Steve Flammia

This raises new questions about Biden’s dogs.

Parameterableitungseinfachintegralfindungsfreude?

This trick has worked in the past, at least briefly; see False Dimitry. @zachweinersmith.bsky.social
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_D...

Outstanding choices!

Interesting bit of sociology: They are really studiously avoiding any mention of quantum computing. First and only mention came in the last few words of the presentation by Johansson.

Charlie Bennett should win the Nobel prize in Physics this year.

This would be an important breakthrough if it holds, but I'm skeptical on first glance. Large parts of this were clearly written by a generative AI. Doesn't mean it's wrong, but I suspect it's a "vibe theorem", i.e., not a theorem. I'll wait for Vidick, Regev, etc. to weigh in.

Governments have been over-promised, but program managers aren’t naive. Forcing academics + ‘clueless’ industry partners (imperfectly) aligns theory with reality. It’s frustrating (for both sides!), but still positive-sum. IMO funding a mixture is strictly better than funding only fundamentals.

I’m glad you caught that. :)

That's Kurt Anyon, the Austrian–American physicist after which anyons are named. He's walking with Gustav Karl Persson, of GKP fame.

Foreign Student Status Duration Limits Clear White House Review A Department of Homeland Security proposal to restrict the duration of foreign students’ tenure in the US has cleared White House review, the final step before its public release.

Bad Policy: Subjecting PhD students and postdocs to 4-year visa limits, subject to immigration officials' review. This bureaucratic overregulation will reduce US competitiveness and weaken US science. There needs to be more awareness and discussion of this terrible idea
news.bgov.com/daily-labor-...

The QEC25 conference hosted by @yaleqi.bsky.social was really excellent, and videos of all talks are available. So much recent progress on quantum error correction!
qec25.yalepages.org

Screenshot of a post saying, "In German, the word "Schiedsrichtertrotzdank", means the simultaneous feeling of annoyance and gratitude you feel when a referee makes a valid point."

💯! There's even a word for that in German!

Congress wants to cut the smartest investment taxpayers ever made Virtually every smartphone on the planet runs on a chip paid for by American taxpayers — a chip that I helped invent. Now Congress is moving to cut funding for the National Science Foundation that …

"Every American taxpayer is a silent shareholder in that success. If we walk away now, we lose not just future breakthroughs but also what we have already earned." thehill.com/opinion/tech...

thank in the acknowledgments.

Rodney Baxter - Wikipedia

Rodney Baxter, Australia’s celebrated mathematical physicist, the Baxter of Yang-Baxter equations, passed away yesterday 🥲 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_...

Both the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations have now passed funding for science agencies with moderate cuts and flat funding, respectively. Both bills are quite far from the president's budget request, which proposes massive cuts to science funding.

This doesn’t even scratch the surface though. I predict ICE will get tasked with “monitoring election integrity” for the midterms.

Andrew Houck, Director of the Co-Design Center for Quantum Advantage, makes an eloquent case for the value of the National Quantum Initiative Quantum Research Centers. Hey Congress, how's that reauthorization coming along?

On July 17-18 a small symposium "Dreams of Quantum" will be held in honor of David DiVincenzo's work and retirement at RWTH Aachen. The event can be attended via Zoom by all. Information about the program of speakers & the Zoom link can be found at www.quantuminfo.physik.rwth-aachen.de/cms/~bmmwed

IQC and Waterloo mourn the loss of Raymond Laflamme | Institute for Quantum Computing | University of Waterloo Raymond Laflamme, a trailblazer in quantum information processing and pioneer of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo, died on June 19 after a lengthy battle with ca...

Raymond Laflamme 1960-2025. A great scientist, renowned for his pioneering contributions to quantum error correction. A great leader, founding director of the Institute for Quantum Computing. A great colleague and teacher whose legacy continues to inspire us.
uwaterloo.ca/institute-fo...

RIP Ray Laflamme, gone too soon.

Ray was a stellar scientist, the founding director of ⁦‪the IQC‬⁩ and ⁦‪of CIFAR's‬⁩ Quantum Information program, but more importantly a warm & generous human who built community and helped many (particularly junior researchers).

May his memory be a blessing.

I believe Vidick is in Lausanne, but still an awful blow to science. Glad no one was killed.

Happy to see our book "Why Nobody Understands Quantum Physics" published in English www.panmacmillan.com/authors/fran.... Unlike other popular science books, we explain quantum and its applications in the way working physicists use and understand them, without shying away from the many-body problem.

My Canadian university, Queen's, is offering TWENTY 4-year funded PhDs (40k CAD/yr) for a student of ANY citizenship who has been accepted at a top 100 US university but have had offer rescinded OR are reconsidering offer due to US policy.
Details found here👇

www.queensu.ca/grad-postdoc...

Rubio Reportedly Pauses New International Student Visa Interviews More than 1.1 million international students were enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities in the 2023-2024 school year.

The US Administration has indefinitely blocked *all* student visa applicants from getting a visa interview.

Worldwide, unconditional, no end date. All.

International students are crucial to the US university system, American innovation, and future US prosperity.

You just did!

This!

I like to say,

"Let p|A denote distribution p conditioned on event A.

Imagine a world where the laws of probability are the same, except (p|A)|B need not equal (p|B)|A.

Except you don't have to imagine, because it's literally our world!

Now explore probabilistic algorithms in this world."

PS: You recover classical (possibly probabilistic) computation if your state stays diagonal in the standard basis at all times.

PPS: psd = positive semidefinite, but I guess you knew that.

States 𝜌 are psd matrices with unit trace; measurements E_k are psd and ∑_k E_k = Id; probability of outcome k is Tr(E_k 𝜌); Dynamics are unitary matrices acting by conjugation. Computations start in some state, |0⟩⟨0|^⊗n, apply local unitaries and output is a measurement in the standard basis. QED