Device-independent quantum key distribution (DI-QKD) is a key step toward the quantum internet, as it provides the highest level of cryptographic security allowed by quantum mechanics. For it to have practical applications in a communication network, it must be achieved between nodes that are sufficiently far apart. An article published in Science demonstrates DI-QKD for the first time between two single-atom nodes connected by 100-kilometer-long fibers. This distance would be sufficient to achieve cryptographic security at a metropolitan scale.

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Reactions: Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Bawendi, Brus and Ekimov for discovering quantum dots

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 to Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus, and Alexei I. Ekimov "for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots." Quantum dots are tiny nanoparticles that diffuse their light from televisions and LED lights, and can also guide surgeons when removing tumor tissue, among many other applications.

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Reactions: Nobel Prize in Physics to Agostini, Krausz and L'Huillier for developing light pulses to study the motion of electrons in matter

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier for developing "experimental methods generating attosecond light pulses". These advances made it possible to observe the motion of particles in atoms on the shortest time scale captured by humans. An attosecond is a unit of time equivalent to one trillionth of a second, roughly the time it takes light to travel the diameter of an atom.