They call it Q-Day: the day when a quantum computer, one more powerful than any yet built, could shatter the world of privacy and security as we know it. It would happen through a bravura act of mathematics: the separation of some very large numbers, hundreds of digits long, into their prime factors. That might sound like a meaningless division problem, but it would fundamentally undermine the encryption protocols that governments and corporations have relied on for decades. Sensitive information such as military intelligence, weapons designs, industry secrets and banking…
Tag: Physics
Why Some Scientists Choose China’s Space Station for Research
Seeking to burnish its prestige in the world, China is portraying its Tiangong orbital outpost as a space station that is available for scientists everywhere, not just for those who happen to live in other countries with established space programs. “We stand ready to conduct more international cooperation and exchanges with countries and regions committed to the peaceful use of outer space,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in April. For the International Space Station — a partnership between NASA, Russia, Canada, the European Space Agency…