For the first time ever, scientists at MIT have demonstrated a level of control over a phenomenon known as quantum randomness. If their method is perfected, controlling quantum randomness could lead to a number of scientific breakthroughs in fields like quantum computing and prediction technologies.

Quantum randomness is a phenomenon that falls within the realm of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics is the area of physics that looks at the motion of subatomic particles. This is different from classical physics which only explains the motion of atoms and particles larger than atoms. Before looking at quantum randomness, let’s take a look at classical randomness.

Say I flip a coin. Oftentimes, people assume that the outcome is random—there is no way to predict whether the coin will land heads up or tails up. This is actually a misconception. If you knew which side was up when the coin was tossed as well as how long the coin will be in the air, you could use calculus to figure out what side the coin will land on. The outcome isn’t really random, it's just defined within a set of variables. This is known as classical randomness.

Quantum randomness on the other hand is based on the idea of superposition. Going back to our coin example, superposition says that there are two states of being for a coin: heads or tails. In the realm of quantum mechanics, the coin is continuously switching between heads and tails. But if you were to stop the coin at any random point in time, the coin would take on a random outcome. This is quantum randomness. It is independent of any variables like time or starting point, meaning that in theory there is no way to control it.

However, researchers have recently proven this idea wrong. The researchers said they were able to control quantum randomness by injecting a laser into an optical system that randomly generates numbers. The laser allowed them to control the random system, giving the team the ability to control random events. Although they were not able to achieve complete control, it is enough to make use of in computer simulations.

One place scientists hope to apply the control of quantum randomness is in calculation and prediction models. In fields like virology and earthquake detection, scientists often face random situations that they cannot account for in their research. By controlling for quantum randomness, researchers would be able to account for these variables when running models on quantum computers to create predictions and trends. This would make quantum computers even more powerful. For fields like earthquake detections, the ability to control quantum randomness could save millions of lives.

Controlling quantum randomness has many more applications that scientists have yet to discover. Up until now, the idea of utilizing the phenomenon in the real world was out of the question. However, given the new findings, researchers may be at the brink of a scientific revolution.