AS THEY ZIP across the internet, passwords, bank transfers, emails and the like are protected from prying(窥探的，好奇的) eyes by encryption. But no one is quite sure how reliable the technology is. Despite decades of trying, no-one has found a feasible(可行的，行得通的) way to break it. But at the same time, no-one has been able to prove such a method does not exist. In principle, a mathematician could have a brainwave tomorrow and bring the entire edifice of e-commerce—not to mention personal privacy—crashing down.(原则上，一位数学家明天就可能灵光一现，让整个电子商务大厦——更不用说个人隐私——轰然倒塌。)
当密码、银行转账、电子邮件等数据在互联网上飞速传输时，加密技术保护着它们免受窥探。但没有人完全确定这项技术有多可靠。尽管尝试了数十年，没有人找到可行的破解方法。但同时，也没有人能证明这样的方法不存在。原则上，一位数学家明天就可能灵光一现，让整个电子商务大厦——更不用说个人隐私——轰然倒塌。
In fact, something like that has already happened. In 1994 Peter Shor, an American mathematician, worked out how to reduce the time taken to break many types of encryption from billions of years to hours or less. The only snag(障碍，小问题) was that “Shor’s algorithm(算法)”, as it is now known, required something that at the time only existed on university blackboards: a quantum computer.
事实上，类似的事情已经发生了。1994年，美国数学家彼得·肖尔找到了如何将破解多种加密所需的时间从数十亿年缩短到几小时甚至更少的方法。唯一的障碍是，这个现在被称为“肖尔算法”的方法，需要一种当时只存在于大学黑板上的东西：量子计算机。
These days, quantum computers—which exploit quantum mechanics to perform some calculations far faster than ordinary computers—not only exist, but are attracting serious attention from investors.(如今，量子计算机——利用量子力学以远超普通计算机的速度执行某些计算——不仅存在，而且正吸引投资者的高度关注。) The market values of IonQ and Rigetti, two firms which have been listed since 2021 and 2022 respectively, are up seven- and four-fold since their debuts(首次亮相，上市). In April McKinsey, a consultancy, reported that the amount of money invested in quantum startups had reached $12.6bn in 2025—a six-fold increase on the year before (see chart 1). The following month America’s government said it would take $2bn-worth of equity stakes(股权) in nine quantum-computing companies, including Rigetti, GlobalFoundries, a chipmaker, and Quantinuum, a firm based in Colorado that raised around $1.7bn when it went public in June.
如今，量子计算机——利用量子力学以远超普通计算机的速度执行某些计算——不仅存在，而且正吸引投资者的高度关注。自2021年和2022年分别上市以来，IonQ和Rigetti两家公司的市值已分别上涨了七倍和四倍。今年4月，咨询公司麦肯锡报告称，2025年投入量子初创公司的资金已达126亿美元，比上年增长了六倍（见图表1）。次月，美国政府宣布将以20亿美元入股九家量子计算公司，包括Rigetti、芯片制造商GlobalFoundries，以及总部位于科罗拉多州的Quantinuum——该公司6月上市时融资约17亿美元。
A few-tricks pony
只会几招的小马
Qubit by bit
一点一点来
On-screen chemistry
屏幕上的化学
