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News Releases QkarD cellphone technology makes Scientific American podcast
February 3, 2012—Scientific American magazine's "60 Second Tech" podcast, accessible online and via iTunes, features the quantum key distribution team's QKarD (Quantum Smart Card) technology.
QKarD, a patent-pending technology and the culmination of 18 years of research at Los Alamos National Laboratory, uses a new type of symmetric key distribution, known as quantum cryptography or quantum key distribution, which is based on the quantum mechanical laws of physics. The technology has many advantages over other key distribution methods. The laws of quantum physics and information theory ensure that these keys can never be cracked, regardless of advancements in computer technology.
Jane Nordholt, Richard Hughes, Raymond Newell, and Charles Peterson of LANL's Applied Modern Physics group and Kevin McCabe, Nicholas Dallman, and Kush Tyagi of LANL's Space Instrumentation System group designed QKarD.
Fast Facts
People
11,127 total employees
Los Alamos National Security, LLC 8,683
SOC Los Alamos (Guard Force) 419
Contractors 606
Students 1,101
Place
Located 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 36 square miles of DOE-owned property.
More than 2,000 individual facilities, including 47 technical areas with 8 million square feet under roof.
Replacement value of $5.9 billion
Budget FY 2012: Approx. $2.2 billion
57% Weapons programs
9% Nonproliferation programs
7% Safeguards and Security
8% Environmental Management
4% DOE Office of Science
4% Energy and other programs
11% Work for Others
Workforce Demographics (LANS and students only)
34% of employees live in Los Alamos, the remainder commute from Santa Fe,
Española, Taos, and Albuquerque.
Average Age: 46
70% male, 30% female
43% minorities
63% university degrees
· 23% hold undergraduate degrees
· 16% hold graduate degrees
· 24% have earned a Ph.D.
Major Awards
121 R&D100 awards since 1978
31 E.O. Lawrence Awards
The Seaborg Medal
The Edward Teller Medal
The Nobel Prize in Physics, Frederick Reines