NIST physicist David Wineland adjusts an ultraviolet laser beam used
to manipulate ions in a high-vacuum apparatus containing an "ion trap." These
devices have been used to demonstrate the basic operations required for a
quantum computer. Such computers, by relying on quantum mechanics rather than
transistors to perform calculations or store information, could someday solve
problems in seconds that would take months on today's best supercomputers.
For more information, see http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/factsheet/quantum.htm