Sophia Chen

How To Build Your Own Quantum Computer A group of physicists are developing a quantum computer that’s entirely open source, from hardware to software

Quantum computers are insanely hard to build, with commercial application timelines of a decade+. The space is overrun with hype.

Academic physicists in Canada are making an open-source quantum computer in a bid for more transparency.

physics.aps.org/articles/v19...

Quantum teleportation is even weirder than you think - Nature Don't let the catchy name distract you, says Philip Ball: the questions inspired by this arguably misnamed phenomenon go to the heart of quantum theory.

1/4 RIP Micius 🛰️
The world's first quantum satellite crashed into the Pacific last week (to the west of Ecuador) after an almost 10-year mission
Also known as Mozi (& QUESS) it was famously the first to teleport a photon to space (or at least its quantum state)
🧪⚛️
www.nature.com/articles/nat...

(n+1/n) Also it appears I can't count. Apologies for numbering these posts incorrectly, you know how it goes

(n/n) The article is behind a paywall, so just let me know if you'd like a pdf to read.

(5/n) Governments and companies need to step up to manage this before the e-waste deluge escalates further. Possible steps:

-companies need to disclose more about how much hardware they're using
-Governments need to regulate third-party recyclers so that they meet legal standards

Brokers of Shame — Basel Action Network

(4/n) Some companies illegally export this waste to other countries. For example, a US-based company specializing in decommissioning data centers likely misdeclared waste and shipped it to Malaysia, a 2025 report from NGO Basel Action Network found. www.ban.org/reports/brok...

(4/n) Global recycling management infrastructure is broken. Data center companies commonly use third-party recyclers, and once they hand off their waste to companies, it's often unclear what happens it.

(3/n) But these efforts aren't enough. E-waste generation is rising five times faster than recycling rates. A 2024 estimate finds genAI could produce up to 2.5 million tons of e-waste/year by 2030, roughly comparable to every person on Earth discarding an iPhone. This is likely an underestimate.

(3/n) Also, data centers are centralized. Compared to consumer electronics (microwaves, radios, your old Furby from the 90's), it's easy to implement recycling innovations at scale at a data center.

(2/n) Reasons for hope: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and the US government all have some kind of reduce/reuse/recycle programs for their data centers.

Microsoft recently did a study on how to recycle rare earth elements, which are used in magnets in hard drives, but are incredibly polluting.

The afterlife of 20 million AI chips - Nature Computational Science Data-center operators try to recycle retired hardware, but a broken global recycling infrastructure stands in the way.

Companies' push to use generative AI means more chips, more servers, and data centers — and in a few years, a lot of garbage.

Here's my story about how countries plan to deal with the rising e-waste, and the challenges ahead.

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

(1/n)

A new ion-based quantum computer makes error correction simpler Quantinuum has unveiled a third-generation quantum computer that could be easier to scale up than rival approaches.

Quantinuum's new trapped-ion quantum computer, Helios, has performed some intriguing simulations of high-temperature superconductors. But it's still much too small to perform the industry’s dream algorithms.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/11/05/1...

This Cloth Destroys Deadly Nerve Agents in Minutes Chemists are collaborating with the US Army to build uniforms that can quickly break down toxic substances, protecting soldiers from chemical weapons.

(2/2) New laureates Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi did their pioneering work in the 80's and 90's. Since then, chemists have created some very powerful applications with MOFs. In 2020, I covered a few of them in an article in Wired:
www.wired.com/story/this-c...

(1/2) Today's Chemistry Nobel went to metal-organic frameworks. These are a class of customizable molecules that I think of as cages, where you can trap chemicals of your choice and then efficiently perform controlled chemistry reactions within them.

Google's Quantum Computing Party Is as Fancy as Physics Gets Physicists aren't known for their fancy shindigs—but quantum computer researchers break the mold.

(2/n) Enough about science. Let's talk about me. This is a rare opportunity to name drop a physicist I've hung out with and not be met 100% with blank stares. I partied with John Martinis in 2018 on an LA rooftop. The party was weird.

Receipts:

www.wired.com/story/google...

(1/n) Today's physics Nobel Prize went to John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis for their work on quantum tunneling in superconducting circuits. This research laid the groundwork for the quantum computers in development today.

Is AI Running the Government? Here's What We Know Generative AI is meant to automate tasks that government workers previously performed, with a predicted 300,000 job cuts from the federal workforce by the end of the year.

(3/n) And the second: the federal government's chatbots.

gizmodo.com/ai-running-a...

After a Complicated Legal Past, AI Set Her Free Rasa Legal uses generative AI and other automation software to accelerate the expungement process.

(2/n) The first: A Utah and Arizona-based company that uses generative AI to help people clear their criminal records through the process known as expungement.
gizmodo.com/ai-expunge-p...

In my latest for Gizmodo, I write about two cases of generative AI being used in legal settings. They're foils to each other: one that I believe presents a way to use the software responsibly, and one that doesn't.

I leave it as an exercise to the reader to decide which is which.

(1/n)

Quantum careers: The coder who used 90 programming languages — then invented one for quantum computers As a kid in Ukraine, Mariia Mykhailova wrote code on paper. Now she writes books on quantum computing.

Not a lot of people get to invent a programming language. I got to talk to somebody who did. Check out my latest profile in APS News.

www.aps.org/apsnews/2025...

This quantum radar could image buried objects Physicists are exploring a quantum-mechanical approach to making smaller radio wave detectors.

Quantum computing gets all the attention -- but have you heard about their cousin, quantum radar? I write about a new type of quantum radar that uses Rydberg atoms, used as qubits in computers, not for encoding info but for imaging objects underground.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/11/1...

Quantum careers | Building tomorrow’s quantum computers, teaching tomorrow’s scientists Sergio Cantu’s dual mission spans multiple continents.

Meet Sergio Cantu, a physicist at QuEra who just built a quantum computer in Japan and who also teaches baller science workshops to students in Mexico. My story for APS News.

www.aps.org/apsnews/2025...

IBM aims to build the world’s first large-scale, error-corrected quantum computer by 2028 The company says it has cracked the code for error correction and is building a modular machine in New York state.

IBM says it's got all the ingredients and plans to make an error-corrected, large-scale quantum computer by 2028. "Large scale" = 200 logical qubits, 100 million operations, which is likely still 10x fewer operations than needed to be useful.

My story:
www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/10/1...

This article basically a laundry list of how NOT to use AI. And that's how DOGE used it, to automate the cancelling of contracts at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Great reporting and some striking visualizations of the cuts to NSF coming from a variety of directions: terminated grants, frozen new grants, and budget cuts.

(5/n) But these clocks show, in their real-life operation, how time slows down in a gravitational field, as predicted by GR. They tick according based on a principle of quantum mechanics, that electrons can only be located in certain orbitals around atoms.

I freaking love clocks.

(4/n) And here's the reason I'm obsessed with clocks. Fundamental physics can seem so esoteric, so foreign. General relativity and quantum mechanics don't make intuitive sense.

(3/n) In my latest piece, I write about how scientists translate that precision in time to measure elevations on Earth. If you can measure elevation precisely, that means you can build better bridges, canals, and dams. And you can monitor changes in sea level.

(2/n) Clocks are the most precise instruments humans have ever made. The precision isn't just some party trick. If you can measure time precisely, because the speed of light is constant everywhere in the universe—you can measure distances precisely.

A new atomic clock in space could help us measure elevations on Earth The European Space Agency’s ACES mission could ultimately pave the way for a global network of atomic clocks that make these measurements far more accurate.

In spacetime news, the European Space Agency launched the most accurate clock to fly in space last month. It won't lose or gain a second in 300 million years.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/22/1...

(1/n)