Ultra-long quantum coherence reported in molecules for the first time

This is an automatic summary, original reduced by 58%.

If quantum computers existed, they would revolutionize computing as we know it.

Traditional computers rely on transistors that occupy one of two states-that's what those archetypal zeroes and ones refer to, and each digit is a "Bit." Quantum computing would use three states, improving its information storage capacity exponentially.

Whereas a small app like "Angry Birds" takes up about 40,000 standard bits, a computer made with just 1,000 quantum bits, or "Qubits," could easily and quickly break modern encryption schemes or more precisely model how a pharmaceutical drug candidate would perform in a person.

The biggest challenge of quantum computing is making the qubit.

Spin can have two states, just like a bit, but also a combination of both to form a third state, called "Superposition." But very few molecules stay in the superposition state long enough to measure, which makes them difficult to use in computing.

To get a little meta: it's possible that one day computers made of just a handful of small molecules will be used to make predictions about other molecules.

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