UNI NOVA – Research Magazine of the University of Basel

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  Alumni

  Successful Germanists.

  Basel students founded a literary magazine in 2011 - with success: “Das Narr” has now established itself as one of the most important literary magazines in Switzerland and was recently awarded the Canton of Solothurn's Literature Prize.

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  Alumni

  On the trail of apartheid.

  Letter from Johannesburg: Franziska Rüedi / Franziska Rüedi is a historian and writes from Johannesburg. She left the University of Basel a decade ago but has fond memories of her time in Basel.

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  Column

  “Beloved” by Toni Morrison: The Ghosts of the Past.

  Text: Andrea Bieler / My book: The theologian Andrea Bieler recommends "Beloved" by Toni Morrison.

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  Dossier

  The second revolution in quantum physics.

  Text: Dominik Zumbühl / Quantum physics promises to deliver revolutionary new technologies such as the quantum computer – with far-reaching consequences for the economy and society. For many years, the University of Basel has been playing a pioneering role in quantum research.

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  Dossier

  Qubits – the building blocks of the quantum computer.

  Text: Benedikt Vogel / A qubit can store a single bit – the smallest possible unit of digital information – and is the fundamental building block of a future quantum computer. Qubits made of semiconducting materials, such as those being researched in Basel, are among the most promising candidates.

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  A new world record of 57 seconds.

  Text: Benedikt Vogel / Basel-based physicists are working on a quantum computer that will hopefully use the electron spin to carry digital information. For this to work, they will need to keep the spin stable for a sufficient length of time. Only recently, a new world record was set in Basel.

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  Dossier

  The miraculous property of the Majorana fermion.

  Text: Tim Schröder / Quantum computers of the future promise to outshine their conventional forebears with their powerful ability to perform arithmetic operations in parallel. The problem is that qubits, the building blocks of quantum mechanical memory, can still only store information for a short space of time.

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  Dossier

  Silicon for the super computer.

  Text: Leonid Leiva / Today’s modern computers rely on silicon chips. Researchers from Basel are convinced that this material will also prove its worth in the development of powerful quantum computers.

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  Dossier

  Computing in a chaotic world.

  Text: Roland Wengenmayr / Quantum information is extremely fragile and can be disturbed by even the slightest interference. Error correction in a quantum computer will require highly sophisticated repair mechanisms. A glimpse into the mind of physicist James Wootton reveals what such mechanisms might look like.