I work for a company that has always been committed to research and innovation as a form of economic growth. Investing in research is investing in the future.

We have recently invested a lot of money in a start-up founded by young scientists who are making important progress in the field of quantum cryptography.

Committing to technologies that are not yet mature is clearly a risk, but doing it before everyone else maximises your profits if you succeed.

I am a partner in a small family business that makes furniture. A few years ago, I had solar panels fitted on the roof of the unit we use as a factory and warehouse. At that time, I found out a lot of information about it and was surprised to discover that it is quantum physics that explains the rules that underpin their operation!

Who would have thought quantum technology would help me save money as I helped save the planet?

I am an architect. With climate change, energy efficiency is one of my biggest concerns when designing buildings heating and cooling account for a huge part of a building's carbon footprint. I recently attended a conference where researchers presented new quantum-designed materials that can switch between transparent and opaque depending on temperature, drastically reducing the need for air conditioning.​

I had never connected quantum physics to architecture before. It made me realise how far the ripple effects of fundamental research can reach.

We cannot describe the properties of two entangled particles separately.

If we measure the polarisation of a photon (the plane of oscillation of a light wave), the polarisation of the entangled photon will also be instantly determined!

We can only entangle quantum particles, which we can use to teleport information, for example.

Applications: this is the basis for most of the new quantum technologies, such as computing and cryptography.

Quantum physics describes microscopic systems, while classical physics explains the behaviour of everyday objects. How and why quantum effects disappear at large scales remains an open question. Understanding this limit is crucial both for fundamental science and for engineering, because quantum technologies must preserve quantum behaviour while interacting with a classical environment.​

ICFO hosts some of the coldest places on Earth, where atoms are cooled to temperatures just hundredths of a nanokelvin above absolute zero, colder than deep space. ​

Only a few laboratories in the world can reproduce such extreme condition strapping atoms in small vacuum chambers to study the fragile quantum properties that emerge when matter is as cold and still as possible. 

Photo: One of the ICFO labs where atoms are cooled to close to absolute zero.

Quantum physics has enabled us to better understand the properties of many materials, such as semiconductors, but there are some we do not understand because the calculations we would have to perform to understand them are too complex, even for the most powerful computers.

As we wait for the arrival of quantum computers, we can start using simple quantum systems that we can precisely control in a lab, such as a cloud of cold atoms, which behave like the more complex systems we want to study. These are quantum simulators, which promise to help us understand materials that are interesting for their technological applications, such as superconductors.

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) allows two distant users to generate a shared secret key using quantum states of light. Any attempt to eavesdrop on the communication inevitably disturbs these states and can therefore be detected. ​

QKD systems are already being deployed in secure communication networks for governments, banks, and critical infrastructures, and are being brought to the market by companies such as LuxQuanta, an ICFO spin‑off developing practical quantum‑safe communication solutions.​

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We often feel that quantum physics is extremely difficult to understand and this frequently leads to misunderstandings.

Is it really that complex, compared with other disciplines such as astronomy and chemistry, or does it simply appear like that because its basic concepts are counterintuitive?

Why should we be more surprised by the random nature of quantum physics than the existence of gravity?

In the 1960s, most futuristic representations of the years around 2000 included flying cars. Now, more than 20 years later, our expectations concerning the future have changed considerably.

Does it make sense to listen to people who promise us that their field of study will bring us the technology of the future? Can we really make predictions about the future of science and technology?

Their applications in all fields of human activity will radically change our lives, just as electricity and electronics once did. We must invest as much as we can in their development, to make them commercially viable as soon as possible. 

We should not be fooled by illusory promises. We have gone very far with traditional technologies and we still have a long way to go: we should keep the current investment in quantum technologies at the same level. Let scientists do their work and continue to research, focusing on maintaining and improving the technologies that we already have. 

Research into quantum physics and its applications is positive, but we currently have other far more important and pressing issues, such as hunger, poverty, wars and terrorism. Let us maintain research, but invest our money to find solutions to the major problems our society has today.  

Quantum technologies are very promising, but if they are to be effective, they require solid knowledge of their foundations. We should invest in fundamental research: a better understanding of the foundations of quantum physics will naturally lead to the development of its applications.