Better living through quantum chemistry

Efforts to invent more practical superconductors and better batteries could be the first areas of business to get a quantum speed boost. This month IBM and Google both said they aim to commercialize quantum computers within the next few years (Google specified five), selling access to the exotic machines in a new kind of cloud service. The competitors predict a new era in which computers are immensely more powerful, with dividends including more efficient routing for logistics and mapping companies, new forms of machine learning, better product recommendations, and improved diagnostic tests. But before any of that, the first quantum computer to start paying its way with useful work in the real world will probably do so by helping chemists trying to do things like improve batteries or electronics. So far, the early, small quantum computers researchers have sketched out in most detail seem best suited to simulating molecules and reactions.