Wow. This article makes no sense to me.
Using an optical-based quantum computer, a research team led by physicist Paul Kwiat has presented the first demonstration of "counterfactual computation," inferring information about an answer, even though the computer did not run. The researchers report their work in the Feb. 23 issue of Nature. ... Through clever use of beam splitters and both constructive and destructive interference, the researchers can put each photon in a superposition of taking two paths. Although a photon can occupy multiple places simultaneously, it can only make an actual appearance at one location. Its presence defines its path, and that can, in a very strange way, negate the need for the search algorithm to run.
"In a sense, it is the possibility that the algorithm could run which prevents the algorithm from running," Kwiat said.
Does this sound disturbingly like the Infinite Improbablitiy Drive to anyone else? Or The Onion for physicists?
H.T. Digg.