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Quantum internet draws near thanks to entangled memory breakthroughs

Researchers aiming to create a secure quantum version of the internet need a device called a quantum repeater, which doesn't yet exist - but now two teams say they are well on the way to building one

The internet as it exists today involves sending strings of digital bits, or 0s and 1s, in the form of electrical or optical signals, to transmit information. Can Knaut at Harvard University and his colleagues set up a quantum network consisting of two nodes separated by a loop of optical fibre that spans 35 kilometres across the city of Boston. “This does point towards a very scalable and large-user-number quantum network,” says Alex Clark at the University of Bristol, UK.

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