We hope you enjoyed our first full episode and are now feeling a little less clueless about quantum computing. If so, you might want to learn a bit more about the people and technologies we introduced this time. So, here are some handy links to the quantum scientists, technologists and other stuff we talked about. We still have loads to cover (we’ve not even started on how you program these machines and what they can do today) so stay tuned for episode 2 – sometime in the autumn (we hope).
The scientists and their projects
IBM’s Dr Jerry Chow’s wikipedia page plus his TED Talk introducing quantum computing
Dr Stefan Filipp (also of IBM).
Link to the IBM Q website, where you can even have a go at programming it if you’re so inclined. And, for the rest of you, here’s a video of it making its weird noises.
History of IBM on wikipedia
Professor John Martinis (PDF bio) and his group’s home page at UCSB, plus one of his talks on YouTube
Google AI homepage https://ai.google/research/teams/applied-science/quantum-ai/
Google blog post on launch of Bristlecone quantum processor
Professor Simon Benjamin’s bio on the NQIT site at Oxford University…
…And here’s the home page of NQIT, Britain’s big national project to build a quantum computer which we’ll be covering in episode 2.
Quantum Questions
Thanks again to Al Murray – The Pub Landlord for being our first Quantum Questionner . Here’s his official website. http://thepublandlord.com/ Go and see him or buy some of his stuff – he’s very funny.
Quantum physics
Schrodinger’s cat video explanation
Entanglement video explanation
ScienceNews blog on the Top ten Interpretations of quantum physics
Clip of Feynman saying nobody understands quantum physics, plus his famous 1964 Cornell Messenger lectures introducing the key concepts in detail and proving that he, for one, did. They get fairly technical as you get into the meat of them, but the intro’s fairly accessible – he was a wonderful explainer and populariser of the field, as these lectures (as well as this classic BBC Horizon programme) show.
And if Feynman’s lectures sound a bit too scary, why not start with this book instead.
Other bits and bobs we mentioned…
Summary of Feynman’s pronouncements on quantum computing
Was the Infinite Improbability Drive the first quantum computer in fiction?
Wikipedia entry on adiabatic quantum computing. No, we still don’t understand it.
D-Wave Systems
Fujitsu Digital Annealer
Stephanie Wehner’s TEDxVienna Talk on The Quantum Internet
Wikipedia entry on superconducting quantum computing
Rigetti Computing home page, plus recent blog post by its founder on the company’s forthcoming 128-qubit chip.
Quantum computing at Intel.
Alibaba’s quantum computing efforts outlined in a press release and FT news story (requires registration)
Wikipedia entry on quantum supremacy/advantage.
