Welcome to the Quantum Realm. 

Sundays are for sipping coffee, light reads, laid-back listens, and community endeavors.

🔭 If you aspire to innovate, discover, create, etc — may the tools here be ever of use. Repositories from the community provide personal journeys as told through science, a guide to asking the right questions, plus the philisophical musings of Blaise Pascal, ever seeking truth and reminding us to do the same.

🗓️ THIS WEEK

Sunday, July 14 | QTM-X Quantum Education Series 6 of 10: Quantum Hardware

📰 WEEKEND BYTES

Fun news & community contributions.

📜 They say to study history to extract lessons we’ve already learned: Jonathan Felbinger’s excitement about the upcoming International Year of Quantum Science and Technology is almost palpable. Jonathan, though currently serving as the deputy director of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium, grew up in an environment that enouraged continuous learning, held a deep love for music, and eventually found his calling in tech policy. His studies on the interplay between academic freedom and national security during World War II and the Cold War have influenced his work in quantum technology, a field similarly caught between the lab and governmental interests.

📚 Quantum publications as a memoir: María Gragera Garcés’ repository chronicles the papers and publications that have shaped her educational journey in quantum technology. This is not a "Recommended Reading" list but rather a catalog of influential papers that reflect the evolution of her interests in the field. Recurring topics in María’s list include quantum protocol design, quantum algorithms, quantum error mitigation, quantum memory, QML, and more. This collection is great place to start to spark one’s own exploration of quantum technology applications and the many ways in which they branch off into seemingly limited (though we know they are) applications.

🧰 Guide to Asking Critical Questions for Enhanced Learning and Research: Quantum hardware engineer Onri Jay Benally has developed a table that offers a structured approach to asking critical questions for personal research, with the goal of inspiring comprehensive understanding and context generation. Key considerations include evaluating the physical significance of information, distinguishing between abstract and concrete data, assessing the level of subjectivity, and seeking clarity when questions are ambiguous. While not limited to quantum computing, this tool is invaluable for any scientist or innovator.

💻 It’s hard to explain — but it’s definitely not magic: Scott Aaronson, a trusted authority in the realm of quantum computing, critiques the often magical promises surrounding quantum computers while providing a more realistic expectation of their nuanced potential. While quantum computers may have speedup over classical in some domain, they won't be superior in every computational task contrary to media representation. Aaronson explains that quantum computing's power lies in the principle of superposition and interference, where the challenge is to choreograph amplitudes for correct answers without knowing them in advance. While this is most likely not news to the person reading this, this is a great resource to share with friends and family who are curious about the technology and what it does.

📸 Check out Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s “Quantum Science” picture album!

📚️ Plus, Olivia Lanes, global lead and manager for IBM Quantum Learning & Education, shares her quantum computing book recommendations:

🚀 TDQ Exchange

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🦸‍♀️ ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and philosopher. He was renowned for his contributions to the fields of mathematics and physical sciences, including the study of fluid mechanics, pressure, and vacuum which heavily influenced later scientific advancements. His work on probability theory and projective geometry has indirectly impacted the field of quantum computing by providing early mathematical frameworks essential for its development. His philosophical writings (such as Pensées below) explore the nature of human existence.

RECOMMENDED PUBLICATIONS:

Pensées

A collection of Pascal's philosophical fragments and thoughts exploring human nature and the quest for knowledge.

Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle

While primarily mathematical, this work on binomial coefficients and the development of Pascal's Triangle has implications for probability theory, which is central for both statistical mechanics and quantum theory.

The Generation of Conic Sections

Pascal's work in projective geometry, particularly his theorem on the properties of conic sections, has been fundamental in the field of mathematics and its applications in physics.

May we diligently seek truth as scientists, the act of searching inseparable from our being.

UNTIL TOMORROW.