Quantum physics provides solutions to encoding top secret data
Back in the 1990s Nicolas Gisin was one of the first physicists to understand how quanta – the smallest particles currently known –could be transmitted over fibre-optic networks and the enormous potential that lay in the practical application of this discovery. He succeeded in transmitting a cryptographic key – the basis of cryptography – via industrial optical fibres over a distance of 23km under the lake between Geneva and Nyon. When this key was transmitted, secured by the laws of quantum physics and thus absolutely random and confidential, quantum communication entered into our everyday lives; it now makes a huge contribution to ensuring the security of information systems.