Interesting article at the BBC about improvements in quantum computing, plus a Canadian company by the name of D-Wave, who
claims to have built working models of quantum computers .
Quantum computing exploits the weird physics of quantum mechanics, which takes hold at tiny (atomic or sub-atomic) scales. Computers that tap the quantum realm could carry out complex calculations much faster than their conventional - or classical - counterparts. While the basic units of information in classical computers are called "bits" and are stored as a string of 1s and 0s, their equivalents in a quantum system - qubits - can be both 1s and 0s at the same time. ... Scientists have struggled to entangle more than a handful of qubits, and to maintain them in their quantum state. Lab devices suffer from drop-out, or decoherence, where the qubits lose their ambiguity and become straightforward 1s and 0s. This has ensured that quantum computers remain confined to the lab - proofs of principle capable of solving only elementary problems.
Sounds interesting, as long as I can theme it. </joke>