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The first simulation using a quantum computer has been carried out (Physical
Review Letters, vol 82, p 5381). Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico modelled the
behaviour of a quantum particle trapped in a well. The machine uses the strange
rules of the quantum world to carry out many calculations at the same time. The
bits of quantum information, or qubits, are stored using the spins of atoms in
molecules of 2,3-dibromothiophene and the calculation is controlled by
manipulating those spins with a magnetic field.