Hear ye: the British Crown is investing in quantum computing! Such is one of the items in the budget revision of Her Majesty’s government aimed at thwarting the recession undermining the economy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The budget allocation of approximately £270 million over five years will be shared by five research centers dedicated to these new technologies (“Quantum Technology Centers”) and backed by the country’s major universities. Note that a specialized institute bearing the name Peter Higgs will also be created in Edinburgh.

Following NASA’s and Google’s investment in the D-Wave 2 ma-chine, it’s now Britain’s turn to secure a position in the qubits ap-proach and attempt to make it a national specialty. Although quantum computing is advancing slowly, it is still one of the main disruptive technologies on the horizon. Knowing that a quantum machine can simultaneously represent a theoretically unlimited number of states, the application potential is immense, particularly in the field of cryptography. Hence the quip by many analysts that “Quantum is our big brother.”