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Physicists produce quantum states in ordinary electronics

The findings may prove to be revolutionary.

Google says it has achieved "quantum computational supremacy"

Google claims that its quantum processor solved a problem in 200 seconds, whereas a normal machine would have taken 10,000 years.

Physicists count sound particles with a quantum microphone

Using sound, rather than light, could lead to more efficient and more compact quantum computers.

Revolutionary new quantum computer design might be the breakthrough we've all been waiting for

"It's amazing no-one had thought of it before," said one of the scientists involved.

Tiny quantum refrigerator keeps quantum computers cool by 'blinking' electrons

Prepare for some quantum madness.

Scientists need you to join the Phi-Lambda mission and make quantum computers work

All you have to do is play Decodoku.

Scientists discover new 'Frankenstein' form of light, with important consequences for quantum computing

An intriguing electron-light interaction was discovered by scientists.

Atomic ions finally set the stage for an all-purpose, programmable Quantum Computer

For the first time, a team of researchers claims it's made a fully programmable and reconfigurable quantum computer module.

You can now tinker around with IBM's quantum computers - straight from your couch

Quantum computing is still in its infancy, but you can test drive it yourself thanks to IBM.

Quantum computers might soon render RSA encryption obsolete

Using only five atoms, a team of international researchers showed how to factor a prime, albeit a trivial one for demo purposes.

The quest for the quality qubit: quantum computer based on trapped ions has error rate of only 0.07%

Who would’ve thought only a decade ago that quantum computers would become real in the upcoming future? Those of us without such hindsight need to rely on what’s been reported by scientists, and recently all kinds of developments lend us to think that a quantum computing future isn’t that far off. Take the latest qubit […]

Quantum Robots learn Faster, respond Better and Smarter

While robots today have become more adapted, they’re still essentially stupid – limited to a particular pre-programmed series of tasks, slow to respond to complex environments and unable to learn from past experience. The future belongs to machine learning and cognitive computing, a new field that’s set to have a great impact on our lives, […]

Researchers capture sound from atoms, opening new doors to quantum research

Most quantum research is focused on studying interactions between light and atoms, a field known as quantum optics. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden took an alternate route and demonstrated for the first time that acoustic waves could be used to communicate with an atom. The findings could provide an important stepping stone for […]

D-Wave claims it wants to release a 1,000 qubit quantum computer in 2014

A lot of hype has been going D-Wave’s way in the past decade or so. The company is considered by many the leading quantum computing company in the world, boasting clients such as Lockheed Martin or Google. Before munching up on the hype, though, it’s important to understand that to this day no one has […]

Storing one bit per atom: more storage power and closer to quantum computers

There’s only so much you can cram into conventional magnetic storage devices. We’re already seeing these slowly, but surely lose ground in the face of solid-state drives, which offer more storage density and don’t have any moving parts (last longer, make no noise, etc.). What about even further ahead in the future? Well, it’s most […]

Understanding a unique type of magnetism

Using low-frequency laser pulses, a team of researchers has carried out the first measurements on a mineral called herbertsmithite. This (pretty awesome looking) mineral features a unique kind of magnetism. Insite it, magnetic elements constantly fluctuate, leading to an exotic magnetic state, unlike conventional magnetism in which all magnetic forces allign in the same direction […]

An insightful animation on quantum computing [VIDEO]

Theoretical Physicists John Preskill and Spiros Michalakis  sat down for a short talk in which they describe how quantum computing differs from the classical view (i.e. digital computers). They first go on about the fundamental, key aspect of the quantum world: the laws that describe and govern things at the tiniest level differ from those […]

Scientists completely halt light for a record-breaking minute

Scientists at the University of Darmstadt, Germany have set a new record after they devised an experimental set-up that allowed them to stop light in its tracks for a full minute. During this time, the light could have traveled 18 million kilometers or roughly the equivalent of 20 there and back trips to the moon. Beyond […]

New technique bypasses Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

A group of researchers at University of Rochester and the University of Ottawa have found a way to bypass Heisenberg’s famous Uncertainty Principle, and measure key quantum properties directly for the first time like the polarization states of light. The technique might provide valuable in encoding qubits, the building blocks of quantum information theory. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle […]

Organic topological insulator demonstrated for first time

Researchers at University of Utah have recently demonstrated that it is indeed feasible to construct a topological insulator from organic compounds. Topological insulators are deemed very important by scientists because of their unique property of conducting electrons on their edges, while at the same time acting as an insulator on the inside. These capabilities make it […]

Scientists devise qubits in a semiconductor for the first time

Hailed as yet another big step towards devising working quantum computers, scientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have successfully managed to generate quantum qubits inside a semiconductor for the first time, instead of vacuum. A qubit is the quantum analog of a bit. While a bit must be read either as a 0 or 1, the qubit can […]

IBM makes significant breakthrough towards scalable quantum computers

During the past months we’ve been reporting several breakthroughs in the field of quantum computing, and now IBM seems ready to truly pave the way for quantum computers. Researchers announced they are now able to develop a superconducting qubit made from microfabricated silicon that maintains coherence long enough for practical computation. Whoa! That probably sounds […]

Scientists cool semiconductor with laser light

By harnessing the science of both quantum and nano physics, scientists at the Niels Bohr Institute have come up with an innovative new way of cooling semiconductor membranes by using laser light. Through this new technique, the researchers were able to cool the tiny, thin membrane from room temperature to -269 degrees Celsius. Paradoxically, the […]

IBM develops smallest storage device: 12 atoms for a single bit!

Moore’s law states that the level of technology and computing power should double every two years, and so far the postulate hasn’t been wrong in more than 50 years. A group of IBM scientists have now managed to develop a data storage technique which allows for information to be stored with as little as 12 […]

Quantum computing breakthrough: quantum photonic chip created

Scientists at University of Bristol‘s Centre for Quantum Photonics have remarkably managed to create a multi-purpose optical chip capable of manipulating and measuring quantum entanglement and mixture – two important quantum effects which have been giving researchers headaches for a long time, but which can now be controlled and used to characterize quantum circuits. This […]

Truly random numbers might be generated with quantum physics

Does flicking a dice really render a random face? The answer would be no. The dice is governed by large-scale conventional physics and its motion, and thus final position can be determined. You can’t tell where it lands just by looking at it thwirl, of course, but the fact remains it’s not random, and neither […]

Quantum computers one step closer to reality

Physicists from Rice University have made an important break through in the field of quantum computing, after creating a tiny “electron superhighway”, critical for the development of the first working quantum computer. The quantum computer is thought to revolutionize the computing scene of the future, and is believed by many to hold the same impact […]

IBM is building the largest data array in the world - 120 petabytes of storage

IBM recently made public its intentions of developing what will be upon its completion the world’s largest data array, consisting of 200,000 conventional hard disk drives intertwined and working together, adding to 120 petabytes of available storage space. The contract for this massive data array, 10 times bigger than any other data center in the […]

Quantum information stored in a single atom

It’s amazing where computer science is heading to, and with quantum computing getting more and more popular, the trend of evolving towards smaller and smaller scales has just reached another level – an atomic level. Gerhard Rempe at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching have stored quantum information in a single atom! […]

Shorties: Teleporting light could bring breakthrough in quantum computing

The laws of quantum physics are strange, but they do allow some pretty awesome stuff, which wouldn’t otherwise be possible in our day to day life. Perhaps one of the most interesting developments they could bring come from the world of quantum computers. The fact that researchers have successfully teleported light without losing information could […]

Diamonds could be used to store quantum information

Quantum computing is the regarded by many as the future of computing technology, which among endless applications might help scientists answer a lot of questions otherwise impossible with today’s technology. In a nutshell, the difference between today’s computers and the future’s quantum computers is that the first handle binary code 1 and 0 one at […]

Big leap for quantum computing

Quantum computers – closer thank you think   The microprocessors used today are absolutely amazing on their own; it seemed, and for good reason, that there was little we could do to improve them. If anything was to top microprocessors, it would have to be something from a totally different league, which is just down […]