"For qubits, they can hold a value of “1” or “0” as well as both values at the same time. Described as superposition,"...<p>Am a bit frustrated reading that same description for years and still having no clue what it really means. Both values at the same time... huh? What is the physical property that is existing in two states at once? And how does that feature translate into speedier computation? Is it so hard to understand that it can't be explained to a layman in a bit more depth?<p>Would appreciate any references since everything i've managed to find is either way too technical, or too vacuous.
I'm nitpicking just a little, but isn't discovery always about something unprecedented? Otherwise it's not that different from the rest of the scientific work people do.<p>As a disclosure, I'm a physicist, having worked on quantum computing during my PhD. I think it's really cool, though long qubit lifetime doesn't take you far, the devil is in the details, for example good (reliable, low noise and tunable) qubit-qubit interaction (how in this case?), and reproducible devices (not at all in this case, every diamond will be different).
It's always a bit creepy to see this. I mean, if one is really close to this it could mean NSA or DARPA could have the know how and especially the money to already have one.<p>Well it's actually just the money. Money to buy knowhow, researchers, facilities and what else they'd need. It's not only about such things, but if you see how EFF built the DES cracker with donations or a group of security researchers breaks stuff with playstations and then see how much money and power government organizations without any transparency have then it's really creepy.<p>It's also a bit creepy how much power the bosses of such institutions potentially have when compared to something like a president. No wonder there are so many conspiracy theories.
Original publication at <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6086/1283.full" rel="nofollow">http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6086/1283.full</a> (not sure if it's behind a paywall, I can read it but I'm in a University network right now).
Can someone maybe describe the details of "could propel" and what exactly "reality" mean?<p>I've always been told "when quantum computers become reality you can forget about everything you learned on computer science".<p>For me reality would be that one can use it in production, even if it's a complete niche.<p>In other words is it "we got a step closer" or "we potentially solved our only (major) problem"?
We always hear about the ramifications a quantum computer would have if used to crack enterprise level security. Does there exist encryption that would be troublesome even for a quantum computer to crack or are we just SOL if one of these falls into the wrong hands?
Apart from the fairly wonderful applications in computing, it will be interesting to see what it does for the enhancement of synthetic diamond technology. I am not going to invest my pension in De Beers, unless they're going large in the synthetic diamond business.
This I believe is how certain aspects of the mind exists, information being temporarily stored and interactive with other systems. Theoretically then systems of the brain/mind should be able to be duplicated. This would allow for managing of large amounts of information, at very high speed, with no-heat generation. The only heat generated would be through the support systems / foundation - I suppose much like how the brain functions as a foundation for the mind.<p>A brain made out of a diamond? Indiana Jones anyone?
There's something really awesome and science-fiction-like about the idea that when we finally build super-awesome AIs (like Iain M Banks' "Minds"), who then either destroy us or become our best pals in the whole universe, their brains will be built of diamond.
If you can store values for a given time frame with such time frame higher than the delay of the circuit, why don't we just build a latch and extend the time frame indefinitely? Or are these diamonds only settable once, and then you have to build another one?
Qubits in the Sky with Diamonds<p>If they can achieve two seconds with diamonds, you have to wonder what they will be able to achieve with graphene, another allotrope of carbon. Maybe they will be able to find metamaterials that can store information in qubits indefinitely. This is indeed an exciting development.