This is your Quantum Tech Updates podcast.

Here’s Leo, your quantum computing specialist, bringing you this week’s Quantum Tech Updates.

Let me tell you, the world of quantum just shook—literally. Three days ago, John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis, whose work I’ve admired for decades, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for demonstrating macroscopic quantum effects in electrical circuits. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences put it perfectly: they proved that groups of electrons, acting as a single quantum entity, can tunnel across barriers and absorb or emit energy in discrete packets—even in devices you could hold in your hand. This wasn’t some abstract theory; this was quantum mechanics, big enough to touch. Imagine you’re watching a concert, and suddenly the entire orchestra tunnels through the stage—notes, instruments, and all—to reappear on the other side, playing Beethoven without missing a beat. That’s the level of weirdness we’re talking about. Their work, especially Martinis’ doctoral experiments at UC Berkeley in the 1980s, laid the foundation for the superconducting qubits that power today’s quantum processors.

But let’s zoom in on the hardware. The latest milestone isn’t just another lab curiosity. This year, we’ve seen quantum processors with error-corrected logical qubits that, in some cases, outperform classical supercomputers for specific tasks. Think of classical bits as light switches—strictly on or off. Qubits, though, are like spinning tops: they can be up, down, or any dizzying combination of both at the same time. This superposition, combined with entanglement—where quits instantaneously influence each other, no matter the distance—gives quantum machines their edge. When I walk through the lab at UC Santa Barbara, the hum of dilution refrigerators chilling chips to near absolute zero is the soundtrack of the quantum revolution. Superconducting circuits, descendants of Clarke, Devoret, and Martinis’ work, are now being scaled by companies like Google and startups such as John Martinis’ own QoLab. The goal? Noisy, error-prone qubits are giving way to arrays where errors are detected and corrected in real time—something ten years ago I’d have called science fiction.

Meanwhile, the buzz isn’t confined to California. Just yesterday, Palm Beach County hosted the Quantum Beach conference, where twelve Florida universities and industry leaders gathered to sign partnerships aimed at making South Florida a quantum hub. Kelly Smallridge from the Business Development Board called it a play for “industries of the future”—quantum computing, AI, cybersecurity. It’s not just talk; quantum is already accelerating drug discovery, securing communications, and measuring phenomena we couldn’t touch before, like ultra-weak magnetic fields or the precise ticking of atomic clocks.

In a world still dazzled by AI, it’s easy to overlook that every AI breakthrough—from protein folding to language models—depends on classical chips whose limits we’re fast approaching. Quantum computing isn’t just faster; it’s fundamentally different. As Ilana Wisby, quantum entrepreneur, recently noted, the Nobel trio’s work on Josephson junctions turned a quantum curiosity into the backbone of practical quantum technology. And let’s not forget Quantum Brilliance’s diamond-based ‘Quoll’ processor, just named one of TIME’s Best Inventions—showing that quantum isn’t just for mega-labs but can be compact, even portable.

So, here’s the big picture: every time you use your phone, your laptop, or even your smart fridge, you’re surfing on quantum technology. But the real revolution—quantum advantage—is inching closer. We’re not just optimizing what we have; we’re rewriting the rules. As John Martinis said this week, “It was all this basic research we did for decades that enabled this to happen.” And he’s not done yet. Neither am I.

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