That bottle was slightly premature, says Sam Braunstein of the University of Wales in Bangor. It doesn't need to have been quantum computation. That is bad news, because since a few years, computation using magnetic fields and chloroform is regarded as the most practical way to implement quantum computation. Chuang's tests of last year were considered a milestone, and his papers are already widely cited. Wrongly, as it now appears.
Quantum computation uses the inherent vagueness of the quantum world.
In that world, particles or molecules can exist in two or more states simultaneously. Only after a measurement they obtain one identity. By manipulating the particles, all the states can be addressed at the same time. That quantum mechanical disunity is exactly the promise which drives the research on quantum computers. What takes ages with conventional computers can theoretically be done on a quantum computer within reasonable time.