Quantum mechanics features in parallel science news

Parallel projects carried out separately in Germany and the US have brought quantum mechanics into the latest science news surrounding data encryption.

The potential applications of quantum mechanics in disciplines such as cryptography stem from the ability of qubits to hold a superposition of the on and off states which conventional storage bits must select only one of.

As a result, quantum computers could be vastly more powerful than their conventional equivalents.

The latest science news from Germany's Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich is that scientists have discovered a way to detect pairs of parameters subject to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle more accurately than it should allow.

Using quantum memory which employs atoms or ions, the scientists stored information about quantum particles that allowed Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle to be overcome.

Meanwhile, at the University of California - Los Angeles, researchers have developed a form of quantum cryptography based solely on location.

This means that messages can be encoded in such a way that they could only be unencrypted at the desired geographical position.