The Quantum Dragon is still quite young as far as dragons go, so he needs a little help optimizing his behaviors and interactions. We installed a Qblox system in his cave, and that’s been helping us monitor and adjust his system in real time. We can tailor his energy levels, which is quite fun when intruders try to steal some of his treasure.
IQT NORDICS Announces Two Additional Exhibitors
IQT Nordics taking place in Gothenburg, Sweden at Chalmers University on May 20-22, 2025 is pleased to announce that Qblox and Molecular Quantum Solutions will be exhibiting along with 20 additional organizations. Complete information about the exhibitors, the program and networking opportunities can be found at www.iqtevent.com.
Dutch Innovation Mission to Sweden During IQT Nordics 2025
An innovation mission focused on the Life Sciences and Health Sector (LSH) organized by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency with support from Quantum Delta NL has been announced. The mission will take place during the IQT Nordics Summit 2025. (Quantum Delta NL is also a platinum sponsor of the upcoming event May 20-22).
Most organisations are going to be caught with their cryptographic trousers down.
There is no “Q Day” and “Q Day” is Now
I have to include a pull quote from Steve Vaile’s article because this newsletter is way too family-friendly to share an image of The Quantum Dragon with his trousers down. He doesn’t see what all the Q-Day fuss is about, by the way; he’s quantum and can factor numbers in his head. This link might require a LinkedIn account.
Which library is best for you?
Dr. Frank C. Zickert’s article makes the cut for its featured image, which is clearly biased toward Xanadu’s PennyLane library. Out of the three—the others being IBM’s Qiskit and Google’s Cirq—that would be my choice as well. The other illustrations are great, too, but there is a glaring omission of Qiskit’s legendary #breakingchanges.
The Joy of Why
Quanta Magazine picked a great name for a podcast, and that would normally be enough to get into this newsletter on its own merits. However, this particular episode is partly a conversation between the co-hosts—Dr. Janna Levin and Dr. Steven Strogatz— and partly an interview of Ewin Tang by Dr. Levin. The latter is fascinating.
Quantum Peanut Butter
Have I acknowledged Steve Vaile in this newsletter yet this week? I have? Oh, well; here he is again. A peanut butter analogy for many-body localization (MBL) in superconducting alloys can’t be ignored, even if The Quantum Dragon is a carnivore. This link might require a LinkedIn account.
There is no reason variational quantum/classical algorithms will work and in fact we have been building evidence that they are in fact bad heuristics.
Quantum Computing’s dirty little secret
I enjoy a thorough besmirching of dead-end algorithms, and this article delivers in spades. Bonus points for the recurring “hope springs eternal.” I do, however, challenge the notion of Maria Schuld being a leader in the field; I read a bunch of her papers for Dungeons & Qubits, and she’s not pushing the bar forward—she’s pulling it back.
Indiana Jones and the Quantum Crusade
Dr. Frank C. Zickert invokes Indiana Jones, Greek mythology, and the 1927 Solvay Conference… all in one article! Any one of those would be enough to earn a flight on The Quantum Dragon, so I’m awarding Dr. Zickert two complimentary, unrestricted vouchers for future travel, valid at any time, to any destination.
Shoutout!
Russ Fein gave a shoutout to The Quantum Dragon in his article titled, “Learning More about Quantum Computing.” He got so excited jumping around his cave that he accidentally broke a few of his valuables! This is the first time he’s ever demanded that I stop what I’m doing and immediately add content to this newsletter.
Quantum Fiery Voices: Jensen Huang
For aiding and abetting his relentless assault, The Quantum Dragon recognizes Jensen Huang as one of his Quantum Fiery Voices.
Photos of distinguished visitors to your site. Have them hold something and look curious or enthused.
You need a press/media kit.
Dr. Bob Sutor offers up some sage advice in Quantum News and Commentary – Tuesday, April 8, 2025, with my favorite line quoted above. Quantum is way too interesting to show people just standing around or smiling for a camera. Every facial expression should say, “That’s awesome!”
[Note to self: write popular books.]
Prof. John Preskill shared a link on Bluesky—as he is wont to do—so this “note to self” is what grabbed my attention. I wonder if he’s just joking or if he might actually write a book. Let’s face it: the day he shares a link to his book will be the day that all of our social media timelines will feature nothing but his book.
This is an atom.
This video clip has no real educational value. In fact, it might even have negative educational value. But it’s funny. This link might require an Instagram account.
Silent Quantum Disco
I have no idea what a silent quantum disco is, but Imperial College London is hosting one as part of its Quantum Day Celebration 2025 on April 14.
Grassroots Organizations
I apparently responded to the survey behind Why teach quantum in your own time: the values of grassroots organizations involved in quantum technologies education and outreach, which makes sense as a founding member of OneQuantum Philippines. None of the anonymous quotes are mine, though, so I guess I’m not that memorable?
Code examples no longer worked. Community tutorials broke. Even IBM’s own Qiskit textbook was archived as it could not survive the scale of the changes.
That is not learning. That is torture.
Dr. Frank C. Zickert offers a beautifully written and illustrated smackdown of Qiskit. I was finding graveyards of Qiskit code on GitHub, Stack Exchange, and even the Qiskit textbook at least half a decade ago. The final straw for me was the second time a round of legendary #breakingchanges broke MY code.
#QSECDEF Incubator Session 1
Quantum Security Defence’s incubator “provides a high-impact environment for transforming intellectual property into investable, scalable companies.” I don’t have a startup, but I registered because the cat looks far more qualified in quantum cybersecurity than I am. This link might require a LinkedIn account.
Quantum Imaging with Undetected Photons
Thanks to Mark McGuire for sharing Dr. Arnoldo Badillo’s post linking to this paper. The first thing that got my attention, of course, was the image of the cat. The second thing that got my attention was a Nobel Laureate as one of the paper’s authors. The Quantum Dragon might want to set up a quantum photo booth in his cave….
First, thanks to the enshittification of the internet, and accelerated by Large Language Models that spit out reams of text at no effort, the quality of news is pretty low lately.
Enshittification of the Internet
This article by Jurjen N.E. Bos on quantum computing hype is fantastic! So many breakthroughs in such a short period of time, and yet commercially useful quantum computing remains decades away. Well, that timeline is according to Quantum Fiery Voice Jensen Huang, anyway. This link might require a Medium account.
Quantum! Slam! Quantum! Slam!
I have no idea what a quantum slam is, but Q-NEXT will be hosting one. It has something to do with panelists justifying their preferred modality, and one panelist will apparently be recognized as the top slammer. I thought that was Vince Carter? This link might require a Twitter account.
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
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.
- None observed? Again? What’s going on here?
