Google researchers claim they're working on a supercomputer that harnesses the power of quantum physics to calculate in one second problems that would take a regular machine 10,000 years to solve. If they're right — some people have raised questions about their claims — then the world could be at the dawn of a new age of uber-powerful computers. "Because the operating system of nature, as far as we understand it, is quantum physics, you need a process that acts on quantum physics to describe parts of the universe," said Hartmut Neven, Google's director of engineering, at a press conference at NASA's Ames Research ... (full story)