Quantum computing is moving beyond demonstrations of abstract algorithms and toward a more consequential scientific objective, using quantum processors to reproduce and predict the behavior of physical systems that are extraordinarily difficult for classical computers to model. Two recent advances illustrate this transition from theory to application. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Washington have demonstrated a more efficient method for preparing...

Quantum sensing is moving toward a new class of materials that could make chemical detection more sensitive, selective, and adaptable. In a research advance reported in 2026, an international team involving the University of Glasgow, the University of Tokyo, the University of Sheffield, Kobe University, and other institutions demonstrated optical readout of electron spin resonance inside a metal-organic framework, a porous crystalline material engineered at the molecular level. Published in...

The next major transformation in Internet security may not be visible to most users. Websites will continue to display familiar padlock icons, applications will continue establishing encrypted connections, and browsers will continue validating digital certificates. Underneath that familiar experience, however, the cryptographic machinery that makes HTTPS trustworthy is beginning to undergo a fundamental redesign. Cloudflare has announced plans to become a public certificate authority while...