Efforts to transform computers reach milestone

Scientists in San Jose, Californina, have performed the most complex calculation ever using a quantum computer - factoring the number 15. In contast to the switches in conventional computers, which although tiny consist of billions of atoms, quantum computations are carried out by manipulating single atoms. The laws of quantum mechanics which govern these actions in fact mean that multiple computations could be done in parallel, this would drastically cut down the time needed to carry out very complex calculations.