In my career as a chemist, I owe a huge debt to serendipity. In 2012 I was in the right place (IBM’s Almaden research laboratory in California) at the right time—and I did the “wrong” thing. I was supposed to be mixing three ingredients in a beaker in the hope of creating a known material. The goal was to replace one of the usual ingredients with a version derived from plastic waste, in an effort to increase the sustainability of strong plastics called thermoset polymers.
Instead, when I mixed two of the ingredients together, a hard, white plastic substance formed in the beaker. It was so tough I had to smash the beaker to get it out. Furthermore, when it sat in dilute acid overnight, it reverted to its precursor materials. Without meaning to, I had discovered a whole new family of recyclable thermoset polymers. Had I considered it a failed experiment and not followed up, we would have never known what we had made. It was scientific fortuity at its best, in the noble tradition of Roy Plunkett, who accidentally invented Teflon while working on the chemistry of coolant gases.
Today I have a new goal: to reduce the need for serendipity in chemical discovery. Challenges such as the climate crisis and COVID-19 are so big that our responses can’t depend on luck alone. Nature is complex and powerful, and we need to be able to model it precisely if we want to make the scientific advances we need. Specifically, if we want to push the field of chemistry forward, we need to be able to understand the energetics of chemical reactions with a high level of confidence. This is not a new insight, but it highlights a major constraint: predicting the behavior of even simple molecules with total accuracy is beyond the capabilities of the most powerful computers. This is where quantum computing offers the possibility of significant advances in the coming years.
Modeling chemical reactions on classical computers requires approximations because they can’t perfectly calculate the quantum behavior of more than just a couple of electrons—the computations are too large and time-consuming. Each approximation reduces the value of the model and increases the amount of lab work that chemists have to do to validate and guide the model. Quantum computing, however, works differently. Each quantum bit, or qubit, can map onto a specific electron’s spin orbitals; quantum computers can take advantage of quantum phenomena such as entanglement to describe electron-electron interactions without approximations. Quantum computers are now at the point where they can begin to model the energetics and properties of small molecules such as lithium hydride —offering the possibility of models that will provide clearer pathways to discovery than we have now.
お探しのQ&Aが見つからない時は、教えて!gooで質問しましょう!
似たような質問が見つかりました
- 戦争・テロ・デモ ウクライナ、メル友に五千円要求されてさ 1 2022/04/02 09:38
- 英語 この英文は平易な反面格調高いですか? 1 2023/01/15 12:04
- 英語 英文の添削をお願いします 4 2023/05/23 11:10
- 英語 この英文は格調高いのでしょうか? 3 2022/06/03 18:55
- 大学受験 英作文の添削をお願いしたいです。 2 2022/08/19 20:37
- 公的扶助・生活保護 保証人? 1 2022/05/17 22:42
- その他(SNS・コミュニケーションサービス) 自分のpcがハッキングされたようなメールが来たのですがどうすればいいですか? 4 2022/10/02 16:14
- 英語 下記はなんていってますか? こんにちは以降、訳していただけたら助かります。 Hello, We’re 1 2023/01/14 00:09
- 英語 英文の添削お願いします。【長文です。】 マッチングアプリで相手を言い負かしている時のやつです。 色々 1 2023/07/01 02:12
おすすめ情報
デイリーランキングこのカテゴリの人気デイリーQ&Aランキング
-
「とのことですが・・・」の訳し方
-
"relationship between"
-
100語自由英作添削をお願いいた...
-
動作動詞 become について
-
疑問詞whoは単数扱い?それとも...
-
契約書を送りますのでご確認く...
-
英語ができる方、至急長文の和...
-
how do I go to Rurikoin in ky...
-
living people と people liv...
-
選択肢の問題
-
Is the cosmetic goods actuall...
-
英文をチェックしてください
-
英文の和訳お願いします
-
意味を教えてください
-
ワードに貼付けた化学構造式を...
-
<正誤訂正> 英語堪能な方教...
-
英語
-
洋楽の歌詞の英訳
-
息子へのメッセージ・・・ 英...
-
英文の誤りを教えてください
マンスリーランキングこのカテゴリの人気マンスリーQ&Aランキング
-
「とのことですが・・・」の訳し方
-
He has gone He is gone
-
all of the と all the の違いは?
-
Employee have been parking in...
-
"relationship between"
-
any other とthe otherの区別
-
100語自由英作添削をお願いいた...
-
高校英語の問題です。次の問題...
-
副詞 just の位置
-
This will not be the case
-
some と some of the の違いは?
-
負担にならないとよいのですが...
-
契約書を送りますのでご確認く...
-
意味を教えてください
-
できるだけ直訳で英語の翻訳を...
-
「真ん中より少し後ろ」を英語で
-
not only but also について
-
英文の誤りを教えてください
-
この英文を訳してください
-
息子へのメッセージ・・・ 英...
おすすめ情報