The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans deliberately crawls toward the negative pole in an electric field. By quantifying the movements of individual worms navigating electric fields, we show that C. elegans prefers to crawl at specific angles to the direction of the electric field in persistent periods of forward movement and that the preferred angle is proportional to field strength. C. elegans reorients itself in response to time-varying electric fields by using sudden turns and reversals, standard reorientation maneuvers that C. elegans uses during other modes of motile behavior. Mutation or laser ablation that disrupts the structure and function of amphid sensory neurons also disrupts electrosensory behavior. By imaging intracellular calcium dynamics among the amphid sensory neurons of immobilized worms, we show that specific amphid sensory neurons are sensitive to the direction and strength of electric fields. We extend our analysis to the motor level by showing that specific interneurons affect the utilization of sudden turns and reversals during electrosensory steering. Thus, electrosensory behavior may be used as a model system for understanding how sensory inputs are transformed into motor outputs by the C. elegans nervous system.

We propose an approach to quantum error correction based on coding and continuous syndrome readout via scattering of coherent probe fields, in which the usual steps of measurement and discrete restoration are replaced by direct physical processing of the probe beams and coherent feedback to the register qubits. Our approach is well matched to physical implementations that feature solid-state qubits embedded in planar electromagnetic circuits, providing an autonomous and "on-chip" quantum memory design requiring no external clocking or control logic.

Single molecule studies have expanded rapidly over the past decade and have the ability to provide an unprecedented level of understanding of biological systems. A common challenge upon introduction of novel, data-rich approaches is the management, processing, and analysis of the complex data sets that are generated. We provide a standardized approach for analyzing these data in the freely available software package SMART: Single Molecule Analysis Research Tool. SMART provides a format for organizing and easily accessing single molecule data, a general hidden Markov modeling algorithm for fitting an array of possible models specified by the user, a standardized data structure and graphical user interfaces to streamline the analysis and visualization of data. This approach guides experimental design, facilitating acquisition of the maximal information from single molecule experiments. SMART also provides a standardized format to allow dissemination of single molecule data and transparency in the analysis of reported data.

Following the simple observation that the interconnection of a set of quantum optical input–output devices can be specified using structural mode VHSIC hardware description language, we demonstrate a computer-aided schematic capture workflow for modelling and simulating multi-component photonic circuits. We describe an algorithm for parsing circuit descriptions to derive quantum equations of motion, illustrate our approach using simple examples based on linear and cavity-nonlinear optical components, and demonstrate a computational approach to hierarchical model reduction.

We reapply our approach to designing nanophotonic quantum memories to formulate an optical network that autonomously protects a single logical qubit against arbitrary single-qubit errors. Emulating the 9 qubit Bacon-Shor subsystem code, the network replaces the traditionally discrete syndrome measurement and correction steps by continuous, time-independent optical interactions and coherent feedback of unitarily processed optical fields.