Published by Vintage, part of Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback
£9.99
Author:
George Johnson
Format: Paperback
EAN: 9780099452171
£9.99
Available for dispatch within 1-2 working days
EAN: 9780099452171
Published: 3 Jun 2004
The newest Pentium chip powering PCs and laptops contains 40 million electronic switches packed onto a piece of silicon about the size of a thumbnail. Several years from now, if this incredible shrinking continues, a single chip will hold a billion switches, then a trillion. The logical culmination is a computer in which the switches are so tiny that each consists of an individual atom. At that point something miraculous happens: quantum mechanics kick in.
Anyone who follows the science news or watches 'Star Trek' has at least a notion of what that means: particles can be in two or more places at once. Atoms obey a peculiar logic of their own - and if it can be harnessed society will be transformed. Problems that would now take forever would be solved almost instantly. Quantum computing promises nothing less than a shortcut through time.
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Fascinating and highly accessible... Unpicking the complexities of the subject is not easy, but Johnson has done a fine job of it... [An] excellent book
- Scotland on Sunday
Lucid and accessible... [Written with] a beguiling combination of clarity and enthusiasm
- New Scientist
Johnson is one of the best science journalists writing today
- Scientific American
George Johnson is a science writer for the New York Times. He is a former Alicia Patterson Fellow, a finalist for the prestigious Aventis Prize, and a recipient of the Science Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
