Also "Newton`s wake" by Ken MacLeod. A funny and thought provoking novel about those left behind after the hard rapture. Meet the combat archeologists. When you are investigating tech abandoned in the first few seconds of singularity best to carry a plasma rifle.
Scientists have discovered an unusual magnetic material that behaves very differently from the average refrigerator magnet. The results of their research have strong implications for the design of devices and materials for quantum information processing. The group's main goal was to demonstrate string order -- also called quantum phase coherence -- and to determine the factors affecting the ability to maintain this property over a finite distance.