Physicists create new family of Schrödinger-cat states

Texting while driving. Bullying people on social media. Buying into the latest conspiracy theory. Passing off AI-generated work as your own.

Maize (Zea mays L.) plays an important role in global food security. During 9,000 years of maize domestication and breeding, however, protein content was not a major breeding target. Consequently, many beneficial gene variants associated with higher protein content were gradually lost from cultivated maize. As a result, modern maize varieties often have low seed protein content, leading to a heavy reliance on imported soybean meal for livestock feed.

Agriculture today is a massive, globally interconnected industry. That interconnectivity has brought jobs and varied foods to people who might not otherwise be able to access them.

Assistant Professor Haocun Yu is something of a scientific diplomat. In a recent Physical Review Letters publication, she and her colleagues show how a tabletop experiment can bring together two bedrock physics theories that have never been fully reconciled.