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"Discovery Files" Features from the National Science Foundation
"Quantum Leap"
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ATOMIC MOVING AND STORAGE... THE "DISCOVERY FILES": NEW ADVANCES IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, FROM THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A SCIENTIST TO BE ABLE TO APPRECIATE A RECENT GIANT STEP TOWARD PRACTICAL QUANTUM COMPUTING: FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, SCIENTISTS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TELEPORT INFORMATION BETWEEN TWO ATOMS OVER A CONSIDERABLE DISTANCE. THAT'S RIGHT: "TELEPORT"--TO TRANSFER FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER, USING NO PHYSICAL MEDIUM. TELEPORTING HAS ALREADY BEEN ACHIEVED WITH PHOTONS OVER LONG DISTANCES; WITH PHOTONS AND GROUPS OF ATOMS; AND EVEN BETWEEN TWO ATOMS CLOSE TO ONE ANOTHER. BUT, NEVER BETWEEN ATOMS AT THIS DISTANCE--A FULL METER. FOR AN ATOM, IT'S KIND OF LIKE COMBINING THE PRINCIPLES OF "BEAMING UP" WITH THE "VULCAN MIND-MELD"; IN OTHER WORDS, THE "MIND" OF ONE ATOM GETS TRANSFERRED TO ANOTHER ATOM. THE ACHIEVEMENT IS THE WORK OF A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, AND THE JOINT QUANTUM INSTITUTE; IT COULD REPRESENT THE BASIS FOR A NEW GENERATION OF SUPER-CAPACITY, SUPER-FAST, QUANTUM COMPUTERS. THE RESEARCHERS SAY THAT--BY USING THEIR TECHNIQUE--INFORMATION CAN BE TELEPORTED FROM ATOM TO ATOM, AND RECOVERED WITH PERFECT ACCURACY, ABOUT 90-PERCENT OF THE TIME--A PERCENTAGE THAT, THEY SAY, CAN BE IMPROVED. QUANTUM COMPUTING IS THE LONG-SOUGHT "NEXT BIG THING" IN THE WORLD OF COMPUTER SCIENCE. YOU DON'T HAVE TO UNDERSTAND IT IN ORDER TO KNOW THAT THIS ADVANCE IS A TRUE "QUANTUM LEAP". THE "DISCOVERY FILES" COVERS PROJECTS FUNDED BY THE GOVERNMENT'S NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION: FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOU! LEARN MORE AT "N-S-F"-DOT-GOV--OR ON THEIR PODCAST.
For additional "Discovery Files" features from the National Science Foundation, click here.
