Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics' morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.
A video giving a brief introduction to quantum computing and the early days of NASA and Google's partnership.
D-Wave Systems is a company with big ambitions: to produce the first commercially available quantum computer. In May of last year, Google, along with NASA and Universities Space Research Association, launched a new project called the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab based around the $15 million D-Wave 2. In October, the group announced that it had "made great leaps in recent experiments with quantum chips," according to The Verge. Google's rhetoric made quantum computing sound like a sure thing.
Yesterday, reality slapped the project right in the face. New research conducted by scientists at ETH Zurich claims that the D-Wave 2 provides "no evidence of quantum speedup." This means that Google's quantum machine is no faster than conventional computing, according to this particular study. Much like how conventional computing allowed us to solve complex problems more quickly, quantum computing holds the promise of a similar revolution—solving complex computations in minutes rather than weeks, years, or more with conventional computing.
According to CNET, Matthias Troyer, a member of the research team and an influential computational physicist, admitted it's hard to calculate quantum speedup. But until any advantage can be detected, there's no benefit to a quantum machine—at least not yet. Google is not ignorant of this fact, and even discussed the difficulty of benchmarking quantum computers after releasing results. Also, Troyer's results, as with other testing, are dependent on certain variables—what kind of conventional computer is it being compared to? What problems or questions are being posed? There's no doubt that the D-Wave 2 is eons more advanced than what you could purchase at a Best Buy, but it hasn't yet lived up to quantum computing's perceived potential.
This is by no means a death knell for the project, or even a setback, just the reality of how discoveries are made—slow and steady. Google and NASA will keep searching for answers. They're not really known for being quitters.
The future is now. Emailing a message that smells could become a thing. [via Scientific American]
New rumors say Apple's iWatch could be the biggest in the market at 2.5 inches. [via Reuters]
Scientists figure out why slime covered the Earth for a billion years. [via Discovery News]
Take a ride on NASA's "Vomit Comet." Don't worry, actually vomit does not make an appearance.