Most people find quantum mechanics complicated and difficult to grasp. Add information theory—the math behind computing—into the mix, and it’s a real headache. But information theorists Charles H. Bennett and Gilles Brassard argue that quantum information is something we should all be getting used to. It’s simple and beautiful, they contend, and it won’t stay relegated to the remote world of the subatomic for long. Soon, for instance, it could disappear all the money in our bank accounts if we don’t act fast. That’s because quantum computers based on the theory could one day break the cryptography that secures our Internet and our financial system. Bennett and Brassard recently received the A. M. Turing Award, which is bestowed annually by the Association for Computing Machinery. Named after the father of computing, Alan Turing, the award is often called the “Nobel Prize of Computing.” This year’s prize recognizes how the duo’s discoveries made quantum information relevant and inescapable. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Before their work, even experts considered the quantum world separate from our own. Quantum theory’s math worked, but its logic was different, they thought. When it came to computing, the fact that the microscopic world is quantum was a troublesome headache, something that needed to be sorted out. Everything would work better, scientists believed, if they could safely ignore its twisty rules. But rather than avoiding strange quantum phenomena such as superposition and entanglement, Bennett and Brassard embraced them. They found ways of inscribing uncrackable codes and transmitting microscopic states across huge distances that would be impossible with the classical computers Turing had envisioned.