The D-Wave is not a quantum computer. Quantum computers have quite different usage cases (but on the macro level, should be very useful to the pharma industry too).
They are not of course, and hopefully the smart people here can clarify what mechanically a "quantum computer" is doing, the best I can figure out is that it can reduce the complex valued quantum state down to a binary state and due to quantum interaction you can compute some things with this. If you asked me, it sounds like massive parallel computation on the atomic level, that is, similar to the way soap bubbles can solve minimal surfaces, but people keep assuring me this is not the case.
There's no (visible) photons involved in silicon computers, although very similar solid state and vacuum tube devices are used to exploit the photoelectric effect, mainly for scientific measurement purposes.
- Searching for molecules with specific pharmaceutical effects.
- Solving ordering problems for cargo ship offloading (which feels like a traveling salesman sort of problem?)
All in all, I liked reading this article because it helps show places where quantum computing adds value by solving problems. I spend a lot of time in cryptography where the fear of quantum computing is that it will force a new class of slower cryptographic algorithms into use, so seeing positive uses of the technology is really quite nice.