In its notice outlining the large cut in university funding, the US National Institutes of Health seems to draw on a report from a conservative think tank that denounces the “political left.”
We tend to define ourselves by the subjects we studied, and I am no different. I originally did physics before going on to complete a PhD in aeronautical engineering, which has led to a lifelong career in aerospace.
However, it took me quite a few years before I realized that there is more than one route to an enjoyable and successful career. I used to think that a career began at the “coal face” – doing things you were trained for or had a specialist knowledge of – before managing projects then products or people as you progressed to loftier heights.
Many of us naturally fall into one of three fundamental roles: artisan, architect or artist. So which are you?
At some point, I began to realize that while companies often adopt this linear approach to career paths, not everyone is comfortable with it. In fact, I now think that many of us naturally fall into one of three fundamental roles: artisan, architect or artist. So which are you?
Artisans are people who focus on creating functional, practical and often decorative items using hands-on methods or skills. Their work emphasizes craftmanship, attention to detail and the quality of the finished product. For scientists and engineers, artisans are highly skilled people who apply their technical knowledge and know-how. Let’s be honest: they are the ones who get the “real work” done. From programmers to machinists and assemblers, these are the people who create detailed designs and make or maintain a high-quality product.
Architects, on the other hand, combine vision with technical knowledge to create functional and effective solutions. Their work involves designing, planning and overseeing. They have a broader view of what’s happening and may be responsible for delivering projects. They need to ensure tasks are appropriately prioritized and keep things on track and within budget.
Architects also help with guiding on best practice and resolving or unblocking issues. They are the people responsible for ensuring that the end result meets the needs of users and, where applicable, comply with regulations. Typically, this role involves running a project or team – think principal investigator, project manager, software architect or systems engineer.
As for artists, they are the people who have a big picture view of the world – they will not have eyes for the finer details. They are less constrained by a framework and are comfortable working with minimal formal guidance and definition. They have a vision of what will be needed for the future – whether that’s new products and strategic goals or future skills and technology requirements.
Artists set the targets for how an organization, department or business needs to grow and they define strategies for how a business will develop its competitive edge. Artists are often leaders and chiefs.
Which type are you?
To see how these personas work in practice, imagine working for a power utility provider. If there’s a power outage, the artisans will be the people who get the power back on by locating and fixing damaged power lines, repairing substations and so on. They are practical people who know how to make things work.
The architect will be organizing the repair teams, working out who goes to which location, and what to prioritize, ensuring that customers are kept happy and senior leaders are kept informed of progress. The artist, meanwhile, will be thinking about the future. How, for example, can utilities protect themselves better from storm damage and what new technologies or designs can be introduced to make the supply more resilient and minimize disruption?
Predominantly artisans are practical, architects are tactical and artists are strategic but there is an overlap between these qualities. Artisans, architects and artists differ in their goals and methods, but the boundaries between them are blurred. Based on my gut experience as a physicist in industry, I’d say the breakdown between different skills is roughly as shown in the figure below.
Varying values Artisans, architects and artists don’t have only one kind of attribute but are practical, tactical and strategic in different proportions. The numbers shown here are based on the author’s gut feeling after working in industry for more than 30 years.
Now this breakdown is not hard and fast. To succeed in your career, you need to be creative, inventive and skilful – whatever your role. While working with your colleagues, you need to engage in common processes such as adhering to relevant standards, regulations and quality requirements to deliver quality solutions and products. But thinking of ourselves as artisans, architects or artists may explain why each of us is suited to a certain role.
Know your strengths
Even though we all have something of the other personas in us, what’s important is to know what your own core strength is. I used to believe that the only route for a successful career was to work through each of these personas by starting out as artisan, turning into an architect, and then ultimately becoming an artist. And to be fair, this is how many career paths are structured, which his why we’re often encouraged to think this way.
However, I have worked with people who liked “hands on” work so much, that didn’t want to move to a different role, even though it meant turning down a significant promotion. I also know others who have indeed moved between different personas, only to discover the new type of work did not suit them.
Trouble is, although it’s usually possible to retrace steps, it’s not always straightforward to do so. Quite why that should be the case is not entirely clear. It’s certainly not because people are unwilling to accept a pay cut, but more because changing tack is seen as a retrograde step for both employees and their employers.
To be successful, any team, department or business needs to not only understand the importance of this skills mix but also recognize it’s not a simple pipeline – all three personas are critical to success. So if you don’t know already, I encourage you to think about what you enjoy doing most, using your insights to proactively drive career conversations and decisions. Don’t be afraid to emphasize where your “value add” lies.
If you’re not sure whether a change in persona is right for you, seek advice from mentors and peers or look for a secondment to try it out. The best jobs are the ones where you can spend most of your time doing what you love doing. Whether you’re an artisan, architect or artist – the most impactful employees are the ones who really enjoy what they do.
A new type of quantum bit (qubit) that stores information in a quantum dot with the help of an ensemble of nuclear spin states has been unveiled by physicists in the UK and Austria. Led by Dorian Gangloff and Mete Atatüre at the University of Cambridge, the team created a collective quantum state that could be used as a quantum register to store and relay information in a quantum communication network of the future.
Quantum communication networks are used to exchange and distribute quantum information between remotely-located quantum computers and other devices. As well as enabling distributed quantum computing, quantum networks can also support secure quantum cryptography. Today, these networks are in the very early stages of development and use the entangled quantum states of photons to transmit information. Network performance is severely limited by decoherence, whereby the quantum information held by photons is degraded as they travel long distances. As a result, effective networks need repeater nodes that receive and then amplify weakened quantum signals.
“To address these limitations, researchers have focused on developing quantum memories capable of reliably storing entangled states to enable quantum repeater operations over extended distances,” Gangloff explains. “Various quantum systems are being explored, with semiconductor quantum dots being the best single-photon generators delivering both photon coherence and brightness.”
Single-photon emission
Quantum dots are widely used for their ability to emit single photons at specific wavelengths. These photons are created by electronic transitions in quantum dots and are ideal for encoding and transmitting quantum information.
However, the electronic spin states of quantum dots are not particularly good at storing quantum information for long enough to be useful as stationary qubits (or nodes) in a quantum network. This is because they contain hundreds or thousands of nuclei with spins that fluctuate. The noise generated by these fluctuations causes the decoherence of qubits based on electronic spin states.
In their previous research, Gangloff and Atatüre’s team showed how this noise could be controlled by sensing how it interacts with the electronic spin states.
Atatüre says, “Building on our previous achievements, we suppressed random fluctuations in the nuclear ensemble using a quantum feedback algorithm. This is already very useful as it dramatically improves the electron spin qubit performance.”
Magnon excitation
Now, using a gallium arsenide quantum dot, the team has used the feedback algorithm to stabilize 13,000 nuclear spin states in a collective, entangled “dark state”. This is a stable quantum state that cannot absorb or emit photons. By introducing just a single nuclear magnon (spin flip) excitation, shared across all 13,000 nuclei, they could then flip the entire ensemble between two different collective quantum states.
Each of these collective states could respectively be defined as a 0 and a 1 in a binary quantum logic system. The team then showed how quantum information could be exchanged between the nuclear system and the quantum dot’s electronic qubit with a fidelity of about 70%.
“The quantum memory maintained the stored state for approximately 130 µs, validating the effectiveness of our protocol,” Gangloff explains. “We also identified unambiguously the factors limiting the current fidelity and storage time, including crosstalk between nuclear modes and optically induced spin relaxation.”
The researchers are hopeful that their approach could transform one of the biggest limitations to quantum dot-based communication networks into a significant advantage.
“By integrating a multi-qubit register with quantum dots – the brightest and already commercially available single-photon sources – we elevate these devices to a much higher technology readiness level,” Atatüre explains.
With some further improvements to their system’s fidelity, the researchers are now confident that it could be used to strengthen interactions between quantum dot qubits and the photonic states they produce, ultimately leading to longer coherence times in quantum communication networks. Elsewhere, it could even be used to explore new quantum phenomena, and gather new insights into the intricate dynamics of quantum many-body systems.
MDA Space is building more than 50 satellites for Globalstar’s Apple-backed next-generation low Earth orbit constellation under a $768 million contract.
As the use of space accelerates, so too does the risk of orbital debris — a pressing threat to communications, navigation and other technologies underpinning life on Earth. An estimated […]
Almost one year ago, at the Mobile World Congress, the Global System for Mobile Communications Association and Global Satellite Operators Association announced their cooperation to foster innovation and seamless terrestrial […]
Whether it’s the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup, all big global events need a cheeky, fun mascot. So welcome to Quinnie – the official mascot for the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ) 2025.
Unveiled at the launch of the IYQ at the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris on 4 February, Quinnie has been drawn by Jorge Cham, the creator of the long-running cartoon strip PHD Comics.
Quinnie was developed for UNESCO in a collaboration between Cham and PhysicsMagazine, which is published by the American Physical Society (APS) – one of the founding partners of IYQ.
Riding high Quinnie surfing on a quantum wave function. (Courtesy: Jorge Cham)
“Quinnie represents a young generation approaching quantum science with passion, ingenuity, and energy,” says Physics editor Matteo Rini. “We imagine her effortlessly surfing on quantum-mechanical wave functions and playfully engaging with the knottiest quantum ideas, from entanglement to duality.”
Quinnie is set to appear in a series of animated cartoons that the APS will release throughout the year.
This article forms part of Physics World‘s contribution to the 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ), which aims to raise global awareness of quantum physics and its applications.
Stayed tuned to Physics World and our international partners throughout the next 12 months for more coverage of the IYQ.
HELSINKI — A Pakistan-developed rover will fly on China’s Chang’e-8 moon lander mission in 2028, following an agreement between respective agencies. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Space and […]
A newly-discovered class of quasiparticles known as fractional excitons offers fresh opportunities for condensed-matter research and could reveal unprecedented quantum phases, say physicists at Brown University in the US. The new quasiparticles, which are neither bosons nor fermions and carry no charge, could have applications in quantum computing and sensing, they say.
In our everyday, three-dimensional world, particles are classified as either fermions or bosons. Fermions such as electrons follow the Pauli exclusion principle, which prevents them from occupying the same quantum state. This property underpins phenomena like the structure of atoms and the behaviour of metals and insulators. Bosons, on the other hand, can occupy the same state, allowing for effects like superconductivity and superfluidity.
Fractional excitons defy this traditional classification, says Jia Leo Li, who led the research. Their properties lie somewhere in between those of fermions and bosons, making them more akin to anyons, which are particles that exist only in two-dimensional systems. But that’s only one aspect of their unusual nature, Li adds. “Unlike typical anyons, which carry a fractional charge of an electron, fractional excitons are neutral particles, representing a distinct type of quantum entity,” he says.
The experiment
Li and colleagues created the fractional excitons using two sheets of graphene – a form of carbon just one atom thick – separated by a layer of another two-dimensional material, hexagonal boron nitride. This layered setup allowed them to precisely control the movement of electrons and positively-charged “holes” and thus to generate excitons, which are pairs of electrons and holes that behave like single particles.
The team then applied a 12 T magnetic field to their bilayer structure. This strong field caused the electrons in the graphene to split into fractional charges – a well-known phenomenon that occurs in the fractional quantum Hall effect. “Here, strong magnetic fields create Landau electronic levels that induce particles with fractional charges,” Li explains. “The bilayer structure facilitates pairing between these positive and negative charges, making fractional excitons possible.”
“Distinct from any known particles”
The fractional excitons represent a quantum system of neutral particles that obey fractional quantum statistics, interact via dipolar forces and are distinct from any known particles, Li tells Physics World. He adds that his team’s study, which is detailed in Nature, builds on prior works that predicted the existence of excitons in the fractional quantum Hall effect (see, for example, Nature Physics 13, 751 2017, Nature Physics 15, 898-903 2019, Science 375 (6577), 205-209 2022).
The researchers now plan to explore the properties of fractional excitons further. “Our key objectives include measuring the fractional charge of the constituent particles and confirming their anyonic statistics,” Li explains. Studies of this nature could shed light on how fractional excitons interact and flow, potentially revealing new quantum phases, he adds.
“Such insights could have profound implications for quantum technologies, including ultra-sensitive sensors and robust quantum computing platforms,” Li says. “As research progresses, fractional excitons may redefine the boundaries of condensed-matter physics and applied quantum science.”
The European Space Agency (ESA) has released a spectacular image of an Einstein ring – a circle of light formed around a galaxy by gravitational lensing. Taken by the €1.4bn Euclid mission, the ring is a result of the gravitational effects of a galaxy located around 590 million light-years from Earth.
Euclid was launched in July 2023 and is currently located in a spot in space called Lagrange Point 2 – a gravitational balance point some 1.5 million kilometres beyond the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Euclid has a 1.2 m-diameter telescope, a camera and a spectrometer that it uses to plot a 3D map of the distribution of more than two billion galaxies. The images it takes are about four times as sharp as current ground-based telescopes.
Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts that light will bend around objects in space, so that they focus the light like a giant lens. This gravitational lensing effect is bigger for more massive objects and means we can sometimes see the light from distant galaxies that would otherwise be hidden.
Yet if the alignment is just right, the light from the distant source galaxy bends to form a spectacular ring around the foreground object. In this case, the mass of galaxy NGC 6505 is bending and magnifying the light from a more distant galaxy, which is about 4.42 billion light-years away, into a ring.
Studying such rings can shed light on the expansion of the universe as well as the nature of dark matter.
Euclid’s first science results were released in May 2024, following its first shots of the cosmos in November 2023. Hints of the ring were first spotted in September 2023 when Euclid was being testing with follow-up measurements now revealing it in exquisite detail.
NASA expects to continue using electric vans to transport astronauts to the pad for Artemis missions even though the vehicles’ manufacturer is bankrupt.
Nanotube bridge networks grow between the most abundant photosynthetic bacteria in the oceans, suggesting that the world is far more interconnected than anyone realized.
Time and boundaries dissolve in these spaces while people become charged with stress, anxiety, and excitement. Throw in a drink or two, and it’s no wonder people aren’t themselves.
Since the “Saharan Gold Rush” in the 1990s, one researcher has been fighting for the North African country’s contributions to science to be recognized.
The Federal Communications Commission looks set to launch a process to review new uses for upper C-band satellite spectrum at its first open meeting under Chairman Brendan Carr Feb. 27, potentially setting up a battle between SpaceX and U.S. wireless carriers.
Connexion
