I love Lucy.
The Quantum Dragon's always got some 'splainin' to do!
And you can fall in love with her too. Watch this 0:56 time-lapse video of the assembly, delivery, and installation of Quandela’s “Lucy” photonic quantum computer to EuroHPC and GENCI at CEA’s TGCC. You can find some paparazzi photos and gossip about her in the press release.
This week’s premium content:
In this edition:
- Read Dr. Thomas Ehmer’s deleted post.
- Prof. John Preskill has a meme.
- Quantum tunneling explained… in an elevator?
- Confusion, Curiosity, and the Magic of Not Knowing
- One. Billion. Dollars.
- Schrödinger’s Dilemma
- Quantum Homebrew Computer Club
- Generating (Constraint-) Satisfying Melodies on a Neutral Atom Quantum Computer
- 40,000 qubits in a single fridge!
- Russia is NOT a leader!
- Dancing with The Godfather
- U-Haul your own chandelier.
- You Oughta Be in Pictures
- Zapata AI Job Seekers… only 1 left on this list!
Read Dr. Thomas Ehmer’s deleted post.
I didn’t want to entertain yet another Google claim, but I was going to make an exception for this one explainer with its reverse analogy. I like analogies, and I don’t recall seeing one in reverse before. The post has been deleted for some reason, so I’m linking to the Substack so you can follow him and not miss future short-lived content.
Prof. John Preskill has a meme.
I’ve been lamenting the lack of suitable content on Bluesky, and Dr. James Wootton has finally broken the platform out of its rut. Hopefully this starts a trend.
Quantum tunneling explained… in an elevator?
What a novel idea: explain something in the time it takes to ride up and down in an elevator. The “elevator pitch” would make more sense one way, but whatever. In this episode, assuming it’s a series, Prof. Chris Ferrie explains quantum tunneling using a ball as a prop.
Confusion, Curiosity, and the Magic of Not Knowing
Speaking of Dr. Thomas Ehmer, who you may recall was mentioned several snippets up, here’s an article about his podcast interview with The Quantum Dragon. Listeners who caught the podcast when it was first published know that the guest was not me, the caretaker. It was voiced by the dragon; that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
One. Billion. Dollars.
What happens when you’re the Diamond Sponsor of Q+AI and you unveil something new during the conference? SEALSQ did it and just so happened to surpass $1B in market capitalization that same week. Can this happen to your organization? Well, there’s always Q+AI 2026…. This link might require a Twitter account.
Schrödinger’s Dilemma
I wish, I wish, I wish I could credit this properly and link back to some original source, but it’s uncredited on social media, so it’s making its untraceable rounds.
Quantum Homebrew Computer Club
This repost by Dr. Thomas Ehmer of his Entangled Health Podcast is starting to take over this newsletter, but this comment by Samarth Sandeep is worth sharing. He analogized me to Gordon French and presumably The Quantum Dragon to the Homebrew Computer Club’s newsletter. This link might require a LinkedIn account.
Generating (Constraint-) Satisfying Melodies on a Neutral Atom Quantum Computer
Prof. Eduardo R. Miranda shared this post by Dr. Isaiah Hull, and I admit to being jealous. I’ve collaborated with Prof. Miranda to generate music with superconducting qubits and photons, but I haven’t gotten around to neutral atoms yet. I’ve looked into it, but I haven’t actually done it yet. This link might require a LinkedIn account.
40,000 qubits in a single fridge!
But zero dragons…
Russia is NOT a leader!
Here’s a photo of part of the Lebedeva (FIAN) 50‑qubit ytterbium ion quantum computer at the Moscow Institute of Physics. What’s interesting is that the tweet praises Russia’s “accomplishments” but doesn’t proclaim Russia’s leadership in anything. That’s bizarre to see. This link might require a Twitter account.
Dancing with The Godfather
Dr. Bob Sutor is the godfather of The Quantum Dragon, and you can listen to him on the Impact Quantum Podcast’s “Dancing with Qubits – A Conversation with Dr. Bob Sutor” with hosts Candace Gillhoolley and Frank La Vigne. They’ve made you a podcast you can’t refuse.
U-Haul your own chandelier.
Speaking of Dr. Bob Sutor, the featured image of this post is legendary. I haven’t asked him why he’s migrating fully to Substack, but I’ve worked with multiple platforms, and I would use Substack exclusively if I could get away with it. You should definitely subscribe to him there if you haven’t yet. This link might require a LinkedIn account.
You Oughta Be in Pictures
Q+AI 2.0 is a wrap! I’m awarding 100 admittedly worthless points to whoever snapped photos of The Quantum Dragon in flight over lower Manhattan. In the meantime, enjoy these photos of the humans in attendance, and we’ll see you at IQT Nordics 2026, Q+AI 3.0 2026, and Quantum+AI Korea 2026.
Zapata AI Job Seekers… only 1 left on this list!
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
Filed under: Quantum Computing • Artificial Intelligence • Deep Tech
