The modern battery has come a long way in its 224-year history. In the place of Alessandro Volta’s piles of metal disks and brine-soaked cloth, we now have batteries the dimensions of a graham cracker that can last days before needing a recharge.
If you’ve ever wondered what quantum computers actually do, you’re not alone. The truth is, no one knows what modern problems this technology can solve. Google launched a multi-year, global competition on Monday to find real-world use cases for quantum computing, and the finalists will split $5 million.
The quantum world operates by different rules than the classical one we buzz around in, allowing the fantastical to the bizarrely normal. Physicists have described using quantum entanglement to simulate a closed timelike curve—in layman’s terms, time travel.