Quantum computing isn’t just about scaling - Nature
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The race to demonstrate quantum error correction often focuses on making ever-larger devices. A demonstration showing that splitting a surface-code logical qubit into two simpler repetition codes substantially reduces logical gate errors reminds us that advancing quantum computing does not hinge solely on scaling qubit numbers. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Access through your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription 27,99 € / 30 days cancel any time Learn more Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 print issues and online access 251,40 € per year only 20,95 € per issue Learn more Rent or buy this article Prices vary by article type from$1.95 to$39.95 Learn more Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Fig. 1: Lattice surgery in a quantum error correcting code. ReferencesBesedin, I. et al. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03090-6 (2025).Article Google Scholar Dennis, E., Kitaev, A., Landahl, A. & Preskill, J. J. Math. Phys. 43, 4452–4505 (2002).Article ADS MathSciNet Google Scholar Cubitt, T. S., Montanaro, A. & Piddock, S. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 9497–9502 (2018).Article ADS MathSciNet Google Scholar Shazeer, N. et al. Outrageously large neural networks: the sparsely-gated mixture-of-experts layer. In Proc. 2017 International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 1–19 (ICLR, 2017).Download referencesAuthor informationAuthors and AffiliationsDepartment of Computer Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USAMurphy Yuezhen NiuQuantum AI, Google, Santa Barbara, CA, USAMurphy Yuezhen NiuAuthorsMurphy Yuezhen NiuView author publicationsSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarCorresponding authorCorrespondence to Murphy Yuezhen Niu.Ethics declarations Competing interests The author declares no competing interests. Rights and permissionsReprints and permissionsAbout this articleCite this articleNiu, M.Y. Quantum computing isn’t just about scaling. Nat. Phys. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03110-5Download citationPublished: 30 January 2026Version of record: 30 January 2026DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03110-5Share this articleAnyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:Get shareable linkSorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.