Young Writers Society

The human race has indeed gone far with technology. From the age when man still used wooden and stone tools to a powerful era of silicon. Today’s digital computers is generally believed to be the most efficient universal computing device.But the massive amount of processing power generated by computer manufacturers has not yet been able to quench our thirst for speed and computing capacity. Will we ever have the amount of computing power we need or want? Moore's Law states that the number of transistors on a microprocessor continues to double every 18 months. This means that we will find the circuits on a microprocessor measured on an atomic scale. And the logical next step will be to create quantum computers.

Quantum Computing is the art of using all the possibilities that the laws of quantum mechanics give us to solve computational problems. Conventional, or "Classical" computers only use a small subset of these possibilities.Quantum computing is a topic of intensive research which is expected to revolutionise everything from cellular communications and navigation to sensors and imaging.Governments around the world are competing with each other in a bid to gain first lead advantage in this up-and-coming field.

Now let us have an insight into the subject. Quantum computers have the power to be exponentially more powerful than today's regular computers.Quantum processors, on the other hand, are made of qbits, which can be a '1', '0' or both at the same time - a state known as 'superposition'. Digital computers use circuits either on or off, represented by a one or a zero in binary code. By sending information from programs that turn those circuits on and off, problems can be solved. But it can be a slow process.Quantum computers, by contrast, break the laws of Newtonian physics by tapping into the science of quantum physics. In quantum physics, objects can exist in multiple states at the same time when you get down to the molecular level.

What can quantum computers do that ordinary computers can’t? A quantum computer can do better factorisation than an ordinary computer i e finding two unknown prime numbers that, when multiplied together, give a third, known number.If quantum computers could indeed factor large numbers quickly, today's online security could be rendered obsolete at a stroke.The capabilities of Quantum computing are not only confined to this.They have the potential to change the world.These computational models will help determine how diseases develop.This can help to detect dangerous diseases like cancer at an early stage.Google is using a quantum computer to design software that can run self-drivenautomobiles. It can help to develop more effective drugs by mapping amino acids,for example analyzing DNA-sequencing data, doctors will discover and design superior drug-based treatments.

Although we know in theory what a quantum computer could look like,we have been facing innumerable difficulties in it’s practical realisation.But according to the recent news update on 5th August 2016,Researchers have built the first quantum computer that can be programmed and reprogrammed just like a regular computer.

This latest device is only made from five atoms, but it's a huge step towards building scalable, functioning quantum computers that could change the way we process data forever.