Led by Australian of the year Michelle Simmons, team has built qubits from single phosphorus atoms in siliconAustralian scientists, led by Australian of the year Michelle Simmons, have made a significant step in creating a world-beating, single-atom quantum computer. Simmons and her Australian team announced on Wednesday they had built quantum bits, known as qubits, from single phosphorus atoms in silicon, that could communicate and correlate with each other. Quantum computing is a field of science that aims to replace the building blocks of traditional computing, known as bits, with quantum particles. A working quantum computer could solve, in minutes, a problem that would take a classic computer thousands of years. Both developments come as physicists try and reach what is known as “quantum supremacy” – the point at which a current quantum computer can outperform a standard supercomputer.

Source: The Guardian March 08, 2018 05:48 UTC