National
Post: Random number sequences are usually generated by
computational algorithms, which only give the appearance of
randomness, but a new technique uses a laser light pulse to
create truly random numbers. Ben Sussman of Canada’s
National Research Council and coworkers have found that when
they shine a pulse of laser light at a diamond, the light
changes as it passes through because it interacts with quantum
vacuum fluctuations. What happens to the light is unknown and,
fundamentally, unknowable. The measurements of the pulses of
light that emerge from the diamond are therefore random in a
way that nothing in our ordinary surroundings is, writes Tom
Spears for Canada’s
National Post. “A truly random number generator
will provide impenetrable encryption for
communications—be they military transmissions, secure
banking, or online purchasing—that underpin the modern
connected world,” said Sussman.
