Scientists make quantum breakthrough

Australian scientists say they're coming first in a world-wide race to create a new breed of super computers set to transform the way we live.

Quantum computers technically are still years away, but a group of researchers working in Australia have notched up an important win after 10 years of toil.

For the first time, they've been able to read the "spin" of an individual electron in silicon - basically the way quantum computers are powered - using a single electron reader.

It's being done in silicon, which is what most normal computers are made of, meaning it will be much easier and simpler to mass-produce.

David Jamieson, a professor of physics at the University of Melbourne who was responsible for ensuring single atoms were in place during tests, said it was an exciting breakthrough.

"This opens the world of quantum technologies and allows us to do things that are either very difficult or impossible to do on a classical computer," Professor Jamieson told AAP.

"It will potentially be a new type of internet - quantum internet - where information is transmitted and stored in fundamentally new ways."

Quantum computers will be able to crack big mathematical quandaries, suggesting big improvements in internet security, while database searching and scientific research are destined to get a boost.

Prof Jamieson said quantum computing was more important than ever given there was a limit to how small or how fast normal computers would be able to go.

Quantum computers, flagged about 40 years ago, signal a new shift in the industry.

"There's a world-wide race at the moment," Prof Jamieson said, while noting the idea was still very much in its infancy.

While searching long lists of information or finding prime factors of large numbers to leading applications, Prof Jamieson was most inspired by its potential use on a "quantum level".

"Because we are big, we human beings live in a classical world because we're low energy; but in the world of atoms and molecules and electrons this is a quantum mechanical world," he said.

It means one day studying a biological molecule - "important for many reasons" - could be via computer rather than through the test tube.

At best classical computers can only examine 30 electrons, while quantum computers could do much more.

The results of the finding, led by Professor Andrew Dzurak at the University of NSW, have been published in the journal Nature.

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