Christopher Booker: In 1957 a Russian satellite called Sputnik ushered in the
space age when it orbited the earth for the first time. Few may realize it, but
a Chinese satellite launched in 2016 may have a similar scientific
significance. It’s the world’s first satellite containing quantum communication
technology
Christopher
Booker: It's been called
quantum's Sputnik moment. Why is that?
David Awschalom: Well, I think it was an awakening in many areas of the
government to note that it was technologically possible.
Christopher
Booker: University of Chicago
professor David Awschalom has spent a great deal of
time thinking about that awakening… not about the satellite itself, but how,
after decades of investment in quantum research, US capabilities have been
surpassed.
David Awschalom: To put a satellite in orbit that could send entangled particles
of light to ground stations 1,000 kilometers apart.. It's an
extraordinary technological achievement.
Christopher
Booker: The launch is a giant
leap forward in a global race to develop technology that exploits the
principles of quantum mechanics. Those are the governing behaviors of the
smallest particles in the universe.
David Awschalom: The fact that we can control the quantum properties of
individual atoms, electrons, nuclei, even photons, will lead to lots and lots
of new applications, from new types of medical diagnostics, to new types of
sensors, to encrypted and safe communications, to advanced types of computing.
Christopher
Booker: And this is what the
Chinese satellite did. Beaming light particles called photons back to earth, it
demonstrated that impenetrable, encrypted
communication might now be possible.
David Awschalom: One of the odd things about these quantum states, is the act of
looking changes them. So you might think that’s a liability, but for secure co mmunication, that's an asset. If you send me a quantum
state, and somebody attempts to eavesdrop, you'll change the message.
You'll actually destroy the message
Christopher
Booker: So as an outside
viewer, if we were to try to look at that transmission, the state would change?
David Awschalom: Correct.
Christopher
Booker: We wouldn’t be able
to interpret what it was saying?
David Awschalom: Correct. This is one of the unusual, weird
properties of quantum mechanics that make it very difficult to grasp, for any
us.
Christopher
Booker: Difficult to grasp …
or even harder than that. After all, the words of the most famous American-born
physicist of the 20th Century, Richard Feynman, still resonate more than 50
years after he said them:
Richard
Feynman: ...I think I can
safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics [audience laughter]
David Awschalom: It's complicated in the sense that it's extremely
non-intuitive. It's counter-intuitive. We don't see this in our world today,
right? We don't see the properties of matter that could allow you to walk
through a wall.
Christopher
Booker: Wait a minute, properties
that would allow us to walk through a wall?
David Awschalom: In the quantum world, that's allowed with a certain
probability. In our world, in the classical world, that doesn't happen. That
can't happen to you. T his type of interactions been
happening in the atomic world forever. It's how matter is put together. It's
how matter interacts. It's the-- potentially the puzzle pieces that keep our
world together.
David Awschalom: this clean room is one of the best in the country.
Christopher
Booker: For decades, the US
has been working on this puzzle, spending around $200 million a year in
research and development grants. That sounds like a lot.
But in recent years, many other developed nations have launched
national quantum initiatives - pumping billions into programs of their own.
Most notably China - while the exact number is not known, some estimates
put their investment at tens of billions of dollars.
David Awschalom: China has launched a major program, Europe, Japan, Australia,
Canada, So, I don't believe the United States is behind. But I think the United
States will have formidable competition.
Christopher
Booker: Last December,
Congress approved a slight expansion of US efforts -
establishing the National Quantum Initiative Act committing nearly $1.3 billion
dollars of federal money to the research of quantum information science over
the next five years. The act also establishes a federal strategy to coordinate
research already taking place in universities and private industry.
But if the US hopes to build those quantum products of the
future, Awschalom says funding is not the only issue;
The country will need to dramatically increase the number quantum scientists.
David Awschalom: “Well, without a workforce, it won’t happen. We need to train
students that are both comfortable with these new experimental techniques,
develop new microscopes, new ways to look at matter and essentially bring
industry up to speed. Translate these ideas into a larger setting. So they’re
absolutely critical.
Christopher
Booker: There
is also a fairly long turnaround time because the students that we train today,
we are talking almost a ten year development period?
David Awschalom: It is important to appreciate that. A graduate phd program is 5 to 6 years, then
there are couple of years of lag time, so If we don’t start now, we will be a
decade behind. It is very important to launch this now.
David Awschalom: So the yellow light is designed so they can make smaller
circuits.
Christopher
Booker: In 2013, when the
University of Chicago convinced Awschalom to move his
Quantum laboratory from the University of California at Santa Barbara to its
new Institute for Molecular Engineering housed in a $300 million
state-of-the-art building - - he brought 12 graduate students with him
and was one of only 4 professors. But today, with university, federal, and
corporate, and donor funding, the Institute has expanded exponentially, just
hiring its 31st full-time professor and teaching 128 graduate students.
In May, after receiving a $100 million gift - the institute
became the nation’s first school dedicated entirely to molecular engineering.
But Awschalom says the US will need thousands of quantum engineers
if it hopes to outpace the efforts of foreign competitors and it will need the
help of private industry, which the University of Chicago partners with.
David Awschalom: Some major American companies like Google, and IBM, and Microsoft,
and Intel, all now have quantum programs. So it's beginning to move.
People are seeing real systems being built.
Christopher
Booker: In addition to
advanced encryption, Awschalom says applications of
quantum technology will include exponential increases in computing speed, as
well as the development of precise medical diagnostic tools.
David Awschalom: So Imagine putting a sensor in a living cell, watching
information moving through the membrane, measuring the temperature of the cell
precisely. Look at the effect of a pharmaceutical in a biological system.It would revolutionize areas of medicine and
healthcare.
Christopher
Booker: But Awschalom says that the biggest advances from quantum
technology will likely be beyond what we can imagine today.
David Awschalom: You know, we're just at the beginning. And, you know, a nice
parallel is when you think about the electronics technology. We're at the stage
of the first transistor being developed. That’s the way a lot of us like to
think about it and it's hard to imagine when people built the first transistor
that was about the size of your thumb that there'd be hundreds of millions of
them in an iPhone, It's very hard to predict where these things will go.
And I think many of us will not be the users of quantum technology. It will be
the next generation.
Christopher
Booker: With the space race,
it was identifiable to everyone. We're going to send a rocket to space. We're
going to put a person on the moon. This isn't like that…
David Awschalom: Well, in-- in a way it is. In a way it isn't. What I found--
extraordinary about the space race is a decision was made to go to the moon,
not really knowing how to do it, but with the confidence that, when problems
would appear, they would be solved. So quantum technology, I view a
little bit of that. There are challenges but I’m very confident the community
will overcome them. And I think in the end it will end up being more exciting
then we envision today.
####
|
TIMECODE |
LOWER
THIRD |
1 |
0:05 |
1957 |
2 |
0:14 |
2016 |
3 |
2:16 |
1964 |
4 |
2:28 |
DAVID AWSCHALOM INSTITUTE FOR MOLECULAR ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO |