Wandering Adventure Party

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Apple has patented a new AirPods sensor system that integrates active and reference electrodes into the housing and tips to measure brain activity and other biosignals[^1]. The system can monitor electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), and electrooculography (EOG) through electrodes placed around the outer ear[^2].

The technology uses dynamic electrode selection, intelligently choosing specific electrodes based on user parameters and wearing conditions to optimize accuracy[^2]. Users could potentially activate measurements through simple gestures like tapping the AirPods tip[^2].

However, experts note significant challenges - current in-ear EEG systems require patient-specific 3D ear scans and careful cleaning procedures that may not align with Apple’s consumer product approach[^3].

[^1]: LinkedIn - Apple’s AirPods Revolution: New Patent for Measuring Biosignals and Reading Minds

[^2]: Medium - Apple’s Next-Gen AirPods with Brainwave Monitoring

[^3]: Manifold Markets - Will Apple Airpods have EEG based BCI control features by 2026?

While other research groups had successfully transmitted quantum information alongside classical data streams in simulations of the internet, Kumar’s team was the first to teleport a quantum state alongside an actual internet stream.

Researchers at Tohoku University have developed a method to detect dark matter by connecting quantum sensors in optimized networks, potentially solving one of physics’ greatest mysteries[^1]. The quantum network approach aims to boost sensor sensitivity to detect the faint traces dark matter may leave behind, though it cannot be directly observed[^2].

Dark matter remains elusive despite making up approximately 27% of the universe[^3]. This new detection strategy involves linking superconducting qubits - typically used in quantum computers - into various network configurations including ring, line, and star patterns to amplify weak signals[^3].

The team tested their approach using systems of four and nine qubits, applying “variational quantum metrology” to optimize how quantum states were prepared and measured[^3]. To improve accuracy, they used Bayesian estimation to filter out noise from the measurements[^3].

[^1]: Lifeboat - Scientists Propose Quantum Network to Finally Detect Universe’s Mysterious Missing Substance

[^2]: ScienceDaily - New quantum network could finally reveal dark matter

[^3]: Sciencesprings - From Tohoku University Via SciTechDaily: Scientists Propose Quantum Network to Finally Detect Universe’s Mysterious Missing Substance

Just a moment...

(scitechdaily.com)

The famous Alcubierre warp drive, introduced in 1994, has long been considered unphysical because it requires enormous amounts of theoretical negative mass or energy density to function . The authors of this study, Bobrick and Martire, suggest that this negative energy problem may not be a fundamental rule for all warp drives, but rather a specific flaw in Alcubierre’s original design.

The researchers identify key artificial constraints in the Alcubierre model that mathematically force the need for negative energy. The Alcubierre model assumes the warp bubble has no gravitational effect on the spacetime outside of it, effectively “truncating” the gravitational field. The authors show that this assumption is a likely reason it requires negative energy . Furthermore, Alcubierre designed his drive so a passenger’s clock ticks at the same rate as a stationary observer far away . This means the passenger’s time is actually accelerated compared to an observer moving alongside the drive, another feature that requires negative energy .

By removing these artificial constraints, the authors developed a new, general model for a warp drive that can be constructed using purely positive energy, or regular matter. This new, physical warp drive is, however, strictly subluminal, meaning it can only travel slower than the speed of light. It is essentially a massive, hollow, spherically symmetric shell of ordinary matter. Unlike the Alcubierre drive, it would have a normal gravitational field outside of it, just like a planet. A passenger inside this shell would be in “flat spacetime,” experiencing no gravity due to the Shell Theorem, a principle where the gravitational pull from all parts of the shell perfectly cancels out in the interior. The “warp” effect comes from its enormous mass, which causes time to run slower for the passenger compared to an outside observer. The mass requirements are vast; the paper calculates that an Earth-mass shell compressed to a 10-meter radius would only slow time by a tiny 0.04%.

This paper also clarifies a major misconception about how warp drives work. The original Alcubierre paper suggested the drive’s velocity could just be changed as a function of time, but the new study points out that this violates the conservation of energy . The authors stress that a warp drive is an object, specifically a “shell of regular or exotic material moving inertially”. Because it is a massive object, it is not a propulsion system itself. It cannot magically accelerate. To move or change velocity, it would require an external form of propulsion, such as a “propellant exhaust system” (like rockets) attached to it.

While this new positive-energy solution is limited to subluminal speeds, the paper reinforces that faster-than-light travel still appears to require negative energy. The authors also note that even for the unphysical Alcubierre drive, the most energy-efficient shape would be a flattened disc, not a sphere. This research is significant because it moves the warp drive concept from a purely unphysical fantasy to an extremely difficult but not theoretically impossible engineering challenge, suggesting a path to construct such spacetimes based on the laws of physics as we know them

Introducing Physical Warp Drives

Abstract page for arXiv paper 2102.06824: Introducing Physical Warp Drives

arXiv.org (arxiv.org)

In a breakthrough announced in October 2025, mathematicians Jakob Steininger and Sergey Yurkevich discovered the first shape proven to lack the “Rupert property” - meaning it cannot have a straight tunnel bored through it large enough for an identical copy to pass through[^1].

Named the “Noperthedron,” this 90-vertex, 152-face shape disproved a centuries-old conjecture that all convex polyhedra would have this pass-through property, first demonstrated by Prince Rupert with a cube in the 1600s[^1].

The proof combined theoretical advances with massive computer calculations, examining approximately 18 million possible orientations. “It’s a miracle that it works,” said Steininger, who developed the proof with Yurkevich while both worked in Austria[^1].

This resolved a geometry problem dating back to Prince Rupert’s royal bet that one cube couldn’t pass through another. While Rupert won that bet, and mathematicians later proved many complex shapes could have pass-through tunnels, the Noperthedron finally provided the first counterexample[^1].

[^1]: First Shape Found That Can’t Pass Through Itself | Quanta Magazine