We live in a world characterised by inequality, poverty, economic volatility, globalisation, climate change and ambiguity. In my own country, South Africa, residents have to navigate socioeconomic and political instability, power and water cuts, homelessness, unethical governance and mediocre or no service delivery.

It is a far cry from what the country could be if we brought its best talent and resources to bear for the benefit of humanity.

Innovation will be key to any positive changes and research-intensive universities have a central to play in that innovation. As the University of the Witwatersrand (or Wits, as its commonly known) turns 100, my colleagues and I have been thinking a great deal about the inventions and breakthroughs that have emerged from the university in the past 100 years and what is coming next.

Great innovations have emerged from the work done by Wits researchers that have shifted the dial in sectors ranging from health to computing to quantum and nuclear physics. These rich seams of knowledge continue to inform policy and daily decisions and are the foundation of cutting edge research the institution continues to produce.

On 1 September 1939, Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. World War 2 was underway. Barely three months later, the first radar set was tested on Wits Universitys campus. Britain and its allies were looking for a way to detect enemy aircraft and ships. A group of scientists among them Sir Basil Schonland, Director of the Bernard Price Institute of Geophysical Research and another Wits engineer, Professor Guerino Bozzoli came together to harness the power of radio waves.

Almost a century on, the science of sensors has taken several quantum leaps. Professor Andrew Forbes and his team at Wits are encrypting, transmitting, and decoding data quickly and securely through light beams. He has just secured R54 million for the Wits Quantum Initiative which explores theoretical and experimental quantum science and engineering, secure communications, enhanced quantum-inspired imaging, novel nano and quantum-based sensors and devices.

The university has also come a long way on its computing journey. In 1960 it was the first university in South Africa to own an IBM mainframe computer. Today, in partnership with IBM, were the first African university to access a quantum computer.

Read more: New research proves the long-held theory that lasers can create fractals

As the Chair of the National Quantum Computing Working Group in South Africa, this is an area where I see immense potential for Africa. Classical computing has served society incredibly well. It gave us the Internet and cashless commerce. It sent humans to the moon, put robots on Mars and smartphones in our pockets.

But many of the worlds biggest mysteries and potentially greatest opportunities remain beyond the grasp of classical computers. To continue the pace of progress, we need to augment the classical approach with a completely new paradigm, one that follows its own set of rules - quantum computing.

This radically new way of performing computer calculations is exponentially faster than any classical computer. It can run new algorithms to solve previously unsolvable problems in optimisation, chemistry and machine learning, and its applications are far-reaching from physics to healthcare.

Innovative healthcare is sorely needed across the African continent. Here, too, Wits has been able to play a vital role in the research, teaching and learning, clinical, social and advocacy spheres. It was the first university to lead COVID-19 vaccination trials in South Africa.

Our researchers also developed technology to improve the accurate testing for tuberculosis. And the Pelebox, an invention to cut down the time that patients spend waiting for medication in hospitals.

Elsewhere in the institution, researchers have connected the brain to the internet, used brainwaves to control a robotic prosthetic hand and developed an affordable 3D printed bionic hand.

Research intensive universities in South Africa need to ask the difficult questions about their role in a changing society.

How do we serve as a catalyst for social change? How do we best use our intellectual dynamism and work with the public and private sectors to effect positive change? How do we create new, relevant knowledge and translate it into innovation? How do we best develop critical thinkers, innovators, creators and the high-level skills required to advance our economy, and the future world of work?

How do we quantify our social impact and ensure that it is contextually attuned? How do we influence policy change?

These questions are at the heart of the universitys strategy today. And theyre no doubt being considered across the higher education sector as universities work to harness their collective talent and the resources at their disposal to craft a new future and transform society for the benefit of all humanity.

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100 years of innovation and inventions: South African vice chancellor reflects on what's next - The Conversation

Every few years IBM brings out a new addition to its Z series mainframe family. From the information accompanying the release of the new enterprise system, IBM appears to be touting the new z16 machines ability to handle real time fraud detection for instant payments across the financial sector. It also offers an AI (artificial intelligence) accelerator, using IBMs Telum chip. This will certainly be good news for many financial institutes. For instance, speaking at a recent IBM-hosted roundtable, Steve Suarez, global head of innovation, finance & risk at HSBC, described how the bank was drowning in data. Suarez sees a need to have technology that can help the bank provide insights that actually benefit people.

What is interesting from the virtual z16 briefing Computer Weekly attended is IBMs focus on the new machines ability to protect against hackers using quantum computing to break the strong encryption that underpins financial transactions.

IBM distinguished engineer, Anne Dames said: Good technology can be used to do bad things. In other words, a quantum computer could be used to break the cryptographic keys that are used to encrypt data.

We are entering a new cryptographic era, she warns, adding that the IT industry needs to act now before there is an effective quantum computing based attack.

The worst case scenario IBM paints is where a successful hacking attack gains access to a large quantity of encrypted data. Since this data is encrypted, it is near impossible to decipher it in a realistic timescale. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology warns that if large-scale quantum computers are ever built, they will be able to break many of the public-key cryptosystems currently in use. This would seriously compromise the confidentiality and integrity of digital communications on the Internet and elsewhere. Nist is encouraging the IT sector to develop post-quantum cryptography and IBMs z16 is one of the first systems to claim it is quantum safe.

While this is clearly an important development and IBMs efforts should be applauded, one cant help worrying that IBM, Nist and the IT sector at large, are somehow missing the bigger picture. Breaking cryptography is one thing, but quantum computers have the potential to revolutionise drug development and the ability to create new chemical processes such as to reduce carbon emissions. The flip side is that these techniques may also be used to develop devastatingly effective, targeted chemical and biological weapons. As such, policy makers need to wake up to the risk, and track quantum computing in the same way that atomic, biological and chemical weapon materials are monitored.

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Quantum computing and the bigger picture - ComputerWeekly.com

Yales hub for quantum research will soon entangle the campus in the best possible sense in a full week of mind-bending science, artistry, and discussion devoted to the wonders of quantum research.

Quantum Week at Yale, organized by the Yale Quantum Institute (YQI), will feature a hackathon, a lab tour, a movie screening, a record launch party, hands-on computer programming, a superconductive jewelry display, and an assortment of quantum-related library and museum exhibits.

The activities begin April 8 and run through April 14. A full list of events is available here.

Yales quantum scientists are at the very top of this field, said Florian Carle, YQI manager and coordinator for the event. We want to take some of the excitement we see in the labs and at YQI and share it with the rest of the campus.

Quantum science delves into the physical properties that explain the behavior of subatomic particles, atoms, and molecules. Over the past century, quantum research has transformed disciplines as diverse as physics, engineering, mathematics, chemistry, computer science, and materials science.

Over the past 20 years, Yale researchers have propelled quantum research, particularly in quantum information science and quantum computing, with a series of groundbreaking discoveries including the first demonstration of two-qubit algorithms with a superconducting quantum processor.

Yales research has led to unprecedented control over individual quantum objects, whether those objects are naturally occurring microscopic systems such as atoms, or macroscopic, human-made systems with engineered properties. Researchers say these advances may soon enable them to perform otherwise intractable computations, ensure privacy in communications, better understand and design novel states of matter, and develop new types of sensors and measurement devices.

This is the time when computer scientists, mathematicians, physicists, and engineers are all coming together, said Yongshan Ding, assistant professor of computer science, who will lead a programming workshop on April 14 that shows visitors including those without any experience with quantum computing how to play with quantum interference patterns.

People can just code away, Ding said. My vision is that by exposing people to these activities, we can build a quantum-native programming language. This is a new paradigm of computation, so were going to need new ways to program for it.

YQI has partnered with 18 Yale departments and centers to create 23 events for Quantum Week at Yale. One of the challenges in organizing the week, Carle explained, was developing an engaging mix of activities suited for both experienced researchers and quantum science novices.

To that end, the week is organized around four components: Understanding Quantum, Art & Quantum, Career and Entrepreneurship, and For Researchers.

The hands-on programming event, for example, comes under the Understanding Quantum banner. Other include an April 9-10 Quantum Coalition Hack, hosted by the Yale Undergraduate Quantum Computer Club; an April 11 tour of superconducting qubit laboratories; and a quantum-related exhibit of rare books at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library on April 11.

Were always looking for ways that our libraries can engage with the academic work going on at Yale, said Andrew Shimp, who consulted on Quantum Week events at Yale libraries. Shimp is Yales librarian for engineering, applied science, chemistry, and mathematics. One of the unique things a Yale library can offer is the chance to view rare collections that arent necessarily digitized yet.

The quantum exhibit at the Beinecke Library, for example, includes materials from quantum science pioneers such as Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Planck. There is also an astronomy textbook, published in 1511, that includes the word quantum in its title. The title is Textus de Sphera Johannis de Sacrobosco: cum additione (quantum necessarium est) adiecta / Nouo commentario nuper edito ad vtilitate[m] studentiu[m] philosophice Parisien[em]. A brief English translation would be Sphere of Sacrobosco.

Under the Art & Quantum heading, there will be an April 8 screening of the 2013 indie thriller Coherence; a visual arts competition called Visualize Science hosted by Wright Lab on April 13; a launch party for Quantum Sound (a record project begun at YQI in 2018) on April 13; a display of Superconductive Jewelry throughout the week at YQI; a Quantum and the Arts exhibit all week at the Arts Library; an April 13 event hosted by the Yale Schwarzman Center devoted to historical preservation of technology ephemera, called Dumpster Diving: Historical Memory and Quantum Physics at Yale; and a new exhibit at the New Haven Museum, The Quantum Revolution, that opens April 13 and features drawings by former YQI artist in residence Martha Willette Lewis.

Carle is curator for the New Haven Museum exhibit. We wanted to show the evolution of quantum science at Yale, he said. It will take people from some of the first qubits in 1998 to Badger, the dilution refrigerator that ran the first two-qubit algorithms with a superconducting quantum processor in 2009.

Quantum computers require extremely cold temperatures near absolute zero in order to reduce operational errors.

The weeks Career and Entrepreneurship component will include a discussion of quantum startups hosted by The Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (Tsai CITY) on April 12; a conversation with IBMs Mark Ritter on the global implications of quantum research, hosted by the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs on April 12; a session on how to access market research for major industry analysts, hosted by the Yale University Library, on April 12; and a series of panel discussions on how to join the quantum workforce.

Finally, the For Researchers component of Quantum Week at Yale will feature a quantum sensing workshop at Wright Lab on April 8; and an April 14 lecture by quantum researcher Nathan Wiebe of the University of Washington.

The final day for Quantum Week at Yale, April 14, also happens to be World Quantum Day, Carle said. Our hope is that by then, students all over campus will be aware of quantum work being done here and want to explore it themselves in some way.

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Quantum Week at Yale geared toward novices and experts alike - Yale News

California Polytechnic State University undergraduate students Alexander Knapen and Nayana Tiwari and graduate student Julian Rice had never programmed on quantum computers before. But after 50 hours at the 2022 MIT Interdisciplinary Quantum Hackathon, they had built an online quantum chat server that encrypts messages using quantum algorithms.

Knapen, Tiwari, and Rice had worked tirelessly on the chat server over an adrenaline-fueled weekend at the third annual iQuHACK (pronounced i-quack, like the duck in the hackathons logo). At iQuHACK, 400 people from 57 countries gathered virtually to design and build quantum computing projects from scratch. Participants had the chance to code on real quantum computers, a major highlight of the hackathon because so few are available today. In particular, hackers had free access to IonQs quantum computer (via Microsofts Azure Quantum service) and QuTechs Quantum Inspire platform.

Today, you can [easily] make an app [for phones or normal computers] and put it on the app store. Were not there yet for quantum computing, but events like this hackathon start to make it possible to think about greater accessibility to quantum computing applications, says Matthew Keesan, vice president of development at IonQ.

While all iQuHACK participants had access to quantum computers, they arrived at the hackathon with different levels of experience. Some hackers came in with experience programming quantum computers computers that use quantum mechanics to solve problems too difficult for normal "classical" computers, with applications such as stronger encryption methods for more secure messaging and complex molecular simulation for faster drug development but others, like Knapen, Tiwari, and Rice, needed to learn on-the-fly. Knowing this, the hackathons chair, MIT postdoc Carlos Errando Herranz, sought to make learning as easy as possible, empowering everyone to bring their ideas to life. We wanted people to learn first-hand that coding on quantum computers is not as hard as it sounds, he says.

This year's iQuHACK was hosted by the MIT Interdisciplinary Quantum Information Science and Engineering (iQuISE) program, a student-run group of MIT graduate students and postdocs. The organizing iQuHACK committee consisted of Carlos Errando Herranz, Shantanu Jha, Jawaher Almutlaq, Shoumik Chowdhury, Hamza Raniwala, Maddie Sutula, Eric Bersin, and Michael Walsh.

The first day of iQuHACK brought participants up to speed with the nuts-and-bolts of quantum computing. Hackers could attend tutorials on how to use the IonQ/Microsoft and Quantum Inspire platforms and also drop into office hours for help with setting up the necessary software tools. Later, when the hackathon was in full swing, participants could seek guidance on their projects from experienced quantum computing professionals in industry and academia, who served as hackathon mentors. The most intimidating thing is to get something working, Knapen says of the online quantum chat server, But once we had an idea of what we wanted to do, it was pretty easy to get the code written and up and running.

The chat server project, called Keytanglement, ran on the Quantum Inspire platform, the first publicly available quantum computing platform in Europe. We can actually see it running live on the platform, says Richard Versluis, system architect of the Quantum Inspire. When you go to their website and execute on your telephone what they did, you see the [chat servers encryption] job being submitted, [the Quantum Inspire] running the [encryption] algorithms, then [the results] going back to the web server.

Hackers with more quantum computing experience also took advantage of their access to quantum computers. One team of five Yale University undergraduate students spent the weekend delving into the nitty-gritty details of how quantum computers implement quantum code. In quantum hardware development, looking at how various [operations] can be implemented is such an active field of study, says Alex Deters, one of the Yale University team members. Often, a direct translation between quantum code and hardware is not possible, resulting in errors in the results. These error rates depend on the specific hardware being used.

Knowing that we would be working with [quantum computers, we thought] it would be great to benchmark the hardware[s error rates], Deters says. To do this, the team built a benchmarking tool, reminiscent of standard computer science tools, that can provide the error rates for any quantum computer and help find the most accurate quantum algorithms for the specific hardware. The tool, called Quantum RX, ran successfully on the Quantum Inspire platform and provided very valuable feedback, Versluis says.

Despite being a virtual event, iQuHACK created a strong sense of community, bringing together quantum computing enthusiasts from around the world. Many hackers capitalized on the virtual format, forming teams with members scattered across multiple countries. Frederik Hardervig, an undergraduate student studying in Germany this semester, had participated in iQuHACK last year as a one-person team and was extremely eager to assemble a multi-person team this year.

As soon as I saw [participants] Tomasz [Kazulak] and Danai [Bili] write in the looking-for-a-team [Slack channel] and say they were from Europe, I wrote them and was like can we team please? Hardervig says. At the time, Kazulak was in Poland and Bili was in England. The three of them then rounded out their team with two more members, Caspian Chahrom, who was in Switzerland, and Sneha Shakya, who was in the United States. It was cool to meet people from around the world who are doing the same thing, Chahrom says.

Together, the five newly acquainted hackers collaborated remotely and built a new Tetris game on the IonQ/Microsoft platform. The game, called QuanTris, works similarly to Tetris, but with a quantum twist the falling blocks are governed by the rules of quantum mechanics. Through QuanTris, the hackers hoped to teach players quantum computing concepts in a fun way.

With 75 projects being built at the hackathon, the IonQ/Microsoft and Quantum Inspire platforms were heavily used. Both platforms included quantum computers as well as quantum simulators, where people could test their code or play with ideas that required greater computing ability than the hardware could currently provide. For the IonQ/Microsoft platform, which made one quantum computer available, the demand was amazing, Keesan says. We ran something like 50,000 simulations and 1,000 quantum programs during the hackathon. For the Quantum Inspire platform, two quantum computers were available, each using a different quantum technology. All our systems kept running for the full weekend, Versluis says, even with tens of people accessing the system at the same time.

In addition to working on their hackathon projects, participants could attend talks by quantum computing experts to get a broader view of the field today. Professor Mikhail Lukin of Harvard University gave iQuHACK 2022s keynote talk, providing historical and technical background on quantum computing. Professor Paola Capellaro of MIT then kicked off the hacking portion of iQuHACK with opening remarks on future directions in quantum computing applications. Experts across industry also gave a series of technical talks, presenting updates on their companies efforts in quantum computing. I learned a lot about the current state of the art and [where] the field is moving, says Hieu Dinh, an MIT undergraduate. (Dinh was part of a team of MIT undergraduates who had built a quantum version of Tic Tac Toe, called Qic Qac Qoe, at the hackathon.)

The iQuHACK 2022 tutorials, talks, and other quantum computing resources, including participants projects from this year and last year, are publicly available on the hackathons Twitch streaming channel and website. As Errando Herranz winds down his tenure as iQuHACKs chair, he encourages anyone interested in quantum computing to use these resources to start learning now, especially if theyre looking to participate in the hackathon next year.

With quantum, when youre learning in the classroom, youre handed everything. This hackathon is the first time we were able to generate an idea and actually implement it, Tiwari of the Keytanglement project says. Im excited to take that [experience] and continue working on projects [in quantum computing].

In addition to the three major platform sponsors, IonQ, Microsoft, and QuTech, the hackathon was sponsored by Google Quantum AI, IBM Q, HRL Laboratories, Zapata Computing, Zurich Instruments, QuEra Computing Inc., qBraid, MIT, the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering.

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Bringing together the next generation of quantum coders - MIT News

The Pentagon in Arlington, Va., as seen on Sept. 17, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg)

The U.S. Department of Defense's outgoing chief data officer called for the Pentagon to make urgent investments to defend against potential espionage from quantum computers -- nascent technology that could one day break the encryption that protects American secrets.

In his first interview since leaving his post last month, David Spirk, who spent two years in his role, told Bloomberg News that the Pentagon needs to speed up efforts to counter adversaries who are developing military tools supported by advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and eventually quantum science.

Quantum computing may prove far more able than existing technology to solve mathematical problems at exponentially faster speeds. That could enable operators to unscramble the algorithms that underpin encryption protocols, unlocking an array of sensitive data.

"I don't think that there's enough senior leaders getting their heads around the implications of quantum," Spirk said. "Like AI, I think that's a new wave of compute that when it arrives is going to be a pretty shocking moment to industry and government alike."

"We have to pick up pace because we have competitors who are also attempting to accelerate," he added.

Spirk's comments come amid warnings that U.S. adversaries, particularly China, are aggressively pursuing advanced technologies that could radically accelerate the pace of modern warfare. China is investing in AI and quantum sciences as part of its plan to become an innovation superpower, according to the Pentagon's latest annual report to Congress on China's military power. China is "at or near the lead on numerous science fields," including AI and quantum, it said.

The National Security Agency, meanwhile, said last year that the adversarial use of a quantum computer "could be devastating" to the U.S. and its national security systems. The NSA said it could take 20 years or more to roll out new post-quantum cryptography that would resist such code-cracking.

Tim Gorman, a spokesperson at the Pentagon, said the Department of Defense was taking post-quantum cryptography seriously and coordinating with Congress and across government agencies. He added there was "a significant effort" underway.

A January presidential memo further charged agencies with establishing a timeline for transitioning to quantum resistant cryptography.

Among the efforts underway to bolster defenses against quantum-based attacks, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, known as NIST, is seeking to select new quantum-proof encryption algorithms from seven finalists shortly as part of a global competition.

Jonathan Katz, computer science professor at the University of Maryland who submitted a "post-quantum algorithm" to the NIST competition, said the stakes in the NIST competition were high: an algorithm that later proved vulnerable would be "a disaster." Once a choice is made, the U.S. Department of Defense faces a huge task in upgrading all its software and hardware that features algorithms, he said, adding that included not only servers and laptops but also parts of submarines, tanks, helicopters and weapons systems.

Experts generally assess large-scale quantum computing may be 15 to 20 years away if it is ever even developed, but the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Agency, or DARPA, launched a project this February to explore the possibility that a breakthrough could be developed "much sooner."

Joe Altepeter, who manages DARPA's new quantum project, told Bloomberg there was a lot of "hype" over industry claims about the arrival of quantum computing, with several "hardware miracles" still standing in the way. Some of the smartest physicists he knew were divided over whether useful quantum computing would ever exist, Altepeter said, adding that the risk was such that it was important to develop resilient systems.

Spirk said the Pentagon needs to start preparing "now," arguing military applications for quantum computing could be only five to 10 years away. The Pentagon needed to work at the same speed as commercial vendors that are already exploring ways to use quantum-resistant cryptography to safeguard financial and health-care sectors, he said.

If the U.S. doesn't make the right investments in defensive quantum today, "then our concepts around encryption, data security and cybersecurity will be obsolete because the computers will break our cryptography," Spirk said. He added that all the encrypted data that adversaries have already gathered would also risk exposure.

Spirk, a former U.S. Marine, became the first chief data officer at Special Operations Command before he joined the Pentagon. He said he left the chief data officer post after a two-year commitment to rejoin his family in Florida. The departure follows last year's resignation of the U.S. Air Force's first chief software officer, Nicolas Chaillan, who previously told the Financial Times that the U.S. was losing the AI race to China.

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Pentagon's outgoing data boss warns of quantum cyber threats - Stars and Stripes

Illustration of a quantum wave packet in close vicinity of a conical intersection between two potential energy surfaces. The wave packet represents the collective motion of multiple atoms in the photoactive yellow protein. A part of the wave packet moves through the intersection from one potential energy surface to the other, while another part remains on the top surface, leading to a superposition of quantum states. Credit: DESY, Niels Breckwoldt

A new analytical technique is able to provide hitherto unattainable insights into the extremely rapid dynamics of biomolecules. The team of developers, led by Abbas Ourmazd from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee and Robin Santra from DESY, is presenting its clever combination of quantum physics and molecular biology in the scientific journal Nature. The scientists used the technique to track the way in which the photoactive yellow protein (PYP) undergoes changes in its structure in less than a trillionth of a second after being excited by light.

In order to precisely understand biochemical processes in nature, such as photosynthesis in certain bacteria, it is important to know the detailed sequence of events, Santra explains their underlying motivation. When light strikes photoactive proteins, their spatial structure is altered, and this structural change determines what role a protein takes on in nature. Until now, however, it has been almost impossible to track the exact sequence in which structural changes occur. Only the initial and final states of a molecule before and after a reaction can be determined and interpreted in theoretical terms. But we dont know exactly how the energy and shape changes in between the two, says Santra. Its like seeing that someone has folded their hands, but you cant see them interlacing their fingers to do so.

Whereas a hand is large enough and the movement is slow enough for us to follow it with our eyes, things are not that easy when looking at molecules. The energy state of a molecule can be determined with great precision using spectroscopy; and bright X-rays for example from an X-ray laser can be used to analyze the shape of a molecule. The extremely short wavelength of X-rays means that they can resolve very small spatial structures, such as the positions of the atoms within a molecule. However, the result is not an image like a photograph, but instead a characteristic interference pattern, which can be used to deduce the spatial structure that created it.

Since the movements are extremely rapid at the molecular level, the scientists have to use extremely short X-ray pulses to prevent the image from being blurred. It was only with the advent of X-ray lasers that it became possible to produce sufficiently bright and short X-ray pulses to capture these dynamics. However, since molecular dynamics takes place in the realm of quantum physics where the laws of physics deviate from our everyday experience, the measurements can only be interpreted with the help of a quantum-physical analysis.

A peculiar feature of photoactive proteins needs to be taken into consideration: the incident light excites their electron shell to enter a higher quantum state, and this causes an initial change in the shape of the molecule. This change in shape can in turn result in the excited and ground quantum states overlapping each other. In the resulting quantum jump, the excited state reverts to the ground state, whereby the shape of the molecule initially remains unchanged. The conical intersection between the quantum states therefore opens a pathway to a new spatial structure of the protein in the quantum mechanical ground state.

The team led by Santra and Ourmazd has now succeeded for the first time in unraveling the structural dynamics of a photoactive protein at such a conical intersection. They did so by drawing on machine learning because a full description of the dynamics would in fact require every possible movement of all the particles involved to be considered. This quickly leads to unmanageable equations that cannot be solved.

The photoactive yellow protein we studied consists of some 2000 atoms, explains Santra, who is a Lead Scientist at DESY and a professor of physics at Universitt Hamburg. Since every atom is basically free to move in all three spatial dimensions, there are a total of 6000 options for movement. That leads to a quantum mechanical equation with 6000 dimensions which even the most powerful computers today are unable to solve.

However, computer analyses based on machine learning were able to identify patterns in the collective movement of the atoms in the complex molecule. Its like when a hand moves: there, too, we dont look at each atom individually, but at their collective movement, explains Santra. Unlike a hand, where the possibilities for collective movement are obvious, these options are not as easy to identify in the atoms of a molecule. However, using this technique, the computer was able to reduce the approximately 6000 dimensions to four. By demonstrating this new method, Santras team was also able to characterize a conical intersection of quantum states in a complex molecule made up of thousands of atoms for the first time.

The detailed calculation shows how this conical intersection forms in four-dimensional space and how the photoactive yellow protein drops through it back to its initial state after being excited by light. The scientists can now describe this process in steps of a few dozen femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second) and thus advance the understanding of photoactive processes. As a result, quantum physics is providing new insights into a biological system, and biology is providing new ideas for quantum mechanical methodology, says Santra, who is also a member of the Hamburg Cluster of Excellence CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter. The two fields are cross-fertilizing each other in the process.

Reference: Few-fs resolution of a photoactive protein traversing a conical intersection by A. Hosseinizadeh, N. Breckwoldt, R. Fung, R. Sepehr, M. Schmidt, P. Schwander, R. Santra and A. Ourmazd, 3 November 2021, Nature. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04050-9

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Clever Combination of Quantum Physics and Molecular Biology - SciTechDaily

Nov 8th 2021

by By the Science and technology correspondents of The Economist

The astonishingly rapid development and rollout of coronavirus vaccines has been a reminder of the power of science and technology to change the world. Although vaccines based on new mRNA technology seemed to have been created almost instantly, they actually drew upon decades of research going back to the 1970s. As the saying goes in the technology industry, it takes years to create an overnight success. So what else might be about to burst into prominence? Here are 22 emerging technologies worth watching in 2022

It sounds childishly simple. If the world is getting too hot, why not offer it some shade? The dust and ash released into the upper atmosphere by volcanoes is known to have a cooling effect: Mount Pinatubos eruption in 1991 cooled the Earth by as much as 0.5C for four years. Solar geoengineering, also known as solar radiation management, would do the same thing deliberately.

This is hugely controversial. Would it work? How would rainfall and weather patterns be affected? And wouldnt it undermine efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions? Efforts to test the idea face fierce opposition from politicians and activists. In 2022, however, a group at Harvard University hopes to conduct a much-delayed experiment called SCoPEX. It involves launching a balloon into the stratosphere, with the aim of releasing 2kg of material (probably calcium carbonate), and then measuring how it dissipates, reacts and scatters solar energy.

Proponents argue that it is important to understand the technique, in case it is needed to buy the world more time to cut emissions. The Harvard group has established an independent advisory panel to consider the moral and political ramifications. Whether the test goes ahead or not, expect controversy.

Keeping buildings warm in winter accounts for about a quarter of global energy consumption. Most heating relies on burning coal, gas or oil. If the world is to meet its climate-change targets, that will have to change. The most promising alternative is to use heat pumpsessentially, refrigerators that run in reverse.

Instead of pumping heat out of a space to cool it down, a heat pump forces heat in from the outside, warming it up. Because they merely move existing heat around, they can be highly efficient: for every kilowatt of electricity consumed, heat pumps can deliver 3kW of heat, making them cheaper to run than electric radiators. And running a heat pump backwards cools a home rather than heating it.

Gradient, based in San Francisco, is one of several companies offering a heat pump that can provide both heating and cooling. Its low-profile, saddle-bag shaped products can be mounted in windows, like existing air conditioners, and will go on sale in 2022.

Electrifying road transport is one thing. Aircraft are another matter. Batteries can only power small aircraft for short flights. But might electricity from hydrogen fuel cells, which excrete only water, do the trick? Passenger planes due to be test-flown with hydrogen fuel cells in 2022 include a two-seater being built at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. ZeroAvia, based in California, plans to complete trials of a 20-seat aircraft, and aims to have its hydrogen-propulsion system ready for certification by the end of the year. Universal Hydrogen, also of California, hopes its 40-seat plane will take off in September 2022.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes global warming. So why not suck it out using machines? Several startups are pursuing direct air capture (DAC), a technology that does just that. In 2022 Carbon Engineering, a Canadian firm, will start building the worlds biggest DAC facility in Texas, capable of capturing 1m tonnes of CO2 per year. ClimeWorks, a Swiss firm, opened a DAC plant in Iceland in 2021, which buries captured CO2 in mineral form at a rate of 4,000 tonnes a year. Global Thermostat, an American firm, has two pilot plants. DAC could be vital in the fight against climate change. The race is on to get costs down and scale the technology up.

A new type of agriculture is growing. Vertical farms grow plants on trays stacked in a closed, controlled environment. Efficient LED lighting has made the process cheaper, though energy costs remain a burden. Vertical farms can be located close to customers, reducing transport costs and emissions. Water use is minimised and bugs are kept out, so no pesticides are needed.

In Britain, the Jones Food Company will open the worlds largest vertical farm, covering 13,750 square metres, in 2022. AeroFarms, an American firm, will open its largest vertical farm, in Daneville, Virginia. Other firms will be expanding, too. Nordic Harvest will enlarge its facility just outside Copenhagen and construct a new one in Stockholm. Plenty, based in California, will open a new indoor farm near Los Angeles. Vertical farms mostly grow high-value leafy greens and herbs, but some are venturing into tomatoes, peppers and berries. The challenge now is to make the economics stack up, too.

Ships produce 3% of greenhouse-gas emissions. Burning maritime bunker fuel, a dirty diesel sludge, also contributes to acid rain. None of this was a problem in the age of sailwhich is why sails are making a comeback, in high-tech form, to cut costs and emissions.

In 2022 Michelin of France will equip a freighter with an inflatable sail that is expected to reduce fuel consumption by 20%. MOL, a Japanese shipping firm, plans to put a telescoping rigid sail on a ship in August 2022. Naos Design of Italy expects to equip eight ships with its pivoting and foldable hard wing sails. Other approaches include kites, suction wings that house fans, and giant, spinning cylinders called Flettner rotors. By the end of 2022 the number of big cargo ships with sails of some kind will have quadrupled to 40, according to the International Windship Association. If the European Union brings shipping into its carbon-trading scheme in 2022, as planned, that will give these unusual technologies a further push.

Most people do not do enough exercise. Many would like to, but lack motivation. Virtual reality (VR) headsets let people play games and burn calories in the process, as they punch or slice oncoming shapes, or squat and shimmy to dodge obstacles. VR workouts became more popular during the pandemic as lockdowns closed gyms and a powerful, low-cost headset, the Oculus Quest 2, was released. An improved model and new fitness features are coming in 2022. And Supernatural, a highly regarded VR workout app available only in North America, may be released in Europe. Could the killer app for virtual reality be physical fitness?

The impressive success of coronavirus vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA) heralds a golden era of vaccine development. Moderna is developing an HIV vaccine based on the same mRNA technology used in its highly effective coronavirus vaccine. It entered early-stage clinical trials in 2021 and preliminary results are expected in 2022. BioNTech, joint-developer of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, is working on an mRNA vaccine for malaria, with clinical trials expected to start in 2022. Non-mRNA vaccines for HIV and malaria, developed at the University of Oxford, are also showing promise.

For years, researchers have been developing techniques to create artificial organs using 3D printing of biological materials. The ultimate goal is to take a few cells from a patient and create fully functional organs for transplantation, thus doing away with long waiting-lists, testing for matches and the risk of rejection.

That goal is still some way off for fleshy organs. But bones are less tricky. Two startups, Particle3D and ADAM, hope to have 3D-printed bones available for human implantation in 2022. Both firms use calcium-based minerals to print their bones, which are made to measure based on patients CT scans. Particle3Ds trials in pigs and mice found that bone marrow and blood vessels grew into its implants within eight weeks. ADAM says its 3D-printed implants stimulate natural bone growth and gradually biodegrade, eventually being replaced by the patients bone tissue. If all goes well, researchers say 3D-printed blood vessels and heart valves are next.

Long seen as something of a fantasy, flying taxis, or electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, as the fledgling industry calls them, are getting serious. Several firms around the world will step up test flights in 2022 with the aim of getting their aircraft certified for commercial use in the following year or two. Joby Aviation, based in California, plans to build more than a dozen of its five-seater vehicles, which have a 150-mile range. Volocopter of Germany aims to provide an air-taxi service at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Other contenders include eHang, Lilium and Vertical Aerospace. Keep an eye on the skies.

After a stand-out year for space tourism in 2021, as a succession of billionaire-backed efforts shot civilians into the skies, hopes are high for 2022. Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic just beat Jeff Bezoss Blue Origin to the edge of space in July, with both billionaires riding in their own spacecraft on suborbital trips. In September Elon Musks company, SpaceX, sent four passengers on a multi-day orbital cruise around the Earth.

All three firms hope to fly more tourists in 2022, which promises to be the first year in which more people go to space as paying passengers than as government employees. But Virgin Galactic is modifying its vehicle to make it stronger and safer, and it is not expected to fly again until the second half of 2022, with commercial service starting in the fourth quarter. Blue Origin plans more flights but has not said when or how many. For its part, SpaceX has done a deal to send tourists to the International Space Station. Next up? The Moon.

They are taking longer than expected to get off the ground. But new rules, which came into effect in 2021, will help drone deliveries gain altitude in 2022. Manna, an Irish startup which has been delivering books, meals and medicine in County Galway, plans to expand its service in Ireland and into Britain. Wing, a sister company of Google, has been doing test deliveries in America, Australia and Finland and will expand its mall-to-home delivery service, launched in late 2021. Dronamics, a Bulgarian startup, will start using winged drones to shuttle cargo between 39 European airports. The question is: will the pace of drone deliveries pick upor drop off?

For half a century, scientists have wondered whether changes to the shape of a supersonic aircraft could reduce the intensity of its sonic boom. Only recently have computers become powerful enough to run the simulations needed to turn those noise-reduction theories into practice.

In 2022 NASAs X-59 QueSST (short for Quiet Supersonic Technology) will make its first test flight. Crucially, that test will take place over landspecifically, Edwards Air Force Base in California. Concorde, the worlds first and only commercial supersonic airliner, was not allowed to travel faster than sound when flying over land. The X-59s sonic boom is expected to be just one-eighth as loud as Concordes. At 75 perceived decibels, it will be equivalent to a distant thunderstormmore of a sonic thump. If it works, NASA hopes that regulators could lift the ban on supersonic flights over land, ushering in a new era for commercial flight.

Architects often use 3D printing to create scale models of buildings. But the technology can be scaled up and used to build the real thing. Materials are squirted out of a nozzle as a foam that then hardens. Layer by layer, a house is printedeither on site, or as several pieces in a factory that are transported and assembled.

In 2022 Mighty Buildings, based in California, will complete a development of 15 eco-friendly 3D-printed homes at Rancho Mirage. And ICON, based in Texas, plans to start building a community of 100 3D-printed homes near Austin, which would be the largest development of its kind.

Its become a craze in Silicon Valley. Not content with maximising their productivity and performance during their waking hours, geeks are now optimising their sleep, too, using an array of technologies. These include rings and headbands that record and track sleep quality, soothing sound machines, devices to heat and cool mattresses, and smart alarm clocks to wake you at the perfect moment. Google launched a sleep-tracking nightstand tablet in 2021, and Amazon is expected to follow suit in 2022. It sounds crazy. But poor sleep is linked with maladies from heart disease to obesity. And what Silicon Valley does today, everyone else often ends up doing tomorrow.

Diets don't work. Evidence is growing that each persons metabolism is unique, and food choices should be, too. Enter personalised nutrition: apps that tell you what to eat and when, using machine-learning algorithms, tests of your blood and gut microbiome, data on lifestyle factors such as exercise, and real-time tracking of blood-sugar levels using coin-sized devices attached to the skin. After successful launches in America, personalised-nutrition firms are eyeing other markets in 2022. Some will also seek regulatory approval as treatments for conditions such as diabetes and migraine.

Remote medical consultations have become commonplace. That could transform the prospects for wearable health trackers such as the Fitbit or Apple Watch. They are currently used primarily as fitness trackers, measuring steps taken, running and swimming speeds, heart rates during workouts, and so forth. But the line between consumer and medical uses of such devices is now blurring, say analysts at Gartner, a consultancy.

Smart watches can already measure blood oxygenation, perform ECGs and detect atrial fibrillation. The next version of the Apple Watch, expected in 2022, may include new sensors capable of measuring levels of glucose and alcohol in the blood, along with blood pressure and body temperature. Rockley Photonics, the company supplying the sensor technology, calls its system a clinic on the wrist. Regulatory approval for such functions may take a while, but in the meantime doctors, not just users, will be paying more attention to data from wearables.

Coined in 1992 by Neal Stephenson in his novel Snow Crash, the word metaverse referred to a persistent virtual world, accessible via special goggles, where people could meet, flirt, play games, buy and sell things, and much more besides. In 2022 it refers to the fusion of video games, social networking and entertainment to create new, immersive experiences, like swimming inside your favourite song at an online concert. Games such as Minecraft, Roblox and Fortnite are all stepping-stones to an emerging new medium. Facebook has renamed itself Meta to capitalise on the opportunityand distract from its other woes.

An idea that existed only on blackboards in the 1990s has grown into a multi-billion dollar contest between governments, tech giants and startups: harnessing the counter-intuitive properties of quantum physics to build a new kind of computer. For some kinds of mathematics a quantum computer could outperform any non-quantum machine that could ever be built, making quick work of calculations used in cryptography, chemistry and finance.

But when will such machines arrive? One measure of a quantum computers capability is its number of qubits. A Chinese team has built a computer with 66 qubits. IBM, an American firm, hopes to hit 433 qubits in 2022 and 1,000 by 2023. But existing machines have a fatal flaw: the delicate quantum states on which they depend last for just a fraction of a second. Fixing that will take years. But if existing machines can be made useful in the meantime, quantum computing could become a commercial reality much sooner than expected.

Unlike a human influencer, a virtual influencer will never be late to a photoshoot, get drunk at a party or get old. That is because virtual influencers are computer-generated characters who plug products on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

The best known is Miquela Sousa, or Lil Miquela, a fictitious Brazilian-American 19-year-old with 3m Instagram followers. With $15bn expected to be spent on influencer marketing in 2022, virtual influencers are proliferating. Aya Stellaran interstellar traveller crafted by Cosmiq Universe, a marketing agencywill land on Earth in February. She has already released a song on YouTube.

In April 2021 the irrepressible entrepreneur Elon Musk excitedly tweeted that a macaque monkey was literally playing a video game telepathically using a brain chip. His company, Neuralink, had implanted two tiny sets of electrodes into the monkeys brain. Signals from these electrodes, transmitted wirelessly and then decoded by a nearby computer, enabled the monkey to move the on-screen paddle in a game of Pong using thought alone.

In 2022 Neuralink hopes to test its device in humans, to enable people who are paralysed to operate a computer. Another firm, Synchron, has already received approval from American regulators to begin human trials of a similar device. Its minimally invasive neural prosthetic is inserted into the brain via blood vessels in the neck. As well as helping paralysed people, Synchron is also looking at other uses, such as diagnosing and treating nervous-system conditions including epilepsy, depression and hypertension.

Winston Churchill once mused about the absurdity of growing a whole chicken to eat the breast or wing. Nearly a century later, around 70 companies are cultivating meats in bioreactors. Cells taken from animals, without harming them, are nourished in soups rich in proteins, sugars, fats, vitamins and minerals. In 2020 Eat Just, an artificial-meat startup based in San Francisco, became the first company certified to sell its products, in Singapore.

It is expected to be joined by a handful of other firms in 2022. In the coming year an Israeli startup, SuperMeat, expects to win approval for commercial sales of cultivated chicken burgers, grown for $10 a popdown from $2,500 in 2018, the company says. Finless Foods, based in California, hopes for approval to sell cultivated bluefin tuna, grown for $440 a kilogramdown from $660,000 in 2017. Bacon, turkey and other cultivated meats are in the pipeline. Eco-conscious meat-lovers will soon be able to have their steakand eat it.

By the Science and technology correspondents of The Economist

This article appeared in the What next? section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2022 under the headline What next?

Read the rest here:

What next? 22 emerging technologies to watch in 2022 - The Economist

Quantum computers have been on my mind a lot lately. A friend who likes investing in tech, and who knows about my attempt to learn quantum mechanics, has been sending me articles on how quantum computers might help solve some of the biggest and most complex challenges we face as humans, as a Forbes commentator declared recently. My friend asks, What do you think, Mr. Science Writer? Are quantum computers really the next big thing?

Ive also had exchanges with two quantum-computing experts with distinct perspectives on the technologys prospects. One is computer scientist Scott Aaronson, who has, as I once put it, one of the highest intelligence/pretension ratios Ive ever encountered. Not to embarrass him further, but I see Aaronson as the conscience of quantum computing, someone who helps keep the field honest.

The other expert is physicist Terry Rudolph. He is a co-author, the R, of the PBR theorem, which, along with its better-known predecessor, Bells theorem, lays bare the peculiarities of quantum behavior. In 2011 Nature described the PBR Theorem as the most important general theorem relating to the foundations of quantum mechanics since Bells theorem was published in 1964. Rudolph is also the author of Q Is for Quantum and co-founder of the quantum-computing startup PsiQuantum. Aaronson and Rudolph are on friendly terms; they co-authored a paper in 2007, and Rudolph wrote about Q Is for Quantum on Aaronsons blog. In this column, Ill summarize their views and try to reach a coherent conclusion.

First, a little background. Quantum computers exploit superposition (a particle inhabits two or more mutually exclusive states at the same time) and entanglement (a special form of superposition, in which two or more particles influence each other in spooky ways) to do things that ordinary computers cant. A bit, the basic unit of information of a conventional computer, can be in one of two states, representing a one or zero. Quantum computers, in contrast, traffic in qubits, which are constructed out of superposed particles that embody numerous states simultaneously.

For decades, quantum computing has been little more than a hypothesis, or laboratory curiosity, as researchers wrestled with the technical complexities of maintaining superposition and entanglement for long enough to perform useful calculations. (Remember that as soon as you look at an electron or cat, its superposition vanishes.) Now, tech giants like IBM, Amazon, Microsoft and Google have invested in quantum computing, as have many smaller companies, 193 by one count. In March, the startup IonQ announced a $2 billion deal that would make it the first publicly traded firm dedicated to quantum computers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that IonQ plans to produce a device roughly the size of an Xbox videogame console by 2023. Quantum computing, the Journal states, could speed up calculations related to finance, drug and materials discovery, artificial intelligence and others, andcrack many of the defensesused to secure the internet. According to Business Insider, quantum machines could help us cure cancer, and even take steps to reverse climate change.

This is the sort of hype that bugs Scott Aaronson. He became a computer scientist because he believes in the potential of quantum computing and wants to help develop it. Hed love to see someone build a machine that proves the naysayers wrong. But he worries that researchers are making promises they cant keep. Last month, Aaronson fretted on his blog Shtetl-Optimized that the hype, which he has been countering for years, has gotten especially egregious lately.

Whats new, Aaronson wrote, is that millions of dollars are now potentially available to quantum computing researchers, along with equity, stock options, and whatever else causes ka-ching sound effects and bulging eyes with dollar signs. And in many cases, to have a shot at such riches, all an expert needs to do is profess optimism that quantum computing will have revolutionary, world-changing applications and have themsoon. Or at least, not object too strongly when others say that. Aaronson elaborated on his concerns in a two-hour discussion on the media platform Clubhouse. Below I summarize a few of his points.

Quantum-computing enthusiasts have declared that the technology will supercharge machine learning. It will revolutionize the simulation of complex phenomena in chemistry, neuroscience, medicine, economics and other fields. It will solve the traveling-salesman problem and other conundrums that resist solution by conventional computers. Its still not clear whether quantum computing will achieve these goals, Aaronson says, adding that optimists might be in for a rude awakening.

Popular accounts often imply that quantum computers, because superposition and entanglement allow them to carry out multiple computations at the same time, are simply faster versions of conventional computers. Those accounts are misleading, Aaronson says. Compared to conventional computers, quantum computers are unnatural devices that might be best suited to a relatively narrow range of applications, notably simulating systems dominated by quantum effects.

The ability of a quantum computer to surpass the fastest conventional machine is known as quantum supremacy, a phrase coined by physicist John Preskill in 2012. Demonstrating quantum supremacy is extremely difficult. Even in conventional computing, proving that your algorithm beats mine isnt straightforward. You must pick a task that represents a fair test and choose valid methods of measuring speed and accuracy. The outcomes of tests are also prone to misinterpretation and confirmation bias. Testing creates an enormous space for mischief, Aaronson says.

Moreover, the hardware and software of conventional computers keeps improving. By the time quantum computers are ready for the marketplace, they might lose potential customersif, for example, classical computers become powerful enough to simulate the quantum systems that chemists and materials scientists actually care about in real life, Aaronson says. Although quantum computers would retain their theoretical advantage, their practical impact would be less.

As quantum computing attracts more attention and funding, Aaronson says, researchers may mislead investors, government agencies, journalists, the public and, worst of all, themselves about their works potential. If researchers cant keep their promises, excitement might give way to doubt, disappointment and anger, Aaronson warns. The field might lose funding and talent and lapse into a quantum-computer winter like those that have plagued artificial intelligence.

Lots of other technologiesgenetic engineering, high-temperature superconductors, nanotechnology and fusion energy come to mindhave gone through phases of irrational exuberance. But something about quantum computing makes it especially prone to hype, Aaronson suggests, perhaps because quantum stands for something cool you shouldnt be able to understand.

And that brings me back to Terry Rudolph. In January, after reading about my struggle to understand the Schrdinger equation, Rudolph emailed me to suggest that I read Q Is for Quantum. The 153-page book explains quantum mechanics with a little arithmetic and algebra and lots of diagrams of black-and-white balls going in and out of boxes. Q Is for Quantum has given me more insight into quantum mechanics, and quantum computing, than anything Ive ever read.

Rudolph begins by outlining simple rules underlying conventional computing, which allow for the manipulation of bits. He then shifts to the odd rules of quantum computing, which stem from superposition and entanglement. He details how quantum computing can solve a specific problemone involving thieves stealing code-protected gold bars from a vault--much more readily than conventional computing. But he emphasizes, like Aaronson, that the technology has limits; it cannot compute the uncomputable.

After I read Q Is for Quantum, Rudolph patiently answered my questions about it. You can find our exchange (which assumes familiarity with the book) here. He also answered my questions about PsiQuantum, the firm he co-founded in 2016, which until recently has avoided publicity. Although he is wittily modest about his talents as a physicist (which adds to the charm of Q Is for Quantum), Rudolph is boosterish about PsiQuantum. He shares Aaronsons concerns about hype, and the difficulties of establishing quantum supremacy, but he says those concerns do not apply to PsiQuantum.

The company, he says, is closer than any other firm by a very large margin to building a useful quantum computer, one that solves an impactful problem that we would not have been able to solve otherwise (e.g., something from quantum chemistry which has real-world uses). He adds, Obviously, I have biases, and people will naturally discount my opinions. But I have spent a lot oftime quantitatively comparing what we are doing to others.

Rudolph and other experts contend that a useful quantum computer with robust error-correction will require millions of qubits. PsiQuantum, which constructs qubits out of light, expects by the middle of the decade to be building fault-tolerant quantum computers with fully manufactured components capable of scaling to a million or morequbits, Rudolph says. PsiQuantum has partnered with the semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries to achieve its goal. The machines will be room-sized, comparable to supercomputers or data centers. Most users will access the computers remotely.

Could PsiQuantum really be leading all the competition by a wide margin, as Rudolph claims? Can it really produce a commercially viable machine by 2025? I dont know. Quantum mechanics and quantum computing still baffle me. Im certainly not going to advise my friend or anyone else to invest in quantum computers. But I trust Rudolph, just as I trust Aaronson.

Way back in 1994, I wrote a brief report for Scientific American on quantum computers, noting that they could, in principle, perform tasks beyond the range of any classical device. Ive been intrigued by quantum computing ever since. If this technology gives scientists more powerful tools for simulating complex phenomena, and especially the quantum weirdness at the heart of things, maybe it will give science the jump start it badly needs. Who knows? I hope PsiQuantum helps quantum computing live up to the hype.

This is an opinion and analysis article.

Further Reading:

Will Artificial Intelligence Ever Live Up to Its Hype?

Is the Schrdinger Equation True?

Quantum Mechanics, the Chinese Room Experiment and the Limits of Understanding

Quantum Mechanics, the Mind-Body Problem and Negative Theology

For more ruminations on quantum mechanics, see my new bookPay Attention: Sex, Death, and Science and Tragedy and Telepathy, a chapter in my free online bookMind-Body Problems.

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Will Quantum Computing Ever Live Up to Its Hype? - Scientific American

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Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) hiring Stephen Clark as head of AI last week could be a sign the company is boosting research into ways quantum computing could be used for natural language processing.

Quantum computing is still in its infancy but promises such significant results that dozens of companies are pursuing new quantum architectures. Researchers at technology giants such as IBM, Google, and Honeywell are making measured progress on demonstrating quantum supremacy for narrowly defined problems. Quantum computers with 50-100 qubits may be able to perform tasks that surpass the capabilities of todays classical digital computers, but noise in quantum gates will limit the size of quantum circuits that can be executed reliably, California Institute of Technology theoretical physics professor John Preskill wrote in a recent paper. We may feel confident that quantum technology will have a substantial impact on society in the decades ahead, but we cannot be nearly so confident about the commercial potential of quantum technology in the near term, say the next 5 to 10 years.

CQC has been selling software focused on specific use cases, such as in cybersecurity and pharmaceutical and drug delivery, as the hardware becomes available. We are very different from the other quantum software companies that we are aware of, which are primarily focused on consulting-based revenues, CQC CEO Ilyas Khan told VentureBeat.

For example, amid concerns that improvements in quantum hardware will make it easier to break existing algorithms used in modern cryptography, CQC devised a method to generate quantum-resistant cryptographic keys that cannot be cracked by todays methods. CQC partners with pharmaceutical and drug discovery companies to develop quantum algorithms for improving material discovery, such as working with Roche on drug development, Total on new materials for carbon capture and storage solutions, and CrownBio for novel cancer treatment biomarker discovery.

The addition of Clark to CQCs team signals the company will be shifting some of its research and development efforts toward quantum natural language processing (QNLP). Humans are good at composing meanings, but this process is not well understood. Recent research established that quantum computers, even with their current limitations, could learn to reason with the uncertainty that is part of real-world scenarios.

We do not know how we compose meaning, and therefore we have not been sure how this process can be carried over to machines/computers, Khan said.

QNLP could enable grammar-aware representation of language that makes sense of text at a deeper level than is currently available with state-of-the-art NLP algorithms like Bert and GPT 3.0. The company has already demonstrated some early success in representing and processing text using quantum computers, suggesting that QNLP is within reach.

Clark was previously senior staff research scientist at DeepMind and led a team working on grounded language learning in virtual environments. He has a long history with CQC chief scientist Bob Coecke, with whom he collaborated 15 years ago to devise a novel approach for processing language. That research stalled due to the limitations of classical computers. Quantum computing could help address these bottlenecks, and there are plans to continue that research program, Clark said in a statement.

The methods we developed to demonstrate this could improve a broad range of applications where reasoning in complex systems and quantifying uncertainty are crucial, including medical diagnoses, fault-detection in mission-critical machines, and financial forecasting for investment management, Khan said.

Continued here:

Cambridge Quantum pushes into NLP and quantum computing with new head of AI - VentureBeat

What youll learn:

A couple examples from history highlight our failure to secure the technology thats playing an increasingly larger role in both our personal lives and business. When computers were first connected to the internet, we had no idea of the Pandoras Box that was being opened, and cybersecurity wasnt even considered a thing. We failed to learn our lesson when mobile phones exploded onto the world and again with IoT still making fast to market more important than security. This has constantly left cybersecurity behind the 8 ball in the ongoing effort to secure data.

As we race to quantum computing, well see another, and perhaps the greatest, fundamental shift in the way computing is done. Quantum computers promise to deliver an increase in computing power that could spur enormous breakthroughs in disease research, understanding global climate, and delving into the origins of the universe.

As a result, the goal to further advance quantum-computing research has rightfully attracted a lot of attention and funding including $625 million from the U.S. government.1 However, it also will make many of our trusted security techniques inadequate, enabling encryption to be broken in minutes or hours instead of the thousands of years it currently takes.

Two important algorithms that serve as a basis for security of most commonly utilized public-key algorithms today will be broken by quantum computers:

As we prepare for a post-quantum world, we have another opportunity to get security right. The challenge of replacing the existing public-key cryptography in these applications with quantum-computer-resistant cryptography is going to be formidable.

Todays state-of-the-art quantum computers are so limited that while they can break toy examples, they dont endanger commercially used key sizes (such as specified in NIST SP800-57). However, most experts agree its only a matter of time until quantum computers evolve to the point of being able to break todays cryptography.

Cryptographers around the world have been studying the issue of post-quantum cryptography (PQC), and NIST has started a standardization process. However, even though were likely five to 10 years away from quantum computers becoming widely available, were approaching what can be described as the event horizon.

Data that has been cryptographically protected by quantum-broken algorithms up to Day 0 of the PQC deployment will likely need to remain secure for years decades in some cases after quantum computers are in use. This is known as Moscas Theorem (see figure).

%{[ data-embed-type="image" data-embed-id="6081ce0f2f5c1329008b4613" data-embed-element="span" data-embed-size="640w" data-embed-alt="Illustration of a bad outcome under Mosca’s Theorem, where a quantum adversary can break the security requirements for recorded messages. The adversary could, for example, break the encryption on a recorded message or alter a legal document and generate a fake signature indistinguishable from a valid signature." data-embed-src="https://img.electronicdesign.com/files/base/ebm/electronicdesign/image/2021/04/PQC_Event_Horizon_Figure_1.6081ce0f24f07.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=1440" data-embed-caption="Illustration of a bad outcome under Moscas Theorem, where a quantum adversary can break the security requirements for recorded messages. The adversary could, for example, break the encryption on a recorded message or alter a legal document and generate a fake signature indistinguishable from a valid signature." ]}%

Deploying any secure solution takes time. Given the inherent longer development time of chips compared to software, chip-based security becomes even more pressing. Throw in the added challenge that PQC depends on entirely new algorithms, and our ability to protect against quantum computers will take many years to deploy. All this adds up to make PQC a moving target.

The good news is that, and I take heart in this, we seem to have learned from previous mistakes, and NISTs PQC standardization process is working. The effort has been underway for more than four years and has narrowed entrants from 69 to seven (four in the category of public-key encryption and three in the category of digital signatures) over three rounds.

However, in late January 2021, NIST started reevaluating a couple of the current finalists and is considering adding new entries as well as some of the candidates from the stand-by list. As mentioned previously, addressing PQC isnt an incremental step. Were learning as we go, which makes it difficult to know what you dont know.

The current finalists were heavily skewed toward a lattice-based scheme. What the potential new direction by NIST indicates is that as the community has continued studying the algorithms, lattice-based schemes may not be the holy grail we first had hoped.

Someone outside the industry may look at that as a failure, but I would argue thats an incorrect conclusion. Only by trial and error, facing failure and course correcting along the way, can we hope to develop effective PQC algorithms before quantum computers open another, potentially worse cybersecurity Pandoras box. If we fail to secure it, we risk more catastrophic security vulnerabilities than weve ever seen: Aggressors could cripple governments, economies, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure in a matter of hours.

While its old hat to say, Its time the world took notice of security and give it a seat at the table, the time to deliver on that sentiment is now.

Reference

1. Reuters, U.S. to spend $625 million in five quantum information research hubs

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Are We Doomed to Repeat History? The Looming Quantum Computer Event Horizon - Electronic Design