Testing Quantum Technology Means Getting Around Gravity

There is an up-and-coming set of technologies that uses the strange properties of atomic particles predicted by the theory of quantum mechanics, which is the physics of the very small stuff. This technology promises to bring us computers that are faster than all the machines we have ever produced before put together, as well as communication tools no snooping agency can break into and even the capacity to look into the Earth without digging.

At the heart of these technologies is a strange phenomenon called "quantum entanglement". It says that the properties of an atomic particle depend on the properties of another, distant particle, even if there is no physical connection between them. When the properties of one particle change, the twin particle’s properties change too. Read more...