The next step for the labs is to figure out how to control and bottle this incredible force. Quantum basics For a non-scientist, understanding how quantum computing works is darn near impossible. But the basics are worth taking a stab at. Quantum computing's starting point came when physicists realized that atoms are naturally tiny little calculators. We just didn't know how to ask the right questions.
Atoms have a natural spin or orientation, in the way a needle on a compass has an orientation.
The spin can either be up or down. That coincides nicely with digital technology, which represents everything by a series of 1s and 0s. So far so good. But here's one of the weird parts, which also is the source of quantum computing's great power. An atom, which is not visible to the naked eye, can be both up and down at the same time until you measure it.