Author Archives: Henning Dekant

The Other Kind of Fusion – General Fusion

Recent news with regards to nuclear fusion research has not been good: The ITER project is plagued with cost overruns.  MIT fusion’s program became collateral damage of the US austerity measures. The National Ignition Facility has fallen short of the high expectations, … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Science | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

The Meaning of Wave Mechanics and the Mongol Physics Project

Kingsley Jones, an Australian theoretical physicist turned entrepreneur, recently introduced what he dubs Mongol physics, a bold undertaking to “fix” QM and QED. The name is aptly chosen, because if he succeeds in this, most of academic physics will be as taken … Continue reading

Posted in Blogroll Rescue, Popular Science | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Septimana Mirabilis – Major Quantum Information Technology Breakthroughs

Update 4: The award for the funniest photo commentary on this imbroglio goes to Robert Tucci. Update 3: Congratulations to D-Wave for their  recent sale of the D-Wave Two machine to  the non-profit Space Research Association  – to be used collaboratively by Google and NASA. (h/t … Continue reading

Posted in D-Wave, Quantum Computing, Quantum Cryptography | 14 Comments

Time Crystal – A New Take on Perpetual Motion

Update: Here’s the link to Wilczek time crystal paper It is a given that at room temperature there is plenty of perpetual chaotic and truly perpetual motion to be had.  And sometimes this motion takes on some more organized forms as … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Science, Quantum Mechanics | 6 Comments

So You Want to Learn About Quantum Computing?

“Students will learn by inhabiting an alternate history where Alan Turing and Richard Feynman meet during World War II and must invent quantum computers to defeat Nazi Germany. As a final project, they will get to program a D-Wave One machine and … Continue reading

Posted in Quantum Computing, Quantum Mechanics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Stretching Quantum Computing Credulity

Update: Corrected text (h/t Geordie) My interest in D-Wave prompted me to start this blog, and it is no secret that I expect the company to deliver products that will have a significant impact on the IT market. Yet, to this day, … Continue reading

Posted in D-Wave | Tagged | 9 Comments

If a Fighter Writes a Paper to go for the Kill …

You don’t want to take on this man in the rink: And you don’t want to take on his namesake in the scientific realm. In my last post I wrote about the Kish Cypher protocol, and was wondering about its … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Science, Quantum Cryptography | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Quantum Cryptography Made Obsolete?

Electrical engineering is often overshadowed by other STEM fields. Computer Science is cooler, and physics has the aura of the Faustian quest for the most fundamental truths science can uncover.  Yet, this discipline produced a quite remarkable bit of research … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Science, Quantum Cryptography | 4 Comments

The Dark Horse of Quantum Computing

Updated below. Recently, Science magazine prominently featured Quantum Information Processing on their cover:   The periodical has a great track record in publishing on QIS, and this is the main reason why I subscribe to it. Unfortunatelly, reading this issue, … Continue reading

Posted in D-Wave, Quantum Computing | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Fun Stuff: When Shakespeare meets Schrödinger

In the associated LinkedIn discussion to my previous post, commenters had some fun with the Shakespeare inspired headline. Clearly, if Shakespeare would have known Quantum Mechanics and the superposition that holds Schrödinger’s cat in limbo, some of the classic pieces would … Continue reading

Posted in Quantum Mechanics | Tagged , , | 3 Comments