The uncertainty principle is at the foundation of quantum mechanics: You can measure a particle’s position or its velocity, but not both. Now it seems that quantum computer memory could let us violate this rule.
Modern computers rely on electrons moving through wires to transmit information, which is far, far slower than the fast-as-light optics we theoretically could be using. And now we’ve found the exotic material that might allow us to leave electrons behind.
It only measures seven atoms, but according to project lead scientist Michelle Simmons, computers made with this transistor – the smallest ever made – will “solve problems that would take longer than the life of the universe with a classical computer”.
Yale researchers just made the first, albeit simple, quantum processor. The processor is made of two artificial atoms (each made of a billion aluminium atoms) that act like single atoms that can occupy two distinct states.
