I find the editorialized title misleading. They trapped 17000 atom pairs in an optical lattice and demonstrated a high-fidelity quantum gate between the atoms of each pair in parallel. There is no interaction between the atoms of different pairs and no individual control. The experiment demonstrates a very robust gate scheme, but is a long way from a programmable computer.

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baxtr 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

With the hype QC these days, I find it hard to separate hype from real progress.

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functional_dev 14 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

The ETH article title is actually fine - "a new trick brings stability."

The hype is in the HN title.

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trollbridge 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Reminds me the state of nuclear fusion.

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blitzar 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Just a decade away now.

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femto 11 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

That's progress, if fusion is always only 10 years away now! The running joke used to be that it was always 30 years away.

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adrianN an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Fusion is a number of dollars away, not years. It gets almost no funding because it’sa science and engineering experiment that most likely will not lead to economically viable power plants in a market dominated by renewables.

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mrroper 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So just like AI?

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ashirviskas 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Nah, it's a decade away from *now*.

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dwd an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Now now or Just now?

* I've worked with too many Sth Africans.

	▲	HenryMulligan 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		For those of us who aren't familiar, what is the difference?

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blitzar 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

nahhh, definately from *now* though - 100% this time

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api 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

… and like fusion it will be a decade away, a decade away, a decade away, six months away, then we have it.

The “decade away” phenomenon comes from the fact that it’s basically impossible to time estimate innovation.

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gerdesj 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I went to school in Oxfordshire in the '80s. Some visiting profs from JET joked that fusion was 25 years away then.

	▲	cbg0 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Back then things were centered around "can we even do this?" and now it's more of "how do we keep this running more than 5 minutes?".

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meltyness 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

... and room temperature superconductors! If only we could sort out the feasibility, interdependencies, and priorities, but we just don't know, or well, I just don't know haha.

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scorpionfeet 37 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

That’s why we have “reading”. Literally the first paragraph. So in this case, pretty easy to separate.

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progbits 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

ETHZ news page is always overhyped. There is good research coming from there but their marketing is never worth reading.

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vasco 4 hours ago | parent [-]

What is overhyped about: "A new trick brings stability to quantum operations". Are people complaining about the HN title as if it's the article's title?

	▲	K0balt 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes

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ionwake 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

its still more than my nephew managed to achieve this morning

	▲	TheEaterOfSouls 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I have questions. Is he attempting to build a quantum gate array? Seems kind of unfair to compare one person's efforts with a well-established university, if so. :P