February 19, 2018

For many people, interacting with computers is an important part of daily life. Each time you send a text message, play a video game, or search for cat pictures online—even as you read these words—you are interacting with a computer. It is through computer languages, also called programming languages, that people communicate with computers. When programmers want computers to operate in a specific way, they write detailed sets of instructions in a computer language. Like other languages, computer languages include sets of symbols organized through grammar and other rules. Unlike other languages, a computer language is not meant for direct conversation between humans. And no one—yet—has grown up speaking a computer language.

Computer programmers use detailed sets of instructions known as computer languages. Credit: © Shutterstock

In most computers, information is encoded in bits. Each bit consists of a binary digit: 1 or 0. Computer chips simulate bits with billions of tiny electronic switches called transistors. A transistor can either switch on, for 1, or off, for 0. A string of bits provides an instruction for the computer. Machine language, the most basic computer language, allows direct communication with a computer through patterns of 1’s and 0’s.

Machine language is a low-level computer language. A high-level computer language is closer to human language, and has a higher level of abstraction (separation) from computer hardware. After a programmer writes instructions in a high-level language, a program called a compiler translates them into a low-level language for a particular computer to understand. Programmers can use high-level languages to design a program for a particular job or task, rather than for a particular computer. Most programs today are written in high-level languages.

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A web page is a computer file represented by a specific electronic address on the Internet. Such files can be created using a presentation language called HTML. Credit: WORLD BOOK photo

In 1945, German engineer Konrad Zuse developed the first high-level computer language, called Plankalkül (Plan Calculus), to be used with programmable electromechanic computers. Since then, many different computer languages have been developed for different purposes and for use on different kinds of machines.

Today, computer programmers use a wide variety of languages. The language HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is used to format web pages, ensuring that a website’s words and images are displayed properly to visitors. Java is the standard language for developing smartphone apps. Python, named after the British television comedy “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” is a flexible language used for many purposes, including website development and artificial intelligence programming. C Language is used to develop operating systems.

Quantum computers, a developing technology, use quantum physics to calculate information faster than classical computers. Rather than using simple bits, a quantum computer language uses quantum bits or qubits. A qubit can store more information than just a 1 or a 0. Its value can also be somewhere in between 1 and 0. This allows the computer to perform a massive number of computations at the same time. A true quantum computer has not yet been created, but engineers around the world are racing to complete the first models. Quantum computer languages, on the other hand, have already been developed in anticipation of “speaking” with these extraordinary machines.

October 9, 2012

The 2012 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to American physicist David Wineland of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and the University of Colorado in Boulder and to French physicist Serge Haroche of the College de France and the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris for their work in the field of quantum optics. Quantum optics is the study of how light as individual particles called photons interacts with matter.

The laws of physics used to describe and predict the behavior of objects that we  encounter in our daily lives were first described by the English scientist Sir Isaac Newton. These laws use such terms as force, velocity, and acceleration to describe the world around us. But extremely small particles seem to follow a different set of rules. These rules are called quantum mechanics. The rules of quantum mechanics deal with single atoms or even smaller particles called subatomic particles.

Many physicists had long believed that trapping and studying quantum particles was impossible. They had thought that simply studying quantum particles in an experiment would destroy the particles. However, Wineland and Haroche, working independently, were able to devise experiments that allowed them to isolate and study quantum particles without destroying them.

Magnesium ions appear in an ion trap, in a false-color image. As more ions are loaded into the trap, they squeeze closer together. (©Signe Seidelin and John Chiaverini/NIST)

Wineland was able to trap and study particles called ions (electrically charged atoms) by surrounding them with electric fields. The experiment is done at an extremely low temperature and in a vacuum (a space with little air or other matter). The scientists then fire a laser into the trap. This causes an ion to achieve a certain quantum state–being in two places at the same time. Haroche was able to trap and study photons using a set of two special mirrors. While the photon is bouncing between the mirrors, a single atom is placed into the same space. The interaction between the atom and the photon allows the particles to be studied.

The work done by Wineland has led to the development of a clock 100 times as accurate as the clock currently used as the standard. Scientists hope that both experiments have paved the way for the development of a quantum computer. This type of computer could use the ability of quantum particles to be in two places at the same time to run at speeds far beyond those of current computers. However, because quantum particles behave in such strange ways, controlling them is a major obstacle. These experiments may provide a step in overcoming this problem.