Part One

“Good morning, this is Samantha Walsh with channel four news. Among our topics today comes an impressive update from the Science and Technology sector. Quantum technology, once the work of science fiction, has been gaining a lot of momentum in recent months. This revolutionary technology has some experts saying that it could solve a range of problems, from autonomous vehicles, and developing vaccines, all the way up to explaining some of the unknown physics of the universe. Here’s Destiny Winters for more.”

“Thanks, Samantha. I’m Destiny Winters standing here with lead researcher of the Credence Technical Institute, Dr. Mark Philips.”

“Dr. Philips, can you tell me what a quantum computer is, and how you think it could change the world?”

“Absolutely Destiny. A traditional computer harbors billions of transistors that go into a state of on or off. The problem is that programs executed on the machine are only capable of doing operations in a linear fashion. One after another. This makes problem-solving quite slow and somewhat unreliable. Quantum computers, on the other hand, work with something called QuBits instead of transistors. Instead of a simple on-and-off function, they can be on and off, or both at the same time. This, in turn, offers faster results, as the system can run a multitude of calculations at the same time.”

“Fascinating. One more question before we go. What issues are currently present with this technology?”

“Stability is the major issue that we are still working out. The device is extremely sensitive to things like vibration, sound, and even light. Not only that, but they must be kept extremely cool due to the extreme temperatures involved at the atomic level. Maintaining a temperature of minus one-hundred-ninety-six point one degrees Celsius, or near absolute zero, is a feat in its own.”

“That sounds like quite the battle. Thank you very much, Dr. Phillips. It’s an honor. This is Destiny Winters reporting; back to you, Samantha, in the studio.”