I will be attending: "Susan Coppersmith: Building a quantum computer using silicon quantum dots" http://planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/470393 Too bad I can't take one home.
It is a very cursory overview of what she is researching. Most o the people that attend these things are already experts in the field...
Went to this talk today because I thought quantum computing would come up: http://planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/475581 It didn't really directly. I had to sort of put the pieces together, and since I am no expert in either field, I had to work hard at the connection. But I take notice of who goes to these things, and I noticed a contigency of people at the talk above were at this one, asking questions at the end. It is very interesting to me how much the physics of superconductors looks like an emergent version of the standard model. The equations are almost identical, with its own version of the Higgs field. I also notice how close the analogy with SuperSymmetry there is between Superconductors and High Energy Physics. I am more convinced than ever that SUSY will be discovered. I noticed Helium-3 was given as example quite a bit. So I looked it up: http://www.supraconductivite.fr/en/index.php?p=recherche-fluides-helium Condensed Matter Physics and Quantum Computers are coming at the same problem from different angles. However, I am going to guess that it is nano-superconductors that make quantum computers (and a bunch of other technologies) possible.
Helium3 is rare on earth but abundant on the moon. It's the reason the Chinese are gearing up to establish a base on the moon and mine it. Other rare elements are the reason for asteroid mining plans. No matter the blather re: big bang remnants etc. that's where the $$ is, the payoff.
A reasonable publication for those not deeply into theory/research but have an involvement in the periphery or simply a general interest. Materials engineering is everything and totally dependent on new compounds. https://www.quantamagazine.org/
A British lab made some progress recently, but I can't find anything quick.Here's IBM. http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2015/05/04/quantum-computing-becomes-more-practical/
I am no chemist, but it seems like Helium-3 would not be too hard to make. Though, from what I see on the net, Helium-3 is too rare in most mineable sources to harvest. The sole commercial supply of Helium-3 comes from radioactive decay of tritium from thermonuclear weapons stockpiles. Strange...
Will be attending this. 25th Midwest Relativity Meeting CIERA Northwestern University Evanston IL October 1-3, 2015 Einstein's Discovery of the General Theory of Relativity 7:30pm Thursday October 1, 2015 http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/lectures/Einstein Discover GR/Einstein Discovery GR.html
Will be attending. If done right, this will be a fun and inspiring talk: Title: From square roots to modern algebraic geometry Speaker: Dylan Wilson Speaker Info: Brief Description: Abstract: We'll take a historically motivated jaunt through some fun techniques and concepts in classical algebraic geometry. It starts around the time Newton wrote a snarky letter to Leibniz, and ends with Grothendieck's reimagining of Galois theory and some famous unsolved problems. There will be lots examples. http://sites.math.northwestern.edu/news/calendar/abstract.cgi?id=1443211852