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'Hybrid' Logic Gate For Quantum Computers Demonstrated (ox.ac.uk)
hypnosec writes: Researchers at Oxford University have demonstrated a 'hybrid' logic gate using two isotopes of calcium, the abundant isotope calcium-40 and the rare isotope calcium-43. One of the leading technologies for building a quantum computer is trapped atomic ions, and researchers at Oxford's Networked Quantum Information Technologies (NQIT – pronounced 'N-kit') Hub are working to develop the constituent elements of a quantum computer based on these ions. As explained by researchers in the study published in the journal Nature, each of the trapped ions is used to represent one 'quantum bit' of information. The quantum states of the ions are controlled with laser pulses of precise frequency and duration. Two different species of ion are needed in the computer: one to store information, a 'memory qubit', and one to link different parts of the computer together via photons, an 'interface qubit'."
It depends how long term your outlook is. Nothing here will be practical for at least a decade and very likely more. But once quantum computers become a practical thing, there are going to be a lot of uses (e.g. factoring large numbers using Shor's algorithm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor's_algorithm, and detailed molecular simulation). Note that one thing we don't expect to see is extreme speedup of generic NP-complete problems, although the popular press often says otherwise. Also, as with any computer technology, once the technology becomes more common, people will have more of an incentive to find uses for it. GPUs are a fun example of that: made for a very narrow purpose, but once they were made, people quickly started realizing they could do other things with them. Quantum computers will likely be in a similar boat.