Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia have created artificial atoms in silicon chips, offering improved stability for quantum computing. The atoms were created in a 'quantum dot' -a very small space in a quantum circuit where electrons are used as qubits. According to Professor Dzurak, director of the Australian National Fabrication Facility at UNSW, the research is particularly important because it shows that 'artificial atoms with a higher number of electrons turn out to be much more robust qubits than previously thought possible, meaning they can be reliably used for calculations in quantum computers. This is significant because qubits based on just one electron can be very unreliable'.