Weird new possibilities emerge as we explore the nanoworld, the universe at the length scale of a billionth of a metre. Here the theory of quantum mechanics bewilders our everyday common sense, as Erwin Schrödinger famously expressed when he imagined a cat that was both dead and alive at the same time! Now Dr Simon Benjamin shows us how experts in physics, chemistry and materials science are working together to harness this strange reality. Underlying their research is the promise of building what may be the most exotic and powerful technology ever conceived: the quantum computer.