Hello,
there are some computing tasks and mathematical problems so hard and complicated that it would take today's most powerful supercomputers literally millions of years to crack them.
But in the next decade or so,
we're on course to creating a new kind of computer that could solve such problems extremely quickly.
Welcome to the new world of quantum computers,
whose tremendous power comes from exploiting the laws of nature that govern the weird behavior of atoms and subatomic particles,
the laws of quantum mechanics.
Sir Peter Knight, emeritus professor at Imperial College London,
is one of the UK's leading quantum physicists,
a pioneer of the fields of quantum optics and quantum information.
For more than five decades, Peter's research, along with his many leadership roles in UK science,
have helped to take these remarkable fields from the realms of the esoteric to the frontiers of a new technological age.
He's been the driving force behind the UK's National Quantum Technologies Program,
a £1 billion government-funded endeavour to put Britain at the forefront of the commercialisation of quantum computing.
along with a host of other incredible and revolutionary inventions.
I'm very pleased to say he's my guest today.
Peter Knight, welcome to the Life Scientific.
Well, thank you so much for inviting me here.
Peter, many listeners won't know this probably,
but the United Nations has designated 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.