A troupe of satellites flying in formation could scan the Earth more efficiently for natural disasters, but they would have to keep in touch throughout their complicated orbital dance. Tanya Vladimirova of the UK鈥檚 Surrey Space Centre suggests that members of such a troupe could use a modified Wi-Fi system to talk to each other, as well as smart antennas to direct their signals to the changing positions of other craft.
Nanoribbons could overcome one of the key obstacles to making a practical quantum computer 鈥� storing information as 鈥渜ubits鈥�. Researchers in China have shown that qubits, in the form of electrons with up and down spin states, can be held in the corners of Z-shaped graphene nanoribbons. Once stored, the qubits can be read and written to, and can interact if two of the Zs are placed close together.
