Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for September 17, 2019

An important quantum search algorithm has been observed in the natural behavior of electrons; A simple eye test as early warning for Alzheimer's disease; The coming reality of space tourism; SpaceX updates plans to provide earlier broadband coverage to the US; and a Steem-based video discussion of white holes and anti-matter

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An important quantum algorithm may actually be a property of nature - In classical algorithms, the worst case number of steps for searching a list is N, the number of items in the list, because the target item might be the last object searched. In 1996, however, Lov Grover found a quantum algorithm that can search a list with a worst case performance of the square root of N (i.e. 3 steps for a list of 9 items, or 5 steps for a list of 25). Grover's Algorithm has proved difficult to implement, however, and (as of 2017) current implementations only scale to 3 qubits. According to researchers from the University of Toulon, nature may have already beaten us to it, however. In an arXiv paper, these researchers say that under certain conditions, electrons naturally act like a Grover Search in order to detect defects in materials. This research could have implications in the search for a more scalable method for Grover Search in quantum computing, and - according to theoretical work by Apoorva D Patel in 2000, it may also have explanatory power for biologists who are exploring the origins of life.

Pupillary dilation responses as a midlife indicator of risk for Alzheimer’s Disease: Association with Alzheimer’s disease polygenic risk - Tau deposits in the Locus coeruleus are one of the earliest biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease, the United States' most expensive disease. Until now, the biomarker has only been detectable with post-mortem testing, but this research suggests that it may be detectable with a simple eye test that examines pupillary responses during cognitive tasks. If so, this may help with early screening for Alzheimer's - before cognitive difficulties are observable. This, in turn, may help with slowing the onset of the disease. h/t Daniel Lemire

Update: After a reminder from @lemouth, here are links to some of my previous posts that have included coverage of Alzheimer's disease. From @lemouth's comment (below) and reviewing these posts, I was reminded that there are other techniques on the research horizon that make use of blood tests or brain scans and may also lead to early detection of Alzheimer's disease:

Huge space hotel promises fake gravity and 'supersized basketball' - Space tourism is on the verge of becoming, "a thing". NASA says it will open the International Space Station (ISS) to up to tourists in 2020; Orion Span is planning a four-guest space hotel in 2022, and now the Gateway Foundation is planning a space-based cruise ship that will carry up to 100 passengers for 2025, with the first guests arriving in 2027. This vehicle, the Von Braun Rotating Space Station, will have artificial gravity at 1/6 of the Earth's pull, and may use a SpaceX vehicle to shuttle passengers to and from the ground. Typical guest stays would be 1-2 weeks, and crew members would spend 6 months aboard the ship. In order to reduce the risk from space-based debris, the ship would have protective shielding, and it would be able to steer to avoid collisions. The article contains an animation to show what the ship might look like. h/t RealClear Science

SpaceX says it will deploy satellite broadband across US faster than expected - The company has filed plans to change its satellite launch strategy in a way that will reorganize orbits in order to speed up deployment. If approved, the new plans call for satellites in three planes, instead of one. Under the new plans, the company plans to provide coverage to the continental United States by the end of "next hurricane season", and to other US territories the following year. Unlike traditional satellite services, SpaceX will use low earth orbits, which will provide latency as low as 25 ms, with Gigabit speed. The company also plans several more Starlking satellite launches during 2019.

STEEM White Holes | Answers With Joe - Here is a Steem post with an embedded youtube video, where @answerswithjoe talks about the concept of White Holes. The discussion starts off with a historical discussion of black holes in science fiction, then points out that black holes were never actually observed until 2015. From there, @answerswithjoe points out that the same math that predicted black holes also predicted white holes, but to date none have been observed. Whereas the black hole has an event horizon beyond which nothing can escape, the white hole, it says, has an event horizon beyond which nothing can reach. The video suggests that one mechanism by which white holes might form is by emerging from black holes in another universe, and for example, that our big bang may have formed as a white hole from another universe.

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