HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

'Our team has been able to develop a laboratory curiosity into a working system that is being tested and refined for use in sending secure messages,' says Harvard project scientist John Myers, shown testing the alignment of a laser with fiber optics. (Staff photo Jon Chase/Harvard News Office)

The world's first quantum network, integrated with the Internet, is now operating in the Boston area. Its developers expect that the messages it carries will be secure from hackers and eavesdroppers for as long as imagination extends.

Envisioned for decades, a quantum code system now sends encoding and decoding keys as light pulses between Harvard and Boston universities and BBN Technologies, a high-tech company in Cambridge, Mass. The network started operating in June.

"Our team has been able to develop a laboratory curiosity into a working system that is now being tested and refined for sending secure messages," says Harvard project scientist John Myers.

Quantum mechanics theory suggests code keys can be distributed by light signals so weak that an eavesdropper would disrupt them and be easily detected.

For full Gazette story, see http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/08.26/02-quantum.html.