One hundred years of superconductivity

Superconductors have already helped build amazing technologies - but the next step will revolutionise physics  itself.

The world's first "quantum" computer - a machine that harnesses the magic of quantum phenomena to perform memory and processing tasks incredibly faster than today's silicon-based computer chips - was recently sold by D-Wave Systems of Canada to Lockheed-Martin. And, while some question whether the machine is truly a quantum computer, its designers have published articles in peer-reviewed journals demonstrating that the basic elements of this novel computer are indeed superconducting quantum bits.