Cambridge Physicist Says Quantum Computing Will Help with Drug Discoveries

(BBC) Dr Mithuna Yoganathan from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University, UK, explains in this brief BBC interview how quantum computing might help with drug discoveries in years to come.
She emphasizes that quantum computing won’t be for personal reasons but for research. “One of the big uses will be to discover drugs; quantum computers can do perform the drug design testing it is difficult or impossible now.
“Because of quantum mechanics, it is very difficult to simulate drug research because today’s computers run out of memory very quickly. With a quantum computer you can simulate quantum mechanics with quantum mechanics. We can take advantage of the weirdness.”
Dr. Yoganathan is a theorist who uses pen and paper. But she’s “. .. happy to say at the moment, people are making quantum computers, not useful yet but definitely we are on the way.” She commented that she does not see any theoretical reason why the quantum technology we have right now couldn’t be scaled up.