 at the Atlético Fisherton Club in Rosario, her hometown. “Ever since she was little, she caught people’s eyes with her dexterity. When she was 11 or 12, she was already competing against athletes who were 20 or 25,” said Argentine journalist Luis Calvano, author of the biography Luciana Aymar – Corazón de Leona (Luciana Aymar: The Heart of a Lioness). 
8SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr Women’s retail chain Bebe Stores Inc. confirmed a data breach into its payment processing system that occurred last month over a 2 1/2-week period.In its statement, the company says it believes the attack “was focused on and limited to” data from payment cards swiped in its U.S., Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands stores between Nov. 8 and Nov. 26. The statement said the data stolen may include the cardholder’s name, account number, expiration date and verification code.NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger said Thursday that the now-confirmed breach underscores the need for legislative action. “Congress needs to put an end to cybercriminals’ free rein on consumers’ financial and personal information,” he said, “and make retailers subject to the same national data security standards that apply to financial institutions, such as the requirements of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.”Last week, on Cyber Monday, NAFCU sent a letter to members of Congress urging lawmakers to act on data and cybersecurity legislation during the current lame-duck session. The letter was highlighted in a POLITICO Morning Cybersecurity article on Wednesday, which pointed to NAFCU’s leadership in calling for national data security standards for merchants. Also on Monday, Berger urged credit unions to educate their members about this issue. To facilitate that, he forwarded a draft article credit unions can share with their own members to explain the issues surrounding data breaches. continue reading »
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We’re all livin’ on a prayer these days. And those 80’s jams? Yeah, they bring back some memories (or at least some movie-inspired nostalgia for you babies out there.)Regardless, that kind of nostalgia offers an avenue for a whole lot of creative connection with your members. And that’s what this week’s episode of Banking on Experience is all about.CRMNEXT’s James Gilbert is joined by Cynthia Kolko, writer/PR pro at The Summit Federal Credit Union and author of the CUInsight Article, “Five credit union marketing tips inspired by 80s heavy metal,” to discuss member engagement.So, tune in and turn it up.
Throughout November, we’ve profiled veterans in our second annual Salute to Veterans 2020, sponsored by FIS, and explored how military service has aided their credit union careers.We also asked you to share your military experience and how it’s impacted your credit union careers. Twenty-three of you responded, recounting how the military provided you with the education, experience, and skills needed to excel in your credit union careers and address life’s challenges.Some of your stories:Robert PaduanoRobert Paduano knew how it important it was to attend college if he wanted to pursue a career in information technology. He also knew the military offered him that opportunity. This post is currently collecting data… This is placeholder text continue reading »
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