X-Message-Number: 18295 Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2002 14:09:41 -0800 From: Olaf Henny <> Subject: Quantum Computing References: <> The following article appeared on Thursday in one of Vancouver s two dailies. Uploading, AI and the basis for them, quantum computers, figure prominently in the interests of cryonicists. So when I saw no reference to the below announcement, in Friday's Cryonet, I concluded, that it was not widely published and decided to copy it for this forum: Quantum computers come a step closer PARIS - Using a lattice of lasers and ultra cold temperatures, German scientists say they have made a new type of matter, that could overcome an obstacle to making quantum computers, touted as the next step in thinking machines. The scientists chilled a cloud of rubidium atoms to less than one-hundred millionth of a degree above absolute zero (-273.15 C, -459.67 F) and trapped then in a magnetic field. They then used several criss-crossing laser beams to create a so-called energy landscape for these atoms. Under this the interference pattern of the beams made a three- dimensional lattice of energy with peaks and troughs rather like the dimples in a cardboard egg carton. The team found, that by boosting the power of the laser beams, they could force the gas into a new state. The study is published in today s issue of Nature, the British science weekly. In a commentary, Dutch physicist Henk Stoff of Utrecht University said the finding had tantalizing application for quantum computing. The first step towards this exiting goal has now been taken, he said. Computers today work by using a memory comprising a string of zeros and numbers and can do calculations only on one set of numbers at once. A quantum computer would use a unit called a qubit. A qubit, according to the concept, could exist not only in the state of zeros and ones, but also in states corresponding to a blend or superposition of it. In other words, a qubit would exist as a zero, a one or simultaneously as both zero and one. AFP Best, Olaf Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18295