• Question: @nike dattani. what will make your computers stand out from the rest of the super computers that scientists and other people use?

    Asked by pip1271 to Austin, Kirsty, Nicola, Nike, Sarah on 21 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by cheesepuffqueen, god1created1the1earth1there1is1no1such1thing1as1evolution.
    • Photo: Kirsty Ross

      Kirsty Ross answered on 21 Jun 2012:

      I don’t really use supercomputers, although I do contribute by running programmes whenever my screen saver is on to help solve protein structures. In that way my MacBook Pro becomes part of a distributed supercomputer.

    • Photo: Nike Dattani

      Nike Dattani answered on 21 Jun 2012:

      Thanks for the question !!
      Modern day super computers are made of silicon, and they are called “classical computers” because they were built based on “classical physics” , which is physics the way Newton and Galileo understood it, back in the 16th and 17th centuries !

      The computers I am working on are called “quantum computers” because they are built based on “quantum physics” , which is physics the way Einstein described it, about 250 years after Newton’s time !

      Using quantum physics, my computers will be much faster than super comptuers that are based on classical physics. Once these new “quantum computers” are ready, many things will be MUCH faster to load , but it might be many years before my computers hit the market =)

      If you’re more interested in quantum computers this youtube video should be fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyX8E4KUkWw !!

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