Turn that frown upside-down!

No superposition of happy and sad this week; the dragon is deterministically happy.

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Prof. Michael Biercuk commented on last week’s The Quantum Dragon, saying, “That is the saddest picture ever,” so I promised him something more cheerful this week. Fortunately, Dr. Bob Sutor shared an idiom that gave The Quantum Dragon a good belly laugh, and I timed this photo just right.

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

• Dr. Yanbing Zhou, Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Chickens

Dr. Bob Sutor shared a quantum idiom that gave The Quantum Dragon a hearty chuckle, greatly improving his disposition since last week. This is just one of the many reasons you may have noticed that he recommends the “Dr. Bob Sutor – Quantum and AI” Substack. This link might require a LinkedIn account.

Inside Rigetti

Years ago, Rigetti put the above photo into the public domain. Many organizations still use it, and variations of it, probably without knowing it’s Rigetti’s. The dangling wires at the bottom are its signature. After all these years, I think this is the only other photo I’ve seen of their systems. This link might require a LinkedIn account.

Quantum Energy Squares

Dr. Zlatko Minev shared a novel way to transition to an excited state. It looks like there are at least two different methods, actually. I think I would almost definitely prefer one method over the other, but I’m willing to do the experimentation to find out. This link might require a Twitter account.

Quantum Apocalypse?

I haven’t taken the estimated 31 minutes it would take to read this, but I’m adding it to my to-read list because of the illustrations. I see explanations of symmetric and asymmetric keys, Shor’s algorithm, “harvest now, decrypt later,” post-quantum cryptography (PQC), hybrid cryptography, and migration.

Childlike Wonder

This isn’t quantum, but it’s a photo of Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr playing with a physics toy. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again — partly because it’s the whole purpose of this newsletter — if something isn’t boring, don’t let it be boring. This link might require a Twitter account.

The Quantum Conflict

This is a space combat game that doesn’t seem to have any actual quantum themes, but if you get a kick out of all things frivolously named “quantum,” you might like the gameplay and visuals. I spotted one maneuver that reminded me of the Death Blossom from The Last Starfighter.

Weekend Quantum Quiz

It’s probably too late to answer Dr. Andreas Wallraff’s question, but it involves coffee consumption, so it’s worth inclusion in this newsletter. Fun fact: The Quantum Dragon gets even more excited by coffee pulses than he does electromagnetic pulses. This link might require a Twitter account.

Virtual Quantum Reality

It looks like a group of students are virtually exploring the Origin Quantum laboratory. Sadly, the VR experience is almost definitely better than the experience of using the Wukong superconducting quantum computer. I just checked, and 11 of the 72 qubits still have zero connectivity. This link might require a Twitter account.

Dead Planet Conference #1

Brian Lenahan used AI to generate a brief debate involving five of the all-time physics greats. He’s got Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Planck, and Feynman for good measure. Too bad there isn’t a built-in poll asking readers who everyone thinks “won” the AI-generated debate.

Playing Centerfield

The Quantum Dragon flew up to the big leagues this week, taking a swing in the “Dr. Bob Sutor – Quantum and AI” Substack and the “Dr. Bob Sutor – Quantum and AI” LinkedIn newsletter. Put the dragon in, coach, he’s ready to play today. Be careful around his flaming tobacco spit, though… talk about health hazards….

Quantum Mustard

What a great quote from Prof. Scott Aaronson. Watch all 31 seconds of this video clip to find out the first question you should ask whenever anyone makes a claim involving quantum computing. And he’s right: many journalists and investors have not been asking this question. This link might require a Twitter account.

Parallel Worlds Meme

This meme has been circulating for so long and is so widespread that I’ve already seen a reunion version staged with the people in the original. Dr. Clifford Pickover has now discovered a quantum-themed variation of the original. This link might require a Twitter account.

Come sail away.

This is a video of Dr. Jonathan Wurtz describing working at QuEra Computing. Assuming he’s being interviewed while on the clock, I can’t help but notice he’s on a boat. If he had on a wetsuit and scuba gear, I’d say he’s got a near-unbeatable job. As it is, sailing is way up there. This link might require a LinkedIn account.

Looks like we need quantum computers.

Thanks to Dr. Anastasia Marchenkova for sharing this photo of a slide breaking down the usage of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Chicoma supercomputer. What’s interesting is that the number of core-hours applied to quantum simulation is from only one supercomputer, not all of them. This link might require a LinkedIn account.

The Least Qualified Person in Quantum!

I don’t know how I missed this video when it was uploaded, but it gets really, really interesting at 9:08. This is Dr. Shannon Whitlock of QPerfect talking about MIMIQ at QCWare Q2B24 Tokyo. If you’d like to read about my personal adventures with MIMIQ, you can read about it on Inside Quantum Technology.

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US Election

The Quantum Dragon isn’t political, but this edition might be a little light this week due to “quantum” news suddenly evaporating off all my timelines.

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Inside Alpine Quantum Technologies (AQT)

This isn’t a peek inside AQT’s datacenter like the “Inside Rigetti” link I shared above. Instead, this is a peek inside AQT’s 19-inch rack-mounted ion trap quantum computer. It’s a fine tease, making me want to watch a longer version of this video. This link might require a LinkedIn account. Oh, and they’re hiring….

No foolin’!

D-Wave’s Qubits 2025 conference ends on April Fools’ Day, and I could not have planned that better myself. There is absolutely no better day to talk about D-Wave than on the one day of the year when you know for a fact that every speaker is trying to fool you. I’d love to meet the disgruntled employee who scheduled this.

Planet-On Quantum & AI Hackathon for Greener Future

Thanks to Paweł Gora for sharing this 24-hour hackathon focused on climate change. There are five challenge areas, including: awareness, energy, waste, water, and ergonomy. Although one team member has to be physically present, the FAQ states that other team members can participate remotely.

Turning the Tables

Not that I listen to lots of podcasts, but this is first podcast I’m aware of that puts the host into the guest’s seat. Instead of Yuval Boger interviewing Jack Krupansky (again) on The Superposition Guy’s Podcast, Jack is asking the questions in this episode. Who would Yuval like to have breakfast with on Monday mornings to start each week?

Resuscitated Quantum Bullshit Detector

Thanks to Alan Ho and Prof. Michael Biercuk for the idea to resuscitate the Quantum Bullshit Detector. This Twitter account would controversially tweet a paper with a simple “bullshit” or “not bullshit,” but I’ll go one step further and provide links to the microscopic, chemical, microbiologic, and immunochemical analyses of the bullshit.

• Ironically, during an election week, this edition is bullshit-free.

1. https://www.bing.com/images/create/a-realistic2c-happy2c-laughing2c-young-red-dragon-try/1-67258f2b6ac64247a471655d1da788f6?id=qJgd6v0s37A6gvXf2x0CgA%3D%3D&view=detailv2&idpp=genimg&idpclose=1&thid=OIG3.0AiFXsrhAtTNxAJFhZxC&frame=sydedg&skey=HhkQiECJrZh5ytKqay2z9xSD_R_K4eDOoN43kM9RCR0&form=SYDBIC