I keep coming back to a strange idea: what if everything we know about quantum physics is already encoded inside a single atom? Not in a mystical sense, but in the very real way that one tiny system ...

Ernst Mach found atoms useful. But he didn’t believe they were real. The 19th century physicist-philosopher gained his greatest fame as an atom denier. He believed that reality consisted of sounds and ...

Quantum computing is still in the early stages of development, but it has proven to be an extremely powerful tool for various applications. While most demonstrations of their efficiency are limited to ...

Hands up, who remembers D-Wave? No? Well, don't worry; it's still around. D-Wave is a company that is pursuing the development of a scalable quantum computer. And, just in case you forgot about them, ...

Hard problems are usually not a welcome sight. But cryptographers love them. That’s because certain hard math problems underpin the security of modern encryption. Any clever trick for solving them ...

Scientists are like prospectors, excavating the natural world seeking gems of knowledge about physical reality. And in the century just past, scientists have dug deep enough to discover that reality’s ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Hard problems are usually not a welcome sight. But cryptographers love them. That’s because certain hard math problems underpin the ...