Scientific American - USA (2022-05)

May 2022, ScientificAmerican.com 1

M ay 2 0 2 2

VOLUME 326, NUMBER 5

Photograph by André Dib

ON THE COVER

Quantum computers aim to outclass classical

machines, but they can only do that if scientists

can keep errors in check. Enter quantum error

correction codes. These connect quantum bits,

or qubits, with “helper” qubits, which keep noise

away from where data are stored. The strategy

is promising but presents many challenges.

Photograph by IBM Research.

70

QUANTUM COMPUTING

28 Errors in the Machine

The same physics that makes

quantum computers powerful

also makes them finicky. New

techniques aim to correct errors

faster than they can build up.

By Zaira Nazario

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

36 How Birds Hear Birdsong

Studies suggest that they pay

more attention to fine acoustic

details that humans cannot hear

than to the melodies that

captivate us. By Adam Fishbein

E C O L O G Y

44 Bold Experiments

in Fish Farming

In coastal Maine, scientists

are cleaning up aquaculture’s

dirty reputation and trying to

save a threatened economy—

but not without controversy.

By Ellen Ruppel Shell

VIROLOGY

58 Evasive Anatomy

The Omicron coronavirus

variant had specific mutations

that hid it from the immune

system. That helped make it

wildly contagious.

By Megan Scudellari

B I O L O G Y

62 Parasites Lost

Body-invading organisms

play an outsize role in nature.

Do some deserve protection?

By Rachel Nuwer

ANTHROPOLOGY

70 Designing for Life

An Indigenous community

in the Amazon basin is

showing the world how

to live with, rather than

off, nature.

By Carolina Schneider

Comandulli, with the

Apiwtxa Association

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