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IonQ is the only company that provides access to its quantum computing platform via both the Amazon Braket and Microsoft Azure clouds, as well as through direct API access.

FREMONT, CA: IonQ announced full integration of its quantum computing platform with Qiskit, an open-source quantum software development kit, or SDK. Qiskit users can now submit programs directly to IonQ's platform without writing any new code. Through the Qiskit Partner Program, this new integration makes IonQ's high-connectivity high-fidelity 11 qubit system available to the 275,000+ enterprise, government, startup, partner, and university members already using Qiskit to create and run quantum programs.

As part of the announcement, IonQ has released an open-source provider library that integrates seamlessly with Qiskit, which can be found on the Qiskit Partners GitHub organization or downloaded via The Python Package Index. Qiskit users with an IonQ account will be able to run their quantum programs on IonQ's cloud quantum computing platform with little to no modificationsimply change the code to point to the IonQ backend and run as usual.

"IonQ is excited to make our quantum computers and APIs easily accessible to the Qiskit community," said IonQ CEO & President Peter Chapman. "Open source has already revolutionized traditional software development. With this integration, we're bringing the world one step closer to the first generation of widely-applicable quantum applications."

This integration builds on IonQ's ongoing success. IonQ recently entered into a merger agreement with dMY Technology Group, Inc. III to go public at an expected valuation of approximately $2 billion. IonQ also recently released a product roadmap setting out its plans to develop modular quantum computers small enough to be networked together in 2023, which could pave the way for broad quantum advantage by 2025. Last year, the company unveiled a new $5.5 million, 23,000 square foot Quantum Data Center in Maryland's Discovery District and announced the development of the world's most powerful quantum computer, featuring 32 perfect atomic qubits with low gate errors and an expected quantum volume greater than 4,000,000.

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IonQ Announces Full Integration of its Quantum Computing Platform with Qiskit - CIO Applications

After a year in which scientists raced to understand Covid-19 and to develop treatments and vaccines to stop its spread, Cleveland Clinic is partnering with IBM to use next-generation technologies to advance healthcare research and potentially prevent the next public health crisis.

The two organizations on Tuesday announced the creation of the "Discovery Accelerator," which will apply technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence to pressing life sciences research questions. As part of the partnership, Cleveland Clinic will become the first private-sector institution to buy and operate an on-site IBM quantum computer, called the Q System One. Currently, such machines only exist in IBM labs and data centers.

Quantum computing is expected to expedite the rate of discovery and help tackle problems with which existing computers struggle.

The accelerator is part of Cleveland Clinic's new Global Center for Pathogen Research & Human Health, a facility introduced in January on the heels of a $500 million investment by the clinic, the state of Ohio and economic development nonprofit JobsOhio to spur innovation in the Cleveland area.

The new center is dedicated to researching and developing treatments for viruses and other disease-causing organisms. That will include some research on Covid-19, including why it causes ongoing symptoms (also called "long Covid") for some who have been infected.

"Covid-19 is an example" of how the center and its new technologies will be used, said Dr. Lara Jehi, chief research information officer at the Cleveland Clinic.

"But ... what we want is to prevent the next Covid-19," Jehi told CNN Business. "Or if it happens, to be ready for it so that we don't have to, as a country, put everything on hold and put all of our resources into just treating this emergency. We want to be proactive and not reactive."

Quantum computers process information in a fundamentally different way from regular computers, so they will be able to solve problems that today's computers can't. They can, for example, test multiple solutions to a problem at once, making it possible to come up with an answer in a fraction of the time it would take a different machine.

Applied to healthcare research, that capability is expected to be useful for modeling molecules and how they interact, which could accelerate the development of new pharmaceuticals. Quantum computers could also improve genetic sequencing to help with cancer research, and design more efficient, effective clinical trials for new drugs, Jehi said.

Ultimately, Cleveland Clinic and IBM expect that applying quantum and other advanced technologies to healthcare research will speed up the rate of discovery and product development. Currently, the average time from scientific discovery in a lab to getting a drug to a patient is around 17 years, according to the National Institutes of Health.

"We really need to accelerate," Jehi said. "What we learned with the Covid-19 pandemic is that we cannot afford, as a human race, to just drop everything and focus on one emergency at a time."

Part of the problem: It takes a long time to process and analyze the massive amount of data generated by healthcare, research and trials something that AI, quantum computing and high-performance computing (a more powerful version of traditional computing) can help with. Quantum computers do that by "simulating the world," said Dario Gil, director of IBM Research.

"Instead of conducting physical experiments, you're conducting them virtually, and because you're doing them virtually through computers, it's much faster," Gil said.

For IBM, the partnership represents an important proof point for commercial applications of quantum computing. IBM currently offers access to quantum computers via the cloud to 134 institutions, including Goldman Sachs and Daimler, but building a dedicated machine on-site for one organization is a big step forward.

"What we're seeing is the emergency of quantum as a new industry within the world of information technology and computing," Gil said. "What we're seeing here in the context of Cleveland Clinic is ... a partner that says, 'I want the entire capacity of a full quantum computer to be [dedicated] to my research mission."

The partnership also includes a training element that will help educate people on how to use quantum computing for research which is likely to further grow the ecosystem around the new technology.

Cleveland Clinic and IBM declined to detail the cost of the quantum system being installed on the clinic's campus, but representatives from both organizations called it a "significant investment." Quantum computers are complex machines to build and maintain because they must be stored at extremely cold temperatures (think: 200 times colder than outer space).

The Cleveland Clinic will start by using IBM's quantum computing cloud offering while waiting for its on-premises machine to be built, which is expected to take about a year. IBM plans to later install at the clinic a more advanced version of its quantum computer once it is developed in the coming years.

Jehi, the Cleveland Clinic research lead, acknowledged that quantum computing technology is still nascent, but said the organization wanted to get in on the ground floor.

"It naturally needs nurturing and growing so that we can figure out what are its applications in healthcare," Jehi said. "It was important to us that we design those applications and we learn them ourselves, rather than waiting for others to develop them."

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Cleveland Clinic and IBM hope their tech partnership could help prevent the next pandemic - Action News Now

With much of the world steeped in data, where everything from refrigerators and watches to cars and surgical tools are connected to the internet via cloud computing, cryptography the basic building block of digital security has never been more important.

Encryption is one of the fundamental applications of cryptography, which converts information into what should be an unbreakable code, typically to prevent unauthorised access.

However, the rise of quantum computers, which are capable of breaking todays encryption protocols at a speed and scale beyond anything weve ever seen, according strategy advisory company the Future Today Institute, threatens to upend decades of encryption, posing unprecedented national security threats worldwide.

The lab in Abu Dhabi cannot be found anywhere else in the world

Dr Najwa Aaraj, Cryptography Research Centre

The UAE, which announced plans to build a quantum computer last month, has joined some of the worlds biggest economies in prioritising cryptography research the first country in the Middle East to do so.

The woman leading the UAEs cryptography plans says the level of research being conducted at the Abu Dhabi-based Technology Innovation Institute is unlike anywhere else in the world.

Speaking to The National, Dr Najwa Aaraj, who was appointed chief researcher at the Cryptography Research Centre at the Technology Innovation Institute last year, outlined her plans for the cutting-edge initiative that will give the UAE sovereignty over the future of its digital security.

I want the country to be known for this field, she said.

The Cryptography Research Centre is part of the Technology Innovation Institute in Masdar City, which focuses on applied research for Abu Dhabi government's Advanced Technology Research Council.

It is also one of the few centres of its kind to bring together theoretical and applied cryptographers from the public and private sector and from around the world.

Ms Aaraj, who got her PhD in information security from Princeton University in New Jersey, US, oversees the team of 50 and is actively hiring for about a dozen positions.

We assembled a team of professionals from across the global cryptography community to investigate the current and future challenges of digital society and to respond with practical solutions, Ms Aaraj said.

She said the qualities of the lab in Abu Dhabi cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

You get connected to the east, to the west, to the US, to Europe, and you can have really good collaboration.

"So at the end, the intellectual environment that I've had in Abu Dhabi and the UAE, I can confidently say, I haven't had it anywhere else, she said.

TII recently announced partnerships with Yale University in Connecticut, US, and a board of advisors from Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, the University of Toulouse and Computer Science at Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon in France, plusRuhr-University Bochum in Germany.

I still work with Princeton with my adviser on a few research topics, she added.

Last month, Ms Aarajs team introduced a software library to store algorithms capable of fighting off attacks in a post-quantum world.

Abu Dhabi's new library is a collection of algorithms to safeguard confidential data and information that aims to advance digital data security in the capital and the broader UAE.

TII's work focused on data confidentiality, integrity, authentication and privacy.

We have a very strong team here from Emirati talent and also global talent

Dr Najwa Aaraj

It was the second library of algorithms Ms Aarajs team has introduced. The first was the "national sovereign" crypto library, which is currently being integrated into digital infrastructure and multiple systems in the country.

Ms Aaraj said it is critical these algorithms, which can safeguard the UAE's data in sectors such as finance, defence and healthcare, are developed in-country and owned exclusively by the UAE.

Not having control over these data safeguards leaves countries vulnerable to an ever-increasing number of threats.

Abu Dhabi, which holds about 5.6 per cent of the worlds proven oil reserves, is positioning itself as a technology and industrial hub.

Earlier this month, Rashed Al Blooshi, undersecretary of Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, said the emirate is focused on a number of non-oil sectors including industry, agriculture, tourism, health and technology to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons.

Ms Aaraj is keen to support that mission, and confident she can deliver on growing the emirates technology sector.

We have a very strong team here from Emirati talent and also global talent. To actually be a hub and attract top experts in the field to come and work from here Im sure this will happen.

Countries like the US, France, the UK and China are pouring billions of dollars into preparing for a post-quantum future.

Governments are vying to attract talent and investment ahead of the first real-world quantum use cases, according to the Future Today Institute, which outlined national efforts.

The US passed the National Quantum Initiative Act in 2018, earmarking $1.2 billion for quantum research, and last year it rolled out five new quantum computing centres, including one at Brookhaven National Laboratory, in New York, to build new nuclear, chemical and physics applications.

Ahead of the curve is the UK, which launched its National Quantum Technologies Programme in 2013 and is now in its second phase, with $1.3bn in investment.

Germanys programme is funded at $2.4bn, according to the Future Today Institute.

In China, researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China, in Hefei, published a paper in the journal Science describing their quantum computer achieving speeds 10 billion times faster than Googles Sycamore quantum processor, which was the first to achieve quantum supremacy, in October 2019.

Physicists at Google said at the time that their 53-bit quantum computer calculated something that an ordinary computer even a very powerful one simply could not have completed.

Sycamore performed a challenging calculation in 200 seconds. On the worlds current fastest traditional computer, that same calculation would have taken 10,000 years.

In February 2021, researchers from Google and Canadian quantum computing company D-Wave Systems solved a real-world challenge 3 million times faster than a classical computer.

Sundar Pichai with one of Google's quantum computers in the Santa Barbara lab. A quantum computer can reduce a calculation that would ordinarily take years to minutes. By processing a lot more information faster, they can evaluate many outcomes simultaneously, thereby increasing their calculating power exponentially. AFP

Quantum computers are able to process multiple possibilities at once, solving problems at a much faster rate. AP

A component of Google's Quantum Computer in the Santa Barbara lab. Todays computers function using something called bits, which are arranged in a combination of ones and zeroes. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or "qubits", which mean they are capable of solving calculations a traditional computer could never answer.. Reuters

Quantum computers are as fragile as they are complex. They require an ultra-cold environment to operate of just above zero Kelvin a unit of temperature which is minus 273. This helps keep the environment stable, with less energy and therefore less chance of the qubits flipping between states.EPA

Sundar Pichai and Daniel Sank with one of Google's Quantum Computers in the Santa Barbara lab. In late 2019, Google announced it had achieved "quantum supremacy". This means that its quantum computer became the first to solve a calculation in less than four minutes that would have taken the worlds most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years to complete. Reuters

Quantum computing could help solve everything from the mundane, such as finding the most efficient route, to huge breakthroughs in science, including creating new cancer treatments or possibly even finding a cure for cancer.They may even one day answer questions about the origins of the universe and address mysteries of space and time. Image: AFP

Quantum computers will also able to sort through reams of data on complicated subjects like climate change to predict how it will progress. AFP

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Meet the Abu Dhabi cryptographer keeping your personal data safe - The National

Back in the day when Saturday Night Live was funny, Chevy Chase would open the Weekend Update segment by saying, Im Chevy Chase and youre not.

That line came to mind over President Joe Bidens massive tax-and-spend proposals, which are unlike anything since FDR, after whom Biden appears to be modeling himself. The president thinks hes a capitalist but hes not.

In a short time, we have regressed from Ronald Reagans government is not the solution to our problem, government IS our problem and Bill Clintons declaration that the era of big government is over to Bidens belief that the era of big government is just beginning.

Lets define two terms. First, capitalism: an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

Now, socialism: a theory or system of social organization that advocates the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, capital, land, etc., by the community as a whole, usually through a centralized government.

The definition of what fits the Biden tax and spending blowout is the latter. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is ratcheting up the notion that only government is the answer to every problem by proposing a global minimum tax. Axios reports what it concludes is the rationale behind her thinking: Convincing other countries to impose a global minimum tax would reduce the likelihood of companies relocating offshore, as Biden seeks to increase the corporate rate from 21% to 28%.

Thats got it backward, but it typifies the thinking of those whose faith is in ever growing, more expensive and intrusive government.

Former President Donald Trumps reduction in corporate tax rates persuaded some businesses to move back to the U.S. from overseas. They had exited because of higher taxes.

In a 2018 article, Investors Business Daily quoted the Bureau of Economic Analysis: some $305.6 billion returned to the U.S. from overseas accounts (after President Trump cut corporate tax rates). Thats a $1.2 trillion annual rate, and far more than the $35 billion one year before.

How is returning to the bad old days of higher taxes going to convince those companies that returned home to stay home? No reporter has asked that question and no one in the Biden administration has voluntarily offered an explanation.

Speaking of Chevy Chase, the comedian once said: Socialism works ... (and) Cuba might prove that. I think its conclusive that there have been areas where socialism has helped to keep people at least stabilized at a certain level.

Yes, and that level is mutually shared mediocrity and, in some cases, mutually shared poverty. Capitalism raises boats for those who play by its rules, accompanied by shared moral values, while socialism, especially when paired with communism, sinks too many boats and hopes.

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Tax and spending proposals highlight ignorance of repeated failures of socialism - Norfolk Daily News

On May 6 voters will choose their preferred candidates for Stroud District Council, Gloucestershire County Council, the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and parish councils (if contested). We asked each party fielding multiple candidates to write why residents should vote for them.

Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson has presided over a coronavirus catastrophe that has left over 127,000 people dead, the highest number in Europe. There is anger at this and 10 years of Tory cuts and privatisation to health, education, youth services, libraries, womens refuges, child care facilities, day centres for the elderly and more.

That is why despite the lockdowns there have been many movements and protests: Black Lives Matter, NHS workers fighting for a pay rise, the struggle to end violence against women, defending the right to protest, and more. TUSC candidates have participated in all.

These movements have made an impact but there is no mass party that has the programme and organisation to offer a political voice in opposition to the injustices and inequalities, including class inequality, of capitalist society.

Labour under Corbyn remained 'two parties in one', a pro-capitalist party, and a potential anti-austerity party based on Corbyn's supporters. But that era is now over with Starmer's takeover.

The building of a new mass workers' party remains an urgent task. TUSC candidates are committed to voting against all cuts. And that requires a programme to fund the needs of the community.

TUSC candidates have pledged to support councils initially using their reserves and prudential borrowing powers to avoid making cuts. But we argue that the best way to mobilise the mass campaign that is necessary to defend and improve council services is to set a budget that meets the needs of the local community and demand that government funding makes up the shortfall.

TUSC candidates are committed to using any elected position to build a mass, united struggle for that government funding. That includes support for all workers' struggles against government policies which make ordinary people pay for the crisis; and the fight for a united working-class struggle against racism and all forms of oppression.

The Covid pandemic has laid bare the class character, inequalities and chaos of the profit based capitalist system.

We need an end to austerity, which is a direct wealth transfer from the working class and poorest to the richest through cuts to jobs, services and benefits.

Instead of handouts to the bosses, we call for the major firms and banks that dominate the economy to be brought into democratic public ownership.

Production and services could then be planned by workers to meet the needs of all. This is socialism.

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Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition: Why you should vote for us - Stroud News and Journal