Field Museum and Illinois Park explore quantum solutions

Nearly 40 million specimens and artifacts comprising the Field Museum’s collection may soon yield new insights through the power of quantum computing. Researchers at the Field Museum and the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park are collaborating to apply emerging quantum technologies to longstanding questions in natural history, initially focusing on the analysis of stardust, reconstruction of the tree of life and quantum biosensing. Philipp Heck, Senior Director of the Negaunee Integrative Research Center at the Field Museum, explained that stardust grains are “literally part of our origin story,” and quantum computing could allow scientists to determine their ages and formation histories without consuming the sample itself. This approach promises to unlock far more information from spectroscopic data than currently…