New device lengthens the life of quantum information

For the first time, researchers have crossed the ‘break even’ point in preserving a bit of quantum information for longer than the lifetime of its constituent parts. They have created a novel system to encode, spot errors, decode, and correct errors in a quantum bit, also known as a ‘qubit.’ The development of such a robust method of Quantum Error Correction has been one of the biggest remaining hurdles in quantum computation.