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<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2></FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT>From <A
href="http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2552866">The
Economist</A>: It is clear to many physicists that using "qubits" - which,
unlike ordinary bits, can exist in a "superposition" of the values 0 and 1
simultaneously - might yield an exponential improvement in computing power. This
is because a pair of qubits can be in four different states at once, three
qubits in eight, and so forth. <BR>The technology necessary to manipulate
qubits, in their various incarnations, is challenging. So far, nobody has
managed to get a quantum computer to perform anything other than the most basic
operations. But the field is gathering pace. Recent advances have been discussed
in Montreal for the annual March meeting of the American Physical Society. The
promise of quantum computation, spurred on by the insights of Dr Shor and Dr
Grover, is inciting physicists to probe, experimentally and theoretically, the
junction between the quantum and the classical. They seem to be finding that the
process of decoherence is more gradual, quantifiable and open to investigation
than was previously suspected. Though a useful quantum computer is probably
still many years away, the field of quantum computing is well on its way to
solving its first problem.</DIV></BODY></HTML>