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Andrew White    
Professor of Physics »,  
University of Queensland »,  

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2010

• 21/01/2010: Goodness! There are articles on our Quantum Chemistry work in Chinese on cnBeta.com, 用量子计算机做大学习题, and in Israeli in the Hayadan, מחשב קוונטי לחישוב האנרגיה של מימן. Although the team speak and read seven languages between us, they don't (yet) include Mandarin or Hebrew, so we've no idea what the articles actually say!
• 20/01/2010: In the Oxford Science Blog, there's a fun interview by Pete Wilton of Jacob Biamonte, Quantum simulators & super civilisations.
• 19/01/2010: Hamish Johnston has a great article in Physics World, Quantum computer takes on quantum chemistry. The diagram is particularly nice!
• 17/01/2010: We've made the Mexican press, with an article at Milenio, Una computadora cuántica ya hizo cálculos. Alán translated his favourite part of the article for us:

  The Australians! Wasn't that island an almost depopulated prison colony of England, when Mexico, still called New Spain, was proud of its Royal University, of scientists and researchers informed in physics and chemistry of the state of the art of the XVIII-th century?

  A big cheery g'day from all us convicts to our Mexican readers! (Seriously though, our teams were funded by both the Australian and US governments, and are made up of folk from 8 nations across 4 continents: Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Iran, Italy, Mexico, the UK and the USA. Science is truly international.)
• 16/01/2010: The Palestine Telegraph has run Andy Extance's article in its Panorama Section.
• 15/01/2010: Andy Extance has a great article at Chemistry World, Quantum computer hits hydrogen bullseye. What a wonderful title! However Andrew wishes to say that he didn't concede, so much as stress, that a system with 522 gates isn't currently possible...
• 14/01/2010: Science Daily cover our press release, Quantum computer calculates exact energy of molecular hydrogen.
• 13/01/2010: There's a great article today at Ars Technica by Casey Johnston, Two-qubit quantum system used to model the hydrogen molecule, and a version of one of the press releases at chemie.de, Quantum computer calculates exact energy of molecular hydrogen.
• 12/01/2010: Popsci have a nice article by Clay Dillow, Quantum Computer Successfully Calculates Exact Energy of Molecular Hydrogen.
• 12/01/2010: Here's an article with a different slant on our work, by Darren Pauli in Computerworld, Aussie quantum experiment challenges Einstein, computer science.
• 11/01/2010: There's a nice and thoughtful article today in New Scientist by Colin Barras, Quantum computers do chemistry.
• 11/01/2010: Julie Barzilay has written a great article in The Harvard Crimson, Scientists Employ Quantum Computer; there's a report based on the Harvard press release in the Harvard Gazette, Quantum (not digital) computing; and our work—wth a lovely photo of Alán— has made Harvard's main page. Nice one!
• 11/01/2010: Goodness: there are reports on our Quantum Chemistry experiment at Nanowerk, eScience News, Softpedia, Next Big Future, Innovations Report, Yahoo News, Azonano and RedOrbit.
• 11/01/2010: Well that was quick! Today's PhysOrg has an article on our recent quantum chemistry experiment: Quantum Computer Measures Energy in Molecular Hydrogen.
• 02/01/2010: The 10 Biggest Questions in Physics was broadcast today as part of Quirks and Quarks holiday offerings. Andrew hasn't had a chance to listen yet, but is bravely putting up the link anyhow... Update. Oh, that was fun! There was a pretty clear division between big questions about big things and big questions about small things...

2009

• 17/10/2009: Tonight is the Canadian premiere of The Quantum Tamers, a documentary sponsored by the Perimeter Institute that features a dozen or so quantum folk from around the world, including our very own Gerard Milburn and Andrew—who are both waiting to see the film with some trepidation! Update. It was both fun and good! Whew, now for some drinks...
• 17/10/2009: For the Institute of Quantum Computing's open day, Andrew was part of a 6-person panel discussion on Quantum Information. A big thanks to Joseph Emerson for great moderation, film-clip DJ'ing and audience interaction.
• 15/10/2009: As part of the Perimeter Institute's 10th anniversary celebrations, Andrew was one of a 7-person panel discussing "Quantum to Cosmos", at the Mike Lazaridis Theatre in Waterloo. It was recorded by TVO and webcast. A big thanks to Australia's own Wilson da Silva for MC'ing, although he could have spared Andrew the "Crocodile Dundee" reference!
• 15/10/2009: Andrew was one of a 10-person panel discussing "The 10 Biggest Questions in Physics", at the Glenn Gould Theatre in Toronto. It was recorded by CBC's Quirks and Quarks—which, along with ABC's Science Show are the two longest-running science shows in at least the English-speaking world—and will be broadcast sometime in the New Year. A big thanks to Jim Handman and Bob McDonald who made the entire event a lot of fun!
• 25/09/2009: There's a nice article today in New Scientist on work by Netanel Lindner and Terry Rudolph (another UQ Alumnus!), Photon 'machine gun' could power quantum computers . A fun read, and not just because of the comments from Terry and Andrew. (Gosh, that didn' take long, it's been slash-dotted already).
• 04/09/2009: There's a nice article today in New Scientist on some work by Jeremy O'Brien (a QT Lab Alumnus! We should get T-shirts made), and his team at Bristol, where they have repeated our 2007 Shor's algorithm experiment, replacing the free-space circuitry with integrated-optics. There's comments from Jeremy—of course!—and also from Dan Browne and Andrew, who were authors on the two earlier Shor papers.
• 28/08/2009: There's a great article today in The Quantum Times on Quantum information for chemistry and biology by Alán Aspuru-Guzik, which is a lovely intro—and I'm not just saying that because it briefly mentions our work!
• 25/08/2009: Ross McKenzie has a blog entry on Andrew's talk today at the CQIQC III in Toronto, entertainingly titled James Bond meets Niels Bohr. Nice one Ross!
• 23/06/2009: Ben is in the news again! The Australian has an article today Local scientists' quantum leap. (See comment below about this phrase...)
• 18/06/2009: Ben Lanyon is the subject of a nice article today by Machines Like Us, "A quantum leap". (I've often wondered when people use this expression—do they realise it can refer to the smallest possible leap?). Look for the cool photo and the even cooler description of banging things!
• 24/04/2009: Our collaborator Alán Aspuru-Guzik was interviewed today in the Nature blog, The Sceptical Chymist and discussed our recent work on quantum chemistry on a quantum computer. Cool!

2008

• 06/12/2008: Oh this is lovely. Look at the article listed immediately before ours on PhysOrg—can you believe we ranked more highly? Who knew we were more interesting than promiscuous Arts students?
• 05/12/2008: Today's PhysOrg has a nice article on our recent mixed-state quantum computing experiment: Quantum computing: Entanglement may not be necessary. Love the opening line: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that quantum computing must have entanglement."
• 24/06/2008: There is a write-up of our shrimp paper in Optics and Photonics Focus, Super-Vision for Mr. Shrimp.
• 20/06/2008: Andrew's profile is being featured on the front page of Nature Asia this week.
• 24/05/2008: There is a simply wonderful write-up of our shrimp paper by Andrew's favourite blogger, PZ Myers of Pharyngula fame, The superior eyes of shrimp. (And yes, he was Andrew's favourite blogger even before he wrote about our paper!)
• 23/05/2008: The New York Times reported on our shrimp paper! See A different viewpoint in the Science Section.
• 20/05/2008: Jeepers creepers! Scientific American reports again on the shrimp paper, Mantis Shrimp Has Built-In Shades.
• 19/05/2008: Well we're tickled pink that our shrimp paper has made been reported in the National Geographic, or at least their website! See, "Weird Beastie" Shrimp Have Super-Vision.
• 19/05/2008: Well that was fun! Andrew was just interviewed about the shrimp by Red Symons for ABC Melbourne's morning radio show. Best, and most unexpected, question: "What would you do if you had genital-fingers?..." :)
• 17/05/2008: Sonja's got a great interview with Bob McDonald on the Canadian radio show, Quirks and Quarks, Mantis Shrimp's Super Sight, have a listen!
• 15/05/2008: ...And now there's a Softpedia article on our shrimp vision paper, Shrimp See All Types of Polarized Light. It's nicely written, but gets the same quote wrong as the Physics World article ... hmm!
• 15/05/2008: Gosh, a lot of people are interested in shrimp. There's an article in today's Science Daily, Weird Shrimp Has Astounding Vision, a lovely and comprehensive article in today's Physics World and Optics.org (although they do get one quote wrong!), Shrimp see a polarized world, and even a report in MSNBC, Giant shrimp can see beyond the rainbow.
• 14/05/2008: There's an article on our shrimp paper in the Nature blog The Great Beyond, Shrimp's super sight (also see the Scintilla link); at The Press Association, Shrimp with super-vision revealed; at UnderwaterTimes.com, Scientists: Mantis Shrimps See Beyond The Rainbow; 'A Completely New Concept Of Polarization Vision'; at Scientific Frontline, Scientists find weird shrimp has astounding vision; and even at The Today Show, Giant shrimp can see beyond the rainbow.
• 14/05/2008: Well that's nice! Our paper on optimal polarisation vision in shrimp is the number one pick in the blog by the PLoS ONE online manager, A blog around the clock.
• 14/05/2008: Our paper on The Secret World of Shrimps: Polarisation Vision at Its Best appeared today in PLoS ONE. Weird little beasties they are!
• 20/05/2008: Jeepers creepers! Scientific American reports again on the shrimp paper, Mantis Shrimp Has Built-In Shades.
• 13/05/2008: There's a nice article in the Discover magazine blog on our shrimp paper, Freaky Shrimp Species Has Singular Sight, and in Reuters, Shrimp can see beyond the rainbow, which has also been picked up by Scientific American.
• 24/04/2008: We seem to be tickling Dave Bacon's title bone, he once again quite likes the title of one of our recent arxiv papers, this time The secret world of shrimps: polarisation vision at its best. (He also thinks it's fascinating, which again is nice!)
• 04/04/2008: Today's Physics Arxiv Blog has a nice discussion of our higher dimension quantum computing paper: Qutrit breakthrough brings quantum computers closer.
• 03/04/2008: Dave Bacon (aka the Quantum Pontiff) quite likes the title of our recent arxiv paper Quantum computing using shortcuts through higher dimensions. (He also likes the paper as well, which is nice!)
• 26/02/2008: Today's PhysOrg has a nice article on our qubit-qutrit experiment: Physicists Demonstrate Qubit-Qutrit Entanglement.

2007

• 15/12/2007: Despite what you may read, quantum computing will not enable anyone to transmit information faster than the speed of light. You can find an overview of our experiment and its possible implications at quantum.info/shors.
• 14/12/2007: ZDNet in Asia and Australia have an article our on Shor's experiment. Some corrections: it's more correct to say that the information needed to describe n entangled qubits grows exponentially, not the number of states; and we are funded in part by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, IARPA, not by DARPA. It's easy to see how these things can get confused!
• 14/12/2007: Cool! Our work our Shor's experiment made it into Neatorama!
• 11/12/2007: Today's PhysOrg has a nice article on our Shor's experiment: Physicists perform the first ever quantum calculation.
• 8/12/2007: There's a nice article by Davide Castelvecchi on our Shor's experiment in today's Science News.
• 30/11/2007: An article has appeared in today's Innovations Report on our forthcoming Physical Review Letter on an Experimental demonstration of Shor's algorithm with quantum entanglement.
• 18/9/2007: Gosh, more coverage! There's an article about our paper on Shor's algorithm in today's Brisbane Times, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. As we say below, our experiment is interesting in that it demonstrates every stage of Shor's algorithm, particularly the entangling step. It is not scalable in itself, but there is a in- principle path to scalability which we and our colleagues are investigating to see if and when that's going to be feasible. As Ben Lanyon says "it was incredibly hard to do" ... so RSA Security don't need to worry just yet!
• 14/9/2007: Despite the title of today's Ars Technica article, we'd just like to make it clear that we have never burnt through any graduate students, although we have on occasion fed them too much coffee. (Indeed, working in a dark lab we try not to let our researchers near bright light, get them wet, and most importantly, never feed them after midnight...)
• 14/9/2007: The Register in the UK have a slightly breathless view of our Shor's paper. Our work does not pose a threat to current, everyday, cryptography, since the time scale for such quantum computation is closer to decades than months, and may not even be based on our research! It's just too early to tell for sure. You only need to worry about quantum computation today if you are prime-number encrypting and publicly sending messages that you still want to be secret 20 years from now (i.e. you are paranoid or a government ... ahem.) On the other hand, this is the first time our work has been directly compared to a James Bond film ...
• 13/9/2007: Well that didn't take long! Slashdot covers the New Scientist article which covers our arXiv paper which is still with the referees...
• 13/9/2007: In today's New Scientist there is an article, Quantum threat to our secret data, prompted in part by our recent arXiv paper, Experimental demonstration of Shor's algorithm with quantum entanglement. It's probably far too soon to talk about threats! What's interesting is that our experiment demonstrated every stage of Shor's algorithm. It is not scalable in itself, but there is a in-principle path to scalability which we and our colleagues are investigating to see if and when that's going to be feasible.
• 12/9/2007: There's a nice write-up of our work in today's New Scientist blog, How a quantum computer factorises numbers, which says "Today, New Scientist reveals details of a device that may go down in history as the forerunner of the quantum computer." Gosh!
• 15/6/2007: Happy Magna Carta Day! In PhysOrg today there's a nice interview with Kevin Resch, Super resolution phase measurements – without entanglement.

2006 and earlier...

18. Nick Miller, Heading in the Light Direction, Sydney Morning Herald (3 Oct 2006); Heading in the Light Direction, The Age (3 Oct 2006).
17. Robyn Williams, Quantum Computing, Science Show (7 May 2005).
16. Jennifer Dudley, Einstein's next quantum leap, Courier Mail (17 Mar. 2005).
15. Duncan McKimm, Quantum entanglement, ABC Science (Nov. 2004).
14. Damian Pope, Quantum Leap for Computing, Australasian Science, (Jan./Feb. 2004).
13. Light work of quantum computers, Monitor 28, 2 (Dec. 2003).
12. Quantum computing breakthrough, The R & D Review, (Dec. 2003/Jan. 2004)
11. Peter McCutcheon, Brisbane team leads ground-breaking project, The 7:30 Report (11 Dec. 2003).
10. Heather Catchpole, Spooky bits propel quantum computer, ABC Science Online (25 Nov. 2003).
9. Ian Townsend, Quantum computer in development, ABC PM Programme (24 Nov. 2003).

8. Jenny Hogan, Optical gate kick-starts quantum computer race, New Scientist, p. 27 (22 Nov. 2003).
7. Richard Chirgwin, Interview: UQ's Dr Andrew White - Quanta, Photons, and Things Hard to See,, Commsworld, (21 Nov. 2003).
6. Richard Chirgwin, Untangling Quantum Computing at Queensland Uni - An Open and Shut Gate, Commsworld, (20 Nov. 2003).
5. Damian Pope, What Makes a Quantum Computer Tick, Australasian Science, (20 Nov. 2003).
4. Paul C. W. Davies. Thanked for discussions in How to build a time machine, (Allen Lane/Penguin, ISBN: 0713995831, Nov. 2001).
3. D. S. Burgess, Secretive Photons Create Unbreakable Codes, Photonics Spectra, pp. 48-50 (August 2000).
2. J. Glanz, In the Quantum World, Keys to New Codes, The New York Times (Tuesday, May 2, 2000).
1. P. F. Schewe and B. J. Stein, Exploiting quantum "spookiness" to create secret codes, Physics News Update, The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics, Number 480 (Apr. 24, 2000).

© 2010 Andrew White | Last updated 21 Jan 2010