Diamonds: not forever, but long enough for quantum computing

Quantum computing is a very promising field that could, theoretically, offer dramatic improvements on our current computing abilities. The catch is that "quantum states," basically the particle-specific variables that carry the information, are very fragile. What's more, they don't last for very long -- until now. Harvard scientists have demonstrated that, using diamond as the medium, they can store quantum information for more than a second without cooling. Though this may not seem so impressive, the previous room-temperature record was on the order of milliseconds. The "room temperature" part is important, and the abstract released today in Science hints at the relevance of this research: "The versatility, robustness, and potential scalability of this system may allow for new applications in quantum information science."