Plants May Use Quantum Computing in Photosynthesis

When It Comes to Photosynthesis, Plants Perform Quantum Computation
The wavelike motion of energetic particles through photosynthetic systems enables plants to efficiently capture the sun's energy
By David Biello
GREEN COMPUTING: Photosynthetic plants appear to employ quantum computing to efficiently capture the energy of the sun. Plants soak up some of the 10^17 joules of solar energy that bathe Earth each second, harvesting as much as 95 percent of it from the light they absorb. The transformation of sunlight into carbohydrates takes place in one million billionths of a second, preventing much of that energy from dissipating as heat. But exactly how plants manage this nearly instantaneous trick has remained elusive. Now biophysicists at the University of California, Berkeley, have shown that plants use the basic principle of quantum computing—the exploration of a multiplicity of different answers at the same time—to achieve near-perfect efficiency...

More:
http://www.physorg.com/news95605211.html
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/4/10/1

NEC, JST and RIKEN successfully demonstrate world's first controllably coupled qubits

NEC Corporation, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) have together successfully demonstrated the world's first quantum bit (qubit) circuit that can control the strength of coupling between qubits. Technology achieving control of the coupling strength between qubits is vital to the realization of a practical quantum computer, and has been long awaited in the scientific field...

First viable commercial Quantum Computer claimed

Vancouver-area computer company D-Wave Systems claims to have created the first commercially viable quantum computer. Their claim and demonstration have met with some skepticism. But, clearly, we are moving into a new phase of quantum technology.
http://www.dwavesys.com/
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/quantum.ars

Is the Universe a Quantum Computer?

"Seth Lloyd designs quantum computers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In Programming the Universe (Random House, 221 pages, $25.95), Lloyd argues that the universe is the ultimate quantum computer. It's heavy going in parts but could wind up being prophetic..."

MagiQ's Quantum Crypto Available Now

Interview with MagiQ CEO Bob Gelfond:

Quantum Cryptography, It’s Some Kind of MagiQ
By Martin Hack

At Wall Street he had a successful investment career. As a angel investor he gained experience in evaluating and investing in startups, one of them was Amazon.com. But Bob Gelfond has always been passionate about science and technology. He was also fascinated by the possibilities of quantum computing, so he started to research in which companies he could invest. He soon found out that there wasn’t really any startup around that he could invest in. But yet his keen business sense told him that this is a tremendous opportunity, so he gave it a shot and decided to start his own company – MaqiQ Technologies. A company focused on quantum information systems. He started with building an expert team around quantum computing, that was back in 1999.

I had a chance to talk to Bob and get his take on what we can expect in the future...

Toshiba's Quantum Crypto Entry

Toshiba's Quantum Cryptography System provides one gigabit a second encrypted link with unparalleled security to bridge different sites. All traffic sent through the link is authenticated and encrypted using the IPSec standard. Uniquely, the system frequently refreshes the encryption key using an implementation of quantum cryptography absolutely secure from all possible attacks and with the fastest reported key generation rate. On a more personal level, the company's Network Display System provides anywhere, anytime performance through its ability to function as a personal computer, TV and video phone. All the user has to carry is a hand-held display terminal, which incorporates a wireless network interface to access various services over a wireless link. As the terminal is dedicated to supporting I/O functions it needs no on-board processing or personal data storage capabilities, enhancing its light weight and power efficiency.Demonstrations of both systems will underline the potential of tomorrow's HDN.

Intro to Quantum Computing: Debugging The Quantum Computer

The idea seems crazy, but it's well within reach in the next few decades. Atoms and photons could be used to build supercomputers far more powerful and faster than any computer today. Every code would be breakable, every possible logarithm computable...