While quantum computers exist in the lab, general-purpose quantum computers aren’t yet available for commercial use. How can businesses respond to potential disruptions from this technology before it has actually emerged into the mainstream market? One company that has been investing substantially into quantum computing is Infosys, and so the authors reached out to several researchers and business leaders at the company to learn more about their work. They found that Infosys has taken a hybrid approach, blending elements of classical and quantum computing in order to build a bridge from the reality of today to the disruptive technologies of tomorrow. This has helped the company make headway in leveraging quantum technology in a variety of applications, including optimization problems, machine learning, and cybersecurity. While there’s still a long way to go when it comes to developing and applying quantum tech, a hybrid approach is enabling companies to serve customers today, while getting a leg up on the future — even if some of the technology involved is still catching up....

Despite the extraordinary pressures of adapting to the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic, learners have increasingly sought out MITx courses as a way to stay intellectually active, work toward longstanding goals, and affect change in themselves and in the world around them. MITx courses have seen over 500,000 enrollments since the start of the pandemic. “It’s been humbling to witness the role our courses have played in learners’ lives these past few months,” says Dana Doyle, director of the MITx Program. “The number of people who are using their time at home to learn something new or make a change in their lives is inspiring.” MITx instructors and staff have heard from learners from over a dozen countries across the globe, sharing their experiences during the pandemic. Some have used MITx courses to rediscover subjects they had once been passionate about; some are leveraging a career change; still others hope to pass on new knowledge to the next generation. The following represent just a few of their stories....

From gene mapping to space exploration, humanity continues to generate ever-larger sets of data — far more information than people can actually process, manage, or understand. Machine learning systems can help researchers deal with this ever-growing flood of information. Some of the most powerful of these analytical tools are based on a strange branch of geometry called topology, which deals with properties that stay the same even when something is bent and stretched every which way. Such topological systems are especially useful for analyzing the connections in complex networks, such as the internal wiring of the brain, the U.S. power grid, or the global interconnections of the Internet. But even with the most powerful modern supercomputers, such problems remain daunting and impractical to solve. Now, a new approach that would use quantum computers to streamline these problems has been developed by researchers at MIT, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Southern California....

Nearly 150 years ago, the physicist James Maxwell proposed that a circular lens that is thickest at its center, and that gradually thins out at its edges, should exhibit some fascinating optical behavior. Namely, when light is shone through such a lens, it should travel around in perfect circles, creating highly unusual, curved paths of light. He also noted that such a lens, at least broadly speaking, resembles the eye of a fish. The lens configuration he devised has since been known in physics as Maxwell’s fish-eye lens — a theoretical construct that is only slightly similar to commercially available fish-eye lenses for cameras and telescopes. Now scientists at MIT and Harvard University have for the first time studied this unique, theoretical lens from a quantum mechanical perspective, to see how individual atoms and photons may behave within the lens. In a study published Wednesday in Physical Review A, they report that the unique configuration of the fish-eye lens enables it to guide single photons through the lens, in such a way as to entangle pairs of atoms, even over relatively long distances....