Quantum

Researchers have produced what may very well be the first pieces of art made using non-classical matter. The team has reproduced classic artworks like the Mona Lisa and Starry Night on a “quantum canvas” as small as a human hair, by projecting light onto Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs).

Quantum entanglement is the idea that two distant atoms can become so entwined that changes to one can instantly affect the other. Now scientists have managed to demonstrate it on a much larger scale, which is beginning to cross over into our everyday world.

Ball lightning has been consistently reported for centuries, and yet we still know very little about it. Now, scientists have created quantum ball lightning by knotting together the magnetic spins of atoms, which could help unlock the secrets of the phenomenon, or make more stable fusion reactors.

Quantum encryption can make data breaches literally impossible, and in a new demonstration of that kind of security, scientists have now used the Chinese satellite Micius to send quantum-encrypted data between China and Austria. That brings the world another step closer to a global quantum internet.

The world’s most powerful X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), is about to get far more powerful. The first of 37 “cryomodules” has arrived at Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which will boost the speed and power of the facility.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge claim to have discovered a method to trigger the superconducting properties of graphene without actually altering its chemical structure.

Chinese scientists claim to have launched the world's first quantum communications satellite with which they intend to experiment with quantum communication and teleportation from space, in the hope of one day producing an entire global network of quantum communication systems.

Researchers at Imperial College London have surprised everyone with research suggesting that binding light to a single electron could result in a new type of light that boasts the properties of both light and electricity.

By trapping photons inside a tiny gold cavity, scientists have created a hybrid state of light and matter. This could allow them to develop tiny on-chip lasers or tweak the chemical bonds of single molecules.

Researchers have managed to entangle three photons and add a 3-D corkscrew motion that effectively allows multiple recipients to simultaneously receive information securely encoded in the one transmission

Scientists working at the University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory claim to have entangled atomic nuclei at room temperature on a semiconductor chip, using the application of relatively small magnetic fields.

Before the Gregorian calendar keels over into 2016, let's take a wander through some of the year's most significant, salutary and attention grabbing examples of scientific achievement, technological innovation and human endeavor. ​