Efforts to find Majorana particles may finally lead to reliable quantum computers

The Majorana 1 chip may provide quantum computing using geometry-based qubits

Traditional quantum computers are incredibly fragile, with encoded information easily disrupted and requiring significant error correction systems. Microsoft’s approach involves storing data on a surface, which is more stable, but involves an elusive particle first theorized in 1938.

Quantum computers harness weird physics to explore unsolvable problems

Classical computers manipulate bits as either 0 or 1, but quantum computers use qubits to hold combinations of both, enabling new algorithms. This new approach could one day help with breakthroughs in medicine, chemistry, and AI.

Noise and instability made quantum computing seem out of reach for decades

Recent advances in error suppression, mitigation, and correction are allowing quantum computers to perform practical tasks that challenge classical machines. IBM’s 2016 launch of its first cloud-accessible quantum computer attracted over 22,000 users in its first month alone.

Quantum computers can simulate nature more effectively than classical computers

Ordinary computers struggle to simulate quantum fields due to entanglement, but systems built from those elements can model the complexity. Systems using particle in more than two states—qudits—have successfully modeled 2D electromagnetic fields and done so more efficiently.

Superconducting qubits have become foundational to today’s quantum computing efforts

Relying on electrons experiencing no friction across metal, these qubits require extremely low temperatures and behave like artificial atoms. The first superconducting qubit, invented in 1999, was large enough to be seen with the naked eye.

Solid neon mirrors help trap single electrons to create stable quantum bits

Researchers created this new unit of information for a quantum computer by trapping a single electron near the surface of solid neon. The electron was held in its quantum state by attraction to its mirror image.

Google chose Santa Barbara to host its Quantum AI computing project

The project seeks to reduce errors within its quantum computer and integrate 1 million physical qubits (or quantum bits) into the room-sized computer. This powerful device will attempt to solve complex problems in medicine, computing, and more.

Emergent quantum phenomena can produce nonfundamental quasiparticles

While physicists have discovered new particles by colliding known ones at high speeds, placing known particles in extreme environments or configurations can allow quantum mechanics to produce bizarre behaviors, making them seem like new types of matter.

How quantum computers can empower Shor's algorithm to break digital encryption

Secure communications largely rely on numeric keys generated by multiplying two enormous prime numbers together, and it is computationally impractical to determine these primes by trying to divide by every possible one. While Shor's algorithm can provide better guesses for this brute-force approach, it relies on a number that is difficult to determine on classical computers but much easier to calculate using the simultaneous computations enabled by quantum superposition.

The discovery of antimatter came from addressing a prediction of negative energy

Combining the mathematics of quantum mechanics and special relativity, Paul Dirac came up with an equation that suggested a matter particle, such as an electron, could exist in four quantum states—two of which possessed negative energy. The solution came from realizing that the states referred to positive-energy antiparticles, whose charge is the opposite of that of their normal-matter equivalent.

Scientists are experimenting with ways to probe the multiverse theory

Researchers are simulating vacuum bubbles—the theorized starting points of universes—using quantum computers, digital models, and exotic lab setups to study how they form, expand, and possibly collide. One experiment aims to "blow" artificial universe-like bubbles inside ultra-cold quantum gases, potentially capturing real-time glimpses of cosmic birth processes in a lab.

Measurements of an electron’s magnetic moment help test the Standard Model

A particle’s magnetic moment quantifies how it responds to the presence of an external magnetic field. An electron’s value can be measured down to 14 decimal places, with certainties in the first 12 allowing it to be used to assess the accuracy of predictive models.

Fermilab's ICARUS experiment is searching for hypothetical sterile neutrinos

Neutrinos are a group of three chargeless, lightweight particles that can transform into one another via a quantum mechanical phenomenon called neutrino oscillations. The rate of these oscillations can be determined by measuring the amount of each type at different distances, where data inconsistencies would suggest the existence of new physics.

The graviton may be the last missing piece of the Standard Model

While the electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear forces can be explained through interactions with particles, gravity is instead best modeled through spacetime curvature. Discovering a quantum particle of gravity would unite the two pillars of modern physics—quantum mechanics and general relativity—toward developing a theory of everything.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Scientists turn alchemists, transforming transform lead into gold

Fulfilling alchemists' dreams, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) transmute lead into gold. While the 86 billion gold nuclei produced were short-lived, the experiment sheds light on how electromagnetic fields can play a critical role in nuclear transmutation.

As of 2023, the world's smallest particle accelerator is smaller than a penny

The prototype is an example of a photonic accelerator, which utilizes tiny lasers to accelerate electrons rather than relying on oscillating electromagnetic fields to move them. It can deliver about 1 electron per second with energies equivalent to those found in cathode-ray tube televisions.

Quantum superposition makes Schrödinger’s cat both dead and alive until observed

Erwin Schrödinger's famous cat thought experiment illustrates how quantum objects can exist simultaneously in multiple states. This superposition allows electrons to behave as particles and waves, enabling chemical bonds and the function of modern electronics.

Quantum mechanics-based technology may explain the Fermi paradox

It describes the discrepancy between the high likelihood of life beyond Earth given the vastness of the universe and the lack of evidence for such life, since extraterrestrial civilizations have not communicated with us. However, quantum communication—a more information-dense and effective method than classical means—requires massive receivers and very narrow signals, which would easily miss Earth, making a lack of signals expected.

The deceptively simple proton

Take a visual deep-dive into the proton, a near-fundamental—but deceivingly simple—building block of nature. Among other beguiling characteristics, the particle can't be described by its constituent particles (quarks), but rather exists in a...

LIGO boosts its signal sensitivity by manipulating quantum uncertainty

According to the uncertainty principle, the amplitude, or height of a wave's peak, and its phase—the point in time when the first peak is observed—are inversely linked. Based on the frequency of the gravitational waves of interest, scientists sacrifice precision in one optical property to reduce noise in another.

A look at the giants of quantum mechanics

German physicist Max Planck publishes his groundbreaking study of the effect of radiation on a “blackbody” substance, and the quantum theory of modern physics

Watch how the Enigma machine encrypts messages and learn about its critical design flaw

Using settings selected from a series of rotors and a plugboard that let operators swap letters with any of their choosing, the machine lit up the output letter for each letter typed. While this system could generate messages requiring any of 150 quintillion potential keys, the machine's reflector never encrypted a letter as itself, providing an entry point for exploiting the system.

The story of two female programmers running the simulations behind chaos theory's discovery

Margaret Hamilton and Ellen Fetter worked on MIT's 800-pound Royal McBee LGP-30 computer, which was fed binary code on paper tape to perform computations. Among the computations performed were those involving equations describing the motion of gas in a circulating fluid for Edward Lorenz, widely considered the father of chaos theory.

Genetically modified viruses can help construct battery electrodes

MIT scientists' modifications caused the viruses to attract conductive materials, such as gold ions, which the viruses self-assembled into nanowires that could be used in batteries. These components allow batteries to be thinner and flexible enough to be constructed into new shapes.

What does it mean for AI to "understand" something?

This Quanta article discusses how programmers are working to create a reliable test for the depth and extent of the knowledge of machines. What does AI know and how does it know it, if it knows anything at all? There's been progress, but it hasn't been easy. Even humans can still be fooled some of the time.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Marburg virus, related to Ebola, is also extremely deadly, and has no available vaccine.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.