Quantum 2.0 - Coming Soon!:

A hundred years ago, the world of science was upended by a theory so profound and so powerful that it has entered the popular lexicon: quantum. Within a few years of its formulation, quantum physics explained the nature of matter and forces across the universe, from subatomic particles to stars. Its applications have shaped much of the modern world, and given us electronics, computers, AI, the internet, global communications, precision navigation, nanotechnology, LEDs, high-definition TV screens and smart phones. Lasers, transistors, superconductors and microchips are all products of the quantum age. Now a second great quantum revolution is now underway, one that promises to rival the first in its far-reaching scientific, industrial and social ramifications. Dubbed Quantum 2.0, it is known more formally as quantum information science. It arises from the ability of scientists and engineers to control individual atoms, electrons and photons, and to process, store and transmit information in novel and previously unimagined ways. This emerging technology has led to totally unbreakable encryption protocols, sensors and scanners of unprecedented power and feats like teleportation that seem little short of magic. Above all, quantum information science holds the tantalising promise of a completely new concept in technology – the quantum computer – that will far outperform the world’s best conventional supercomputers. It may then come as a shock to learn that, for all its momentous impact on our lives, quantum physics stems from a theory that, to put it bluntly, makes no sense. That theory – called quantum mechanics – works brilliantly, but it implies that the atoms, molecules, electrons and photons, that are so profitably manipulated by scientists and engineers, do not actually have a definite independent existence. The concrete world of daily experience dissolves away at the atomic level into a blurry amalgam of blended realities. Common sense and intuition fail completely when we try to grasp what is really ‘going on’ in the quantum domain. Small wonder that even the brilliant Albert Einstein refused to accept quantum mechanics as a complete account of the microworld. And yet a series of dazzling experiments has proved him wrong, and it is those very ‘reality-busting’ experiments that have laid the foundations for Quantum 2.0.