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Future Internets Will Be Powered by Quantum Particles

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Like quantum physics? What about quantum computers? Or quantum computers in a diamond? Then you should know that researchers at the Max Planck Institute have appropriately devised a way to create a quantum network in which a photon is exchanged between two atoms. Future!

According to Time, the two atoms transmit the photon over a 60 meter fiber optic cable and is said to be the first to send, receive and store information without failure.

Professor Ignacio Cirac, a director at MPQ, proposed the framework for the experiment. In his team's quantum network, individual rubidium atoms were lodged between two highly reflective mirrors placed less than a millimeter apart - a setup referred to as an "optical cavity." The team then fired a laser at one of the atoms, calibrated so as not to disturb it and instead cause it to emit a photon, which then traversed the 60-meter fiberoptic cable to be absorbed by the second atom, transferring the first atom's quantum information.

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Because quantum bits can computer 0s and 1s at the same time, the bits need only exchange the status of their quantum state, which researchers say is a faster and more elegant way of transferring data. They even suggest a entire quantum internet could be possible. I want the future now. [Time]