In the early 1990s, even the scientists who were in the initial stages of applying quantum mechanics to computing doubted that anyone could ever do useful calculations with their techniques. Those attitudes changed dramatically in 1994, when Peter W. Shor of what is now AT&T Labs in Florham Park, N.J., formulated an algorithm for quantum computers that theoretically could crack the encryption codes protecting secure messages on the Internet and elsewhere (SN: 5/14/94, p.
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