Quantum Computing

An Australian/German company is developing powerful quantum accelerators the size of graphics cards. They work at room temperature, undercutting and outperforming today's huge, cryo-cooled quantum supercomputers, promising industry-wide disruption.

For now, quantum computers are mostly limited to labs and big experimental setups. But Japanese researchers have now made a step towards more accessible quantum computing devices, finding a way to “twist” light at room temperature.

Quantum computers could one day outperform traditional machines, but hurdles remain. Now physicists have successfully entangled three silicon quantum dots for the first time, in a breakthrough that could help make quantum computers more practical.

As revolutionary as they could be, quantum computers still have a few issues, such as controlling more than a few dozen qubits. Now researchers have found a way to control potentially millions of qubits at once, by adding a crystal prism to the chip.

A quantum internet could one day allow quantum computers to team up and tackle some gigantic problems. Researchers at Toshiba are a step closer, demonstrating quantum communications sent over a record-breaking 600 km (373 miles) of optic fiber.

Graphene just keeps getting weirder. Engineers at ETH Zurich have now managed to tweak the overachieving material so that some parts of a flake can be an electrical insulator while other areas act as a superconductor, just nanometers apart.

Researchers in China have demonstrated a quantum communication network where entangled photons are beamed between drones and ground stations, successfully maintaining their quantum link over a distance of 1 km.

A quantum internet would be much faster and more secure than the regular web – and now it may be one step closer to reality. Scientists have used quantum teleportation to send information over long distances, with a higher fidelity than ever before.

A Chinese quantum computer called Jiuzhang has apparently achieved "quantum supremacy" – conducting a calculation in 200 seconds that would take a regular supercomputer a staggering 2.5 billion years to complete.

Some advanced electronic devices only function at extremely cold temperatures. Now engineers at NIST have developed a tiny cryogenic thermometer that uses a new mechanism to keep an eye on these sensitive instruments without taking up much room.

Progress on quantum computers may soon stall. Cosmic rays streaming to Earth can interfere with the integrity of information in quantum computers, and now an MIT team has shown just how vulnerable they are and what it might take to protect them.

Time crystals are strange phases of matter that appear to break time-translation symmetry. Now scientists have observed two time crystals interacting for the first time, which could be a step towards practical applications like quantum computing.