EU-funded scientists in the Netherlands have managed to rapidly control the building blocks of a quantum computer by using an electric field rather than a magnetic one. In addition, the team succeeded in embedding these building blocks, known as quantum bits or qubits, in a semiconductor nanowire. The study, published in the journal Nature, could lead to advances in the field of quantum computing and communication. See also [http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature09682 the publication in Nature] and [http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.0064 its ArXiv version].