Happy centenary, photon

One hundred years ago Albert Einstein introduced the concept of the photon. Although in the early years after 1905 the evidence for the quantum nature of light was not compelling, modern experiments--especially those using photon pairs--have beautifully confirmed its corpuscular character. Research on the quantum properties of light (quantum optics) triggered the evolution of the whole field of quantum information processing, which now promises new technology, such as quantum cryptography and even quantum computers.     

A study on environmental changes based upon cladoceran assemblages from the core sediments in Chen Co,southern Tibet

A consecutive sediment core (CC2) was drilled in Chen Co (lake) of southern Tibet using a PISTON sampler in 1998 AD. Cladoceran remains including their species,amount richness and ecological features are analyzed for the top 117 cm sections of the core, upon which 5 cladoceran assemblages are distinguished. CL0 is an assemblage without any cladocera in the depth between 117-105 cm. CL1 assemblage (depths between I01-77 cm, ca.1407-1533 AD) possesses total 9 cladoceran species that appear in the core,and performs the greatest richness in the whole sequence.This assemblage reflected that there was plenty of exotic cold water and organic debrises inputing to the sedimentary site under the warmer conditions. The lake was wide and shallow that satisfied the big hydrophyte living. Cladoceran species and richnesses of CL2 assemblage (depths between 77-29cm, ca. 1533-1831AD) perform much more decreasing than those of CLI. There was only less Chydorus sphaericus which was acclimatized to wide environmental ranges. This implied that the sedimentary environment is so execrable that most of cladoceran lost their living abilities. Compared with CL1 assemblage, CL3 assemblage (depths between 29-10 cm, ca.1831--1941 AD) possesses nearly the same dominant species but lower richnesses. Especially, the cladoceran preferring organic debris also decrease in their amounts. This meant that the surface vegetation in the drainage basin was still poor though the environment turned to be better. Except the 2 zooplankton species, the other 7 species of cladoceran in this core are found in CL4 assemblage (depths between 10-0cm, ca. 1941-1998 AD), in which the eurythermal species had not performed their competition ability comparing withnarrow-temperatures adapted species. It implied that water temperatures were stable and much more influenced by air temperatures under the shallow-water conditions. The environmental features reflected by cladocera assemblages of CC2 core are fully supported by the evidences from ostracoda assemblages, diatom-salinity transfunction, environmental magnetism and relative proxies of the parallel CC1 core. Cladoceran assemblages in the lake sediments of Tibetan Plateau are sensitive to sedimentary environment and very significant to the studies of environmental changes.     

Femtosecond X-ray protein nanocrystallography

X-ray crystallography provides the vast majority of macromolecular structures, but the success of the method relies on growing crystals of sufficient size. In conventional measurements, the necessary increase in X-ray dose to record data from crystals that are too small leads to extensive damage before a diffraction signal can be recorded. It is particularly challenging to obtain large, well-diffracting crystals of membrane proteins, for which fewer than 300 unique structures have been determined despite their importance in all living cells. Here we present a method for structure determination where single-crystal X-ray diffraction 'snapshots' are collected from a fully hydrated stream of nanocrystals using femtosecond pulses from a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source. We prove this concept with nanocrystals of photosystem I, one of the largest membrane protein complexes. More than 3,000,000 diffraction patterns were collected in this study, and a three-dimensional data set was assembled from individual photosystem I nanocrystals (～200?nm to 2?μm in size). We mitigate the problem of radiation damage in crystallography by using pulses briefer than the timescale of most damage processes. This offers a new approach to structure determination of macromolecules that do not yield crystals of sufficient size for studies using conventional radiation sources or are particularly sensitive to radiation damage.     

Experimental non-classicality of an indivisible quantum system

In contrast to classical physics, quantum theory demands that not all properties can be simultaneously well defined; the Heisenberg uncertainty principle is a manifestation of this fact. Alternatives have been explored--notably theories relying on joint probability distributions or non-contextual hidden-variable models, in which the properties of a system are defined independently of their own measurement and any other measurements that are made. Various deep theoretical results imply that such theories are in conflict with quantum mechanics. Simpler cases demonstrating this conflict have been found and tested experimentally with pairs of quantum bits (qubits). Recently, an inequality satisfied by non-contextual hidden-variable models and violated by quantum mechanics for all states of two qubits was introduced and tested experimentally. A single three-state system (a qutrit) is the simplest system in which such a contradiction is possible; moreover, the contradiction cannot result from entanglement between subsystems, because such a three-state system is indivisible. Here we report an experiment with single photonic qutrits which provides evidence that no joint probability distribution describing the outcomes of all possible measurements--and, therefore, no non-contextual theory--can exist. Specifically, we observe a violation of the Bell-type inequality found by Klyachko, Can, Binicio?lu and Shumovsky. Our results illustrate a deep incompatibility between quantum mechanics and classical physics that cannot in any way result from entanglement.     

Femtosecond time-delay X-ray holography

Extremely intense and ultrafast X-ray pulses from free-electron lasers offer unique opportunities to study fundamental aspects of complex transient phenomena in materials. Ultrafast time-resolved methods usually require highly synchronized pulses to initiate a transition and then probe it after a precisely defined time delay. In the X-ray regime, these methods are challenging because they require complex optical systems and diagnostics. Here we propose and apply a simple holographic measurement scheme, inspired by Newton's 'dusty mirror' experiment, to monitor the X-ray-induced explosion of microscopic objects. The sample is placed near an X-ray mirror; after the pulse traverses the sample, triggering the reaction, it is reflected back onto the sample by the mirror to probe this reaction. The delay is encoded in the resulting diffraction pattern to an accuracy of one femtosecond, and the structural change is holographically recorded with high resolution. We apply the technique to monitor the dynamics of polystyrene spheres in intense free-electron-laser pulses, and observe an explosion occurring well after the initial pulse. Our results support the notion that X-ray flash imaging can be used to achieve high resolution, beyond radiation damage limits for biological samples. With upcoming ultrafast X-ray sources we will be able to explore the three-dimensional dynamics of materials at the timescale of atomic motion.