"Flaw Found in Quantum Code," by Charles Seife. Science, 16 May 1997, page 1034.

"Quantum Cheating," by Ivars Peterson. Science News, 14 June 1997, page 373.

In recent years, researchers have been developing the notion of quantum cryptography, which they hope will provide more secure transmissions of data. Because one cannot observe a quantum mechanical particle without altering it, efforts by eavesdroppers to observe observe information encoded by the use of quantum cryptographic methods would inevitably leave traces behind. Researchers have, however, hit a snag. Work of Dominic Mayers, Hoi-Kwong Lo, and H.F. Chau have shown that an important cryptographic method called "bit commitment" can be easily compromised in the quantum setting.

--- Allyn Jackson

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