New quantum computers - Potential and pitfalls | DW Documentary

The tiny world of

quantum

particles might be strange to most of us, but not to the scientists currently using them to build a supercomputer. No one knows what "

quantum

computing" really means, but it's going to change us. For their proponents, quantum

computers

are a pioneering development and a game-changer. The quantum computer can open up a variety of amazing possibilities. The scale of computer power allows us to solve problems that we are not yet able to formulate. Its many applications include the simulation of molecules: an innovative advance in the development of new drugs. Quantum computing is still in its infancy, but it will one day revolutionize scientific research.

What looks like a computer chip made of plastic is actually a model of a human lung. Scientists at a new Swiss company aim to combat diseases more quickly with the help of a supercomputer. Nina Hobi founded Alveolix together with Janick Stucki. Their work earned them the Swiss Med Tech Award 2022. Here the team uses a pipette to transfer human lung cells to a thin, porous membrane. The cells can then be activated mechanically, to mimic a real lung. We can simulate these cells by recreating the environment of the human body on this plastic chip. It allows us to simulate miniature organs that are much more similar to the real thing than any other option currently available.

More similar than with in vitro tests or animal experiments. Researchers say the simulated miniature lung will make it easier to design new drugs. The drug development process takes between 10 and 15 years. To begin with, a large number of molecules are tested in Petri dishes, although the cells there are not really like in the human body. For example, there are no three-dimensional layers or attractive forces. It is a very basic configuration. Then you move on to animal experiments and test for, for example, toxic properties. The entire process is extremely complicated, especially when you think about the animal testing required.

And this is where our technology comes into play. The miniature lung is expected to allow researchers, especially at pharmaceutical companies, to speed up the drug testing process. Here we have the endophilic cells and the immune cells on top. In fact, they are attached to it. Did you get an infection? We can determine much earlier if a given molecule is effective and if it has side effects. It makes it possible to optimize the process and, ultimately, reduce costs: according to studies, by 500 million francs per medicine. Things that are already possible today could be done even faster and more efficiently with technology, while making animal experiments redundant.

Our company's goal is to help develop better medications and reduce side effects for patients. We also want our technology to help reduce or eliminate animal testing. Animal experiments are simply not adequate predictors of whether a drug actually works in humans. It was my PhD supervisor who originally got me interested in quantum computing. And I'm still there today! When I started studying physics at the Technical University of Zurich, no one talked about it. I had never heard of that. Dominik Zumbühl is a researcher and professor at the University of Basel, specializing in quanta. They are the smallest units of energy known to scientists, but with properties that would make conventional bit-based

computers

look distinctly primitive.

A normal computer with normal computing power performs one calculation per unit of time or "clock cycle." In quantum physics, countless calculations are performed in parallel. A good example is factoring very large numbers. In this case, the quantum computer quickly arrives at the result by trying to divide simultaneously by all possible numbers. A classical computer processing a number with several thousand digits would take as long as the universe is old. But the same problem can be solved with a quantum computer in a matter of hours or even seconds. So what are quants really? Exploring this mysterious little world requires us to think in the smallest possible dimensions.

Even smaller than atoms. At this smallest scale imaginable, the classical laws of nature no longer apply and something fascinating happens. Quanta can exist in different states and in different places at the same time. Quantum theory was pioneered in the 1920s by people like Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger. They used thought experiments to illustrate these apparent paradoxes that stretch the limits of our imagination. Erwin Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist known mainly today for a cat. More specifically: an experiment that fortunately was never put into practice. He imagined a cat in a box along with a device that would have a 50:50 chance of releasing a deadly poison in the next hour.

According to quantum theory, the cat is alive and dead at the same time. But only as long as we don't check inside the box! In a quantum mechanical system, mere observation influences the actual state inside. We cannot make an assessment without looking, not even whether the cat is alive or dead. What sounds absurd was a demonstration of the enigma that lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. Simultaneously different states at the quantum level are not compatible with the accepted laws of nature. In this small world, particles can be linked or "entangled" with each other and at the same time be in different states and places.

And that simultaneity can be calculated. It is a state that can be called 'mathematical superposition' or... simultaneity. That state, represented as a 'psi' wave function, comprises a coefficient for an upward spin plus another coefficient for a downward spin. And this is simultaneity. And this is how you can imagine a qubit: an arrow pointing in a random direction. Quantum or 'q' bits are the basic components of a quantum computer. While a normal computer processes information in bits (ones or zeros), qubits have both values ​​at the same time. It is comparable to a coin tossed in the air, where you don't know if it will come up heads or tails.

Before these qubits can be controlled and used for calculations, they need to be immobilized. This, in turn, requires a complex procedure where they are cooled to temperatures that would otherwise be seen in outer space. About -270 degrees Celsius. So the surface area helps exchange heat, so the cold liquid we pump cools the recondensed liquid coming down. In fact, we will be able to carry out the experiments at temperatures of up to 10 milli-Kelvin. Compared to 4 Kelvin, the temperature is approximately 400 times colder. PhD students here at the University of Basel are assembling a small quantum computer with a small number of qubits.

The goal is to deploy the technology for a variety of applications once it is fully developed. Quantum computers would then simulate molecules, for example, leading to the development of new drugs and the elimination of deadly diseases. Another

potential

application is renewable energy storage. Technology has already brought benefits to logistics operations. The introduction of quantum algorithms has helped increase the speed and capacity of cargo movement at the Port of Los Angeles. As a result, the facility now operates more efficiently and with less energy. Quantum computing appears to have very lucrative business

potential

. For years now, a number of tech companies, including Google and IBM, and state actors like China, have been in a race to build the first high-performance quantum computer.

The money invested in research amounts to billions. Switzerland has a different approach. Uptown Basel Infinity uses private sector funding to provide companies with free access to US quantum computers. The center is called QuantumBasel and is directed by Damir Bogdan. The problems facing industries are becoming more complex. Of course, the use of artificial intelligence is a factor. But when certain limits are finally reached (and AI reaches its limits), then you have to think a couple of steps ahead. Artificial intelligence applications could run much more efficiently on quantum computers. And when I say "efficiency," I mean not only computing speed but also energy efficiency.

The center works with a hybrid system that combines conventional and quantum computers. Startups participating in the program can turn to IBM's Frederik Flöther for advice on how to approach their problems and how to think outside the box. The first thing is to break down the individual issues and look at which specific quantum algorithm is relevant. And since quantum computing is a completely different type of calculation, it allows you to completely rethink problems and perhaps find a new approach. This implies what we call the quantum mental state. About 40 studies have already been carried out on the basis of the quantum computer with the aim of simplifying and accelerating the development of medicines.

In both medicine and healthcare, we are seeing a significant increase in the data available, and also in the variety of data... imaging data, data from fitness trackers, data from medical records, etc. And processing the complex correlations between all that data requires the kind of computing power that classical computers struggle to achieve. And that's where quantum computers have real potential. An example from the pharmaceutical industry: to date, researchers have covered only 1% of all potentially active drug molecules. This is reflected, for example, in cancer treatment. Only one in three patients responds directly to drug-based therapies. Unfortunately, we won't be able to solve all of these challenges with quantum computing, but we're confident we can help with some of them.

Further south, in Bern, the Alveolix team hopes to solve one of these problems in the very near future. Quantum computers can be used to evaluate enormous amounts of data, providing detailed information about a patient's genetic makeup. The small-scale replica of a lung (or other organ) is designed to offer more effective treatments to cancer patients. We still don't know which of the different types might be effective. You can look at the genome and ask which one is best for the patient and maybe make a custom cocktail. The patient could then start immunotherapy. And when they have a break, that's when we can take a tissue sample.

After placing the sample in our organ-on-chip, we would try a new cocktail, so that it would have a better effect when the patient received their next treatment. What is especially crucial for cancer patients is to minimize side effects. Instead of more suffering, you want them to be safe and get the most effective medications available. And that's where we can help. At the same time, Alveolix wants to help eliminate animal testing from preclinical studies. For decades, animal experiments have been a standard procedure in the development of new drugs, with rodents being the most commonly used species. In Switzerland alone, laboratories carry out tests on more than half a million animals per year.

Our immediate goal is to reduce animal testing. There are a large number of drugs that are only effective on the human genome and cells, making animal testing of no advantage. Therefore, effective drugs do not even reach the market because they are prematurely discontinued in the preclinical study phase. Our goal is not to eliminate them all from the market, but to abolish the most severe tests in which animals suffer extreme pain and pressure. Experiments with severity levels 3 and 4. And we are very optimistic about helping this happen soon. But in Europe their efforts face an obstacle. The European Medicines Agency refuses to grant approval for medicines without prior animal testing.

However, in the United States, a bill passed in 2022 removed the requirement for animal testing before market approval. And a proposed update to that legislation would also allow testing using computer models or artificial organs. There is already large-scale research in the United States on this front, as seen at the Cleveland Clinic in the state of Ohio. The latest advance is an internal quantum computer. It is the world's first quantum computer dedicated exclusively to health research. And your work will be greatly appreciated, given the 10 million patient visits the clinic receives each year. John R. Smith is a principal investigator at IBM and highlights the dividends of large amounts of medical data: this has the potential to boost our pace of progressto address the significant disease challenges we face and the challenges in patient care.

Too much faster. And produce breakthroughs and discoveries that will be absolutely essential for all of us. In March 2023, the clinic officially presented its prized quantum computer. Its CEO welcomed guests from Cleveland and beyond. Thank you so much. We are bringing something new to our organization and to the world. The System I quantum computer (sounds a bit like science fiction) that is right behind me, is the most advanced computing technology and computing platform that exists. We are very excited because it will allow us to advance research, advance discoveries and advance healthcare. And it will also create many jobs.

Among the guests at the event was Damir Bogdan from QuantumBasel and UptownBasel, which is no coincidence. The United States is the leading market for the development of quantum computers and Uptown is a partner of IBM. An Australian think tank published a study citing 44 technologies that will change the world. And China is already leading in 37 of them. And one of the remaining seven, in which the United States is ahead, is the field of quantum computing. It is also bad news for the EU, as a failed association agreement makes cooperation difficult. The decision by Switzerland or the EU that Switzerland cannot participate in the Horizon program means that we have to find someone else to work with.

This does not mean that UptownBasel is no longer interested in European collaborations. But we are very much in the United States because of everything that is happening there. Another attraction for the company executive is the Silicon Valley mentality, a world away from Switzerland's conservative, risk-averse approach. That said: Switzerland has many strengths. We have brilliant research in this area: in Basel, at EPFL and at the Technical University of Zurich. What we sometimes lack is the right climate for startups to grow, and that is much better in the United States. The evolution of the quantum computer to date promises incredible opportunities in the future.

But university scientists are more cautious about advances. There is a risk that it may take longer and that certain problems may arise. Building a quantum computer that can immediately solve gigantic problems will not be easy. It will have to be one step at a time. Today's computers took many, many years to develop. And quantum computers will probably be the same, taking 10 years or more to complete. Right now, we're still digging into the basics. More qubits mean more computing power. IBM quantum computers in commercial use today have 433, although currently pure research still focuses on the physics of individual qubits.

Some qubits are relatively easy to create. There are already computers with 100 or a thousand, and there are plans to reach 10,000 or 100,000. The problem is that the quality is still not good enough, with a relatively high frequency of errors in calculations. There is no point in having as many qubits as possible if they are not good enough. We need major improvements, including work on single qubits or a smaller number of coupled qubits. But the race is wide open. The Technical University of Zurich is another qubit research center. Theoretical physics professor Renato Renner states that the development of the quantum computer has only just begun: quantum computers are in a similar phase to that of the first transistors.

They are still very big. The 100 qubits together could occupy the space of a huge experiment table with all the electronics in the laboratory. And it's still unclear how we could scale it down so that at some point packing millions of qubits into a small space is a feasible working configuration. That doesn't mean we can't do it, but comparatively speaking we're still in the era of vacuum tube computers. Think about how back then no one talked about the Internet or social media! We cannot yet appreciate the potential, nor the dangers, of course. Renato Renner knows the dangers of quantum computing.

He lectures on cryptography: data encryption. Quantum computers really pose a threat to today's data security. When we do electronic banking or use encrypted communication in other contexts, we need what is called "public key cryptography." And that system will become completely insecure once we have quantum computers up and running. Whoever has the quantum computer will have total and immediate access to all that data. And that is a very specific problem. Until now, a simple mathematical method has been enough to protect our data: factorization. Some calculations are simple, say: 3 times 7 equals 21. But if I turn it around and ask: What are two numbers that give us that product, then I basically have to try every possible combination?

And since the numbers have up to one hundred digits, I will be like this forever. Even a computer that can process much faster will not be able to test all hundred-digit numbers. A quantum computer, on the other hand, can test numbers in parallel and arrive at the result in a fraction of a second. The implications worry experts. We are relatively late to the game, because we know that the secret of the data being encrypted has a very limited shelf life. The things I encrypt today using public key cryptography will be readable once the quantum computer exists.

The data can only then be encrypted using the quantum computer again. In effect: beating the enemy at his own game. And here's how: the sender of the data generates qubits with a value of 0 or 1 and then sends a completely random sequence of those qubits to the recipient. It serves as a key that only those two parties know. Of course, someone could try to eavesdrop on the transfer, but this is where quantum mechanics comes into the equation. An attempt to intercept the qubits will now change them, and both the sender and recipient will be alerted immediately. Therefore, the key cannot be secretly copied or read.

The actual encrypted message is not transferred until the key arrives unread. The problem is that, from a technical point of view, the idea is not really viable currently. It seems extremely difficult, if not almost impossible, but we know that it really works, although it is expensive. A solution that is absolutely safe will cost a lot of money. But if you look at a long-term horizon (not 10, but rather 40 or 50 years), then it could be a solution. And data security is not the only factor to consider in the long term. Quantum computing still has many hurdles to overcome, which means investors will have to be patient.

Everyone talks about quantum computing, but we cannot expect to have this revolutionary application within a few years. It will take many stages of development and investment to get to the point where the app is available. And above all: time, although that in turn depends on the investment. The investment is much greater than we could have imagined a few years ago. That, then, is a reason to be optimistic. There are startups and companies that follow the expectations and are eager to invest in this future concept. As a result: Graduates studying physics and quantum computing have a variety of jobs to choose from at the various startups or large technology companies pursuing quantum computing projects.

There are a large number of options. We cannot imagine the changes involved, because they are quantum leaps! And that's why we need 'moonshots': projects where you point in a direction where you can't lose sight of the vision but will probably have to make some adjustments along the way. And that is not possible, unless we find a new way of thinking.