Quantum flipping …it’s a thing.

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In a world first, physicists have made light appear to move forward and backward in time simultaneously .?

And this is big news for the quantum computing industry. Which might sound obscure, but it isn't. In fact, the industry is worth an estimated $712.2 million .

But back to the light appearing to time travel (sort of.) They did this by achieving a quantum time flip. Which sounds like something Doc and Marty would buy into, except it’s a real thing.

It also involved a bit of superposition, which you might have heard of in relation to Schr?dinger's feline friend. (The experiment where a hypothetical cat is considered simultaneously alive and dead due to the fact that its life is in the hands of a random subatomic event that both takes place and doesn't take place until it's observed. You know the one.)

Quantum superposition, on the other hand (which is what came into play here) is where tiny particles exist in several different states until they are observed.?

Now, the principle of charge, parity, and time-reversal (CPT) states any system containing particles will obey the same physical laws, even if their charge, spatial coordinates, and movements are precisely reversed.

So… in this experiment, they made the light appear to move back and forward at the same time, with the aforementioned quantum time flip (which is where a photon exists in both forward and backward time states at the same time.)?

PhD student Teodor Str?mberg , a physicist at the University of Vienna, who was first author on one of the papers the team produced as a result of their findings, said: “The concept of the arrow of time is giving a word to the apparent unidirectionality of time that we observe in the macroscopic world we inhabit.

“This is actually in tension with many of the fundamental laws of physics, which by and large are time symmetric, and which therefore do not have a preferred time direction.”

Or, to put it in different terms, Giulio Chiribella , a University of Oxford physicist and lead author of the other paper described the work as “a simulation of exotic scenarios where a photon might evolve forward and backward in time. What we do is an analogue to some experiments that simulate exotic physics, such as the physics of black holes or time travel.”

Either way, will it change everyday lives or broader society? Probably not – it has no immediate practical use. But immediate is the operative word…

Because one of the most interesting (and very much related) studies in this field is without doubt the quantum internet project . For the uninitiated, the idea behind this is to deliver a new network connection to the public that will run alongside the internet, where massive data can transport in an instant over a wireless mode. Now we’re talking.?

If you’re into quantum computing though, this is momentous, as it could bring about a raft of new techniques. The research could also give scientists a much better understanding of how quantum gravity works.?

You could even argue that it gives rise to new theoretical possibilities. Take quantum gravity, for example… should it include particles of “mixed time orientations” (like the ones in this research)??

If it’s to be based on a uniting of general relativity and quantum mechanics, then perhaps it should?

And if it should, what enigmatic phenomena from across the universe would we then be able to look at in a completely different way???

The possibilities are endless… or should that be infinite? Potato/pot-ar-toe.

• US-based startup claims its VTOL will have Mach 0.66 cruise speed and over 11,000 miles of range.

A new five-seater VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) Ranger has been developed by Aura Aerospace , a U.S.-based startup.

Why is this noteworthy? Well, it claims to fly farther than any typical airliner and boasts roof-to-roof vertical takeoff and landing capability.

The Ranger can fly for 22 hours non-stop or 11,185 miles (18,000 kilometers) on a full tank of sustainable aviation fuel. A normal Airbus A380 travels a maximum distance of about 9,200 miles (14,800 kilometers).

• ARRW, the United States' first hypersonic missile, is almost ready for operational status .

Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) is developing the first hypersonic weapon for the Air Force. And it’s nearly ready.

In fact, the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) is expected to be complete and ready for deployment in 2023.

It travels at a maximum speed of almost 15,000 mph (24,000 km/h; Mach 20) and uses a boost-glide mechanism, by which a rocket is mounted to accelerate it to a hypersonic speed before it “glides” toward its target.

• A novel sodium-sulphur battery has four times the capacity of lithium-ion batteries.

In the pursuit of net-zero emissions by 2050, battery technology is in the spotlight. Which is why a group of researchers at the University of Sydney has come up with a sodium-sulphur battery with four times the capacity of lithium-ion cells.

And the battery in question also costs considerably less to manufacture than a standard battery. Which is because the team made use of a molten salt mixture of the constituent materials processed from seawater, which makes the whole thing much cheaper.?

• Optical computers run a million times faster than conventional computers, study reveals.

A team of scientists at AALTO University led by postdoctoral researcher Yi Zhang have designed and developed a new optic chirality logic gates, which are being run at about a million times faster than previous logic gates.

This extremely fast processing is achieved using circularly polarized light instead of an electrical signal. It depends largelyl on the handedness of the circularly polarized beam, through a crystal material that is sensitive to the beam of light.

• Airbus unveils zero-emissions hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine.

Zero-emissions aircraft could soon be a thing, thanks to Airbus . The company has revealed it is developing a hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine. It’s one of its potential solutions for its zero-emission aircraft, which it says will enter service by 2035.?

The A380 MSN1 flight test aircraft is in the process of being altered to give it the capacity to carry liquid hydrogen tanks and their distribution systems. After that, Airbus will start ground and flight testing onboard its ZEROe demonstrator aircraft. So it’s what you might accurately describe as all systems go.