Computing with the Stars

When you look up into the sky at night, you see an innumerable amount of stars. Most people don't know a whole bunch of science behind stars. What if you found out that some of the stars you see could potentially give you easily accessible quantum computers in the next century, or even a few decades to years?

Stars can produce all of the elements we know of when they fuse hydrogen, and when they die. Recently, it has also been found that they can make a third type of chemical bond as well. This bond has never been seen before anywhere else, and is not able to be produced outside of the powerful magnetic fields seen in compact stars (like white dwarf stars). Basic chemistry tells us there are two types of bonds: ionic and covalent. This new discovery disproves that, because of the new bond. It is definitely not ionic or covalent; it acts differently. There is no covalence or scattering of energy among the atoms like there is needed in the other two bonds. The discovery of these bonds could lead to new research in quantum computing, possibly making great strides in having quantum computers useful, and accessible. Right now they are more of a speculation than anything, but this could change it from a speculation into reality.
White dwarf stars can have magnetic fields 1,000 times that which we can make on earth, and other compacts stars even bigger. This magnetic field has produced a bond that will not break off where normal bonds would. Many strange things can happen in magnetic fields of this magnitude, this probably being the strangest. Unfortunately, at the current time we would not be able to make bonds like this on earth. Trying to make a magnetic field of that size would render the instruments used, well, unusable. That kind of power is just currently unharness-able. But someday it could be a possibility, as we learn more about these bonds and how to harness power of that magnitude.

Quantum computing would make equations that take grueling days on normal computers be processed lightning fast, and they would have an insane amount of memory. For a world that is growing ever-hungrier for information, this would definitely be useful. Nothing like this has ever been discovered, so if another discovery like this comes along, there will be leaps and bounds made in science, there already are for this discovery. As time goes on, there will be more use for these new bonds. For complete computer geeks like my step brother (who works in the computer industry for a living), this is a very exciting prospect. This discovery will push the possibility of more quantum computers into reality, which will cause a massive jump in math and science as more equations and other things can be processed and solved faster. Overall, this discovery seems small (as small as atoms to be precise) but will make waves in the science field very quickly.


Boyle, Rebecca. "Unique Chemical Bond Only Seen In Dwarf Stars Could Make Better Computers." Popular
Science. Bonnier Corporation, 23 July 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2013.

N.d. Photograph. Extreme Tech. Web. 3 Apr. 2013.