00:00While the world remains focused on artificial intelligence, AI, and the technology race is quite clearly gaining momentum behind the
00:07scenes.
00:08Quantum technologies are increasingly seen as the next major wave of innovations with the potential to transform everything from computing
00:17and cybersecurity to navigation and advanced materials.
00:21During a reporting tour organized by the U.S. Foreign Press Center titled The Next Frontier, How American Innovation Powers
00:29Global Commerce,
00:31Ezra Awani visited JILA at the University of Colorado, Boulder, one of the world's leading centers for quantum research.
00:41For Scott Sternberg, Executive Director of the Qubit Quantum Initiative, the success of research is not just measured solely by
00:48academic publications.
00:50Instead, it is determined by how effectively scientific discoveries can be translated into companies, jobs, and economic value.
00:58But during that period, we reported 35 startups that spun out of the university, a lot of them in the
01:04dark, in the deep, deep technology and biosciences spaces which will be a focus for today.
01:11Additionally, we, this past year, just announced our 11th Unicorn, and by definition, that Unicorn is a startup that spins
01:19out of the university and ultimately ranges over a billion dollars of valuation.
01:24So our 10th Unicorn was a quantum company called Inflection, and our most recent one is a company called Forge
01:33Nano, which is a semiconductor tool manufacturing company.
01:37And so we are very, very proud of the start of the goal.
01:40Meanwhile, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Professor Eric Cornell said advances in quantum science over the past two decades have opened
01:47up possibilities that once existed only in theory.
01:51So one thing I've learned is that things which were technologically impossible five years ago are possible now.
01:59I think about that.
02:00I've seen that cycle happen many times, and it makes me think things that were technologically impossible now may be
02:08possible soon.
02:08And that doesn't mean everything that's impossible now will be impossible soon.
02:13But it does suggest that one is likely to be surprised.
02:18So who knows what the future will bring, but my guess is some fairly astonishing things.
02:24However, he noted that quantum computing still faces significant technical challenges and is not yet ready to solve all today's
02:32computational problems.
02:33He added that technology is likely to deliver its first major impact in highly specialized and complex applications, with further
02:41advances expected over the next decade and beyond.
02:44Beyond quantum computing, a Malaysian PhD student from Penang, Tian Uy, is working on the development of a nuclear clock,
02:51a technology that could one day surpass the precision of today's atomic clocks.
02:55So the difference between nuclear and atomic clocks is basically that atomic clocks, which are currently the world's best timekeepers,
03:03are relying on electronic transitions within atoms like strontium, uterbium, or other things like that.
03:10However, the special thing about the nuclear clock is that it's based on a nuclear transition, which is happening in
03:15the nucleus of the atom, rather than the electron cloud around it.
03:19So what that does is it makes the nucleus a bit less sensitive to environmental perturbations compared to electronic transitions.
03:28And so you can do things like put the nuclear transition inside a solid-state crystal, which is what we
03:33do in our lab in the basement.
03:35The technology remains in the research stage, but it could pave the way for more accurate navigation systems, more sensitive
03:42sensors, and new insights into the fundamental laws of physics.
03:46As governments, universities, and investors pour resources into quantum research, many believe the industry is approaching a turning point similar
03:55to early days of the internet and artificial intelligence.
03:58The question now is no longer whether quantum technologies will shape the future, but how soon their impact will be
04:04felt across the global economy.
04:06Najib Arouf, Astro Awani, Boulder, Colorado.
