Develop new drugs, dabble in finance, cope with climate change...
Four ways quantum technology changes the world
World wave of technological innovation
◎Reporter Liu Xia
The US computer giant IBM recently announced the development of a quantum computer "Eagle" that can run 127 qubits. This is the world's largest superconducting quantum computer so far.
The University of Science and Technology of China has previously launched a 62-qubit programmable superconducting quantum computer prototype.
Governments and organizations around the world are continuously increasing their investment in quantum research and development.
The most basic information unit of a quantum computer is a qubit.
Unlike the basic information unit bits of electronic computers, which can only be 0 or 1, qubits can be 0 and 1 at the same time, so the performance of quantum computers is more powerful, and increasing the number of qubits can increase its performance exponentially. This is also a quantum computer One of the important reasons for "attracting countless heroes to bend their waists".
The famous Spanish physicist Juan Ignacio Cirac pointed out that advances in the field of quantum computers have provided a blue ocean full of possibilities for innovation in the fields of finance and medicine.
The US "Forbes" biweekly website lists for us 4 ways quantum computers can change the world.
Promote the research and development of new drugs and new materials
With its extremely high processing power, quantum computers will be able to simultaneously study multiple molecules, proteins, and chemicals through quantum simulations-standard computers currently cannot do this, allowing scientists to develop faster and more efficiently than they are now. New medicine.
For example, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche hopes to use quantum simulation to accelerate the development of drugs and vaccines to deal with diseases such as new coronary pneumonia, influenza, cancer, and even possibly cure Alzheimer's disease.
In addition, quantum simulation can replace laboratory experiments, reduce research costs, and even minimize the need for human and animal experiments.
In addition, at the beginning of 2021, the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim announced a collaboration with Google Quantum Artificial Intelligence to jointly research and implement the application of quantum computing in drug development, especially in molecular dynamics simulation.
According to a report on the Spanish "Le Monde" website on November 16, Ignacio Silac said that quantum computers can be used to develop compounds that are impossible to achieve today, such as less energy-intensive fertilizers.
Companies such as IBM are using quantum computers to shape new molecules to "simulate the ability of nature to transform nitrogen in the soil into nitrate-rich fertilizers, thereby reducing the impact of chemical fertilizers on the environment"; and Google is working with the Volkswagen Group The technical department cooperates and uses quantum computers to help the latter develop new materials, especially high-performance batteries for electric vehicles.
"Beauty" in the financial field
Quantum computers can bring huge potential benefits to the financial industry-from deeper analysis to faster transactions and more.
In fact, many major financial institutions are looking for ways to use quantum computing to facilitate trade, transactions, and data transmission speed.
For example, banks such as IBM and JPMorgan Chase have been experimenting with quantum technology, hoping to optimize trading strategies, investment portfolios, better asset pricing and risk analysis.
In addition, last year, Spanish financial quantum computing technology developer Multiverse Computing announced a partnership with the US quantum computing startup IonQ, which will enable financial service institutions to use the IonQ quantum cloud platform to conduct risk assessments more accurately and faster than before. Portfolio optimization, asset management, fraud detection simulation, etc.
Another potential application of quantum computers in the financial field is financial modeling. For financial institutions around the world, better financial modeling means lower processing costs and faster transaction speeds. This is a kind of Win-win.
"One hand" to help cope with the change of qi
More and more experts are turning their attention to using quantum computers to solve one of the biggest challenges of our time: climate change.
First, the overall energy consumption of a quantum computer will be lower than that of a traditional computer.
For example, the energy consumption of D-Wave's 2000Q quantum computer is 4 orders of magnitude lower than that of IBM's "Summit" supercomputer, which is one of the most powerful computing systems in the world.
Similarly, scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States have calculated that quantum computers may reduce energy usage by more than 1 million kilowatt-hours.
In addition, experts predict that quantum simulation will also help countries achieve the United Nations sustainable development goals.
For example, quantum computers can accelerate the discovery of new carbon dioxide catalysts, ensure that carbon dioxide circulates more efficiently, and at the same time produce useful hydrogen, carbon monoxide and other gases.
At the same time, quantum simulation can also help create more efficient batteries, better solar cells or wind turbine materials, and even more absorbent catalysts for carbon capture technology.
In agriculture, quantum simulation can significantly reduce the electrical energy used to make fertilizers, which account for up to 2% of global energy consumption.
Quantum security should be taken seriously
"Forbes" magazine website pointed out in the report that although quantum computers will bring huge benefits to mankind, but at the same time may also bring risks.
For example, in the field of information security, quantum computers will be able to break through the public key encryption that people widely rely on to protect information. This means that no matter how secure data is now, it may be vulnerable to quantum computers in the future.
For any organization that needs to protect sensitive information, this is a disaster.
Although governments and companies in various countries have invested a lot of money in quantum computers, they have invested very little in quantum security, and quantum security is essential for us to enter the quantum age.
Fortunately, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is currently standardizing post-quantum cryptography.
According to NIST, the new standard will be announced by the end of this year.
Although quantum computers have painted a beautiful blueprint for our future, Ignacio Sirac made it clear that the idea that quantum computers can be put into practical use is just around the corner.
He said: "We have indeed developed the first batch of prototypes, but their scale is still very small, and the functions are not powerful, just the first step."