IBM Research

In 1950, a man named John Bennett, an Australian employee of the now-defunct British technology firm Ferranti, created what may be historys first gaming computer. It could play a game called Nim, a long-forgotten parlor game in which players take turns removing matches from several piles. The player who loses is the one who removes the last match. For his computerized version, Bennett created a vast machine 12 feet wide, 5 feet tall, and 9 feet deep. The majority of this space was taken up by light-up vacuum tubes which depicted the virtual matches.

Bennetts aim wasnt to create a game-playing machine for the sake of it; the reason that somebody might build a games PC today. As writer Tristan Donovan observed in Replay, his superlative 2010 history of video games: Despite suggesting Ferranti create a game-playing computer, Bennetts aim was not to entertain but to show off the ability of computers to do [math].

Jump forward almost 70 years and a physicist and computer scientist named Dr. James Robin Wootton is using games to demonstrate the capabilities of another new, and equally large, experimental computer. The computer in this question is a quantum computer, a dream of scientists since the 1980s, now finally becoming a scientific reality.

Quantum computers encode information as delicate correlations with an incredibly rich structure. This allows for potentially mind-boggling densities of information to be stored and manipulated. Unlike a classical computer, which encodes as a series of ones and zeroes, the bits (called qubits) in a quantum computer can be either a one, a zero, or both at the same time. These qubits are composed of subatomic particles, which conform to the rules of quantum rather than classical mechanics. They play by their own rules a little bit like Tom Cruises character Maverick from Top Gun if he spent less time buzzing the tower and more time demonstrating properties like superpositions and entanglement.

I met Wootton at IBMs research lab in Zurich on a rainy day in late November. Moments prior, I had squeezed into a small room with a gaggle of other excited onlookers, where we stood behind a rope and stared at one of IBMs quantum computers like people waiting to be allowed into an exclusive nightclub. I was reminded of the way that people, in John Bennetts day, talked about the technological priesthood surrounding computers: then enormous mainframes sequestered away in labyrinthine chambers, tended to by highly qualified people in white lab coats. Lacking the necessary seminary training, we quantum computer visitors could only bask in its ambience from a distance, listening in reverent silence to the weird vee-oing vee-oing vee-oing sound of its cooling system.

Wottons interest in quantum gaming came about from exactly this scenario. In 2016, he attended a quantum computing event at the same Swiss ski resort where, in 1925, Erwin Schrdinger had worked out his famous Schrdinger wave equation while on vacation with a girlfriend. If there is a ground zero for quantum computing, this was it. Wotton was part of a consortium, sponsored by the Swiss government, to do (and help spread the word about) quantum computing.

At that time quantum computing seemed like it was something that was very far away, he told Digital Trends. Companies and universities were working on it, but it was a topic of research, rather than something that anyone on the street was likely to get their hands on. We were talking about how to address this.

Wootton has been a gamer since the early 1990s. I won a Game Boy in a competition in a wrestling magazine, he said. It was a Slush Puppy competition where you had to come up with a new flavor. My Slush Puppy flavor was called something like Rollin Redcurrant. Im not sure if you had to use the adjective. Maybe thats what set me apart.

While perhaps not a straight path, Wootton knew how an interest in gaming could lead people to an interest in other aspects of technology. He suggested that making games using quantum computing might be a good way of raising public awareness of the technology.He applied for support and, for the next year, was given to my amazement the chance to go and build an educational computer game about quantum computing. At the time, a few people warned me that this was not going to be good for my career, he said. [They told me] I should be writing papers and getting grants; not making games.

But the idea was too tantalizing to pass up.

That same year, IBM launched its Quantum Experience, an online platform granting the general public (at least those with a background in linear algebra) access to IBMs prototype quantum processors via the cloud. Combined with Project Q, a quantum SDK capable of running jobs on IBMs devices, this took care of both the hardware and software component of Woottons project. What he needed now was a game. Woottons first attempt at creating a quantum game for the public was a version of the game Rock-Paper-Scissors, named Cat-Box-Scissors after the famous Schrdingers cat thought experiment. Wootton later dismissed it as [not] very good Little more than a random number generator with a story.

But others followed. There was Battleships, his crack at the first multiplayer game made with a quantum computer. There was Quantum Solitaire. There was a text-based dungeon crawler, modeled on 1973s Hunt the Wumpus, called Hunt the Quantpus. Then the messily titled, but significant, Battleships with partial NOT gates, which Wootton considers the first true quantum computer game, rather than just an experiment. And so on. As games, these dont exactly make Red Dead Redemption 2 look like yesterdays news. Theyre more like Atari 2600 or Commodore 64 games in their aesthetics and gameplay. Still, thats exactly what youd expect from the embryonic phases of a new computing architecture.

If youd like to try out a quantum game for yourself, youre best off starting with Hello Quantum, available for both iOS and Android. It reimagines the principles of quantum computing as a puzzle game in which players must flip qubits. It wont make you a quantum expert overnight, but it will help demystify the process a bit. (With every level, players can hit a learn more button for a digestible tutorial on quantum basics.)

Quantum gaming isnt just about educational outreach, though. Just as John Bennett imagined Nim as a game that would exist to show off a computers abilities, only to unwittingly kickstart a $130 billion a year industry, so quantum games are moving beyond just teaching players lessons about quantum computing.Increasingly, Wootton is excited about what he sees as real world uses for quantum computing. One of the most promising of these is taking advantage of quantum computings random number generating to create random terrain within computer games. In Zurich, he showed me a three-dimensional virtual landscape reminiscent of Minecraft. However, while much of the world of Minecraft is user generated, in this case the blocky, low-resolution world was generated using a quantum computer.

Quantum mechanics is known for its randomness, so the easiest possibility is just to use quantum computing as a [random number generator], Wootton said. I have a game in which I use only one qubit: the smallest quantum computer you can get. All you can do is apply operations that change the probabilities of getting a zero or one as output. I use that to determine the height of the terrain at any point in the game map.

Plenty of games made with classical computers have already included procedurally generated elements over the years. But as the requirements for these elements ranging from randomly generated enemies to entire maps increase in complexity, quantum could help.

Gaming is an industry that is very dependent on how fast things run

Gaming is an industry that is very dependent on how fast things run, he continued. If theres a factor of 10 difference in how long it takes something to run that determines whether you can actually use it in a game. He sees today as a great jumping-on point for people in the gaming industry to get involved to help shape the future development of quantum computing. Its going to be driven by what people want, he explained. If people find an interesting use-case and everyone wants to use quantum computing for a game where you have to submit a job once per frame, that will help dictate the way that the technology is made.

Hes now reached the point where he thinks the race may truly be on to develop the first commercial game using a quantum computer. Weve been working on these proof-of-principle projects, but now I want to work with actual game studios on actual problems that they have, he continued. That means finding out what they want and how they want the technology to be [directed].

One thing thats for certain is that Wootton is no longer alone in developing his quantum games. In the last couple of years, a number ofquantum game jams have popped up around the world. What most people have done is to start small, Wootton said. They often take an existing game and use one or two qubits to help allow you to implement a quantum twist on the game mechanics. Following this mantra, enthusiasts have used quantum computing to make remixed versions of existing games, including Dr. Qubit (a quantum version of Dr. Mario), Quantum Cat-sweeper (a quantum version of Minesweeper), and Quantum Pong (a quantum version of, err, Pong).

The world of quantum gaming has moved beyond its 1950 equivalent of Nim. Now we just have to wait and see what happens next. The decades which followed Nim gave us MITs legendary Spacewar in the 1960s, the arcade boom of the 1970s and 80s, the console wars of Sega vs. Nintendo, the arrival of the Sony PlayStation in the 1990s, and so on. In the process, classical computers became part of our lives in a way they never were before. As Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand predicted as far back as 1972 Rolling Stone in his classic essay on Spacewar: Ready or not, computers are coming to the people.

At present, quantum gamings future is at a crossroads. Is it an obscure niche occupied by just a few gaming physics enthusiasts or a powerful tool that will shape tomorrows industry? Is it something that will teach us all to appreciate the finer points of quantum physics or a tool many of us wont even realize is being used, that will nevertheless give us some dope ass games to play?

Like Schrdingers cat, right now its both at once. What a superposition to be in.

Read this article:

Inside the weird, wild, and wondrous world of quantum video games - Digital Trends

When an egg cell of almost any sexually reproducing species is fertilized, it sets off a series of waves that ripple across the eggs surface. These waves are produced by billions of activated proteins that surge through the eggs membrane like streams of tiny burrowing sentinels, signaling the egg to start dividing, folding, and dividing again, to form the first cellular seeds of an organism.

Now MIT scientists have taken a detailed look at the pattern of these waves, produced on the surface of starfish eggs. These eggs are large and therefore easy to observe, and scientists consider starfish eggs to be representative of the eggs of many other animal species.

In each egg, the team introduced a protein to mimic the onset of fertilization, and recorded the pattern of waves that rippled across their surfaces in response. They observed that each wave emerged in a spiral pattern, and that multiple spirals whirled across an eggs surface at a time. Some spirals spontaneously appeared and swirled away in opposite directions, while others collided head-on and immediately disappeared.

The behavior of these swirling waves, the researchers realized, is similar to the waves generated in other, seemingly unrelated systems, such as the vortices in quantum fluids, the circulations in the atmosphere and oceans, and the electrical signals that propagate through the heart and brain.

Not much was known about the dynamics of these surface waves in eggs, and after we started analyzing and modeling these waves, we found these same patterns show up in all these other systems, says physicist Nikta Fakhri, the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Assistant Professor at MIT. Its a manifestation of this very universal wave pattern.

It opens a completely new perspective, adds Jrn Dunkel, associate professor of mathematics at MIT. You can borrow a lot of techniques people have developed to study similar patterns in other systems, to learn something about biology.

Fakhri and Dunkel have published their results today in the journal Nature Physics. Their co-authors are Tzer Han Tan, Jinghui Liu, Pearson Miller, and Melis Tekant of MIT.

Finding ones center

Previous studies have shown that the fertilization of an egg immediately activates Rho-GTP, a protein within the egg which normally floats around in the cells cytoplasm in an inactive state. Once activated, billions of the protein rise up out of the cytoplasms morass to attach to the eggs membrane, snaking along the wall in waves.

Imagine if you have a very dirty aquarium, and once a fish swims close to the glass, you can see it, Dunkel explains. In a similar way, the proteins are somewhere inside the cell, and when they become activated, they attach to the membrane, and you start to see them move.

Fakhri says the waves of proteins moving across the eggs membrane serve, in part, to organize cell division around the cells core.

The egg is a huge cell, and these proteins have to work together to find its center, so that the cell knows where to divide and fold, many times over, to form an organism, Fakhri says. Without these proteins making waves, there would be no cell division.

MIT researchers observe ripples across a newly fertilized egg that are similar to other systems, from ocean and atmospheric circulations to quantum fluids. Courtesy of the researchers.

In their study, the team focused on the active form of Rho-GTP and the pattern of waves produced on an eggs surface when they altered the proteins concentration.

For their experiments, they obtained about 10 eggs from the ovaries of starfish through a minimally invasive surgical procedure. Theyintroduced a hormone to stimulate maturation, and alsoinjected fluorescent markers to attach to any active forms of Rho-GTP thatrose up in response. They then observed each egg through a confocal microscope and watched as billions of the proteins activated and rippled across the eggs surface in response to varying concentrations of the artificial hormonal protein.

In this way, we created a kaleidoscope of different patterns and looked at their resulting dynamics, Fakhri says.

Hurricane track

The researchers first assembled black-and-white videos of each egg, showing the bright waves that traveled over its surface. The brighter a region in a wave, the higher the concentration of Rho-GTP in that particular region. For each video, they compared the brightness, or concentration of protein from pixel to pixel, and used these comparisons to generate an animation of the same wave patterns.

From their videos, the team observed that waves seemed to oscillate outward as tiny, hurricane-like spirals. The researchers traced the origin of each wave to the core of each spiral, which they refer to as a topological defect. Out of curiosity, they tracked the movement of these defects themselves. They did some statistical analysis to determine how fast certain defects moved across an eggs surface, and how often, and in what configurations the spirals popped up, collided, and disappeared.

In a surprising twist, they found that their statistical results, and the behavior of waves in an eggs surface, were the same as the behavior of waves in other larger and seemingly unrelated systems.

When you look at the statistics of these defects, its essentially the same as vortices in a fluid, or waves in the brain, or systems on a larger scale, Dunkel says. Its the same universal phenomenon, just scaled down to the level of a cell.

The researchers are particularly interested in the waves similarity to ideas in quantum computing. Just as the pattern of waves in an egg convey specific signals, in this case of cell division, quantum computing is a field that aims to manipulate atoms in a fluid, in precise patterns, in order to translate information and perform calculations.

Perhaps now we can borrow ideas from quantum fluids, to build minicomputers from biological cells, Fakhri says. We expect some differences, but we will try to explore [biological signaling waves] further as a tool for computation.

This research was supported, in part, by the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

See original here:
The growth of an organism rides on a pattern of waves - MIT News

In the Budget 2020 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a welcome announcement for Indian science over the next five years she proposed spending 8,000 crore (~ $1.2 billion) on a National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications. This promises to catapult India into the midst of the second quantum revolution, a major scientific effort that is being pursued by the United States, Europe, China and others. In this article we describe the scientific seeds of this mission, the promise of quantum technology and some critical constraints on its success that can be lifted with some imagination on the part of Indian scientific institutions and, crucially, some strategic support from Indian industry and philanthropy.

Quantum mechanics was developed in the early 20th century to describe nature in the small at the scale of atoms and elementary particles. For over a century it has provided the foundations of our understanding of the physical world, including the interaction of light and matter, and led to ubiquitous inventions such as lasers and semiconductor transistors. Despite a century of research, the quantum world still remains mysterious and far removed from our experiences based on everyday life. A second revolution is currently under way with the goal of putting our growing understanding of these mysteries to use by actually controlling nature and harnessing the benefits of the weird and wondrous properties of quantum mechanics. One of the most striking of these is the tremendous computing power of quantum computers, whose actual experimental realisation is one of the great challenges of our times. The announcement by Google, in October 2019, where they claimed to have demonstrated the so-called quantum supremacy, is one of the first steps towards this goal.

Besides computing, exploring the quantum world promises other dramatic applications including the creation of novel materials, enhanced metrology, secure communication, to name just a few. Some of these are already around the corner. For example, China recently demonstrated secure quantum communication links between terrestrial stations and satellites. And computer scientists are working towards deploying schemes for post-quantum cryptography clever schemes by which existing computers can keep communication secure even against quantum computers of the future. Beyond these applications, some of the deepest foundational questions in physics and computer science are being driven by quantum information science. This includes subjects such as quantum gravity and black holes.

Pursuing these challenges will require an unprecedented collaboration between physicists (both experimentalists and theorists), computer scientists, material scientists and engineers. On the experimental front, the challenge lies in harnessing the weird and wonderful properties of quantum superposition and entanglement in a highly controlled manner by building a system composed of carefully designed building blocks called quantum bits or qubits. These qubits tend to be very fragile and lose their quantumness if not controlled properly, and a careful choice of materials, design and engineering is required to get them to work. On the theoretical front lies the challenge of creating the algorithms and applications for quantum computers. These projects will also place new demands on classical control hardware as well as software platforms.

Globally, research in this area is about two decades old, but in India, serious experimental work has been under way for only about five years, and in a handful of locations. What are the constraints on Indian progress in this field? So far we have been plagued by a lack of sufficient resources, high quality manpower, timeliness and flexibility. The new announcement in the Budget would greatly help fix the resource problem but high quality manpower is in global demand. In a fast moving field like this, timeliness is everything delayed funding by even one year is an enormous hit.

A previous programme called Quantum Enabled Science and Technology has just been fully rolled out, more than two years after the call for proposals. Nevertheless, one has to laud the governments announcement of this new mission on a massive scale and on a par with similar programmes announced recently by the United States and Europe. This is indeed unprecedented, and for the most part it is now up to the government, its partner institutions and the scientific community to work out details of the mission and roll it out quickly.

But there are some limits that come from how the government must do business with public funds. Here, private funding, both via industry and philanthropy, can play an outsized role even with much smaller amounts. For example, unrestricted funds that can be used to attract and retain high quality manpower and to build international networks all at short notice can and will make an enormous difference to the success of this enterprise. This is the most effective way (as China and Singapore discovered) to catch up scientifically with the international community, while quickly creating a vibrant intellectual environment to help attract top researchers.

Further, connections with Indian industry from the start would also help quantum technologies become commercialised successfully, allowing Indian industry to benefit from the quantum revolution. We must encourage industrial houses and strategic philanthropists to take an interest and reach out to Indian institutions with an existing presence in this emerging field. As two of us can personally attest, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), home to Indias first superconducting quantum computing lab, would be delighted to engage.

R. Vijayaraghavan is Associate Professor of Physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and leads its experimental quantum computing effort; Shivaji Sondhi is Professor of Physics at Princeton University and has briefed the PM-STIAC on the challenges of quantum science and technology development; Sandip Trivedi, a Theoretical Physicist, is Distinguished Professor and Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; Umesh Vazirani is Professor of Computer Science and Director, Berkeley Quantum Information and Computation Center and has briefed the PM-STIAC on the challenges of quantum science and technology development

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Picking up the quantum technology baton - The Hindu

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., and Quantum Benchmark Inc. of Canada will conduct joint research on quantum algorithms using Quantum Benchmarks error suppression technology as they aim to advance the capabilities of current generation quantum computing platforms.

Quantum Benchmark, a startup founded by leading researchers from the University of Waterloos Institute for Quantum Computing, provides software solutions for error characterization, error suppression, and performance validation for quantum computing hardware.

In this collaborative research project, the companies will develop practical quantum algorithms utilizing Fujitsus AI algorithm development technology as well as its knowledge gained through Digital Annealer applications in finance, medicine and material development. The Digital Annealer is Fujitsus new quantum-inspired architecture that can rapidly resolve combinatorial optimization problems.

Overview of the joint research.

Quantum Benchmarks patented True-Q software system, which enables optimal performance of current hardware, is a key to this development. Accordingly, Fujitsu Laboratories and Quantum Benchmark will endeavor to solve problems in the fields of materials science, drug development and finance that are intractable to solve with conventional computers.

Quantum computers are expected to be able to perform a new form of computation by harnessing fundamental properties of the quantum world, such as entanglement and superposition. This is often explained by invoking the idea that they can process both 0 and 1 at the same time, and the continuum of states in between 0 and 1. This advantage comes by performing calculations using quantum bits, called "qubits", which is unlike conventional computers which process conventional bits, that can be only 0 or 1. However, quantum bits are fragile and highly vulnerable to errors and noise, and as time goes on, the effects of noise add up, making the quantum calculation results inaccurate. Since calculations for pharmaceuticals and materials are time-consuming, there is a need to develop error-suppression methods enabling algorithms to overcome the effects of noise.

Under the partnership, which is slated to run to March 2021, and planned for extension after April 2021, Fujitsu will develop quantum algorithms for applications such as quantum chemistry and machine learning, and develop performance analysis technology for quantum algorithms in simulations.

Quantum Benchmark will support the implementation of True-Q error diagnosis technology on current quantum computing platforms; support implementation of quantum algorithms on current quantum computing platforms; and support custom specific error suppression strategies and performance evaluation for quantum algorithms on current quantum computing platforms.

Fujitsu Laboratories and Quantum Benchmark will expand the scope of their joint research beyond finance, drug discovery, and materials, as they plan to develop quantum algorithms to be implemented in quantum computers for various applications which could not be solved with conventional computers. The companies aim to demonstrate new applications on a 100+ qubit quantum computer by 2023.

Original post:
Fujitsu Laboratories and Quantum Benchmark begin joint research on algorithms with error suppression for quantum computing - Green Car Congress

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., March 11, 2019 A recent International Data Corporation (IDC) survey of IT and business personnel responsible for quantum computing adoption found that improved AI capabilities, accelerated business intelligence, and increased productivity and efficiency were the top expectations of organizations currently investing in cloud-based quantum computing technologies.

Initial survey findings indicate that while cloud-based quantum computing is a young market, and allocated funds for quantum computing initiatives are limited (0-2% of IT budgets), end-users are optimistic that early investment will result in a competitive advantage. The manufacturing, financial services, and security industries are currently leading the way by experimenting with more potential use cases, developing advanced prototypes, and being further along in their implementation status.

Complex technology, skillset limitations, lack of available resources, and cost deter some organizations from investing in quantum computing technology. These factors, combined with a large interdisciplinary interest, has forced quantum computing vendors to develop quantum computing technology that addresses multiple end-user needs and skill levels. The result has led to increased availability of cloud-based quantum computing technology that is more easily accessible and user friendly for new end users. Currently, the preferred types of quantum computing technologies employed across industries include quantum algorithms, cloud-based quantum computing, quantum networks, and hybrid quantum computing.

Quantum computing is the future industry and infrastructure disruptor for organizations looking to use large amounts of data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to accelerate real-time business intelligence and innovate product development. Many organizations from many industries are already experimenting with its potential, saidHeather West, senior research analyst, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms, and Technology at IDC. IDCs quantum computing survey provides insight into the demand-side of cloud-based quantum computing, including preferred technologies and end-user investment and implementation strategies. These insights should guide the product and service offerings being developed by quantum computing vendors, independent software vendors, and industry partners.

The IDC Special Study,Quantum Computing Adoption Trends: 2020 Survey Findings(IDC #US46049620), provides insights into near-term cloud-based quantum computing investment sentiments as well as end user cloud-based quantum computing adoption trends that will shape the future of the quantum computing industry. The study reports on findings from IDCs 2020 Quantum Computing End-User Perception and Adoption Trends Survey, which gathered insights from a multitude of sources, including surveys of 520 IT and business users worldwide and in-depth interviews with current quantum computing end-users.

The special study is part of IDCs Quantum Computing Special Report series, which also includes end-user insights from study of 2,700 European organizations, and secondary research focusing on quantum computing use cases. Additional findings can be found in the following IDC reports:The Rise of Quantum Computing: A Qualitative Perspective(IDC #US45652919),European Quantum Computing End-User Sentiment: In Search of Business Impact(IDC #EUR146014220) andEuropean Quantum Computing Use Cases Handbook, 2020(IDC #EUR146014420).

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is a provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDCs analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the worlds leading tech media, data and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visitwww.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at@IDCandLinkedIn. Subscribe to the IDC Blog for industry news and insights:http://bit.ly/IDCBlog_Subscribe.

Source: International Data Corporation

View post:
IDC Survey Finds Optimism That Quantum Computing Will Result in Competitive Advantage - HPCwire

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., March 12, 2020 An Army project devised a novel approach for quantum error correction that could provide a key step toward practical quantum computers, sensors and distributed quantum information that would enable the military to potentially solve previously intractable problems or deploy sensors with higher magnetic and electric field sensitivities.

The approach, developed by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Army funding, could mitigate certain types of the random fluctuations, or noise, that are a longstanding barrier to quantum computing. These random fluctuations can eradicate the data stored in such devices.

The Army-funded research, published in Physical Review Letters, involves identifying the kinds of noise that are the most likely, rather than casting a broad net to try to catch all possible sources of disturbance.

The team learned that we can reduce the overhead for certain types of error correction on small scale quantum systems, said Dr. Sara Gamble, program manager for the Army Research Office, an element of U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Commands Army Research Laboratory. This has the potential to enable increased capabilities in targeted quantum information science applications for the DOD.

The specific quantum system the research team is working with consists of carbon nuclei near a particular kind of defect in a diamond crystal called a nitrogen vacancy center. These defects behave like single, isolated electrons, and their presence enables the control of the nearby carbon nuclei.

But the team found that the overwhelming majority of the noise affecting these nuclei came from one single source: random fluctuations in the nearby defects themselves. This noise source can be accurately modeled, and suppressing its effects could have a major impact, as other sources of noise are relatively insignificant.

The team determined that the noise comes from one central defect, or one central electron that has a tendency to hop around at random. It jitters. That jitter, in turn, is felt by all those nearby nuclei, in a predictable way that can be corrected. The ability to apply this targeted correction in a successful way is the central breakthrough of this research.

The work so far is theoretical, but the team is actively working on a lab demonstration of this principle in action.

If the demonstration works as expected, this research could make up an important component of near and far term future quantum-based technologies of various kinds, including quantum computers and sensors.

ARL is pursuing research in silicon vacancy quantum systems which share similarities with the nitrogen vacancy center quantum systems considered by the MIT team. While silicon vacancy and nitrogen vacancy centers have different optical properties and many basic research questions are open regarding which type(s) of application each may be ultimately best suited for, the error correction approach developed here has potential to impact both types of systems and as a result accelerate progress at the lab.

About U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory

CCDC Army Research Laboratory is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. As the Armys corporate research laboratory, ARL discovers, innovates and transitions science and technology to ensure dominant strategic land power. Through collaboration across the commands core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more lethal to win the nations wars and come home safely. CCDC is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command.

Source: U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs

See the article here:
Army Project Touts New Error Correction Method That May be Key Step Toward Quantum Computing - HPCwire

WASHINGTON, February 21, 2020 - U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios expressed confidence in the supremacy of the U.S.s artificial intelligence and quantum computing programs over Chinas, in a talk at the Hudson Institute on Thursday.

United States research on AI and quantum computing features the most highly cited papers, most investment by the private sector, and greatest government funding, he said.

This assertion challenges the Made in China 2025 Initiative, a 10-year plan that China issued in 2015, and which outlined 10 key tech industries in which China hopes to become a world leader.

Recent progress by the Chinese government in the field of high-speed fiber-optic broadband, AI and surveillance have fueled some analysts fears that the Chinese will hit their targets.

Kratsios laid out four key components of a winning tech strategy in which the U.S. excels: Leadership development, a low-regulatory environment, a belief in the power of the citizen workforce, and international engagement with allies.

Kratsios referenced two specific examples to bolster his argument. He mentioned how Trump committed to at least $200 million for STEM education last year, and how American corporations came more than matched that figure by donating $300 million.He also recounted the story that he said put America at the head of the pack in the quantum supremacy race. The story bears upon the uniting of resources invested by the U.S. government in the Quantum Lab at UC Santa Barbara with Googles subsequent acquisition of the lab and connection of that research team to its treasure trove of resources.

Its not a James Bond/Jason Borne crossover, but the concept of quantum supremacy is vital for national security, Kratsios said. America has only achieved it through a free market of ideas involving prudent government investing and private sector intervention.

Governmental funding and R&D are unique in that they fill the gaps that the private sector doesnt focus on.

Kratsios elaborated that the government tends to invest in early-stage, pre-competitive R&D which it expects the private sector to nurture and raise into a mature industry, such as in the case of the UCSB Quantum Lab.

Kratsios also gave made some comments on the proposals that the EU released Wednesday regarding AI and data. He characterized their approach to AI as values-based, and worried that they do not prioritize implementation.

Kratsios also found fault with the documents binary approach to classifying AI as high risk or not high risk, saying the report clumsily attempts to bucket AI-powered technology into two camps when there should be more spectrum and flexibility in the model.

Here is the original post:
U.S. Progress on AI and Quantum Computing Will Best China, Says CTO Michael Kratsios - BroadbandBreakfast.com

The informal TechCrunch book club reads Ted Chiangs The Great Silence

This week, we read a very short story, The Great Silence, as we start to head toward the end of Ted Chiangs Exhalation collection. This story asks questions about how we connect with nature, and also how to think about innovation and where new ideas come from.

We will finish the remaining two stories in the collection in the coming week, and then it will be time (sadly!) to change books. Ill announce the next book in the book club hopefully shortly.

Some further quick notes:

This is a quite short story with a simple message. The narrator is a parrot discussing humanitys quest to seek out artificial life elsewhere in the universe. The parrot, observing these actions, reflects on why humanity spends so much time looking for intelligence elsewhere, when it itself is intelligent, and located right next to us. The devastating line Chiang delivers comes toward the end:

But parrots are more similar to humans than any extraterrestrial species ever will be, and humans can observe us up close; they can look us in the eye. How do they expect to recognize an alien intelligence if all they can do is eavesdrop from a hundred light-years away?

The author offers us some obvious points to think about around environmental destruction and species extinction, and those are obvious enough that I think any reader can sort of surmise how the story connects to those issues.

So I want to instead connect this discussion to a theme dear to the heart of TechCrunch readers, and that is the quest for science and innovation.

To me, Chiang isnt just criticizing our disdain for the animal species around us, but is also critiquing an innovation community that constantly strives for the big and shiny discoveries when so many smaller and local discoveries have yet to be made.

We invest billions of dollars into satellites and telescopes and radar arrays hoping to capture some fleeting glimpse into an alien world somewhere in the galaxy. And yet, there are deeply alien worlds all around us. Its not just parrots Earth is filled with species that are incredibly different from us in physiology, behavior, and group dynamics. What if the species most alien to our own in the whole galaxy is located right under our noses?

Of course, there would be huge headlines in finding even a single-celled organism on another planet (assuming there was even some way to detect such life in the first place). But that is precisely the type of narrow-minded, novelty-seeking behavior that Chiang is pointing out here.

Nonetheless, innovation can be a weird beast. It isnt hard to look around the Valley these days and be dismayed at just how adrift a huge part of the industry is. We are creating more smart products than ever, yet huge social challenges and scientific frontiers remain completely unfunded. Its easier to raise funding to start up an upgraded handbag company with a new brand and marketing strategy than it is to build an engineering team to push quantum computing forward.

There are certainly many valid arguments for moving our money to more worthwhile pursuits. Yet, fresh ideas that change industries can sometimes come from the oddest places, with even frivolous products occasionally creating fundamental advances in technology. Facebook as a social network might be a time sink for its users, but its huge scale also triggered all kinds of new data center infrastructure technologies that have been widely adopted by the rest of the tech industry. Solving a frivolous problem became the means to solving a problem of more depth.

In the end, you need to seek answers. Dont overlook the obvious around us or get inured to the quotidian challenges that may just be the fount of innovation. Maybe figuring out the communication of parrots does nothing for us. Or maybe, exploring that area will open up whole new ideas for how to communicate and understand the neural patterns of speech. We cant know until we tread along the path.

Now, to take one aside before we close out: Exhalation is a collection of previously-published short stories, but Chiang manages to work in his arch-symbol of breath and air into this piece in a fairly tight way:

Its no coincidence that aspiration means both hope and the act of breathing.

When we speak, we use the breath in our lungs to give our thoughts a physical form. The sounds we make are simultaneously our intentions and our life force.

Its a symbol we saw most substantively in Exhalation (the short story itself, not this whole collection) which we talked about a few posts ago. Its a gorgeous little motif, and Chiang nicely embeds it to create an empathetic connection between humans and animals.

For the next and penultimate short story Omphalos, here are some questions to think about as you read the story.

Continued here:
Why you cant overlook the small details in the pursuit of innovation - TechCrunch

Modeling of complex systems such as materials, batteries, and medicines is extremely difficult for existing computers. The next generation of computing devices, which are quantum computers, will be able to solve such problems more efficiently. As a result, the business will be able to find practical solutions such as modeling of new materials, production of devices of a new class from such materials, and selection of optimal characteristics or reactions inside these materials, which are necessary for increasing the subsequent efficiency. One of the real challenges for the industry and business is the modeling of chemical compounds used in the batteries manufacturing process.

As part of the project, we are developing quantum chemistry methods using machine learning and quantum optimization. We plan to integrate the developed methods into the material design system, which is used today in Nissan. This will allow Nissan to unlock the huge potential of quantum computing for its tasks, and in the future, to achieve technological leadership, said Alexey Fedorov, Head of the Group Quantum Information Technologies RQC, Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics.

Quantum technologies are promising for solving many industrial challenges. The materials that can be created with quantum chemistry will significantly increase the power and capacity of batteries. As a result, we will get the opportunity to create highly efficient and environmentally-friendly transport, as well as new solutions. The future is behind these technologies and, together with our partner, Russian Quantum Center, we are striving to become a pioneer in this industry, said Shigeo Ibuka, Head of Nissan R&D center in Russia, Ph.D. in Physics.

In the long term, the use of quantum technologies will significantly reduce the time for the development of new materials, as well as predict their compliance with the requirements of industry and business. The RQC team will conduct research using both existing quantum computers and their own-developed quantum-inspired algorithms.

More:
Russian Quantum Center and Nissan have launched a project in the field of quantum chemistry - Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source

Its fascinating to think about the power in our pockettodays smartphones have the computing power of a military computer from 50 years ago that was the size of an entire room. However, even with the phenomenal strides we made in technology and classical computers since the onset of the computer revolution, there remain problems that classical computers just cant solve. Many believe quantum computers are the answer.

The Limits of Classical Computers

Now that we have made the switching and memory units of computers, known as transistors, almost as small as an atom, we need to find an entirely new way of thinking about and building computers. Even though a classical computer helps us do many amazing things, under the hood its really just a calculator that uses a sequence of bitsvalues of 0 and 1 to represent two states (think on and off switch) to makes sense of and decisions about the data we input following a prearranged set of instructions. Quantum computers are not intended to replace classical computers, they are expected to be a different tool we will use to solve complex problems that are beyond the capabilities of a classical computer.

Basically, as we are entering a big data world in which the information we need to store grows, there is a need for more ones and zeros and transistors to process it. For the most part classical computers are limited to doing one thing at a time, so the more complex the problem, the longer it takes. A problem that requires more power and time than todays computers can accommodate is called an intractable problem. These are the problems that quantum computers are predicted to solve.

The Power of Quantum Computers

When you enter the world of atomic and subatomic particles, things begin to behave in unexpected ways. In fact, these particles can exist in more than one state at a time. Its this ability that quantum computers take advantage of.

Instead of bits, which conventional computers use, a quantum computer uses quantum bitsknown as qubits. To illustrate the difference, imagine a sphere. A bit can be at either of the two poles of the sphere, but a qubit can exist at any point on the sphere. So, this means that a computer using qubits can store an enormous amount of information and uses less energy doing so than a classical computer. By entering into this quantum area of computing where the traditional laws of physics no longer apply, we will be able to create processors that are significantly faster (a million or more times) than the ones we use today. Sounds fantastic, but the challenge is that quantum computing is also incredibly complex.

The pressure is on the computer industry to find ways to make computing more efficient, since we reached the limits of energy efficiency using classical methods. By 2040, according to a report by the Semiconductor Industry Association, we will no longer have the capability to power all of the machines around the world. Thats precisely why the computer industry is racing to make quantum computers work on a commercial scale. No small feat, but one that will pay extraordinary dividends.

How our world will change with quantum computing

Its difficult to predict how quantum computing will change our world simply because there will be applications in all industries. Were venturing into an entirely new realm of physics and there will be solutions and uses we have never even thought of yet. But when you consider how much classical computers revolutionized our world with a relatively simple use of bits and two options of 0 or 1, you can imagine the extraordinary possibilities when you have the processing power of qubits that can perform millions of calculations at the same moment.

What we do know is that it will be game-changing for every industry and will have a huge impact in the way we do business, invent new medicine and materials, safeguard our data, explore space, and predict weather events and climate change. Its no coincidence that some of the worlds most influential companies such as IBM and Google and the worlds governments are investing in quantum computing technology. They are expecting quantum computing to change our world because it will allow us to solve problems and experience efficiencies that arent possible today. In another post, I dig deeper into how quantum computing will change our world.

Read the original post:
What Is Quantum Computing? A Super-Easy Explanation For Anyone

Buried within the 13,000-odd words of the Union Budget speech on Saturday was a paragraph that set aside 8,000 crore over five years for the National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications. Most commentators seem to have either missed or overlooked this budgetary allocation, but in terms of significance, the implications are well worth considering.

More than two years ago, the department of science and technology launched the Quantum-Enabled Science and Technology (QuEST) programme with an aim to develop technical capacity within the country to build quantum computers and communications systems comparable with the best in the world. The first phase of the project was to build the infrastructure and acquire human resources to develop physical and computation structures for improving precision in quantum measurement. The eventual goal is to build quantum computers domestically.

Though the allocation in this years budget is clearly part of a long-term national strategy, I cannot help wonder whether it is, at least in some small measure, a response to Googles recent announcement that it had achieved quantum supremacy"the ability to perform a calculation on a quantum computer that is impossible on a conventional computer. And the fear that we might, once again, be falling behind.

As much as I enjoy science, quantum mechanics gives me a headache. Quantum computing is an order of magnitude more perplexing. Ordinary computers function using binary logic gates that can be either off or on. This is why classical computers store information in bitseither as a 0 or 1. On the other hand, quantum computers can store information as both a 0 and a 1 at the same time using a quantum property called superposition. This means that with two quantum bits (or qubits), information can be stored in four possible states of superposition, and as more qubits are added, the computational power grows exponentially.

While this gives us more computing power, quantum computers are error-prone. The quantum state is delicate. It lasts for a fraction of a second and is easily disrupted by tiniest of vibrations or variations in temperature. This noise" in calculations causes mistakes to occur, and unless we can make them sufficiently error-free, quantum computing will not be commercially viable. Googles breakthrough was to achieve sufficient control over the process to allow its experimental computer to outperform a traditional computer. As a result, its computer could solve in 200 seconds what would take the worlds fastest supercomputer 10,000 years.

We still have a long way to go before quantum computing becomes commercially viable, but there is reason for urgency. As soon as quantum computing becomes commercially viable, much of what we take for granted today will become irrelevant.

Take encryption, for example. Almost all digital security today is based on the RSA algorithm that encrypts messages by relying on the factorization of two large prime numbers. While it is easy to multiply two prime numbers, it is very difficult to factorize them. RSA encryption exploits this feature, making it impossible for even governments and private actors with near infinite computational resources to decrypt messages. This is why we have the confidence to store valuable information in encrypted archives on the cloud, secure in the knowledge that even the largest corporations and most technologically advanced governments dont have the computational capability to decrypt these databases and access the information stored inside.

Once quantum computers are capable of being used for decryption, the computational hurdles of prime number factorization that we now rely on will become trivial to overcome. Shors algorithm already describes a process by which quantum computers could be used find the prime factors of any integer. In 2001, IBM proved that this algorithm works by using a 7 qubit computer to factorize the number 15 into 5 and 3. Googles Sycamore processor harnessed 53 qubits in its latest experiment, demonstrating that much higher computational capabilities are already within our grasp. Once our quantum computers have reached a sufficiently advanced level of stability, even the highest encryption known to man will be easy to defeat.

When that happens, cyber security as we know it will be a thing of the past. All the secure data services that we rely on will be thrown wide open, allowing anyone with a quantum computer to easily access the information within. Given the imminence of major breakthroughs in quantum computing, it is rumoured that there is already an underground market for encrypted data in anticipation of a time when all this information can be decrypted and the secrets of famous personalities can be exposed.

In the war for quantum supremacy, it is those who can understand and use the fundamental technologies behind quantum computing who will emerge dominant. In the not-so-distant future, the world will be divided into the quantum haves and have-nots. It is imperative that India makes every effort to stay in the game if it is to have any hope of remaining relevant. If we are to retain any measure of technological independence, we will need to ramp up our research in quantum computing and actively invest in the development of indigenous quantum computational capabilities.

Rahul Matthan is a partner at Trilegal and author of Privacy 3.0: Unlocking Our Data Driven Future

Continued here:
Opinion | Prepare for a world of quantum haves and have-nots - Livemint

In October 2019, Google announced that its quantum computer, Sycamore, had done a calculation in three minutes and 20 seconds that would have taken the worlds fastest supercomputer 10,000 years. Quantum supremacy, Google claimed for itself. We now have a quantum computer, it was saying, capable of performing calculations that no regular, classical computer is capable of doing in a reasonable time.

Where do you buy a computer like that? You dont. Googles Sycamore cant run Word or Chrome, it cant even run a nice friendly game of Minesweeper. In fact, Googles supreme quantum computer doesnt know how to do anything, other than perform one useless calculation. It resembles the huge computer in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which came up with the calculation of 42, as the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything although no one knows what the question is.

The question is now being worked on in Tel Aviv, on Derech Hashalom Street. In their generic office in the citys Nahalat Yitzhak neighborhood, three physicists who received their doctorates at Rehovots Weizmann Institute of Science Nissim Ofek, 46; Yonatan Cohen, 36; and Itamar Sivan, 32 are developing instruments of control that will tame the quantum monster.

Ten years ago, when I took a course in quantum computing, it was considered science fiction, Dr. Sivan, the CEO of their company, Quantum Machines, relates. The experts said that it wouldnt happen in our lifetime or may never happen. As a physicist, quantum computing is a dream come true. Almost all our employees are physicists, even those who work as programmers, and most of them approached us. They read about an Israeli company for quantum computing and simply couldnt restrain themselves. Theres nothing more exciting than to learn for years about Schrdingers cat and about all the wild quantum effects, and then to enter a laboratory and actually build Schrdingers cat and leverage the theory into a prodigious force of calculation.

Already in high school, Sivan, who was born and raised in Tel Aviv, knew that he was drawn to the mysterious world of elusive particles. I did honors physics, and in that framework we learned a little quantum mechanics. Without mathematics at that stage, only the ideas of quantum mechanics. My brain took off. The quantinizing of the world, of the space around me, was very tangible. I felt that I understood the quantum world. Afterward I understood that I didnt understand anything, but thats not important. Its preferable to develop an intuition for quantum at an early age like for a language. Afterward I did military service, but I didnt forget that magic.

I was a bureau chief [i.e., military secretary], not the most intellectually challenging job in the army, he continues, and I was afraid that when I was discharged, I would be too old. You know, its said that all the great mathematicians achieved their breakthroughs before the age of 25. So, in parallel with army service I started undergraduate studies at the Open University. On the day after my discharge, I flew to Paris to continue my studies at the cole Normale Suprieure because there are a few other things that are also worth doing when youre young, such as living in Paris.

He met his partners in the project, Nissim Ofek and Yonatan Cohen, at the Weizmann Institute, where they all studied at the Center for Submicron Research, under Prof. Moty Heiblum.

Sivan: Nissim had completed his Ph.D. and was doing a postdoc at Yale just when Yonatan and I started. At the same time, Yonatan and I established the Weizmann Institutes entrepreneurship program. When we graduated, we asked each other: Okay, what do we know how to do in this world? The answer: quantum electronics and entrepreneurship. We really had no choice other than to found Quantum Machines.

QM is a singular startup, says Prof. Amir Yacoby, a Harvard University physicist and a member of the companys scientific advisory board. A great many startups promise to build ever more powerful quantum computers. QM is out to support all those ambitious platforms. Its the first company in the world that is building both the hardware and the software that will make it possible to use those computers. You have to understand that quantum computing was born in university labs before the electronics industry created designated devices for it. What we did was to take devices designated for classical computers and adapt them to the quantum computers. It took plenty of student years. Thats why QM looks so promising. These guys were the wretches who went through hell, who learned the needs the hard way. Today, every research group that Im familiar with is in contact with them or has already bought the system from them. QM is generating global enthusiasm.

Well return to the Israeli startup, but first we need to understand what all the fuss is about.

What we refer to as the universal computing machine was conceived by the man considered the father of computer sciences, Alan Turing, in 1936. Years before there were actual computers in the world, Turing suggested building a read-write head that would move a tape, read the different state in each frame, and replicate it according to commands it received. It sounds simplisltic, but there is no fundamental difference between the theoretical Turing machine and my new Lenovo laptop. The only difference is that my Turing machine reads-writes so many frames per second that its impossible to discern that its actually calculating. As the science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke put it, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Classical computers perform these calculations by means of transistors. In 1947, William Shockley, Walter Brattain and John Bardeen built the first transistor the word is an amalgam of transfer and resistor. The transistor is a kind of switch that sits within a slice of silicon and acts as the multi-state frame that Turing dreamed of. Turn on the switch and the electricity flows through the transistor; turn it off, and the electricity does not flow. Hence, the use of transistors in computers is binary: if the electricity flows through the transistor, the bit, or binary digit, is 1; and if the current does not flow, the bit is 0.

With transistors, the name of the game is miniaturization. The smaller the transistor, the more of them it is possible to compress into the silicon slice, and the more complex are the calculations one can perform. It took a whole decade to get from the one transistor to an integrated circuit of four transistors. Ten years later, in 1965, it had become possible to compress 64 transistors onto a chip. At this stage, Gordon Moore, who would go on to found Intel, predicted that the number of transistors per silicon slice would continue to grow exponentially. Moores Law states that every 18 months, like clockwork, engineers will succeed in miniaturizing and compressing double the number of transistors in an integrated circuit.

Moores Law is a self-fulfilling fusion of a natural law and an economic prediction. A natural law, because miniaturized electrical circuits are more efficient and cheaper (its impossible to miniaturize a passenger plane, for example); and an economic law, because the engineers bosses read Moores article and demanded that they compress double the number of transistors in the following year. Thus we got the golden age of computers: the Intel 286, with 134,000 transistors in 1982; the 386, with 275,000 transistors, in 1985; the 486, with 1,180,235 transistors, in 1989; and the Pentium, with 3.1 million transistors, in 1993. There was no reason to leave the house.

Today, the human race is manufacturing dozens of billions of transistors per second. Your smartphone has about 8.5 billion transistors. According to a calculation made by the semiconductor analyst Jim Handy, since the first transistor was created in 1947, 2,913,276,327,576,980,000,000 transistors thats 2.9 sextillion have been manufactured, and within a few years there will be more transistors in the world than all the cells in all the human bodies on earth.

However, the golden age of the transistors is behind us. Moores Law ceased being relevant long ago, says Amir Yacoby. Computers are continuing to be improved, but the pace has slowed. After all, if wed continued to miniaturize transistors at the rate of Moores Law, we would have reached the stage of a transistor the size of an atom and we would have had to split the atom.

The conventional wisdom is that the slowdown in the rate of the improvement of classic computers is the engine driving the accelerated development of quantum computers. QM takes a different approach. Theres no need to look for reasons to want more computing power, Sivan says. Its a bottomless pit. Generate more calculating power, and we will find something to do with it. Programmers are developing cooler applications and smarter algorithms, but everything rests on the one engine of calculating power. Without that engine, the high-tech industry would not have come into being.

Moores Law, Cohen adds, starts to snafu precisely because miniaturization brought us to the level of solitary atoms, and the quantum effectsare in any case already starting to interfere with the regular behavior of the transistors. Now we are at a crossroads. Either we continue to do battle against these effects, which is what Intel is doing, or we start harnessing them to our advantage.

And theres another problem with our universal Turing machine: even if we were able to go on miniaturizing transistors forever, there is a series of hard problems that will always be one step ahead of our computers.

Mathematicians divide problems according to complexity classes, Cohen explains. Class P problems are simple for a classic computer. The time it takes to solve the problem increases by polynomials, hence the P. Five times three is an example of a polynomial problem. I can go on multiplying and my calculating time will remain linear for the number of digits that I add to the problem. There are also NP problems, referring to nondeterministic polynomial time. I give you the 15 and you need to find the primary factors five times three. Here the calculating time increases exponentially when the problem is increased in linear terms. NP complexity problems are difficult for classic computers. In principle, the problem can still be solved, but the calculating time becomes unreal.

A classic example of an NP complexity problem is that of the traveling salesman. Given a list of cities and the distance between each two cities, what is the shortest route for the traveling salesman who in the end has to return to his hometown to take? Between 14 cities, the number of possible routes is 10 to the 11th power. A standard computer performs an operation every nanosecond, or 10 to the 9th power operations per second, and thus will calculate all the possible routes in 100 seconds. But if we increase the number of cities to just 22, the number of possibilities will grow to 10 to the 19th power, and our computer will need 1,600 years to calculate the fastest route. And if we want to figure out the route for 28 cities, the universe will die before we get the result. And in contrast to the problem that Googles quantum supremacy computer addressed, the problem of the traveling salesman comes from the real world. Airlines, for example, would kill to have a computer that could do such calculations.

In fact, modern encrypting is based on the same computer-challenging problems. When we enter the website of a bank, for example, the communication between us and the bank is encrypted. What is the sophisticated Enigma-like machine that prevents outsiders from hacking into our bank account? Prime numbers. Yes, most of the sensitive communication on the internet is encrypted by a protocol called RSA (standing for the surnames of Ron Rivest, the Israeli Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adelman), whose key is totally public: breaking down a large number into prime numbers. Every computer is capable of hacking RSA, but it would take many years for it to do so. To break down a number of 300 digits into prime numbers would require about 100 years of calculation. A quantum computer would solve the problem within an hour and hack the internet.

The central goal of the study of quantum algorithms in the past 25 years was to try and understand what quantum computers could be used for, says Prof. Scott Aaronson, a computer scientist from the University of Texas at Austin and a member of QMs scientific advisory board. People need to understand that the answer is not self-evident. Nature granted us a totally bizarre hammer, and we have to thank our good fortune that we somehow managed to find a few nails for it.

Spooky action

What is this strange hammer? Without going deeply into quantum theory, suffice it to explain that quantum mechanics is a scientific theory that is no less grounded than the Theory of General Relativity or the theory of electricity even if it conflicts sharply with common sense. As it happens, the universe was not tailor-made for us.

Overall, quantum mechanics describes the motion of particles in space. At about the same time as Turing was envisioning his hypothetical computer, it was discovered that small particles, atomic and sub-atomic, behave as if they were large waves. We will illuminate two cracks with a flashlight and we will look at the wall on the other side. What will we see? Bands of light and shade alternately. The two waves that will be formed in the cracks will weaken or strengthen each other on the other side like ocean waves. But what happens if we fire one particle of light, a solitary photon, at the two cracks? The result will be identical to the flashlight: destructive and constructive interference of waves. The photon will split in two, pass through the two cracks simultaneously and become entangled with itself on the other side.

Its from this experiment, which was repeated in numberless variations, that the two odd traits of quantum mechanics are derived: what scientists call superposition (the situation of the particle we fired that split into two and passed between the two cracks in parallel) and the ability to predict only the probability of the photons position (we dont know for certain where the particle we fired will hit). An equally strange trait is quantum entanglement. When two particles are entangled, the moment one particle decides where it is located, it influences the behavior of the other particles, even if it is already on the other side of the cracks or on the other side of the Milky Way. Einstein termed this phenomenon spooky action at a distance.

The world of quantum mechanics is so bizarre that its insanely attractive, Sivan suggests. On the one hand, the results contradict common sense; on the other hand, it is one of the most solidly grounded theories.

The best analogy was provided by the physicist Richard Feynman, who conceived the idea of a quantum computer in 1982, notes Cohen. Feynman compared the world to a great chess game being played by the gods We do not know what the rules of the game are; all we are allowed to do is to watch the playing. Of course, if we watch long enough, we may eventually catch on to a few of the rules.

According to Cohen, Until the beginning of the 20th century, physicists could only look at pawns at the binary moves. Quantum mechanics shows us that there is a larger and far more interesting set of laws in nature: there are knights, rooks, queens.

Here, adds Sivan, pointing, this table here has an end, right? No, it doesnt. Like the particle that passes through the cracks, this table also has no defined size in space, only probability. The prospect is that we will find a table particle fading exponentially at the edge of the table. In order to work with the table on an everyday basis, we can make do with the classic, simplistic description. But our world is a quantum world and we need to know how to describe it truly. And for that we need quantum computers. In order to describe a simple molecule with 300 atoms penicillin, lets say we will need 2 to the 300th power classic transistors which is more than the number of atoms in the universe. And that is only to describe the molecule at a particular moment. To run it in a simulation would require us to build another few universes, to supply all the material needed.

But humanity is today running simulations on whole galaxies.

Sivan: True, but humanity is really bad at that. We are simplifying, cutting corners. This table will have a boundary in a simulation, so that you can work with it. The galaxy you are simulating is composed of molecules that behave according to quantum mechanics, but in the simulation you will run, the galaxy having no other choice will operate according to the principles of classical mechanics. That was Feynmans great insight: We cannot simulate a quantum world with classical computers. Only a quantum computer will know how to simulate a quantum system.

Feynman didnt stop at imagining a machine that would depict or simulate a quantum system that is, a computer that would be analogic for a quantum system. He took a step forward and asked: Why not build a universal quantum calculating machine? The theoretical principles for the universal quantum computer were set forth by the Israeli-born physicist David Deutsch in 1985. A quantum computer, Deutsch stated, will not be comparable to a Turing machine; it will be capable of solving every problem that a Turing machine is capable of solving and another few problems, too. Such as NP complexity problems.

Classic computers are based on binary bits, two states, 0 or 1, Cohen says. But like the particle in the experiment, Schrdingers cat can also be in a superposition, both dead and living, both 0 and 1. We dont know how to do that with cats yet, but there are systems that we can bring to superposition. Every such system is called a quantum bit, or qubit. Of course, the superposition will ultimately collapse, because we need to see the result on the other side, but along the way the cat was both living and dead, the lone photon truly passed through both cracks with the result in accordance.

Sivan: Two classic bits can take four possible combinations: 00, 01, 10 or 11. Two quantum bits can be in all four of those combinations simultaneously: 00, also 01, also 10 and also 11. With eight qubits you reach 256 combinations. That is true exponential force. Lets say you have a processor with a billion transistors, a billion bits, and you want to double its memory. You would have to add another billion bits. To double the memory in a quantum computer you will have to add one qubit.

How does it work? Take, for example, two simple calculations with two classic bits. In the first calculation you feed 00 into the machine and the algorithm says to the computer to switch, or turn over, the first bit, so we get 01. Then we want to solve another problem. We feed into the computer two bits in a 11 state, and the computer turns over the second bit, so we get 10. Two calculations, two operations. Now we will entangle a pair of quantum bits in superposition: they are both 00 and 11. Instead of two operations, the quantum computer will turn over the second bit and we will get both 01 and 10. Two calculations, one operation. And the operation will continue to be one, no matter how many calculations we perform. If in the classic computer, we are at any given moment in one state out of two states, 0 or 1, to the power of the number of bits we have, in the quantum computer we are at any given moment in each of the states.

An important clarification is in order here. Scott Aaronsons blog, called Shtetl-Optimized, carries the motto, Quantum computers would not solve hard search problems instantaneously by simply trying all the possible solutions at once. Thats because a quantum computer can be in all the states at every given moment but we, by heavens grace, are not quantum beings. We need an answer. That is why scientists are building the quantum computer with delicate choreography so that all the mistaken calculations will weaken one another and the calculations that contribute to the right answer will empower one another so that we non-quantum mortals will, with high probability, be able to measure the right answer from among the random nonsense.

Almost every popular article is wrong on this point, Prof. Aaronson explains. Like Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill, I have been trying for 15 years to explain that if we simply measure the superposition of each of the possible answers, we will get a random answer. For that we dont need quantum computers you can flip a coin or spin a top. All the hopes we are pinning on quantum computing depend on our ability to increase the probability of the right answer and reduce the probability of all the wrong answers.

Thus, the classic bit is encoded through an electrical current in semiconductors, so that if the current does not flow we get 0, and if it does flow we get 1. The revolution of the quantum computer hasnt yet determined what the best way is to encode quantum bits, but at the moment the most advanced quantum computers are using a two-atom electron. The electron can be either in atom left, 0, or in atom right, 1 or in both of them, in superposition at the same time. Googles Sycamore has 53 such qubits, fewer than the number of classical bits there were in the world when Moore formulated his law in 1964. All the giants such as IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Alibaba are in the quantum race to add qubits; the experts think that in a year or two we will see quantum computers with 100 or 200 qubits. The rate of increase is astounding, appropriate for a quantum Moores Law. Now arises the question: If one qubit works, and 53 qubits work together, why not create more qubits? Why not create a processor possessing hundreds, thousands, millions of qubits, to hack the RSA encryption of all the banks in the world and retire on a yacht?

The answer is that quantum computers make mistakes. Classical computers make mistakes, too, but were not aware of that because the classical computers also correct the mistakes. If, for example, a calculation is run on three classical bits, and one bit produces the result 0, and two bits produces the result 1, the processor will determine that the first bit was wrong and return it to state 1. Democracy. In quantum computing, democracy doesnt work, because the voters entered the polling booth together. Think of three cubits entangled to 000 and to 111, which is to say, three electrons that are present together both in the left atom and in the right atom simultaneously. If the third bit turns over by mistake, we will get a state of 001 and 110. If we try to correct the mistake, or even to check whether a mistake occurred, our superposition will collapse immediately and we will get 000 or 111. In other words, the qubits defeat themselves. The quantum entanglement that makes the computer marvel possible is the same one that precludes the possibility of adding more qubits: The electrons simply coordinate positions, so that it is impossible to ask them who made the mistake. That is a problem, because qubits are notorious for their sensitivity to the environment and there are also prone to make mistakes a lot more than regular bits.

Classical bits do not have a continuum of possibilities, Prof. Yacoby notes. What is a classical bit? The electricity flows or doesnt flow. Even if the current weakens or becomes stronger, it is still considered a current. The quantum bits are sequential, the electron can be largely in atom right and partially in atom left. That is their strength and that is their weakness. Therefore, every interaction with the environment affects them dramatically. If I use my regular computer and an electronic wave passes through the transistor, the state of the bit does not change. The same electronic wave passing through a qubit will cause loss of the qubits coherence, memory. The information will leak out to the surroundings and we will not be able to reconstruct it.

For this reason, we will not see quantum iPads in the near or distant future. A classical processor performs a calculation in a nanosecond, but will preserve the information for days, months, years ahead. A quantum computer also performs a calculation in a nanosecond and at best will manage to preserve the information for a hundredth of a microsecond. Quantum computers are so sensitive to external interference that they must be isolated from their surroundings at almost minus 273 degrees Celsius, one 10,000th of a degree above absolute zero.

The interaction of the qubits with the environment is a serious problem, because they lose the memory, says Yacoby. But that only means that they are measuring something in regard to the environment. There is a whole field of quantum sensors that enable us to learn about traits of materials with psychopathic sensitivity. Quantum clocks can measure a change in the force of gravity of the Earth from my nose to my chin. Its unbelievable. Lockheed Martin is developing a cruise missile that will be able to navigate itself without GPS, solely according to the quantum sensitivity to minute differences in Earths magnetic field. And there are quite a few startups that use quantum sensors to identify cancerous cells. These are applications for which I foresee commercial success long before we actually have quantum computers.

Theres also another game that can be played with quantum sensitivity: encryption. A quantum computer can hack the widespread encryption protocol on the internet, RSA, because it can calculate NP problems with no problem. But given that superposition collapses the moment the black box is opened to examine whether the cat is dead or alive, a quantum encryption protocol will be immune by virtue of its being quantum. Communication with the bank can be left open on a quantum server. Anyone who tries to listen to the line will cause the collapse of the superposition and hear gibberish and the bank and the client will know that someone listened in.

But with all due respect to the benefit that can be extracted from the fact that quantum computers dont work but can only sense humanity will benefit tremendously if we can make them work. In our world, everything is quantum at its base. Mapping the structure of chemical molecules requires quantum computing power, and we will know how to ward off diseases only when the pharmaceutical companies are able to run quantum simulations. The neurons in our brain are quantum, and we will be able to create true artificial intelligence only when we have quantum computers that can run independent thoughts.

Its not the race to the moon, Cohen says, its the race to Mars. In my opinion, the greatest scientific and engineering challenge now facing the human race is the actualization of quantum computers. But in order to actualize all those dreams, we need to understand how we correct errors in qubits, how we control them. Thats what were doing. QM is the first company in the world that is totally focused on developing control and operating systems for quantum computers. The system we are developing has a decisive role in correcting errors. In fact, the third founder of QM, Nissim, was the first person in the world to prove that errors in quantum bits can be corrected. He didnt show it on paper he proved it, succeeded, demonstrated it. Instead of measuring every qubit and seeing which was wrong, its possible to examine whether the qubits are in the same state. If one qubit is in a different state, well know that it is wrong. You can know whether you voted for a party that didnt win without knowing the results of the election.

QM was founded in 2018 with the aim of bypassing the problem of errant qubits with the help of some old friends: classical bits. If the classical computer contains hardware and software, meaning a great many transistors and a language that tells the processor which calculations to run on them, in a quantum computer, the cake has three layers: quantum hardware (that is, qubits), classical hardware that will be able to operate the quantum hardware, and software (both classical and quantum). That is our way of having an impact on the qubits while reading the results in our world, Sivan says. If we were quantum beings, we would be able to speak directly with the computer but were not.

Would you like to be a quantum being? It would save you a lot of work.

Yes, but then the other quantum beings wouldnt buy our products.

QM is building the classical hardware and software that will be able to send the right electric signals to the electrons and to read the results with minimal interference to the black wonder box. Their integrated system is called the Quantum Orchestration Platform.

Today there is separate hardware for every individual quantum computer, Cohen says. We are building an orchestra system that can work with every such computer and will send the most correct electrical signals to the qubits. In addition, we are developing programming language that will make it possible for us to program the algorithms the commands. Thats a general quantum language, like C [programming language]. Today there is a potpourri of languages, each quantum computer and its language. We want our language, QUA, to be established as the standard, universal language for quantum computing.

Sound off the wall? Not all that much. Last month, QM joined the IBM Q Network, in an attempt to integrate the computer conglomerates programming languages into the Quantum Orchestration Platform of Sivan and his colleagues, and to publish a complete complier (a complier is a computer program that can translates computer code written in one programming language into another language) by the second quarter of 2020. The complier will be able to translate every quantum programming language into the QM platform. Thus, an algorithm written in a university in Shanghai will be able to run on a quantum computer built in Googles laboratories in, say, Mountain View.

Says Yonatan Cohen: The major players, like Google and IBM, are still gambling. They are developing a quantum processor that is based on their own [singular] technology. And it could be that in a few years we will discover a better platform, and their processor will not have any use. We are building a system that is agnostic to quantum hardware. Our goal is to grow with the industry, no matter what direction it develops in. Because the underlying assumption is that you dont know exactly when quantum computers will start to be practicable. Some people say three years, others say 20 years. But its clear to us that whoever is in the forefront when it erupts will win bigtime, because he will control the new computing force. Everyone will have to work with him, in his language, with his hardware.

Sivan: Its possible that in another few years, we will look back on this decade and see an unexampled technological turning point: the moment when quantum computers went into action. Thats not another technological improvement. Its a leap

A quantum leap!

Sivan: Exactly.

Excerpt from:
The quantum computer is about to change the world. Three Israelis are leading the revolution - Haaretz

UncategorizedByJohn Breaux|January 22, 2020

Some say that we are in the midst of a new technological revolution, with emerging technologies taking shape to transform the world we live in. As we step into a new decade, expect to see a handful of amazing advancements in technology that will dramatically shape our society at large.

Weve been told for years that self-driving cars are the future, but this decade will bring us the greatest advancements in this field as of yet. Companies have been researching and testing autonomous fleets of cars for years now, and some are finally gearing up to deploy them in the real world. Tesla has already released a self-driving feature in its popular electric vehicles, while Google-owned Waymo has completed a trial of autonomous taxi systems in California where it successfully transported more than 6000 people.

This radically powerful form of computing will continue to reach more practical applications throughout the decade. Quantum computers are capable of performing exponentially more powerful calculations when compared to traditional computing, but the size and power required to run them makes them difficult to use in a more practical sense. Further research in quantum, computing will allow greater application for solving real-world problems.

Augmenting our bodies with technology will become more common as wearable devices will allow us to improve everything from hearing to sight. Examples include devices and implants that will be able to enhance sensory capabilities, improve health, and contribute to a heightened quality of life and functional performance.

The advent of 5G will perhaps be one of the most impactful technologies for the many starting this year and proceeding onwards. 5G networks will have the capability of connecting us to the digital world in ways weve never had before, affording us blazing fast speeds of nearly 10 Gb/s. The speed of 5G will allow for seamless control of vast autonomous car fleets, precise robotic surgery, or streaming of 4K video with no buffering.

Drones are already a pivotal piece of technology in areas including transportation, surveillance, and logistics. Swarm robotics will be a new multi-robot system inspired by nature that will have major potential in completing tasks with unparalleled efficiency. Applications could include providing post-disaster relief, geological surveying, and even farming. Swarm robotics will be able to accomplish tasks through cooperative behavior while adapting to situations in ways that would not be possible with a single drone.

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5 Emerging Technologies That Will Shape this Decade - San Diego Entertainer Magazine

Something to look forward to: Some of the biggest problems that need solving in the enterprise world require sifting through vast amounts of data and finding the best possible solution given a number of factors and requirements, some of which are at times unknown. For years, quantum computing has been touted as the most promising jump in computational speed for certain kind of problems, but Toshiba says revisiting classical algorithms helped it develop a new one that can leverage existing silicon-based hardware to get a faster result.

Toshiba's announcement this week claims a new algorithm it's been perfecting for years is capable of analyzing market data much more quickly and efficiently than those used in some of the world's fastest supercomputers.

The algorithm is called the "Simulated Bifurcation Algorithm," and is supposedly good enough to be used in finding accurate approximate solutions for large-scale combinatorial optimization problems. In simpler terms, it can come up with a solution out of many possible ones for a particularly complex problem.

According to its inventor, Hayato Goto, it draws inspiration from the way quantum computers can efficiently comb through many possibilities. Work on SBA started in 2015, and Goto noticed that adding new inputs to a complex system with 100,000 variables makes it easy to solve it in a matter of seconds with a relatively small computational cost.

This essentially means that Toshiba's new algorithm could be used on standard desktop computers. To give you an idea how important this development is, Toshiba demonstrated last year that SBA can get highly accurate solutions for an optimization problem with 2,000 connected variables in 50 microseconds, or 10 times faster than laser-based quantum computers.

SBA is also highly scalable, meaning it can be made to work on clusters of CPUs or FPGAs, all thanks to the contributions of Kosuke Tatsumura, another one of Toshiba's senior researchers that specializes in semiconductors.

Companies like Microsoft, Google, IBM, and many others are racing to be the first with a truly viable quantum commercial system, but so far their approaches have produced limited results that live inside their labs.

Meanwhile, scientists like Goto and Kosuke are going back to the roots by exploring ways to improve on classical algorithms. Toshiba hopes to use SBA to optimize financial operations like currency trading and rapid-fire portfolio adjustments, but this could very well be used to calculate efficient routes for delivery services and molecular precision drug development.

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Toshiba says it created an algorithm that beats quantum computers using standard hardware - TechSpot

Tech giant Google announced a few days ago that it had reached Quantum Supremacy. Now, another tech heavyweight IBM, is announcing its lofty quantum ambitions that could be detrimental to cryptocurrencies.

At the CES 2020 conference yesterday, IBM announced that it is using its 28-qubit quantum computer called Raleigh to achieve a Quantum Volume of 32. While it is not a very significant number as far as breaking the crypto code is concerned, it is important to note that IBM is doubling its volume every year.

Quantum Volume is a number used to describe the level of complexity of problems that a quantum computer can solve. A higher Quantum Volume means a more powerful computer. While the world keeps talking about AI, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, IoT and other emerging technologies, it is quantum computing that could become the most important innovation of this century. It has the ability to touch almost every industry and walk of life and can impact other emerging technologies significantly.

The first of practical quantum computers were introduced by Jonathan Home in 2009, but since then, tech giants like IBM and Google have taken the lead to create the next generation of powerful computing systems. For long, Bitcoin has been considered vulnerable to the attack of quantum computers. Therefore, Google and IBMs developments could pose a significant threat to the existence of the crypto sector.

Authors of a June 2017 paper on cryptography suggest that a quantum computer with the processing power of 2,500 qubits will be powerful enough to break the 256-bit encryption used on the Bitcoin blockchain. The most powerful quantum computer today holds only a fraction of that processing power, i.e. 72-qubit.

Crypto godfather David Chaum has already started warning the community to brace for impact and start working on an answer to Google and IBMs quantum powers right now. While their processing powers look inconsequential right now, the day may not be far when they can actually start creating ripples in the crypto community.

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IBM Becomes the Next Big Threat to Crypto after Google - CryptoVibes

A team of researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark let DeepMinds AlphaZero algorithm loose on a few quantum computing optimization problems and, much to everyones surprise, the AI was able to solve the problems without any outside expert knowledge. Not bad for a machine learning paradigm designed to win at games like Chess and StarCraft.

Youve probably heard of DeepMind and its AI systems. The UK-based Google sister-company is responsible for both AlphaZero and AlphaGo, the systems that beat the worlds most skilled humans at the games of Chess and Go. In essence, what both systems do is try to figure out what the optimal next set of moves is. Where humans can only think so many moves ahead, the AI can look a bit further using optimized search and planning methods.

Related:DeepMinds AlphaZero AI is the new champion in chess, shogi, and Go

When the Aarhus team applied AlphaZeros optimization abilities to a trio of problems associated with optimizing quantum functions an open problem for the quantum computing world they learned that its ability to learn new parameters unsupervised transferred over from games to applications quite well.

Per the study:

AlphaZero employs a deep neural network in conjunction with deep lookahead in a guided tree search, which allows for predictive hidden-variable approximation of the quantum parameter landscape. To emphasize transferability, we apply and benchmark the algorithm on three classes of control problems using only a single common set of algorithmic hyperparameters.

The implications for AlphaZeros mastery over the quantum universe could be huge. Controlling a quantum computer requires an AI solution because operations at the quantum level quickly become incalculable by humans. The AI can find optimum paths between data clusters in order to emerge better solutions in tandem with computer processors. It works a lot like human heuristics, just scaled to the nth degree.

An example of this would be an algorithm that helps a quantum computer sort through near-infinite combinations of molecules to come up with chemical compounds that would be useful in the treatment of certain illnesses. The current paradigm would involve developing an algorithm that relies on human expertise and databases with previous findings to point it in the right direction.

But the kind of problems were looking at quantum computers to solve dont always have a good starting point. Some of these, optimization problems like the Traveling Salesman Problem, need an algorithm thats capable of figuring things out without the need for constant adjustment by developers.

DeepMinds algorithm and AI system may be the solution quantum computings been waiting for. The researchers effectively employ AlphaZero as a Tabula Rasa for quantum optimization: It doesnt necessarily need human expertise to find the optimum solution to a problem at the quantum computing level.

Before we start getting too concerned about unsupervised AI accessing quantum computers, its worth mentioning that so far AlphaZeros just solved a few problems in order to prove a concept. We know the algorithms can handle quantum optimization, now its time to figure out what we can do with it.

The researchers have already received interest from big tech and other academic institutions with queries related to collaborating on future research. Not for nothing, but DeepMinds sister-company Google has a little quantum computing program of its own. Were betting this isnt the last weve heard of AlphaZeros adventures in the quantum computing world.

Read next: Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed to September (thank goodness)

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AlphaZero beat humans at Chess and StarCraft, now it's working with quantum computers - The Next Web

Honeywell published an online post of what it sees to be the Top 11 breakthrough technologies that will shape the future, with a primary emphasis on aviation as well as the manufacturing and processes helping to drive the industry forward. The following Top 11 list was produced by Honeywell, with the company first describing What the innovation is and then Why it will be impactful. Honeywell notes many of these technologies already had a major influence over the past year.

1. Power for air taxisWhat: This was a major year for advancements in Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and soon air taxis will be a future mode of transportation. This means the airspace will be more crowded than ever. A new Compact Fly-By-Wire system, used in traditional aircraft, has been redesigned for air taxis. It is about the size of a paperback book.

Why its innovative: The compact computer system packs the brains of an aircrafts flight controls into one system. Operating as though the autopilot is always on, it brings agility, stability and safety to future electronic virtual takeoffs and landings.

2. Surveillance cameras forsee buyer behaviorWhat: Security cameras, which traditionally monitor for theft, can now be used to help retailers make decisions about product displays, operating hours and staffing.

Why its innovative: Surveillance systems can predict future trends by monitoring buyer behavior and store patterns. This comes in handy for retailers who can analyze that data and influence how shoppers experience stores, ultimately boosting sales.

3. Access to Quantum ComputingWhat: This long-awaited technology goes from theory to impact with a new partnership with Microsofts Azure Quantum that will give organizations around the world access to quantum computing through an open cloud system.

Why its innovative: Quantum computing is a step closer to becoming a more common reality. Businesses and organizations will be able to use it to tackle problems they never would have attempted before.

4. Intelligent hearing protectionWhat: The VeriShield headset and cloud-based technology monitor noise levels that workers are exposed to, providing real-time alerts when noise exceeds safe levels.

Why its innovative: Managers can remotely monitor sounds affecting workers with a smartphone or mobile computer and alert employees to potential issues. The first-of-its-kind headset collects data on noise patterns and gives insights into long-term exposure. That helps companies develop an effective noise conservation program to protect workers hearing.

5. Robotic cargo unloadingWhat: Robots now can unload tractor trailers full of inventory at distribution centers. The Robotic Unloader eliminates the need for people to work inside the heat of a tractor trailer that can be strenuous and unsafe.

Why its innovative: Artificial intelligence gets the job done without an operator. That improves safety, offsets shortages in staffing and minimizes damage to goods.

6. Predictive airplane maintenanceWhat: With Honeywell Forge for Airlines, software combines individual aircraft and overall airline data into one dashboard, airlines can predict aircraft maintenance to fix parts before they break.

Why its innovative: Because its predictive and not just preventative, the technology helps reduce flight delays caused by unexpected repairs. That helps airlines maximize profits, improve efficiency and safety and protect passengers.

7. Real-time data makes work more efficientWhat: Most of todays global workforce do not work at a desk. These deskless workers in airports, hospitals and other industries often rely on clipboard methods to do their jobs. With Honeywell Forge technology, pen and paper methods can be replaced with mobile computers to input data immediately. Software analyzes that data and gives immediate insight.

Why its innovative: Reducing inefficient steps of inputting data from paper save time and money. It also gives visibility to worker productivity and the ability to harness institutional knowledgea key priority as workforces get older.

8. Digital twins get smart about maintenanceWhat: Businesses that depend on equipment can use digital twin technology to mirror physical assets of a company. The digital version can use data from the physical equipment to predict machine availability, inefficient operations and maintenance needs.

Why its innovative: The ability to predict maintenance can optimize efficiency. Now, instead of having to stop operations or shut down for maintenance, plants can protect uptime and save money.

9. Fast communication during emergenciesWhat: Every second counts in a crisis. Traditional emergency communications may include relatively slow paging or color code signaling. Now, staff at hospitals, schools, airports and other high density buildings can use the Command and Control Suite to customize communications between specific teams, based on the severity of the situation.

Why its innovative: The command and control suite provides enhanced facility visualization, enhanced map navigation and broader editing capabilities.

10. Virtual engineering and controlWhat: A new generation of control system technology which is the hardware and software that operate industrial plants no longer relies on sequential project flows. With Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) Highly Integrated Virtual Environment (HIVE) the virtualization approach unchains controllers and control applications from physical equipment and shifts day-to-day management of servers to a centralized data center. This allows operators to make late changes without their traditionally inherent risks and re-work.

Why its innovative: The technology simplifies control system design, implementation and lifecycle management. That enables plants to execute projects in less time, at lower cost and lower risk, while improving throughput, quality and operational reliability.

11. Machine learning to fight cyberattacksWhat: In an industrial environment, algorithms that detect anomalies immediately identify risks to systems in industrial controls environments.

Why its innovative: Detecting risk adds an additional layer of protection against cyberattacks. The algorithms analyze for risk that can be missed by common cybersecurity threat detectors. That includes threats like polymorphic malware, which changes constantly to avoid detection, and emerging types of threats. It operates on real-time data to immediately identify new and emerging dangers to industrial control systems and the Industrial Internet of Things.

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Honeywell names Top 11 Innovations of 2019 - wingsmagazine.com

The new decade will unfurl a bag of seismic shifts, predicts the creator of Cardano and Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson. And these changes will propel cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions to the forefront as legacy systems buckle, transform or dissolve.

In an ask-me-anything session uploaded on January 3rd, the 11th birthday of Bitcoin, Hoskinson acknowledges how the popular cryptocurrency gave him an eye-opening introduction to the world of global finance, and he recounts how dramatically official attitudes and perceptions have changed.

Every central bank in the world is aware of cryptocurrencies and some are even taking positions in cryptocurrencies. Theres really never been a time in human history where one piece of technology has obtained such enormous global relevance without any central coordinated effort, any central coordinated marketing. No company controls it and the revolution is just getting started.

And he expects its emergence to coalesce with other epic changes. In a big picture reveal, Hoskinson plots some of the major events he believes will shape the new decade.

2020 Predictions

Hoskinson says the consequences of these technologies will reach every government service and that cryptocurrencies will gain an opening once another economic collapse similar to 2008 shakes the markets this decade.

I think that means its a great opening for cryptocurrencies to be ready to start taking over the global economy.

Hoskinson adds that hes happy to be alive to witness all of the changes he anticipates, including a reorganization of the media.

This is the last decade of traditional organized media, in my view. Were probably going to have less CNNs and Fox Newses and Bloombergs and Wall Street Journals and more Joe Rogans, especially as we enter the 2025s and beyond. And I think our space in particular is going to fundamentally change the incentives of journalism. And well actually move to a different way of paying for content, curating content.

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Charles Hoskinson Predicts Economic Collapse, Rise of Quantum Computing, Space Travel and Cryptocurrency in the 2020s - The Daily Hodl

Facial reconstruction of A. anamensis by John Gurche using 38-lakh-year-old (3.8-million-year-ago) hominin cranium.

From discovering cures for life-threatening diseases to exploring outer space, from unearthing new facts about human history to making incredible strides in artificial intelligence, humanity achieved exceptional breakthroughs in the field of science and technology in 2019.

As the year comes to an end, it is time to look back at some of those glorious scientific revolutions that will shape our future. Here are our picks for the most significant scientific advancements of 2019:

5. Hello Sun? Earthlings are going beyond your influence!

A simulated landing process of Chang'e-4 lunar probe at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Jan. 3, 2019.

Launched in January 2006, the interplanetary space probe New Horizons from the US space agency NASA steered past the Kuiper Belt object 486958 Arrokoth (then nicknamed Ultima Thule) on January 1, 2019. The Kuiper Belt is the region beyond the known planetary system of solar system, and this was the farthest flyby ever conducted by any human-made spacecraft.

Also this year, on November 4, NASA's Voyager 2 reached the interstellar mediuma space between star systems, well beyond the influence of our solar system. Voyager 1 had earlier achieved this feat in 2012. Voyager 2, its successor, was launched in the year 1977.

Also, China's moon mission, Chang'e 4, successfully made a soft landing on the far side of the Moonbecoming the first ever mission to do so. Named after the Chinese moon goddess, the mission is attempting to determine the age and composition of the Moon's unexplored region.

4. Quantum leap in computing

Representational image

Of all the progress made in computing research in 2019, the biggest breakthrough was perhaps the realisation of quantum computing.

Right in the first month of 2019, technology giant IBM unveiled Q System Onethe first quantum computer outside a research labbringing a rather abstract concept into the public imagination. Unlike the bits of information in computers we use, a quantum computer uses quantum bits, or qubits, enabling an exponential rise in the amount of data it can process and store.

Also Read: Rewind 2019: A Look Back at Significant Developments in Indian Science This Year

Further, a team of researchers from Australia and Singapore developed a quantum-powered machine that can accurately simulate future outcomes arising from different set of alternatives. Meanwhile, another study at Yale University showed that we can catch a qubit between the quantum jump and alter its outcomes. This was an exponential jump in fine-tuning the quantum systems as the outcomes need not be completely random and abrupt.

While other research also helped in conceptualising quantum drives with immense storage capacity, the biggest news was from Google. The search giant confirmed in October that it had achieved quantum supremacy. To put things in perspective, researchers at Google claim that the quantum computer solved in three minutes a problem that would have taken 10,000 years even for a supercomputer.

3. Revolutionary research in medical science

Representational image

Medical researchers are always striving to push the envelope of human resilience and efficiency. The year 2019 saw progress on both these fronts, with the development of potential cures for multiple life-threatening diseases and gene-editing promising to be more effective than ever.

This year, twin drugs were developed for Ebola and were found to be effective in nearly 90% of the cases, making the seemingly incurable condition treatable. Researchers also discovered potential cures for bubble boy disease, a condition where babies are born without disease-fighting immune cells, for cystic fibrosis, a painful, debilitating lung disease, as well as for pancreatic cancer.

Moreover, after decades, HIV research finally yielded some fruitful results this year with patients positively responding to treatments. After a long gap of 12 years from the day the first patient was cured of HIV infection that causes AIDS, another patient was cured in March 2019. Researchers had been relentlessly trying to replicate the treatment that cured the infection for the first time in 2007.

Furthermore, using CRISPR gene-editing technology, scientists have found potential treatments for cancer patients, even those with whom the standard procedure was not successful. In October, researchers produced scientific evidence that new gene-editing technology has the potential to correct up to 89% of genetic defects like sickle cell anaemia.

2. Imaging the faraway invisible wonder

Image of the black hole at the center of galaxy M87

Named the top scientific breakthrough of 2019 by the journal Science, this incredible photograph of a black hole was taken using eight radio telescopes around the world to form a virtual instrument that is said to be the size of the Earth itself.

The first-ever image of a black hole, released on April 10 this year, was taken by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration team. The gravity of a black hole is so strong that even light cannot escape its pull, and to capture an image of something that does not emit light is no easy task.

EHT imaged the silhouette (or shadow) of a massive black hole called M87 which is located at the centre of a galaxy 55 million light-years from Earth. M87 has enormous masswhopping 6500 million times the mass of the Sun. The image shows a ring of light coming from the gas falling into the event horizon (the boundary from beyond which nothing can escape) of the black hole.

1. Retracing the origins of humans

Craniofacial reconstruction process of Rakhigarhi cemetery individuals (BR02 and BR36).

Humankinds fascination with the question 'Where did we come from?' has persisted over centuries. Yet, some of the biggest breakthroughs in answering this question were made this year, starting with the discovery of a previously-unknown species of ancient humans. Named Homo luzonensis, this small-bodied bipedal species was discovered in the Philippines and is said to have lived on the island of Luzon 50,000 to 67,000 years ago.

In May, researchers deciphered a four-decade old mystery by identifying a 160,000-year-old human jawbone found in the Tibetian Plateau nearly 40 years ago. The fossil was of Denisovan, an enigmatic ancestor species of humans who ranged across Asia until some 50,000 years ago. The discoverymade despite the absence of DNA in the jawhelped scientists understand this species better. In September, another group of researchers further refined the picture of Denisovans whose traces still linger in the DNA of a few modern humans.

In August, descriptions of a nearly 38-lakh-year-old remains of a skull belonging to a bipedal ancestor of humans baffled the world. This skull proved that two of our ancestor speciesA. anamensis and A. afarensismay have overlapped for at least 100,000 years. This evidence of the existence of these two of our ancestor species at a similar timescale busts the long-held belief that human evolution follows a single lineage, i.e. one species coming after the other.

In a first-of-its-kind attempt, scientists have generated an accurate facial representation of people from the Indus Valley Civilisation in October. Nnother important study showed that the ancestral homeland of every human alive today traces back to a region south of the Zambezi River in northern Botswana. Building on the previous genetic evolution studies, the researchers used ethnolinguistic and geographic frequency distribution data from the genomes of over 1000 southern Africans to trace back the origin of modern humans.

Exponential growth continues

India has also contributed immensely in all scientific domains over the past few years and is now only behind China and the US in terms of the number of published research studies. Building exponentially on the success of previous decades, scientists around the world have made immense contributions from improving our daily life to understanding the mysteries of the universe.

With so much exciting research pouring in from all corners of the world, it isn't easy to even keep track of the incredible pace at which science is progressing. While we have tried to cover a few iconic annual scientific highlights in this article, there are thousands of other important discoveries, studies and achievements that shaped science in 2019.

And as yet another potential-filled year dawns on our planet, The Weather Channel India will keep you tuned in about all the exciting news, updates and breakthroughs from the world of science.

So for your daily dose of weather, environment, space and science stories, stay tuned to weather.com and stay curious!

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Top 5: Scientific Breakthroughs That Made 2019 an Unforgettable Year of Human Progress - The Weather Channel

However, even with that progression, there are still jobs that classical computers are not powerful enough to do. The answer looks set to come from quantum computing. In this post, we will look at what quantum computing is and how it could revolutionize a long-standing industry such as banking.

What is Quantum Computing?

Quantum computers are expected to be a new kind of technology that can solve complex problems well beyond the capabilities of traditional systems. If you take an everyday problem like climate change, the intricacies of solving it are incredibly complex. A standard computer does not have the power or ability to even get close to genuinely understanding everything that is going on. The main reason is the endless amounts of data that computers need to process to generate an accurate decision.

A quantum computer is often referred to as a supercomputer. It has highly advanced processing power that can take masses of variables into account, helping predict weather patterns and natural disasters in the case of climate change.

Brief Technical Summary

A typical computer stores information in what is known as bits. In quantum computing, these are known as qubits. Qubits have certain properties that mean a connected group of them can provide way more processing power than binary bits from classical computing. In short, where binary bits store 1s and 0s to handle a task, qubits can represent numerous possible combinations of these simultaneously.

Practical Example

An example of this could be if running a travel agency. Lets say three people need to move from one place to another, Jenny, Anna and Steve. For that purpose, there are two taxis and the problem you want to solve is who gets into which taxi. However, we know that Jenny and Anna are friends, Jenny and Steve are enemies and Anna and Steve are enemies.

The aim would be to maximize the number of friend pairs and minimize the enemy pairs sharing the same taxi. A classical computer would store each possible solution with bits one at a time before being able to calculate a potential solution. However, a quantum computer will use qubits to represent all the solutions at the same time. It will find the best solution in a few milliseconds as it piles everything into just 1 operation.

The difference here is a traditional computer performs more and more calculations every time the data scales up, whereas a quantum computer will only ever have to process one operation.

In the real-world, one industry that could heavily benefit from this technology and processing power is banking.

Quantum Computing in Banking

In an article from Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) from October 2019, it was suggested that this kind of quantum computing power might fundamentally change the face of banking in time.

Encryption of personal data is critical to banking, with RSA-2048 being used at the highest levels. For a classical computer to find the key to decrypt the algorithm would take 1,034 steps. To put that into context, a processor capable of a trillion operations per second would still take 317 billion years to resolve the problem. Realistically, that makes decryption impossible.

However, a quantum computer could solve the decryption in just 107 steps. If the computer were running at a million operations per second, this calculation would only take 10 seconds to complete. The potential of quantum computing in this context is quite amazing. That said, we are still a long way off having enough processing power to reach those heights, but experts are working on it.

Barclays

Researchers at Barclays Bank in collaboration with IBM have created a proof-of-concept quantum optimized application. The solution revolves around the transaction settlement process. A settlement works on a transaction-by-transaction basis where they are pushed into a queue and settled in batches. During a processing window, as many trades as possible from the queue are settled.

Trades are complex by nature according to Lee Braine, director of research and engineering at Barclays. Traders can tap into funds before the transaction has been cleared. They are settled if funding is available or if there is some sort of credit collateral facility.

In a quantum computing context, a small number of trades could, in theory, be done in your head. However, as you get up to 10 or 20 transactions, you might need to use a pen and paper. Any more than that and we start going into classical computing. However, as we get to hundreds of trades, the machines begin to experience limitations.

A bit like the travel agency example we gave earlier, a quantum computer could run masses of complex aspects of trading. Using a seven-bit qubit system, the team could identify certain features that were of sufficient complexity. The same calculations would need about 200 traditional computers.

JP Morgan

Using an IBM machine, researchers at JP Morgan have demonstrated that they could simulate the future value of a financial product. They are testing the use of quantum computers to speed up intensive pricing calculations which would take traditional machine hours to compute. As portfolios become larger, the algorithms have greater complexity and could get to a point where they are impossible to calculate.

The research by the team has shown that a commercial-grade quantum computer can run the same calculations in a matter of seconds.

Summary

According to Deltec Bank, the Bahamas Banks are successfully testing quantum computers to solve problems that were previously very resource-intensive or impossible to complete. Although the technology is still some years away from changing the way banks calculate financial models due to complex hardware requirements, it is important to start testing now.

IBM themselves have stated they are a while away from a perfect solution with big breakthroughs still required but the time will certainly come.

See the article here:

The Impact of Quantum Computing on Banking will be gigantic says Deltec Bank, Bahamas - Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source