Single-atom Laser Built at Caltech

hweimer writes "A research group at Caltech has successfully constructed a laser consisting of only one caesium atom. The emitted light is very weak but highly ordered, so such a device may be used to control a quantum computer. More on this can be found at PhysicsWeb."

Comments

Re:Rubbish

[canajin56]

why does every science experiment have to throw in buzzwords such as "may be use in quantum computers" or "may help a cure for cancer"

Because "it's nifty" doesn't get you grant money.

Ah yes..

[adeyadey]

...so such a device may be used to control a quantum computer..

Ah, that would be the quantum computer on board the manned space expedition to Mars, power by a fission-reactor ion-drive. Back home we can watch it via our ubiquetous videophones, or our Linux powered desktops, which can run applications with true Artificial Intelligence. All our homes will be supplied by nuclear electricity that is too cheap to meter. There will be peace in Isreal.. etc..

Re:Ah yes..

[Scarblac]

Ah, that would be the quantum computer on board the manned space expedition to Mars, power by a fission-reactor ion-drive. Back home we can watch it via our ubiquetous videophones, or our Linux powered desktops, which can run applications with true Artificial Intelligence. All our homes will be supplied by nuclear electricity that is too cheap to meter. There will be peace in Isreal.. etc..

We live in such interesting times that everyone is taking everything for granted. The idea of a quantum computer was born in 1982 (history of Quantum computing). Now, just over twenty years later, we already have brought bits of the idea into practice - that is stunningly fast, compared with history. Quantum computers are an extremely advanced idea.

Charles Babbage got the idea of a general computer around 1812 (Babbage), but one wasn't built until World War II.

So after only 20 years we already have done some tiny, extremely simple calculations involving a few qubits. Very far from being useful, and still totally amazing that we've come so far. Most ideas take twenty years to become widely known before they're looked at seriously.

So Slashdot readers compare it to Duke Nukem and flying cars, and laugh. These times are so interesting that everyone is jaded.

Re:GoogleNews

[TopShelf]

With any luck, the editors would start putting links like this into the articles themselves.

*SMACK*

That is, when they're not too busy submitting dupes without checking for messy details like facts, grammer, spelling, etc.