On: D-Wave system used to detect particle signature of the Higgs boson

[johntb86]

Isn't the band gap a fundamentally quantum phenomenon?

[raverbashing → johntb86]

I'd say yes

In the same way you're being supported by electromagnetic forces when you're standing or sitting on something

[posterboy → raverbashing]

but you don't need to understand much to just physically exist. Whereas electrodynamics and certainly also quantum effects in semiconducting cristals informed the development of transistors in the last what, 50-60 years.