UN declares 2025 the Year of QuantumScience

• The United Nations has said 2025 will be designated the ‘International Year of Quantum Science and Technology’.

Highlights:

• The body said the initiative will be “year-long”, “worldwide”, and that it will “be observed through activities at all levels aimed at increasing public awareness of the importance of quantum science and applications.”
• German physicist Werner Heisenberg published a famous paper in which he reinterpreted classical mechanics to make sense of the quantum phenomena being discovered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
• To lay the foundation stone of what would come to be called quantum mechanics.
• Quantum science and technologies have been featuring more often in public conversations and issues of late thanks to quantum computers.
• While fully operational machines of this type don’t yet exist, researchers and industry experts believe it is a matter of time.
• In line with this belief, the Government of India announced a ‘National Quantum Mission’ in April 2023 at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore, to be implemented from 2023 to 2031 by the Department of Science & Technology (DST).
  • With four verticals: quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum sensing and metrology, and quantum materials and devices.
  • will have transformative effects on electronics, clean energy, and drug development, given their superior computational abilities.
• According to the U.N. statement, its proclamation “is a signal for any individual, group, school, institution, or government to use 2025 as an opportunity to increase awareness about quantum science and technology.”
• It added that a steering committee is also “planning global initiatives and events, particularly those that reach audiences unaware of the importance of quantum science and technology.”

Prelims Takeaway:

• Quantum Computing
• Qubits