Since the Canadian company D-Wave began selling so-called quantum processors, experts have debated whether they're truly quantum. Now, according to an analysis by academic physicists they really do show quantum effects, making them the world's first commercial quantum processors.

In general, it's been difficult to confirm how D-Wave machines work because quantum states are so sensitive, measuring them may perturb them. Besides this new test, performed at the University of Southern California, a few different recent tests have gathered evidence that D-Wave processors work as advertised.

Quantum processors have quantum bits instead of the usual binary bits that traditional processors have. You know normal bits store information by taking on one of two states, often named "0" and "1." Quantum bits, also called qubits, have another capability. They are able to take on both the 0 and 1 states at the same time.

A new study provides the first conclusive proof of the existence of a space wind first proposed theoretically over 20 years ago.

By analyzing data from the European Space Agency's Cluster spacecraft, researcher Iannis Dandouras detected this plasmaspheric wind, so-called because it contributes to the loss of material from the plasmasphere, a donut-shaped region extending above the Earth's atmosphere. The results are published today in Annales Geophysicae, a journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

"After long scrutiny of the data, there it was, a slow but steady wind, releasing about 1 kg of plasma every second into the outer magnetosphere: this corresponds to almost 90 tonnes every day. It was definitely one of the nicest surprises I've ever had!" said Dandouras of the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology in Toulouse, France.

Plenty of myths and fables have tried to explain the loony effects the moon seems to have on animals, but far fewer scientific reports have formally addressed the issue. Now, in a comprehensive review, scientists have found the indirect, and sometimes direct, ways the lunar cycle drives animal behaviors.

The review also suggests light pollution, which can block out some of the moon's glow, may disrupt natural patterns associated with Earth's only satellite.

Those who believe in true lunacy - the craziness stirred in animals by the lunar cycle - will be disappointed to learn that many animals simply adjust their behaviors in response to changes in light levels and tides, rather than to anything supernatural.

Still, other behaviors do follow more mysterious circadian clocks controlled by the lunar cycle, the team reports today (July 2) in the journal the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

"The moon may act as a synchronizing cue between individuals, as a cue for other environmental parameters - spring tides, food availability - or simply allow animals to use vision," said Noga Kronfeld-Schor, a biologist at Tel Aviv University and co-author on the report. "The behaviors it affects are wide and diverse, ranging from long-term processes such as timing reproduction and migration to direct response to light levels."

A few months ago, when William Shatner, the actor who played Star Trek's Captain Kirk, heard that scientists were asking people to vote on names for Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, he lobbied that one satellite be called Vulcan, the home planet of Mr. Spock - and the name came out on top, far surpassing all others in the voting.

Today, however, scientists announced that the moons will instead bear names that better reflect Pluto's role in mythology as the god of the underworld. One satellite will be christened Kerberos, for Pluto's three-headed dog, and the other Styx, for the river dividing the world of the living from the underworld.

Kerberos is the Greek name for Cerberus, which placed number two in the voting, while Styx came in third. Why not Vulcan? Astronomers once used that name for what turned out to be a nonexistent planet inside Mercury's orbit, and its connection to the mythological Pluto was tenuous; so rejecting the name was - as Mr. Spock might say - the logical thing to do.

The Hubble Space Telescope team has released a video of Comet ISON is tearing toward its encounter with the Sun, zooming at 77,250 km/h (48,000 miles per hour). The comet's motion is captured in a timelapse movie, below, made from a sequence of pictures taken May 8, 2013. On that date, the comet was 650 million km (403 million miles) from Earth, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

This sungrazing comet will comes closest to the Sun in November 2013, and the debate is on whether it will dazzle the skies and be visible in the daytime or fizzle out due to its close proximity to the Sun.

The movie shows a sequence of Hubble observations taken over a 43-minute span, compressed into five seconds. In that 43 minutes, the comet traveled about 55,000 km (34,000 miles). ISON streaks silently against the background stars.

Source: HubbleSite

Even a good teacher may not always be able to tell, at a glance, which students are quietly struggling and which need more of a challenge. Fortunately, laptops may soon come with enough emotional intelligence built in to do the job for them.

A recent study from North Carolina State University shows how this might work. Researchers there used video cameras to monitor the faces of college students participating in computer tutoring sessions. Using software that had been trained to match facial expressions with different levels of engagement or frustration, the researchers were able to recognize when students were experiencing difficulty and when they were finding the work too easy.

Exclusive: Edward Snowden papers reveal 38 targets including EU, France and Italy

US intelligence services are spying on the European Union mission in New York and its embassy in Washington, according to the latest top secret US National Security Agency documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden.

One document lists 38 embassies and missions, describing them as "targets". It details an extraordinary range of spying methods used against each target, from bugs implanted in electronic communications gear to taps into cables to the collection of transmissions with specialised antennae.

Along with traditional ideological adversaries and sensitive Middle Eastern countries, the list of targets includes the EU missions and the French, Italian and Greek embassies, as well as a number of other American allies, including Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey. The list in the September 2010 document does not mention the UK, Germany or other western European states.

The recent reports concerning National Security Agency (NSA) collusion with the world's largest IT giants provide an insight into surveillance techniques the US government is using to spy on its citizens (and the rest of the world), with blatant disregard of human rights, privacy and legality.

As well as the Orwellian 'Big Brother' ramifications of Stasi cyber spying and digital tracking, the ongoing revelations from 'NSA whistleblower' Edward Snowden provide glimpses of the cooperation between government, the internet giants, private corporations, and private contractors profiteering from what might be termed the
'Surveillance Industrial Complex'.

Despite their denial of any knowledge of the PRISM program, or any wilful cooperation with the US government, the 'leaks' raise serious questions over the extent of complicity between the big internet firms and the NSA.

If the big tech firms were genuinely unaware of government monitoring then it exposes severe security flaws and poses the obvious question of whether they can be trusted to ensure users' data is safe. If, on the other hand, these firms were aware of PRISM, but have been forced to deny it for reasons of 'national security', it means individuals and international businesses are victims of total digital surveillance with minimal oversight.

We are told Snowden worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a defence contractor that is involved in virtually every aspect of US government intelligence gathering and mass surveillance, and is majority-owned by the politically-affiliated Carlyle group. How is it that private contractors have access to the most sensitive data concerning 'US national security'? Just how much of the state's intelligence infrastructure is being built, operated and maintained by totally unaccountable private interests?

The astronomers studying the atmosphere of Venus are facing a new mystery. The Venusian winds have been steadily accelerating for the last 6 years. Scientists monitoring the Venus Express orbiter since 2006 noted the stunning increase in the already super fast winds, from 186 mph to 249 mph. The astronomers acknowledge they do not understand why this enormous variation in wind speed occurred. What is it about the Venusian atmosphere that mainstream astronomers find so puzzling?

Scientists have discovered a new language in northern Australia which contains rare grammatical innovations and a unique combination of elements from other languages.

The language, now known as Light Warlpiri, is spoken by approximately 300 people in a remote desert community about 644 kilometres from Katherine, a town located in Australia's Northern Territory, said Carmel O'Shannessy, a professor in the department of linguistics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Light Warlpiri is known as a "mixed language," because it blends elements from multiple languages: Traditional Warlpiri, which is spoken by about 6,000 people in indigenous communities scattered throughout the Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory; Kriol, an English-based Creole language spoken in various regions of Australia; and English.