Most record-breakers eke ahead of previous record-holders by fractions of a second. This was not one of those cases.
Before now, the record for storing quantum data at room temperature was two seconds. One. Two. Done. But researchers in Canada announced they've now hit 39 minutes. That's right---they've raised the bar from 2 seconds to 39 minutes. Today's quantum computers have to be frozen to function---negative 452.2 degrees Fahrenheit---so the challenge was to store the information when the computer was cold, warm it up to room temperature (77 degrees F---a temperature more conducive to everyday computer use), and then bring the temperature back down to retrieve the data.
Quantum computers are an exciting field of research for the promise they hold in speeding computing times. Instead of storing data in binary 1s and 0s, as conventional computers do, "qubits" on quantum computers can be in a 1 and 0 state ...
