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The twists and turns of weaving are promising a new breed of high-performance computer that will be able to solve problems so complex they would take today's fastest processors longer than the age of the universe. This article talks about weaving in the quantum world, the realm of subatomic particles. The idea of using the quantum world to perform calculations began with the late physicist Richard Feynman. He wanted to simulate the complexities of the universe in a computer and, realising that no conventional computer was up to the job, dreamed up the "quantum computer". A classical computer would take hundreds of millions of years to factorise a number just 300 digits long, and so encryption techniques such as the popular" RSA" method have used the hidden factors of these numbers as a basis for establishing secure codes. INSET: WHERE DO ALL THE ANYONS COME FROM?.

The next generation of spacecraft propulsion systems could be dead in the water before they are even launched. A physicist is claiming that solar sailing the idea of using sunlight to blow spacecraft across the solar system is at odds with the laws of thermal physics. Although photons do not have mass, they are considered to have momentum, so according to the law of conservation of momentum, the photon loses some of its energy to the sail as it bounces off, giving the sail a shove in the opposite direction. But Thomas Gold from Cornell University in New York says the proponents of solar sailing have forgotten about thermodynamics, the branch of physics governing heat transfer. Steven Soter, an astronomer at the Hayden Planetarium in New York, is open to Gold's idea. There may also be evidence to support Gold's theory, in the form of a quirky device called a Crookes radiometer. It consists of four paddles attached to the arms of a rotor, inside a vacuum jar. Each paddle is silvered on one side and coated with a black absorber on the other. When placed in sunlight, the rotor spins. If the theory of solar sailing is right, the rotor should spin with the reflecting silver surfaces moving away from the light. But it actually spins the other way, just as Gold predicts.

Provides information on enigmatic bursts of gamma rays which were spotted by satellites. What are gamma-ray bursters; Identification of the different types of gamma-ray bursters; Comments from Diego Torres of the University of Sussex.

Reports on the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP) programmed launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), while highlighting the Hubble Space Telescope used by astronomers, in which they claim to have seen a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the Sun's nearest star. What the BBP researchers are considering; Reference to David Deutsch's book `The Fabric of Reality'; Announcements by NASA.

Reports on the measured impact of the dark matter on gravity according to research findings from researchers at the National Autonomous University in Mexico City, Mexico. Oscillation of the G force following the universe's formation; Constancy of the gravitation ebb and flow of the G force.

Reports that many mass extinctions that have punctuated the Earth's history could have been triggered by the collision of neutron stars according to Israeli astrophysicists. Release of cosmic rays by merging neutron stars; Death of organisms due to the rain of muons; Leading astrophysical explanations for mass extinctions.