The physicist on a mission to spark a quantum industrial revolution

The French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson is remembered for, among other things, producing three curious automata in the 18th century. A poster from the time advertised them all side by side: a figure that played a real flute, another that banged a tambourine and a duck that gobbled up corn and seemingly turned it into pellets of… well, use your imagination.

For physicist Nicole Yunger Halpern, based at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland, these antiquated automata have a resonance with some of today’s most cutting-edge technology. Vaucanson’s inventions prefigured the industrial revolution, during which mechanisation went from being a quirky curiosity to a force that reshaped the globe. We may be at an analogous turning point today when it comes to quantum technology, says Yunger Halpern.

The steam-powered world of the industrial revolution may seem far removed from the quantum realm. But this period of dramatic change was bolstered by thermodynamics, which deals with heat, work and energy. And, recently, physicists have been applying its ideas to the subatomic realm to devise the new field of quantum thermodynamics. This has seen the development of machines like quantum fridges, batteries and clocks.

However, these are just the start of the quantum technology revolution, says Yunger Halpern. She was a co-author of a recent manifesto aiming to chart a path towards greater things. She spoke to New Scientist about what advanced quantum machines might look like, the astounding benefits they could bring and how we can work towards making them a reality.

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