A team of Harvard and MIT physicists have made a major advancement in quantum computing, developing a system that can operate continuously. This marks a significant step toward practical quantum computers. In conventional computers, information is stored as zeros or ones (bits). In quantum computers, qubits can be zero, one, or both at the same time, which allows quantum computers to perform much more complex calculations much faster. But one of the key obstacles has been the problem of atom loss: qubits can escape or lose coherence, forcing researchers to pause and reset experiments. The Harvard-MIT team overcame this limitation by creating a system that constantly resupplies qubits using advanced laser technologies such as optical tweezers and optical lattice conveyor belts. This allows them to rapidly replace lost atoms—up to 300,000 per second—without interrupting ongoing computations. As a result, their quantum processor maintained over 3,000 operational qubits for extended peri...