The processes for producing those nanowires and their particles are no mean feat. You have to subject the hashtags to a stream of aluminum particles that creates superconducting layers on specific parts of the wires, triggering the emergence of the Majorana particles. And did we mention that everything has to happen at near absolute zero temperatures in order to guarantee pure contacts?

If the chip works as promised, it would shake up our understanding of particles and physics as a whole. And in practical terms, it could help make quantum computers a reality. Two 'braided' Majorana particles could form the qubits that perform calculations in quantum systems, opening the doors to PCs that handle many tasks at once. There's a lot of work to do before that's a realistic possibility (how do you mass-produce these chips?), but this simple pattern could eventually form a cornerstone of computing.