I have been trying to educate myself about quantum computing. I read plenty about what it offers — computers millions of times more powerful than those we have now; work that previously took years will be done in minutes, and so on.
But my knowledge went little beyond the fact that quantum computing exploits quantum mechanics. And I could not have explained what that really means if I were asked at a dinner party.
So in a quest to improve my understanding I visited two quantum computing experts at the Technical University of Delft’s QuTech department: Jim Clarke, director of quantum hardware at Intel, which has a facility there, and Lieven Vandersypen, a leading quantum nanoscientist.