A research team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) has achieved significant advances in the field of scalable quantum networks, bringing this transformative technology closer to real-world application. Their landmark findings have been published in both Nature and Science.
A central goal of quantum information science is the creation of highly efficient and ultra-secure quantum networks, which require the long-distance distribution of quantum entanglement -- a phenomenon involving a unique connection between particles.
Such entanglement is essential to enable quantum-secure communication and interconnect future quantum computers. A major obstacle, however, has been signal loss in optical fibers, where transmission efficiency drops drastically with distance, making large-scale networks impractical.
To address this issue, the team, led by academician Pan Jianwei, focused on a concept known as a "quantum repeater," which breaks a long communication link into shorter segments, establishes entanglement within each, and then connects them. The key challenge has been that quantum entanglement is typically too short-lived to outlast the time needed to link segments, preventing the repeater from functioning effectively.
The USTC team overcame this fundamental limitation by developing a long-lived trapped-ion quantum memory, a highly efficient ion-photon interface, and a high-fidelity experimental protocol. Together, these innovations enabled quantum entanglement that persists significantly longer than the time required to establish inter-segment connections.
According to USTC, this is the world's first demonstration of a scalable building block for a quantum repeater -- a critical step toward long-distance quantum networks.
In a related breakthrough, the team used similar technology to generate high-fidelity entanglement between two distant rubidium atoms. Leveraging this, they demonstrated device-independent quantum key distribution (DI-QKD) over city-scale fiber networks for the first time.
DI-QKD is regarded as the gold standard for secure communication, as its security is guaranteed by the laws of quantum physics, independent of any potential device flaws.
The team successfully implemented DI-QKD over 11 kilometers of fiber, extending the attainable distance approximately 3,000 times beyond previous results. They also confirmed the feasibility of generating secure keys over a distance of 100 kilometers, surpassing the prior international record by more than two orders of magnitude.
The researchers have hailed these outcomes as pivotal milestones for China in the field of quantum communication and networking, signaling that fiber-based quantum networks are advancing from a theoretical concept toward practical implementation.
"If, after another 10 to 15 years of effort, universal quantum computers become a reality, we could use the basic modules of quantum repeaters and device-independent quantum key distribution to connect all quantum computers into a network. In this way, a quantum internet would truly become a reality, enabling precise perception of information across the globe and providing revolutionary tools for understanding the physical world," Pan said.
Chinese scientists achieve major breakthrough in scalable quantum networks
Honor's humanoid robot, Lightning, which swept the 2026 Beijing E-Town Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon on Sunday, is a natural extension of years of accumulation in consumer electronics technology, said its developers.
A leading smart device provider in China, Honor independently developed the model, which dominated the podium at the event as it was used by all three teams whose autonomous navigating robots ran the fastest times.
At the Honor factory in Pingshan District in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province, where robotics engineers developed Lightning. They said the robot's body design incorporates a simulation system that, through artificial intelligence algorithms, can iterate nearly 30,000 design schemes of varying sizes over three months. Complete and mature systems are also in place for battery, communication, and reliability verification.
"We built a simulation lab from scratch. For the robots, we digitize the entire design and put it into a computer. We have our own material library, which can meet the force, thermal, and chemical property demands for each component, under different environments and speeds. We've accumulated about 1000 kinds of materials. For example, if there's a risk with the robot's neck, we just need to change the material code from 001 to 002. Now, through our simulations, we only need one day to perform parallel calculations on 10 different designs, before creating a mold and verifying it in the lab," said Li Zheng, a senior engineer at Honor.
An autonomous robot capable of completing a half-marathon involves a complete industry chain, with core components including high-precision sensors, LiDAR, motors, operating systems, and control algorithms. The development of robotic marathoners have driven an increasing number of component enterprises to get involved.
Manifold, a tech firm established by newly-graduated PhDs, has developed a 3D spatial memory module, which can model an environment in real time and transform it into images that robots can understand. They said several robots running the half-marathon this year adopted their solution.
"Our device can operate within a one-kilometer tunnel with an error margin of only tens of centimeters. For robots, especially in the absence of GPS, this allows them to accurately determine their location. The underlying technology is a multi-sensor fusion technology that we developed in-house," said Qin Youming, CEO and founder of Manifold.
The Beijing Humanoid Robotics Innovation Center set up a training camp for the marathon event. Many university students came a month ahead of the event to develop and debug their technologies and algorithms based on open-source robot bodies, databases, and training platforms.
"These high-quality databases and highly open-source control algorithms are actually very helpful to us. We no longer need to build the house from the ground up, but can skip the most basic part," said Sun Jingyu, a student from Shandong University.
"Through this racing event, I believe we can make our robots more reliable and stable, while also supporting high-dynamic, high-load movements. This is crucial for robots' future application in both industrial, commercial and domestic scenarios," said Guo Yijie, head of the innovative humanoid department and the Marathon project of Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center.
Engineers share development story behind Beijing humanoid half-marathon champion model
