Jack Krupansky breathed fire on IBM last weekend. It burned so hot that even The Quantum Dragon checked into the nearest Emergency Room. The doctor prescribed liberal application of hydrocortisone cream, but the dragon is thinking about asking Bluefors for another cryogenic bath; according to him, they’re oh so soothing.
SCALINQ Is the latest Sponsor Addition to IQT NORDICS MAY 20-22, 2025
Scalinq from Sweden has become the latest organization to become a sponsor/exhibitor at IQT Nordics taking place in Gothenburg, Sweden at the Chalmers Institute in Gothenburg. IQT Nordics is unique in the world of quantum conferences because it is supported by three countries (Denmark, Finland and Sweden) and rotates amongst the three annually. It is highly likely that Norway will become yet another country supporting this Nordics region conference and exhibition. Sponsoring/Exhibiting information is available at www.iqtevent.com.
IQT Nordics 2025 Announces Four Additional Speakers
IQT NORDICS 2025 taking place in Gothenburg, Sweden (May 20-22) has four additional speakers: Lauri Sainiemi (Microsoft); Rana Sircar (Ericcson); Johan Vallin (Ericcson); and Peter Viereck (Niels Bohr Institute). IQT Nordics includes several interesting networking opportunities including a tour of the Chalmers Next Lab, an opening evening greet and meet and a cruise and light snacks on the waterways of Gothenburg. Additional information about the conference and exhibition can be found at www.iqtevent.com.
Ask 5 physicists “what’s a photon?” and you’ll get 6 different answers
– Dr. Aggie Branczyk (Bluesky)
Valentine’s Day Greetings You May Have Missed
- Infleqtion’s atomic heart (LinkedIn)
- Yana Glezer’s travelling photon (LinkedIn)
- TELUS Spark Science Centre’s “experience this phenomenon” (Twitter)
- Prof. Chris Ferrie’s The Quantum In You (free download)
The history and fate of the universe according to a photon.
Prof. Chris Ferrie flies The Quantum Dragon yet again, this time with the single greatest thread I’ve seen to date on Bluesky. It starts off strong and finishes even stronger. I dare say it would be hard to compete with this thread even on much older social media platforms.
“And now you know the rest of the story.” – Paul Harvey
The Other Source of Caffeine
This article is interesting because of its subject, Dr. Sarah Sheldon. I have personally asked Dr. Bob Sutor on The Quantum Dragon Podcast about the origin of his caffeine analogy, but he didn’t actually drop a name until the February 17 edition of “Dr. Bob Sutor – Quantum and AI – Sutor Group.”
An Animated Spin Chain
Quanta Magazine shared an animated illustration by Mark Belan on Bluesky, along with a link to an article by Matt von Hippel about Hans Bethe. The whole article is attractive, quite frankly, with a nice illustration by Señor Salme and some historical images. I’m awarding bonus points for the sports stadium metaphor.
Origin Quantum did not respond to requests for comment, but it’s not difficult to imagine this review bruising the pride of its 82-year-old founder, Guo Guangcan.
The Quantum Panic
This article by Rachel Cheung in The Wire China takes a realistic view of what’s going on in China, something I’ve done a few times. Quite a few recognizable names appear, including 5X Siegelwax, which might be a record. I believe I’m the only one potentially bruising the pride of an octogenarian, though. In my defense, 1) I didn’t know that, and 2) he shouldn’t have any pride in Wukong for me to bruise.
Commercialization Roles
The phrase “posting commercialization roles” suggests that companies such as QuEra, Q-CTRL, and Classiq are hiring. I shared MariadelMar Mateo’s event two editions ago, but it seems to be shaping up to be a job fair, and that’s worth sharing again. This link might require a LinkedIn account.
Miniaturizing Quantum Dragons…
… and diamond-based quantum processors. Quantum Brilliance recently raised USD $20 million, but what does that mean for you and me? I had questions; you now have answers. For example, why does The Quantum Dragon have a lunchbox? Is that random silliness or is that actually relevant? Spoiler alert: it’s relevant.
Writing Quantum Steampunk: Science-Fiction Workshop
Imagine a course that introduces English majors to quantum thermodynamics. Well, you can count on Prof. Nicole Yunger Halpern to make such a thing happen, and now it’s available at the University of Maryland. She and her co-teacher are apparently sharing science and creative writing with a broad range of STEM/humanities majors.
QPerfect is here to pump… YOU up!
QPerfect somehow upgraded MIMIQ, which is impressive considering how powerful the emulator was when I tried to break it back in early 2024. But, of course, that’s not what gets The Quantum Dragon’s attention. No, take one look at the post, and you’ll see what caught his eye. This link might require a LinkedIn account.
Commercially Useful Quantum Dragons
Will quantum computers become commercially useful in 5 years, 20 years, or somewhere in between? They’re actually commercially useful today, albeit for a specific purpose, so we need to ask more precise questions and demand more comprehensive answers.
The editorial team wishes to point out that the results in this manuscript do not represent evidence for the presence of Majorana zero modes in the reported devices.
Peer Review File
This about sums it up.
Dr. Joe Fitsimmons encapsulated the Microsoft announcement in one sentence. This link might require a Twitter account. Keep scrolling for a non-exhaustive list — topped by Prof. John Preskill and Prof. Scott Aaronson — of those desperately trying to hold down the hype balloon, even though it’s already in orbit.
Fixed.
Josh Combes “fixed” Microsoft’s “topological qubit.”
Great news!
Olivier Ezratty congratulated Microsoft on its progress. Sort of. This link might require a LinkedIn account.
Zapata AI Job Seekers
If you were laid off by Zapata AI and would like a free listing in this newsletter, please reach out and let me know. I’ll maintain a list in The Quantum Dragon until everyone on the list has been gainfully employed elsewhere or is otherwise no longer actively job seeking. I might extend this offer to all job seekers, but I’ll start with these layoffs.
- Shawn Gibford Industrial PHDc: Quantum Applications in the Life Sciences
- Dr. Francesco Benfenati Quantum Solutions Engineer
Quantum Noise Detector
Alan Ho and Prof. Michael Biercuk inspired the Resuscitated Quantum Bullshit Detector, but the original(?) has resurfaced on Bluesky. It’s back to reposting a simple “bullshit” or “not bullshit,” so The Quantum Dragon will continue to monitor for challenges, controversies, and debates under this new name from Dr. Bob Sutor.
- Origin Quantum’s Wukong has been visited 20 million times? Visited, maybe. In use, no. It is qualitatively poor, and I have never seen the queue exceed 1.
- Josephson junctions are underrated? (LinkedIn) Most of the comments disagree.
- Microsoft created a topological qubit?
- Prof. John Preskill: There is no publicly available evidence that this test has been conducted successfully.
- Prof. Scott Aaronson: If Microsoft’s claim stands, then topological qubits have finally reached some sort of parity with where more traditional qubits were 20-30 years ago. (note: Prof. Aaronson italicized the “If”)
- Prof. Jason Alicea… questioned whether the company had actually built a topological qubit, saying the behavior of quantum systems is often hard to prove.
- Prof. Tom Wong: It’s a significant result, but there’s still much work to do to verify/scale.
- Sergey Frolov: This is a mega-thread of all Microsoft problems related to topological qubits.