Two major steps toward putting quantum computers into real practice -- sending a photon signal on demand from a qubit onto wires and transmitting the signal to a second, distant qubit -- have been achieved. Over the past several years, the scientists explored basic building blocks in the design of a quantum computer. Now, for the first time, they report that superconducting qubits, or artificial atoms, have been able to communicate information not only to their nearest neighbor, but also to a distant qubit on the chip.