Peter Shor

Chronicled events

1. April 1994​·​A Quantum Computer Could Break the Codes
   #5901

   A quantum computer could factor numbers hundreds of digits long in hours, by finding how often the remainders of a number’s powers repeat. That would break the codes that protect most of the internet’s secrets, which rely on factoring being too hard.

2. May 1995​·​Fixing Errors without Looking
   #5903

   Quantum errors can be corrected without looking at the data. Spread one qubit over nine, tied together so that checking how they relate to each other shows whether one of them went wrong, and how to undo it, without revealing what the qubit holds.