A mathematical breakthrough puts an end to the trendiest way of building a quantum computer. It turns out that 'Majorana modes' in superconductors are not elusive half-particles at all, but the same electrons with ordinary charge. The dance with braiding is not meant to be — at least for now.
🎯 The idea of using Majorana modes for quantum computing belongs to [scientist:Alexei Kitaev]Alexei Kitaev[/scientist] (2001). He showed how their 'braiding' could work as logical operations.