Taking a quantum leap

From teleportation to crime-fighting, Prof Andrew Forbes is turning Africa into a future- ready powerhouse

- Jamaine Krige

When most people think of quantum physics, they picture science fiction — teleportation, secret codes and mysterious “entanglements”. But for Prof Andrew Forbes, these are not futuristic fantasies. They're real, and they're happening in his Johannesburg-based lab.

As Director of SA QuTI (South African Quantum Technology Initiative), Forbes and his team were the first in Africa to demonstrate quantum entanglement where two particles of light remain connected, even when separated.

“It was a major thing,” he says. “We were going to be left behind, but suddenly, Africa was not just watching the quantum revolution — we were part of it!”

Using what he calls “quantum mechanics with pictures”, Forbes pioneered ways to entangle light using complex patterns instead of simple binary states. Traditional computing forces you to choose left or right at each junction in a maze. Quantum light lets you go left and right simultaneously, exploring all routes at once. This allows faster database searches, vastly more data storage, and next-level imaging.