A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to A Quantum Computer

(Paperback)

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Description

'Highly recommended... when the revolution comes don't say no one warned you' - Scotland on Sunday The newest Pentium chip powering PCs and laptops contains 40 million electronic switches packed onto a piece of silicon about the size of a thumbnail. Several years from now, if this incredible shrinking continues, a single chip will hold a billion switches, then a trillion. The logical culmination is a computer in which the switches are so tiny that each consists of an individual atom. At that point something miraculous happens- quantum mechanics kick in. Anyone who follows the science news or watches 'Star Trek' has at least a notion of what that means- particles can be in two or more places at once. Atoms obey a peculiar logic of their own - and if it can be harnessed society will be transformed. Problems that would now take forever would be solved almost instantly. Quantum computing promises nothing less than a shortcut through time.

Reviews

Fascinating and highly accessible... Unpicking the complexities of the subject is not easy, but Johnson has done a fine job of it... [An] excellent book * Scotland on Sunday *
Lucid and accessible... [Written with] a beguiling combination of clarity and enthusiasm * New Scientist *
Johnson is one of the best science journalists writing today * Scientific American *

Author Bio

George Johnson is a science writer for the New York Times. He is a former Alicia Patterson Fellow, a finalist for the prestigious Aventis Prize, and a recipient of the Science Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.