- Given the recent increased interest in quantum computing,
it may seem like it's a new area
of research and development.
Some of the biggest breakthroughs are happening now,
but quantum computing and quantum mechanics more broadly
already has an illustrious history.
Let's look at some of the major milestones along the way
and the notable scientists attributed to them.
In the mid to late 1800s,
a series of discoveries in physics emerged
that provided the basis for a handful
of defining quantum physics milestones.
In the early 1900s,
a German theoretical physicist, Max Planck,
contributed significantly to our understanding
of the nature and behavior of matter and energy
at the atomic and subatomic level.
He is best known for his quantum theory of energy.
His work in this area won him
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.
Albert Einstein, another notable German physicist,
built upon Planck's quantum theory
to describe the particle properties of light.
He demonstrated that electromagnetic radiation,
including light, had the characteristics
of both a wave and a particle.
These discovered quantum particles
of light were later called photons.
In the early 1920s,
these new theories and discoveries in the quantum realm
led to the coining of the term quantum mechanics
by a group of German physicists,
Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, and Wolfgang Pauli.
The terms quantum mechanics,
quantum physics, and quantum theory,
while having subtle and important differences to scientists,
are generally acceptable as meaning the same thing.
From the 1920s through the 1950s,
major discoveries were made on the nature of atoms
and their subatomic behaviors and processes.
More knowledge emerged on the workings of electrons,
protons, neutrons, photons,
neutrinos, particles, and waves.
With each discovery, physics became more exotic.
For example, German physicist Werner Heisenberg
asserted that there existed a fundamental limit
to the precision by which certain pairs
of physical properties of a particle could be known.
His most famous principle, introduced in 1927,
known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle,
states that the more precisely the position
of a particle is determined,
the less precisely its momentum is known, and vice versa.
There are several notable milestones
in the emergence of quantum computing,
beginning in the early 1970s.
In a 1975 paper,
Roman Ingarden, a Polish mathematical physicist,
proposed a quantum information theory.
This theory described how quantum information,
like classical information,
could be processed, transmitted, and analyzed.
Unlike classical computing, though,
which relies on binary bits,
quantum processing would use quantum bits, or qubits,
and work entirely different.
In the early 1980s,
it is a combination of several scientists,
including Paul Benioff, Yuri Manin, and Richard Feynman,
who solidify the basic principles of quantum computing.
Feynman, an American theoretical physicist, is notable.
He had previously won a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965
for his contribution towards the development
of quantum electrodynamics.
A remarkable scientist, he also worked on the atomic bomb
and introduced the concept of nanotechnology.
He's often credited with being the pioneer
of quantum computing.
In addition, a British physicist, David Deutsch,
is called the father of quantum computing
for his breakthrough work on quantum computation
and for being one of the first to specify an algorithm
designed to run exponentially faster
under quantum conditions.
In the early 1990s,
research conducted in the United States
by Bell Labs and the U.S. Government,
together with several leading international universities,
set the stage for the construction
of the first physical quantum computers.
Around 1998, the first functioning computers emerged.
During the early 2000s and into the 2010s,
quantum computing research and development
significantly accelerated.
Today there are many different types of quantum computers
developed by a variety of producers,
both commercial and noncommercial.
There isn't yet a consumer product
you can buy in a store or online,
but enterprises are already utilizing them.
As an individual, though,
you can tap into quantum capability
being provided by several entities.
More on that a little later.