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The U.S. National Science Foundation has launched six pilot projects to bridge scientific gaps between current quantum technological capabilities and those needed to fully harness quantum properties of energy and matter for practical uses. The six projects join five others that the agency announced in August. Collectively, they are supported by the NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NSF NQVL) initiative, an ambitious effort to accelerate the development of quantum technologies by providing researchers anywhere in the U.S. with access to specialized resources.

Each pilot project will receive $1 million over 12 months to create real-world testing environments that can further the progress of quantum-related technologies. The projects will explore novel methods to provide distributed access to tools needed for creating functional technologies that exploit quantum phenomena such as entanglement (when certain properties of particles are linked even when the particles are separated by large distances). Quantum phenomena can be used in principle to create networks with practically impenetrable security, computers that can solve currently intractable problems, biomedical sensors that can provide doctors with cellular-level information and more. Yet much work to test and achieve such technologies remains to be done.

“Similar to the nature of entanglement itself, NSF is building the National Quantum Virtual Laboratory to serve as a national resource unconfined by the limitations of distance and space — or the boundaries of

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A new annual survey from the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NSF NCSES) sheds light on research and development performed by the federal government. The survey, called the “Federal Facilities Research and Development Survey,” was released in early November and reports on R&D conducted by government scientists and engineers in agencies like the Defense Department, NASA, the Agricultural Research Service and the National Institutes of Health.

In its first year, the survey identified nearly $35 billion in federal R&D performed across 470 individual research facilities in Fiscal Year 2022. Detailed data tables break down facilities’ spending by scientific field, type of R&D and in some cases number of researchers, technicians and support staff employed or contracted by the facility.

The full picture of federal R&D

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A team of researchers has uncovered seven new dark comets in the solar system. In addition to doubling the number of known dark comets, the researchers have identified two distinct types based on differences in their orbit and size.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings reveal seven new dark comets and two types: outer dark comets and inner dark comets. Outer dark comets are large objects with eccentric orbits that may originate in the outer solar system. Inner dark comets are smaller objects with nearly circular orbits that travel in the inner solar system, closer to Earth, and may originate in the asteroid belt.

“One of the most important reasons why we study small bodies, like asteroids and comets, is because they tell us about how material is transported around the solar system,” said Michigan State University researcher Darryl Seligman, who led the study and is a recipient of a U.S. National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship, supported in part by a gift from Charles Simonyi to NSF.

“The discovery of more and different types of dark comets whizzing through the solar system is a prime example of why NSF continues to support the innovative research of postdoctoral scientists,” says Louise Edwards, program director of the NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships program.

Dark comets — which look

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NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan spent the last two weeks reinforcing NSF’s strategic partnerships to ensure the United States remains at the vanguard of global research competitiveness.

On Thursday, Nov. 28, Panchanathan met with India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in India to discuss the progress of collaborative investments between the two nations in STEM. The director then met with India’s minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Minister Jitendra Singh, to explore opportunities for emerging technologies and agriculture through the Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen AGriculturE initiative.