A quantum leap for antimatter measurements.

#ArtificialIntelligence #CyberSecurity #QuantumComputing
The transformative effects of emerging technologies in this year by artificial intelligence and quantum computing will be hugely impactful; however, their cybersecurity challenges on society will require the need for proactive security adaptation and collaboration to mitigate new threats.
Explore the entire life story of the cosmos, from quantum flickers at the Big Bang to the distant eras of black holes and dark energy, and discover what kinds of civilizations might endure across these unimaginable spans of time.
Watch my exclusive video Mass Drivers on the Moon: https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur-mass-drivers-on-the-moo…ar-economy.
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Get a Lifetime Membership to Nebula for only $300: https://go.nebula.tv/lifetime?ref=isaacarthur.
Use the link https://gift.nebula.tv/isaacarthur to give a year of Nebula to a friend for just $36.
Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net.
Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArthur.
Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-arthur.
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583992725237264/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IsaacArthur/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Isaac_A_Arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: https://discord.gg/53GAShE
Credits:
Spaceport Innovations — Designing the Next Generation of Launch Sites.
July 31, 2025; Episode 744
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Epochs of the Universe — The Cosmic Clock & Civilization (July 31, 2025)
Recorded: June 2025
Written by: Isaac Arthur.
Editor: Lukas Konecny.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator.
Chapters.
0:00 Intro.
2:26 The T-Scale — Time, Terrifyingly Large and Small.
8:25 The Grand Unification Epoch.
10:30 The Inflationary Epoch.
15:40 The Electroweak Epoch.
17:41 The Quark Epoch.
18:19 The Hadron Epoch.
19:28 The Early Universe.
22:52 The Stelliferous Era (T10–T14)
22:24 Into the Darkness (T15-T67)
31:56 The Sojourn.
32:54 The Black Hole Era.
36:55 The Dark Era.
40:29 Final Fates: Cycles, Cracks, and Cosmic Cliffhangers.
This report reviews the construction and potential use of FTQC (Fault Tolerant Quantum Computing) computers to reliably perform complex calculations by overcoming the problems posed by the errors and noise inherent in quantum systems.
After recalling the reality of the quantum advantage and its needs, the report describes the use of error-correcting codes in the design of FTQCi computers. It then reports on the progress of the five most advanced physical technologies in the world for building such computers and the obstacles they will have to face in order to achieve the transition to scale necessary for the execution of useful applications. Finally, it discusses the technical and economic environment for quantum computers, how their performance can be compared and evaluated, and their future coexistence with other computing technologies (3D silicon, AI) or with supercomputers.
An imaging method provides unprecedented resolution for studies of quantum materials by relying on superconductors’ extreme sensitivity to light.
The energy deposited in a superconductor by a single photon can register a detectable signal, which is why superconductors are employed in some extremely sensitive detectors. Now researchers have shown how to use this sensitivity to create maps of the superconducting properties of a material with nanometer resolution [1]. The technique can also detect polaritons—hybrid light–matter excitations that may be useful in quantum technologies—with higher resolution than earlier methods. The researchers expect the new technique to be useful in fields as diverse as quantum information and nanophotonics.
When a superconductor held just below its critical temperature absorbs a single photon, the superconductivity can be destroyed in a small region of the material, triggering a small electrical signal. Recent advances have expanded the operating temperatures of such detectors and improved their sensitivities to photons over a wide range of frequencies, enabling many new applications. Mengkun Liu of Stony Brook University in New York and colleagues wondered if the same sensitivity might be employed to build high-resolution spatial maps of the properties of superconducting samples. “Spatial variations often influence superconducting strength and coherence, so an ability to image these properties locally would bring valuable insight,” says Stony Brook team member Ran Jing.
Many quantum technologies function only at ultralow temperatures. Managing the flow of heat in these systems is crucial for protecting their sensitive components. Now Matteo Pioldi and his colleagues at the CNR Institute of Nanoscience and the Scuola Normale Superiore, both in Pisa, Italy, have devised a thermal analogue of a transistor that could facilitate this heat management [1]. Just as a transistor can control electric currents, the new device has the potential to control heat currents in cryogenic quantum systems.
The most common type of transistor has three electrical terminals: the source, the gate, and the drain. Adjusting the voltage applied to the gate alters the strength of the electric current flowing from the source to the drain. In the proposed device, a semiconductor-based thermal reservoir serves as the source, and metallic thermal reservoirs serve as the gate and the drain. A second semiconductor-based reservoir exchanges heat with the source through photons and with the gate and the drain through electrons. Changing the gate’s temperature affects how easily heat flows through the device and, in turn, alters the strength of the heat current flowing from the source to the drain.
Pioldi and his colleagues performed numerical simulations of their device in a realistic setup at ultralow temperatures. They found that a small change in the strength of the heat current coming from the gate could cause the strength of the current between the source and the drain to increase by an amount that was 15 times larger. They say that their device could improve heat management in quantum circuits and thus help optimize quantum sensors, quantum computers, and other temperature-sensitive quantum systems.
Scientists at the Institute for Photonic Quantum Systems (PhoQS) and the Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing (PC2) at Paderborn University have developed a powerful open-source software tool that allows them to simulate light behavior in quantum systems.
The unique feature of this tool, named “Phoenix,” is that researchers can use it to very quickly investigate complex effects to a level of detail that was previously unknown, and all without needing knowledge of high-performance computing. The results have now been published in Computer Physics Communications.
Phoenix solves equations that describe how light interacts with material at the quantum level, which is essential for understanding and for the design of future technologies such as quantum computers and advanced photonic devices.
Quantum computers, devices that can perform computations relying on the principles of quantum mechanics, are expected to outperform classical computers on some types of optimization and processing tasks. While physicists and engineers have introduced various quantum computing systems over the past decades, reliably scaling these systems so that they can tackle real-world problems while correcting errors arising during computations has so far proved challenging.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently introduced a new, modular quantum architecture for scaling superconducting quantum processors in a fault-tolerant, scalable and reconfigurable way. Scaling in a fault-tolerant way is required to maintain the quantum effects and conditions necessary to perform long-term quantum computations.
Their proposed system, outlined in a paper published in Nature Electronics, is comprised of several modules (i.e., superconducting qubit devices) that can operate independently and be connected to others via a low-loss interconnect, forming a larger quantum network.
The theory of quantum mechanics has transformed daily life since being proposed a century ago, yet how it works remains a mystery—and physicists are deeply divided about what is actually going on, a survey in the journal Nature said Wednesday.
“Shut up and calculate!” is a famous quote in quantum physics that illustrates the frustration of scientists struggling to unravel one of the world’s great paradoxes.
For the last century, equations based on quantum mechanics have consistently and accurately described the behavior of extremely small objects.