From Schrödinger’s cat to Einstein’s spooky science, Britain is joining the race to build the strangest computer ever imagined.
The UK has entered a new technology race. It is not about a faster phone, a thinner laptop, or another app that wants to send you notifications. This race is much stranger. It is colder than space, powered by the weirdest rules in physics, and it could change medicine, security, finance, energy and artificial intelligence. Welcome to the quantum revolution.
The British Government has committed £2.5 billion over ten years to support quantum technologies. That sounds like a headline number, but the idea behind it is simple: if quantum computers become useful, the countries that understand them early could have a serious advantage.
Britain already has strong foundations. The National Quantum Computing Centre at Harwell is designed to bring researchers, businesses and government together. Around it, universities and companies are building one of the most interesting quantum ecosystems in Europe.
Names such as Quantinuum, Riverlane, Oxford Quantum Circuits, Oxford Ionics, ORCA Computing, Quantum Motion and Phasecraft may not be household names yet. But in the quantum world, these are the kind of companies people are watching closely. Some are building the machines. Some are building the software. Some are trying to stop the machines making mistakes. In other words, they are all trying to turn science fiction into engineering.
QUANTUM IN PLAIN ENGLISH
- A normal computer uses bits: 1s and 0s.
- A quantum computer uses qubits, which can behave like a mix of possibilities before they are measured.
- Quantum computers will not be better at everything, but they could be incredible at some very hard problems.
- Some quantum chips are kept close to -273°C, colder than deep space.
- Google once showed a quantum calculation taking about 200 seconds, compared with an early estimate of 10,000 years on a classical supercomputer.
WHY THIS IS SO STRANGE
Your laptop is already amazing. It can stream films, edit photos, run games and lose important files in places you are certain you never saved them. But at the deepest level it is still working with simple choices: 1 or 0, on or off, yes or no.
Quantum computers do not play by those simple rules. Their building blocks are called qubits. A qubit can behave as if it is holding more than one possibility at the same time, until we look at it and force an answer. This is called superposition, but the word matters less than the idea: nature can keep possibilities open in a way ordinary computers cannot.
Imagine trying to find your way out of a huge maze. A normal computer would test one route, then another, then another. A quantum computer is not literally walking every route at once, but its maths lets it explore patterns in a completely different way. For the right problems, that difference could be enormous.
A quantum computer is not just a faster laptop. It is a different way of asking nature for an answer.
SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT, WITHOUT UPSETTING THE CAT
The most famous quantum story is Schrödinger’s cat. In 1935, physicist Erwin Schrödinger imagined a cat sealed in a box with a quantum trigger. In the popular version, until the box is opened, the cat is treated as both alive and dead.
Do not worry. No sensible scientist is recommending this as a pet-care strategy. Schrödinger created the idea to show how strange quantum theory becomes when we try to picture it in everyday life.
A qubit is a little like that cat. Not because it has whiskers, but because before it is measured, it can hold a strange blend of possible states. Once you check it, you get a definite result. That is part of what makes quantum computing feel like magic, even though it is real physics.
EINSTEIN AND THE SPOOKY BIT
Then there is entanglement. This is when two quantum particles are linked in a way that feels almost impossible. Measure one, and the other is connected to the result, even if it is far away.
Einstein did not like how strange this sounded. He famously described it as spooky action at a distance. To be clear, it does not let you send WhatsApp messages faster than light. Sadly, it also will not fix poor office Wi-Fi. But it is real, it has been tested many times, and it is one of the reasons quantum computers are so exciting.
THE 200 SECONDS THAT MADE PEOPLE STOP AND STARE
One of the most famous quantum moments came in 2019. Google’s Sycamore quantum processor completed a very specialised calculation in about 200 seconds. At the time, Google estimated that a leading classical supercomputer would need around 10,000 years to do the same job.
That comparison came with important warnings. The task was built to show quantum advantage, not to solve something useful like curing cancer or finding your missing TV remote. Later, better classical methods also reduced the gap. Still, 200 seconds versus 10,000 years is the kind of number that makes even very serious scientists raise an eyebrow.
It showed that quantum machines are not just fantasy. They are early, fragile and difficult, but they are starting to do things that ordinary computers find extremely hard.
A TINY CHIP INSIDE A GIANT FRIDGE
Many quantum computers look nothing like a normal computer. They often look like a shiny golden chandelier hanging inside a science-fiction refrigerator. The actual quantum chip can be tiny, but it needs a huge cooling system to keep it stable.
Some of these machines work close to absolute zero, around -273°C. That is colder than deep space. At those temperatures, tiny quantum effects can be protected for just long enough to do calculations.
This is also why quantum computers are so hard to build. Heat, vibration, electrical noise and tiny errors can ruin the calculation. A normal computer bit is like a light switch. A qubit is more like balancing a soap bubble on a guitar string during a thunderstorm.
WHY COMPANIES CARE
The interest is not only academic. Medicine companies hope quantum computers may one day help study molecules faster. Energy researchers hope they could help design better batteries or solar materials. Banks and logistics firms care because they spend their lives trying to optimise complex systems. Security teams care because powerful future quantum machines could challenge parts of today’s encryption.
THE BRITISH NAMES TO WATCH
Quantinuum works on quantum hardware and software, with roots connected to Cambridge Quantum. Oxford Quantum Circuits is building superconducting quantum computers. Riverlane, based in Cambridge, is trying to solve one of the biggest headaches in the field: errors.
Oxford Ionics, ORCA Computing, Quantum Motion and Phasecraft are also part of the story. They use different approaches, which is important because nobody knows yet which technology will win. The quantum race is a bit like the early days of aviation, when everyone agreed flying was possible, but nobody had settled on exactly what the perfect aircraft should look like.
That makes the UK quantum scene exciting. It is not one laboratory with one machine. It is a growing mix of scientists, engineers, start-ups, universities, national labs and investors, all trying to answer the same question: can we make quantum computing genuinely useful?
WILL IT REPLACE TODAY’S COMPUTERS?
Probably not in the simple way people imagine. You will not want a room-sized quantum fridge just to write an email, stream a film or fight with a printer driver. Classical computers are brilliant at everyday jobs, and they will remain essential.
But saying quantum computers will never change ordinary technology would be risky. People once thought home computers were a niche hobby. Then smartphones swallowed cameras, maps, music players, wallets, calendars, torches and much of our spare time.
The more likely future is teamwork. Classical computers may continue doing everyday tasks, while quantum computers handle special jobs in the background. The first quantum computer you use may not be in your house at all. It may be hidden in the cloud, helping a bank, hospital, research lab or AI system solve a problem too difficult for normal machines.
THE STRANGE PROMISE
Quantum computing is still young. It is not ready to replace your laptop, and nobody should pretend every problem will be solved next Tuesday. But the promise is huge. If useful quantum computers arrive, they could help humanity design better medicines, stronger materials, cleaner energy systems and safer digital security.
That is why the UK is taking it seriously. The quantum revolution may not arrive with flashing lights and a robot voice. It may arrive quietly, inside research centres, cloud platforms and specialist labs, helping solve problems that once looked impossible.
And if, one day, your grandchildren ask why people ever doubted quantum computers, just tell them the truth: we were still trying to fix the printer. Compared with that, Schrödinger’s cat was the easy part.
Source notes and further reading
• UK Government, National Quantum Strategy, 2023 and updates.
• National Quantum Computing Centre and UKRI information pages.
• Nature, Google Quantum AI, “Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor”, 2019.
• Company information from Quantinuum, Riverlane and Oxford Quantum Circuits.
• General background on Schrödinger’s cat, superposition, entanglement and Einstein’s comments on quantum mechanics.
