Can quantum computers now solve health care problems? We'll soon find out.

I'm standing in front of a quantum computer built out of atoms and light at the UK's National Quantum Computing Centre on the outskirts of Oxford. On a laboratory table, a complex matrix of mirrors and lenses surrounds a Rubik's Cube-size cell where 100 cesium atoms are suspended in grid formation by a carefully manipulated laser beam. The cesium atom setup is so compact that I could pick it up, carry it out of the lab, and put it on the backseat of my car to take home. I'd be unlikely to get very far, though.