Tim H. Taminiau

Imagine two synthetic diamonds, each acting as a high-precision tuning fork. Inside the crystal lattice of each diamond sits a carbon-13 atom: this is a quantum bit, or qubit, the minimal unit of quantum information.

A spinning top, set in motion on a perfect surface, topples from the slightest tremor. Likewise, a quantum bit, created at a defect in a diamond, has its state destroyed by magnetic disorder from impurities and external interference.