Quantum technology gathers pace

1
00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:08,339
Physics World. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

2
00:00:08,559 --> 00:00:09,939
has, this morning, decided

3
00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:11,619
to award a 2022

4
00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:14,740
Nobel Prize in Physics in equal share

5
00:00:16,015 --> 00:00:17,635
to Allee Aspen, Universite

6
00:00:18,175 --> 00:00:19,155
Paris a Clais,

7
00:00:19,535 --> 00:00:22,195
and Ecole Polytechnique Palaisseux, France.

8
00:00:23,614 --> 00:00:26,755
John F Klauser, J F Klauser and Associates,

9
00:00:27,614 --> 00:00:28,914
Walnut Creek, California,

10
00:00:29,295 --> 00:00:29,795
USA.

11
00:00:30,780 --> 00:00:33,920
And to Anton Seilinger, University of Vienna,

12
00:00:34,460 --> 00:00:34,960
Austria.

13
00:00:35,659 --> 00:00:37,039
They received a prize

14
00:00:37,740 --> 00:00:40,240
for experiments with entangled photons,

15
00:00:40,859 --> 00:00:43,440
establishing the violation of Bell inequalities,

16
00:00:44,335 --> 00:00:47,934
and pioneering quantum information science. Hello, and welcome

17
00:00:47,934 --> 00:00:50,895
to the Physics World Stories podcast. I'm Andrew

18
00:00:50,895 --> 00:00:52,594
Glester, and that was Hans Elegren,

19
00:00:53,054 --> 00:00:55,454
the secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy

20
00:00:55,454 --> 00:00:56,114
of Sciences,

21
00:00:56,670 --> 00:01:00,030
announcing this year's winners of the Nobel Prize

22
00:01:00,030 --> 00:01:00,769
in Physics.

23
00:01:01,229 --> 00:01:03,789
And in this episode, we'll be exploring how

24
00:01:03,789 --> 00:01:06,430
the science that won that Nobel Prize is

25
00:01:06,430 --> 00:01:07,170
being applied

26
00:01:07,549 --> 00:01:09,650
in real world technologies today.

27
00:01:10,195 --> 00:01:12,855
We'll hear from Oscar Kennedy, a quantum engineer

28
00:01:12,995 --> 00:01:14,695
at Oxford Quantum Circuits.

29
00:01:15,075 --> 00:01:16,775
But first, his Max Seek,

30
00:01:17,075 --> 00:01:18,295
his company AEGIQ,

31
00:01:18,995 --> 00:01:21,255
that's a e g I q,

32
00:01:21,715 --> 00:01:25,189
received the business startup aboard from the IOP

33
00:01:25,409 --> 00:01:26,229
in 2021

34
00:01:27,170 --> 00:01:29,829
for the development of a breakthrough quantum photonics

35
00:01:29,969 --> 00:01:32,069
platform, which enabled new applications

36
00:01:32,530 --> 00:01:33,670
in quantum communications,

37
00:01:34,530 --> 00:01:35,030
computing,

38
00:01:35,329 --> 00:01:36,069
and imaging

39
00:01:36,644 --> 00:01:38,344
using high performance sources

40
00:01:38,724 --> 00:01:39,465
of indistinguishable

41
00:01:40,244 --> 00:01:41,224
single photons.

42
00:01:41,924 --> 00:01:42,825
EJEC is

43
00:01:43,284 --> 00:01:44,984
a quantum technology company.

44
00:01:46,165 --> 00:01:48,344
So we are focused on

45
00:01:48,805 --> 00:01:51,545
accelerating global adoption of quantum type

46
00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:53,180
with the most scalable,

47
00:01:53,959 --> 00:01:54,459
technologies,

48
00:01:55,799 --> 00:01:58,299
for mass market applications, and we use photonics

49
00:01:58,359 --> 00:01:59,020
for that.

50
00:02:00,439 --> 00:02:02,859
As and as the main component,

51
00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:04,060
and

52
00:02:05,284 --> 00:02:07,125
our first product is already in the market.

53
00:02:07,365 --> 00:02:09,705
It's a source true true source of,

54
00:02:10,165 --> 00:02:12,104
quantum light, mostly with all those.

55
00:02:12,724 --> 00:02:14,824
And there's more exciting stuff in a way.

56
00:02:15,205 --> 00:02:18,069
We'll return to the tech very soon. But

57
00:02:18,069 --> 00:02:20,629
first, just what did those scientists do to

58
00:02:20,629 --> 00:02:23,370
win the Nobel Prize? They they proved

59
00:02:24,389 --> 00:02:25,129
the inequalities

60
00:02:25,909 --> 00:02:26,729
as they called.

61
00:02:27,030 --> 00:02:29,209
And so I'm sure some of the listeners

62
00:02:29,909 --> 00:02:31,349
know what it is, but,

63
00:02:31,750 --> 00:02:32,969
for those who don't,

64
00:02:35,604 --> 00:02:36,824
the North Irish physicist,

65
00:02:37,284 --> 00:02:40,805
John Bell, he was very concerned about, like,

66
00:02:40,805 --> 00:02:41,305
quantum,

67
00:02:43,125 --> 00:02:44,664
and, like, is it real?

68
00:02:45,044 --> 00:02:46,745
Is quantum mechanics correct?

69
00:02:47,844 --> 00:02:48,584
And so

70
00:02:49,669 --> 00:02:51,269
he designed a set of,

71
00:02:51,750 --> 00:02:52,250
theoretical,

72
00:02:53,909 --> 00:02:55,769
equations. Well, actually, they're inequalities,

73
00:02:57,509 --> 00:03:00,889
that if they were correct, if they held,

74
00:03:01,394 --> 00:03:03,474
to test, that would mean that the quantum

75
00:03:03,474 --> 00:03:05,254
mechanics isn't correct.

76
00:03:06,114 --> 00:03:07,495
And if they're violated,

77
00:03:08,914 --> 00:03:12,055
that means the quantum mechanics is correct, and

78
00:03:12,275 --> 00:03:15,094
we do not have something called hidden variables.

79
00:03:15,540 --> 00:03:16,199
But, basically,

80
00:03:16,500 --> 00:03:17,240
the classical

81
00:03:17,620 --> 00:03:18,120
description,

82
00:03:19,860 --> 00:03:21,479
doesn't hold on that level.

83
00:03:22,819 --> 00:03:24,439
So so John Klusser,

84
00:03:25,460 --> 00:03:27,159
Alan Aspect, and Anton

85
00:03:27,794 --> 00:03:29,495
Zillinger. So they managed

86
00:03:30,275 --> 00:03:32,694
to conduct a series of experiments that,

87
00:03:33,474 --> 00:03:35,014
with ever increasing

88
00:03:35,715 --> 00:03:36,215
accuracy,

89
00:03:37,155 --> 00:03:38,675
foreign has proved that,

90
00:03:39,314 --> 00:03:40,995
that is indeed the case, and they could

91
00:03:40,995 --> 00:03:42,135
violate that inequality.

92
00:03:43,310 --> 00:03:44,530
So quantum works,

93
00:03:44,909 --> 00:03:45,810
bottom line.

94
00:03:46,110 --> 00:03:46,610
Yeah.

95
00:03:47,229 --> 00:03:48,050
And you

96
00:03:48,430 --> 00:03:49,409
and your company

97
00:03:50,030 --> 00:03:52,110
employ it? So the first thing we put

98
00:03:52,110 --> 00:03:52,909
there is,

99
00:03:53,469 --> 00:03:54,449
is a generator

100
00:03:54,830 --> 00:03:55,330
of

101
00:03:55,794 --> 00:03:56,294
identical

102
00:03:56,675 --> 00:03:57,175
indistinguishable,

103
00:03:59,474 --> 00:04:00,375
single photons

104
00:04:01,235 --> 00:04:03,635
that are generated on demand. So you have

105
00:04:03,635 --> 00:04:05,254
a very deterministic output.

106
00:04:06,754 --> 00:04:08,375
And that is a derivative

107
00:04:09,140 --> 00:04:11,640
or part of building entangled states.

108
00:04:12,580 --> 00:04:13,080
So

109
00:04:13,540 --> 00:04:15,620
in the same way, you can build a

110
00:04:15,620 --> 00:04:16,520
bunch of photons.

111
00:04:18,420 --> 00:04:20,839
And this is exactly the

112
00:04:21,220 --> 00:04:24,154
the opportunity that opens up because whole of

113
00:04:24,154 --> 00:04:27,454
the quantum technology, so quantum computing, quantum networking,

114
00:04:27,514 --> 00:04:28,175
and communication

115
00:04:28,794 --> 00:04:31,134
is based on the fact that entanglement exists,

116
00:04:31,914 --> 00:04:32,814
and it's real.

117
00:04:33,595 --> 00:04:35,854
And when we say quantum entanglement,

118
00:04:36,419 --> 00:04:38,419
it's it's a little bit different to what

119
00:04:38,419 --> 00:04:40,819
happens with your shoelaces or the cables that

120
00:04:40,819 --> 00:04:41,959
you have on your desk.

121
00:04:44,019 --> 00:04:46,419
It means that you can I mean, the

122
00:04:46,419 --> 00:04:48,819
information is still, transferred with the speed of

123
00:04:48,819 --> 00:04:49,639
light, but, nevertheless,

124
00:04:51,194 --> 00:04:51,854
you can,

125
00:04:52,875 --> 00:04:53,375
know

126
00:04:53,995 --> 00:04:55,834
what the impact in 1 or the other

127
00:04:55,834 --> 00:04:57,935
particle without directly measuring,

128
00:04:58,714 --> 00:05:00,415
the first one, for example?

129
00:05:01,354 --> 00:05:04,175
And that that gives that opportunity for,

130
00:05:05,199 --> 00:05:07,920
you know, new types and new ways to

131
00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:09,460
send information across.

132
00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,800
Something called, say, quantum teleportation is just one

133
00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:13,300
example.

134
00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:16,819
And it means that you can send information

135
00:05:16,879 --> 00:05:19,139
from a to b without ever

136
00:05:19,574 --> 00:05:21,735
actually transferring it from a to b. Go

137
00:05:21,735 --> 00:05:22,235
on.

138
00:05:22,535 --> 00:05:24,134
That's the beauty. I mean, then we get

139
00:05:24,134 --> 00:05:25,035
into the,

140
00:05:25,894 --> 00:05:27,334
bit where I need to get pen and

141
00:05:27,334 --> 00:05:28,394
paper out.

142
00:05:30,535 --> 00:05:33,274
Okay. To to literally do the maths. Right?

143
00:05:33,750 --> 00:05:35,529
Yeah. To show it. I I think,

144
00:05:36,710 --> 00:05:39,610
when you try to describe quantum mechanics verbally,

145
00:05:40,949 --> 00:05:41,449
it's,

146
00:05:42,230 --> 00:05:44,970
the the one thing, that is more challenging

147
00:05:45,029 --> 00:05:47,210
than actually doing quantum mechanics

148
00:05:47,564 --> 00:05:49,884
is described in the verbal. The concept behind

149
00:05:49,884 --> 00:05:50,705
quantum mechanics

150
00:05:51,165 --> 00:05:51,665
are

151
00:05:52,685 --> 00:05:54,625
quite a bit different from the,

152
00:05:56,285 --> 00:05:56,785
mechanistic

153
00:05:57,324 --> 00:06:00,064
or the sensory world that we're used to.

154
00:06:02,259 --> 00:06:04,420
I think having the word mechanics in there

155
00:06:04,420 --> 00:06:04,920
is,

156
00:06:05,340 --> 00:06:07,460
it's a funny one because it's definitely not

157
00:06:07,460 --> 00:06:07,960
mechanics,

158
00:06:09,699 --> 00:06:10,680
but it is mechanics.

159
00:06:11,939 --> 00:06:15,634
So quite often, when we try to understand

160
00:06:15,774 --> 00:06:17,555
new concepts, new ideas,

161
00:06:18,975 --> 00:06:22,574
we try to have some some relation to,

162
00:06:22,574 --> 00:06:24,675
like, our our own perception,

163
00:06:25,470 --> 00:06:25,970
our

164
00:06:26,430 --> 00:06:26,930
sensory

165
00:06:27,389 --> 00:06:28,930
experiences that we had before.

166
00:06:29,470 --> 00:06:31,870
And with quantum, it's not possible. Like, you

167
00:06:31,870 --> 00:06:33,490
know, you just came up with

168
00:06:34,990 --> 00:06:35,970
a very imaginary,

169
00:06:37,629 --> 00:06:38,689
ways to describe,

170
00:06:38,990 --> 00:06:40,050
you know, nature.

171
00:06:40,935 --> 00:06:43,574
You give it names, and you'd hear things

172
00:06:43,574 --> 00:06:44,634
like wave functions,

173
00:06:45,095 --> 00:06:47,034
spin, you know, all these things.

174
00:06:47,574 --> 00:06:49,495
And for some people, it might be, oh,

175
00:06:49,495 --> 00:06:51,654
yeah. That's a like, oh, yeah. That's really

176
00:06:51,654 --> 00:06:52,875
spinning like this.

177
00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:55,720
And there is a way to make that

178
00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:57,180
analogy, but actually it doesn't.

179
00:06:57,639 --> 00:06:59,800
It's just a way to name a property,

180
00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:01,080
and you could have called it a, b,

181
00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:02,920
c, d, but then you will forget what

182
00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:03,580
it is.

183
00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:07,259
It's like, you know, flavors in elementary particles.

184
00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:08,699
I mean, they don't taste

185
00:07:09,535 --> 00:07:12,595
anything. You can't taste them. It it's impossible.

186
00:07:12,894 --> 00:07:14,514
But, nevertheless, they are there.

187
00:07:14,974 --> 00:07:15,474
So

188
00:07:15,774 --> 00:07:17,154
it's a way to, like,

189
00:07:18,095 --> 00:07:19,954
bring some structure to that,

190
00:07:20,814 --> 00:07:23,875
zoo of different properties that are otherwise

191
00:07:24,699 --> 00:07:26,479
unrelated to, to anything.

192
00:07:27,740 --> 00:07:28,240
And

193
00:07:28,860 --> 00:07:31,439
this is saying micro world, so, basically,

194
00:07:32,300 --> 00:07:34,379
a place where you have too many molecules

195
00:07:34,379 --> 00:07:36,240
and atoms together, which,

196
00:07:36,860 --> 00:07:37,839
are us.

197
00:07:38,714 --> 00:07:40,735
This world behaves very differently,

198
00:07:41,274 --> 00:07:43,035
if you if you go down to single,

199
00:07:43,355 --> 00:07:44,254
single level.

200
00:07:45,035 --> 00:07:46,975
So our all our sensory

201
00:07:48,395 --> 00:07:50,014
experiences are based on

202
00:07:51,050 --> 00:07:53,789
group effects of everything. So it's large numbers

203
00:07:54,169 --> 00:07:57,289
averaged out, like, for example, temperature. That's probably

204
00:07:57,289 --> 00:08:00,169
the simplest analogy here. We just know that

205
00:08:00,169 --> 00:08:00,669
temperature

206
00:08:00,970 --> 00:08:01,610
is the,

207
00:08:02,169 --> 00:08:03,930
it's the amount of energy there isn't, so

208
00:08:03,930 --> 00:08:06,165
kinetic energy in the molecules around us.

209
00:08:06,964 --> 00:08:08,745
But we say it's temperature in degrees.

210
00:08:09,285 --> 00:08:12,024
Like you know? And it's really

211
00:08:13,125 --> 00:08:15,925
something that exists on on that level. There

212
00:08:15,925 --> 00:08:17,064
is no such thing.

213
00:08:17,925 --> 00:08:19,524
You can you can make it you can

214
00:08:19,524 --> 00:08:21,920
translate that in some ways to say, okay.

215
00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:22,899
This is temperature.

216
00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:25,360
We're allowed to know the lattice or something,

217
00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:27,220
but, actually, it's just the energy

218
00:08:28,319 --> 00:08:30,339
and the and the, the back of it.

219
00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:34,240
So you have to accept that level of

220
00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:34,740
obstruction.

221
00:08:35,745 --> 00:08:37,024
And, you know,

222
00:08:37,585 --> 00:08:39,424
when you're playing a computer game and there

223
00:08:39,424 --> 00:08:40,165
are dragons

224
00:08:40,865 --> 00:08:42,004
and all the fairies

225
00:08:42,785 --> 00:08:45,024
and all that stuff, and don't you don't

226
00:08:45,024 --> 00:08:47,184
need them every day, but, you accept it.

227
00:08:47,184 --> 00:08:48,485
Or if you believe in,

228
00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:50,800
you know, like, back in the day, we

229
00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:53,360
had the, you know, the pantheon of gods,

230
00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:54,019
for example,

231
00:08:54,639 --> 00:08:56,340
Greek mythology as an example.

232
00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:00,100
Nobody have ever seen them. They still exist.

233
00:09:00,639 --> 00:09:02,240
So there's a way for you to believe

234
00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:02,865
in things,

235
00:09:03,504 --> 00:09:05,985
and just accept it as a as an

236
00:09:05,985 --> 00:09:07,044
imaginary concept,

237
00:09:07,745 --> 00:09:09,825
and it works. I mean, that that's difficult.

238
00:09:09,825 --> 00:09:11,584
And then then then Ben will came along,

239
00:09:11,584 --> 00:09:14,164
then the others came along and said, well,

240
00:09:14,945 --> 00:09:15,924
give it a go,

241
00:09:16,350 --> 00:09:18,509
and it worked. So that's the difference. Right?

242
00:09:18,509 --> 00:09:19,250
The this

243
00:09:19,709 --> 00:09:22,029
there isn't maths that proves the gods, and

244
00:09:22,029 --> 00:09:24,190
there isn't maths that proves the fairies and

245
00:09:24,190 --> 00:09:24,769
the dragons.

246
00:09:25,149 --> 00:09:27,230
Yeah. And that's the difference between our modern

247
00:09:27,230 --> 00:09:30,195
society and, societies back in the day.

248
00:09:31,875 --> 00:09:33,014
I know we have to

249
00:09:33,715 --> 00:09:36,695
develop and believe in science and scientific method.

250
00:09:36,754 --> 00:09:38,995
And I think that's the fundamental difference that

251
00:09:38,995 --> 00:09:40,774
allowed the society to

252
00:09:41,235 --> 00:09:42,455
have an incredible

253
00:09:43,075 --> 00:09:45,540
development in the last 2 centuries

254
00:09:46,399 --> 00:09:49,200
compared to everything that happened before, and that's

255
00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:50,740
the, the main thing.

256
00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,179
And so you use that scientific method,

257
00:09:54,799 --> 00:09:56,019
quite vigorously

258
00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:58,179
for testing quantum mechanics.

259
00:09:58,815 --> 00:10:00,195
But does so does it,

260
00:10:01,615 --> 00:10:05,634
bother you when the word quantum is used

261
00:10:06,254 --> 00:10:09,634
in marketing speak or to make things sound

262
00:10:09,695 --> 00:10:10,514
more exotic?

263
00:10:11,450 --> 00:10:11,950
No.

264
00:10:12,330 --> 00:10:13,470
I think it's fine.

265
00:10:15,049 --> 00:10:17,230
It it leads to some confusion sometimes,

266
00:10:17,769 --> 00:10:18,669
what it is.

267
00:10:19,690 --> 00:10:21,769
Probably not everybody's gonna agree with me on

268
00:10:21,769 --> 00:10:22,250
that,

269
00:10:22,730 --> 00:10:23,230
approach,

270
00:10:24,090 --> 00:10:24,990
but I think,

271
00:10:26,434 --> 00:10:28,054
generally, quantum means something

272
00:10:28,514 --> 00:10:29,334
very progressive

273
00:10:29,794 --> 00:10:31,875
right now or people trying to use it

274
00:10:31,875 --> 00:10:33,575
to bring in that progressive,

275
00:10:34,115 --> 00:10:35,414
you know, cutting edge,

276
00:10:36,195 --> 00:10:36,695
something.

277
00:10:38,834 --> 00:10:40,134
And that's for a good reason.

278
00:10:40,649 --> 00:10:42,490
When did you sort of say, oh, this

279
00:10:42,490 --> 00:10:44,089
is this is the field for me I'm

280
00:10:44,089 --> 00:10:45,450
gonna get into this? When I was doing

281
00:10:45,450 --> 00:10:46,190
my undergrad,

282
00:10:47,610 --> 00:10:49,950
I just chose quantum physics.

283
00:10:52,009 --> 00:10:53,789
It was in the early 2000.

284
00:10:54,794 --> 00:10:55,294
So

285
00:10:56,235 --> 00:10:57,774
it was still, you know,

286
00:10:58,475 --> 00:11:00,335
just just at the time when,

287
00:11:01,835 --> 00:11:05,134
you know, Alan Aspect and, the final experiments

288
00:11:05,274 --> 00:11:07,054
were just happening there. And

289
00:11:08,159 --> 00:11:09,839
that that was the first time you start

290
00:11:09,839 --> 00:11:12,720
hearing about, oh, the Bell inequality has been

291
00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:13,220
violated.

292
00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:15,839
And then you had to figure out what's

293
00:11:15,839 --> 00:11:16,339
happened,

294
00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:19,360
on that front. And we just knew that

295
00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:19,839
quantum

296
00:11:20,754 --> 00:11:22,914
I mean, it was just generic feeling. That

297
00:11:22,914 --> 00:11:25,154
quantum is, is an exciting it's a new

298
00:11:25,154 --> 00:11:27,794
area even though, you know, there's already textbook,

299
00:11:27,794 --> 00:11:29,394
but at the same time, it didn't feel

300
00:11:29,394 --> 00:11:31,254
like it's, it's established.

301
00:11:33,074 --> 00:11:34,855
And so that that's how I started.

302
00:11:35,169 --> 00:11:36,610
Well, then I did a PhD, then I

303
00:11:36,610 --> 00:11:38,149
did the research fellowship,

304
00:11:39,169 --> 00:11:40,790
in and around this field.

305
00:11:41,570 --> 00:11:43,110
And then we observed how,

306
00:11:44,529 --> 00:11:45,350
so quantum

307
00:11:45,970 --> 00:11:48,149
science transformed into quantum technologies,

308
00:11:48,929 --> 00:11:49,669
and into

309
00:11:50,764 --> 00:11:51,165
sector

310
00:11:51,804 --> 00:11:53,504
emerging sector in our economy.

311
00:11:54,285 --> 00:11:55,424
So UK was

312
00:11:56,365 --> 00:11:57,985
the first country in the world,

313
00:11:58,605 --> 00:11:59,504
to put together,

314
00:12:00,924 --> 00:12:02,625
quantum technology program.

315
00:12:04,570 --> 00:12:05,789
And, you know, one of

316
00:12:06,409 --> 00:12:09,709
the masterminds behind it is, sir Peter Knight.

317
00:12:11,449 --> 00:12:13,529
And that started that was signed off in

318
00:12:13,529 --> 00:12:14,029
7/13,

319
00:12:14,409 --> 00:12:15,470
started in 7/14.

320
00:12:16,784 --> 00:12:17,845
We just saw how,

321
00:12:18,225 --> 00:12:20,565
you know, explosive development it was.

322
00:12:21,345 --> 00:12:23,504
To give you a comparison, so the very

323
00:12:23,504 --> 00:12:26,245
first quantum UK Quantum Technology Showcase,

324
00:12:28,309 --> 00:12:30,149
I don't know exact number, but I was

325
00:12:30,149 --> 00:12:31,289
there. It was 2014,

326
00:12:32,309 --> 00:12:34,970
and there were probably 40, 50 people,

327
00:12:35,509 --> 00:12:37,529
something like that. This year's

328
00:12:37,909 --> 00:12:39,370
Quantum Technology Showcase,

329
00:12:40,789 --> 00:12:41,289
the

330
00:12:41,669 --> 00:12:42,809
show sold out

331
00:12:44,365 --> 00:12:45,985
month and a half before

332
00:12:46,365 --> 00:12:47,105
at the beginning,

333
00:12:47,485 --> 00:12:49,504
and it hit the limits of the

334
00:12:49,884 --> 00:12:53,004
Queen Elizabeth the second, the exhibition center. What

335
00:12:53,004 --> 00:12:54,924
kind of technologies were we seeing? So the

336
00:12:54,924 --> 00:12:57,184
QuantumTech has got, like, 3 key pillars

337
00:12:58,509 --> 00:13:00,049
and in terms of applications.

338
00:13:01,389 --> 00:13:03,570
So one is quantum computing

339
00:13:03,950 --> 00:13:06,529
and probably the one that's most talked about.

340
00:13:07,789 --> 00:13:08,529
The second,

341
00:13:09,470 --> 00:13:10,690
is quantum communications,

342
00:13:11,070 --> 00:13:14,504
and the third is quantum sensing metrology imaging.

343
00:13:14,965 --> 00:13:16,644
I mean, they they they should go in

344
00:13:16,644 --> 00:13:18,725
no particular order. I just named that like

345
00:13:18,725 --> 00:13:19,225
that.

346
00:13:20,404 --> 00:13:21,705
But in terms of importance,

347
00:13:22,725 --> 00:13:23,625
they are

348
00:13:24,085 --> 00:13:24,664
I mean,

349
00:13:25,044 --> 00:13:27,365
you cannot derive one that is more important

350
00:13:27,365 --> 00:13:29,480
than the other. That's that's impossible.

351
00:13:30,259 --> 00:13:32,019
But I think you should really compare the

352
00:13:32,019 --> 00:13:33,000
quantum technology

353
00:13:33,700 --> 00:13:34,440
to how

354
00:13:34,820 --> 00:13:37,540
Digitalk came to to us. So quantum is

355
00:13:37,540 --> 00:13:38,360
there to,

356
00:13:39,059 --> 00:13:40,040
be the next

357
00:13:40,664 --> 00:13:41,164
technological

358
00:13:41,945 --> 00:13:44,205
suite, if you want, the set of technologies

359
00:13:44,745 --> 00:13:46,205
that's gonna come after digital.

360
00:13:47,784 --> 00:13:48,284
So,

361
00:13:48,664 --> 00:13:50,345
you know, back in the day when people

362
00:13:50,345 --> 00:13:52,985
first rolled out transistors on, you know, Von

363
00:13:52,985 --> 00:13:53,884
Neumann logic,

364
00:13:54,290 --> 00:13:56,529
Did they think we're gonna be recording this

365
00:13:56,529 --> 00:13:59,670
podcast on a digital device? Probably not.

366
00:14:01,090 --> 00:14:02,389
Same applies to,

367
00:14:03,490 --> 00:14:06,450
to quantum. I think we're at this, really,

368
00:14:06,450 --> 00:14:07,990
really exciting stage where

369
00:14:08,414 --> 00:14:09,875
it's it's full opportunity,

370
00:14:11,294 --> 00:14:14,095
and you can it's gonna grow, incredible, and

371
00:14:14,095 --> 00:14:16,254
we'll see some incredible applications coming out of

372
00:14:16,254 --> 00:14:19,294
that. So we see, incredible applications. Right? But

373
00:14:19,294 --> 00:14:21,235
will we see day to day

374
00:14:21,695 --> 00:14:22,195
applications?

375
00:14:22,654 --> 00:14:23,315
Of course.

376
00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:25,899
Do you use digital day to day now?

377
00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:26,460
Yeah.

378
00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:28,379
So you will do quantum.

379
00:14:28,759 --> 00:14:30,620
How is quantum going to improve

380
00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:32,360
what we're doing on the day to day?

381
00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:34,460
Well, it's gonna be faster,

382
00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:35,580
better

383
00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:36,700
computing,

384
00:14:37,835 --> 00:14:39,615
better, more sensitive sensors,

385
00:14:40,475 --> 00:14:42,095
better, more secure communication.

386
00:14:44,394 --> 00:14:46,394
It's that that's what it's gonna be. So

387
00:14:46,394 --> 00:14:48,735
you're gonna be able to solve the problems,

388
00:14:50,139 --> 00:14:50,639
computationally

389
00:14:51,019 --> 00:14:53,600
that were impossible with digital completely.

390
00:14:55,419 --> 00:14:57,360
That includes anything from

391
00:14:57,899 --> 00:14:58,799
drug simulation

392
00:15:00,059 --> 00:15:00,559
discovery

393
00:15:00,940 --> 00:15:02,559
to the large data,

394
00:15:04,125 --> 00:15:06,225
processing and, you know, big data

395
00:15:07,725 --> 00:15:11,504
machine learning and quantum computing and neural networks

396
00:15:11,644 --> 00:15:12,144
are,

397
00:15:13,164 --> 00:15:13,664
entangled,

398
00:15:14,365 --> 00:15:15,960
triplets. You know? It's

399
00:15:16,340 --> 00:15:18,500
just that quantum is something that has been

400
00:15:18,500 --> 00:15:20,120
unknown and sitting in the dark,

401
00:15:20,820 --> 00:15:22,120
for a really long time.

402
00:15:22,580 --> 00:15:23,240
And then,

403
00:15:24,100 --> 00:15:26,740
you know, quantum communications is gonna take us

404
00:15:26,740 --> 00:15:29,779
into a different domain in terms of how

405
00:15:29,779 --> 00:15:30,279
we

406
00:15:31,115 --> 00:15:32,174
send data across,

407
00:15:32,714 --> 00:15:33,934
how we share data.

408
00:15:35,355 --> 00:15:37,514
You know, when digital came over, you stopped

409
00:15:37,514 --> 00:15:39,855
writing as many letters by your hand. Right?

410
00:15:40,954 --> 00:15:43,375
And that's completely changed how we share information.

411
00:15:45,100 --> 00:15:46,860
Likewise, quantum is gonna change,

412
00:15:47,259 --> 00:15:49,899
the way we share information as well. It's

413
00:15:49,899 --> 00:15:51,820
gonna be everywhere. I think it's not doesn't

414
00:15:51,820 --> 00:15:53,259
mean that you're gonna have a, you know,

415
00:15:53,259 --> 00:15:55,919
a 100% quantum smartphone in your pocket.

416
00:15:57,004 --> 00:15:58,865
It would have elements of everything

417
00:15:59,325 --> 00:16:00,045
in it.

418
00:16:00,524 --> 00:16:03,085
It's gonna touch in every aspect of life.

419
00:16:03,085 --> 00:16:05,184
Maybe you won't know that it does it,

420
00:16:06,205 --> 00:16:08,365
but it would. We'll come back to Max

421
00:16:08,365 --> 00:16:09,504
later in the podcast.

422
00:16:09,879 --> 00:16:12,620
But here's Oscar Kennedy. I'm a quantum engineer.

423
00:16:13,079 --> 00:16:15,879
I work at Oxford Quantum Circuits, and we're

424
00:16:15,879 --> 00:16:18,519
a start up from the University of Oxford,

425
00:16:18,519 --> 00:16:19,819
Berkeley based in Reading,

426
00:16:20,199 --> 00:16:22,059
and we're building quantum computers.

427
00:16:22,519 --> 00:16:23,879
We're trying to build them so that we

428
00:16:23,879 --> 00:16:26,434
can put them on the Internet and provide

429
00:16:26,434 --> 00:16:28,434
access to them to the world to solve

430
00:16:28,434 --> 00:16:31,414
some really interesting problems. What's a quantum

431
00:16:31,715 --> 00:16:33,875
engineer? There's probably a lot of things that

432
00:16:33,875 --> 00:16:36,595
are a quantum engineer. Specifically in our company,

433
00:16:36,595 --> 00:16:39,414
the quantum engineers are the people who are

434
00:16:40,409 --> 00:16:41,389
doing measurements

435
00:16:42,009 --> 00:16:43,629
of our quantum systems

436
00:16:44,250 --> 00:16:44,750
and

437
00:16:46,329 --> 00:16:48,269
building them, I suppose. So

438
00:16:49,449 --> 00:16:51,049
a little bit of background, we are a

439
00:16:51,049 --> 00:16:53,549
company that builds superconducting quantum computers.

440
00:16:54,615 --> 00:16:56,615
What that means is that we have a

441
00:16:56,615 --> 00:16:58,375
chip much like a kind of like a

442
00:16:58,375 --> 00:16:58,875
microelectronics

443
00:16:59,175 --> 00:17:01,274
chip, but instead of being made of silicon,

444
00:17:01,815 --> 00:17:02,634
we have

445
00:17:03,095 --> 00:17:05,255
a post a chip that's got superconductors on

446
00:17:05,255 --> 00:17:07,595
it. And we design these chips to

447
00:17:08,299 --> 00:17:09,440
realize superconducting

448
00:17:09,740 --> 00:17:10,240
cubits,

449
00:17:12,299 --> 00:17:14,779
superconducting cubits. I realize I'm gonna have to

450
00:17:14,779 --> 00:17:16,000
go down the hill of jargon.

451
00:17:16,539 --> 00:17:18,619
A superconducting cubit is another thing that we've

452
00:17:18,619 --> 00:17:21,259
engineered. So it's basically a system which has

453
00:17:21,259 --> 00:17:23,674
2 different energy, 2 different states. So it

454
00:17:23,674 --> 00:17:25,275
can be up or down, you can think

455
00:17:25,275 --> 00:17:25,775
of

456
00:17:26,154 --> 00:17:26,894
it as.

457
00:17:27,355 --> 00:17:29,134
And our quantum computer

458
00:17:29,914 --> 00:17:31,674
uses the fact that it can be in

459
00:17:31,674 --> 00:17:33,355
these 2 different states, but it can also

460
00:17:33,355 --> 00:17:35,515
be in a quantum superposition of these 2

461
00:17:35,515 --> 00:17:37,169
states at the same time. So you can't

462
00:17:37,169 --> 00:17:38,929
just take a chip and say, alright. Cool.

463
00:17:38,929 --> 00:17:40,369
I've made it. So it's a quantum computer.

464
00:17:40,369 --> 00:17:41,730
There's a lot of stuff that goes around

465
00:17:41,730 --> 00:17:42,230
that.

466
00:17:42,609 --> 00:17:44,149
So in order for

467
00:17:44,690 --> 00:17:47,089
our chip to operate as the quantum regime,

468
00:17:47,089 --> 00:17:49,349
it has to be at really low temperatures.

469
00:17:50,184 --> 00:17:52,025
So we put it in a cryostat which

470
00:17:52,025 --> 00:17:53,644
will reach kind of 10 millikelvin.

471
00:17:53,945 --> 00:17:54,605
So that's,

472
00:17:55,705 --> 00:17:58,424
a 100th of a degree above absolute 0.

473
00:17:58,424 --> 00:17:59,785
So that's really cold.

474
00:18:00,345 --> 00:18:02,585
And these are incredibly impressive pieces of kit.

475
00:18:02,585 --> 00:18:03,325
They're beautiful.

476
00:18:04,289 --> 00:18:05,809
One of my fun facts about them is

477
00:18:05,970 --> 00:18:06,470
so

478
00:18:07,569 --> 00:18:08,789
repeated without sourcing.

479
00:18:09,250 --> 00:18:11,669
But, if you think of like extreme environments

480
00:18:11,730 --> 00:18:13,889
in the universe, you've got the highest temperature,

481
00:18:13,889 --> 00:18:16,130
the highest pressure, the lowest temperature, the lowest

482
00:18:16,130 --> 00:18:16,630
pressure.

483
00:18:18,035 --> 00:18:20,674
Most of these extreme environments are created by

484
00:18:20,674 --> 00:18:22,355
the universe and nature. So, like, the the

485
00:18:22,355 --> 00:18:23,794
inside of a sun is gonna be hotter

486
00:18:23,794 --> 00:18:25,315
and higher pressure than anything we can dream

487
00:18:25,315 --> 00:18:27,234
of. The coldest place in the universe that

488
00:18:27,234 --> 00:18:28,674
we know of are things that humans have

489
00:18:28,674 --> 00:18:29,970
created and that's the only like

490
00:18:30,609 --> 00:18:32,069
human engineered extreme.

491
00:18:32,450 --> 00:18:34,049
Unless, of course, I'm talking rubbish because I

492
00:18:34,049 --> 00:18:35,089
don't have any source of that. Well, but

493
00:18:35,089 --> 00:18:35,970
I think that's true.

494
00:18:36,450 --> 00:18:38,230
So we put them inside these cryostats.

495
00:18:38,609 --> 00:18:40,690
We cool them down to really low temperatures

496
00:18:40,690 --> 00:18:42,069
and we have to do some clever,

497
00:18:42,494 --> 00:18:45,375
we're gonna interact with these by sending pulses

498
00:18:45,375 --> 00:18:46,595
of microwaves down.

499
00:18:47,535 --> 00:18:49,694
We use these pulses of microwaves to control

500
00:18:49,694 --> 00:18:51,295
the state of our qubit, but also to

501
00:18:51,295 --> 00:18:52,755
read out the state of our qubit.

502
00:18:54,095 --> 00:18:56,269
And so we've got to play this difficult

503
00:18:56,269 --> 00:18:58,529
game where we've got to take our delicate

504
00:18:58,750 --> 00:19:01,069
quantum chip and isolate it from the environment

505
00:19:01,069 --> 00:19:02,750
and the world so that it stays, you

506
00:19:02,750 --> 00:19:04,049
know, lovely in quantum,

507
00:19:04,349 --> 00:19:06,349
but also connect it just enough so that

508
00:19:06,349 --> 00:19:08,769
we can also send all these control signals

509
00:19:09,205 --> 00:19:11,285
down so that we can actually do intentional

510
00:19:11,285 --> 00:19:11,785
computation.

511
00:19:12,244 --> 00:19:13,684
And so a quantum engineer, which was your

512
00:19:13,684 --> 00:19:15,384
original question, is someone who sort

513
00:19:15,684 --> 00:19:17,625
of bridges this gap between

514
00:19:18,164 --> 00:19:21,525
our superconducting chip and the outside world. We

515
00:19:21,525 --> 00:19:22,025
build,

516
00:19:22,850 --> 00:19:25,170
build the microwave environments and send the microwave

517
00:19:25,170 --> 00:19:25,990
pulses down,

518
00:19:26,289 --> 00:19:28,930
interpret the data we're getting out, and use

519
00:19:28,930 --> 00:19:31,090
this data to understand what's happening in our

520
00:19:31,090 --> 00:19:32,690
chip so that we can optimize that for

521
00:19:32,690 --> 00:19:33,990
the future. The superconducting

522
00:19:34,690 --> 00:19:37,125
chip, the quantum chip, how do you make

523
00:19:37,125 --> 00:19:38,424
that in the first place?

524
00:19:38,965 --> 00:19:40,664
So there's a lot of

525
00:19:40,965 --> 00:19:42,585
quite well established microfabrication

526
00:19:43,125 --> 00:19:43,625
techniques.

527
00:19:44,164 --> 00:19:46,484
So this is not really specifically the realms

528
00:19:46,484 --> 00:19:48,565
of quantum. This is more the realm of

529
00:19:48,565 --> 00:19:49,384
just microfabrication.

530
00:19:51,220 --> 00:19:52,679
So you can deposit

531
00:19:52,980 --> 00:19:55,140
thin you you take a planar substrate, which

532
00:19:55,140 --> 00:19:58,259
will be a crystalline substrate, polished very flat,

533
00:19:58,259 --> 00:19:59,960
and you can buy these off the shelf.

534
00:20:00,900 --> 00:20:02,740
You'll clean it up so that it's not

535
00:20:02,740 --> 00:20:04,644
got gunk all over it, and then you'll

536
00:20:04,644 --> 00:20:05,865
deposit a superconducting

537
00:20:06,164 --> 00:20:06,664
film,

538
00:20:07,125 --> 00:20:09,765
and you can deposit superconducting films through lots

539
00:20:09,765 --> 00:20:11,085
of different techniques. You can

540
00:20:11,525 --> 00:20:13,684
typically, it will involve a vacuum chamber where

541
00:20:13,684 --> 00:20:14,184
you

542
00:20:14,565 --> 00:20:17,309
either evaporate a metal or you do something

543
00:20:17,309 --> 00:20:19,470
called sputtering, where sputtering is basically you just

544
00:20:19,470 --> 00:20:20,929
take your gas and you bombard

545
00:20:21,630 --> 00:20:23,549
a metallic target to knock off bits of

546
00:20:23,549 --> 00:20:24,909
it, which will go and eventually sit on

547
00:20:24,909 --> 00:20:25,569
your substrate.

548
00:20:26,029 --> 00:20:27,950
You've now got a a film and you

549
00:20:27,950 --> 00:20:30,349
can do lithography, and lithography is sort of

550
00:20:30,349 --> 00:20:31,490
like old school photography,

551
00:20:32,724 --> 00:20:33,784
where you're using,

552
00:20:34,884 --> 00:20:37,144
chemicals which are sensitive to types of radiation,

553
00:20:38,724 --> 00:20:41,204
shining radiation on those chemicals, and then putting

554
00:20:41,204 --> 00:20:43,525
them in a developer. And that developer chemical

555
00:20:43,525 --> 00:20:43,859
will

556
00:20:44,420 --> 00:20:45,559
selectively process

557
00:20:45,859 --> 00:20:47,539
the bit of the chemical that's seen this

558
00:20:47,539 --> 00:20:48,039
radiation

559
00:20:48,740 --> 00:20:50,339
and leave the stuff that hasn't seen the

560
00:20:50,339 --> 00:20:51,400
radiation untouched.

561
00:20:52,259 --> 00:20:54,099
And this allows you to and so you

562
00:20:54,099 --> 00:20:55,000
can use different,

563
00:20:55,700 --> 00:20:58,119
fabrication techniques to build up layers of resist

564
00:21:00,234 --> 00:21:02,894
and pattern your film that you've deposited.

565
00:21:03,835 --> 00:21:05,595
We could spend maybe a few hours doing

566
00:21:05,595 --> 00:21:06,575
a rundown of

567
00:21:07,034 --> 00:21:09,034
techniques. But the the basic idea is it's

568
00:21:09,034 --> 00:21:11,755
a bit like photography, but it obviously is

569
00:21:11,755 --> 00:21:12,414
a much

570
00:21:13,159 --> 00:21:14,599
finer feature process,

571
00:21:15,319 --> 00:21:16,859
more precise, carefully calibrated,

572
00:21:17,319 --> 00:21:18,599
and this allows you to build up a

573
00:21:18,599 --> 00:21:20,839
device layer by layer. It's an awfully long

574
00:21:20,839 --> 00:21:22,779
way from cryo chambers

575
00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:25,339
and making sure that

576
00:21:25,924 --> 00:21:28,244
your superconducting chip is is exactly the right

577
00:21:28,244 --> 00:21:29,464
temperature to

578
00:21:30,085 --> 00:21:32,884
quantum computers being part of our everyday. You're

579
00:21:32,884 --> 00:21:34,424
absolutely right. So,

580
00:21:35,365 --> 00:21:36,105
Optum Circuits,

581
00:21:36,404 --> 00:21:38,809
we're a full hardware stack company. So we're

582
00:21:38,809 --> 00:21:41,289
interested in basically doing everything from making the

583
00:21:41,289 --> 00:21:43,150
chip, installing in a cryostat,

584
00:21:43,529 --> 00:21:46,170
putting microwave lines down the cryostat, connecting that

585
00:21:46,170 --> 00:21:49,529
up to classical computers and control systems, which

586
00:21:49,529 --> 00:21:51,950
will send the right microwave pulses down,

587
00:21:52,464 --> 00:21:54,704
and then building a software infrastructure that will

588
00:21:54,704 --> 00:21:56,704
put this on the cloud so that end

589
00:21:56,704 --> 00:21:57,605
user can

590
00:21:57,984 --> 00:21:59,424
log in and say, I wanna do this

591
00:21:59,424 --> 00:22:01,904
computation and, like, compile that computation and send

592
00:22:01,904 --> 00:22:02,804
it into our

593
00:22:03,424 --> 00:22:05,119
chip. So there's a but there's lots of

594
00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:08,579
different stages there which span huge different technical

595
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:10,819
remits. Yeah. It's difficult.

596
00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:13,279
Yeah. Yeah. But but how I mean, is

597
00:22:13,279 --> 00:22:14,179
it a thing that's

598
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:14,980
happening?

599
00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:17,279
So we have a quantum computer which is

600
00:22:17,279 --> 00:22:18,500
currently online

601
00:22:19,644 --> 00:22:20,845
based on the time. So I think it's

602
00:22:20,845 --> 00:22:22,144
on from 10 till 4

603
00:22:22,605 --> 00:22:25,565
GMT or UK time, and you can log

604
00:22:25,565 --> 00:22:26,865
on to AWS

605
00:22:27,404 --> 00:22:28,865
Bracket. So it's an Amazon

606
00:22:29,565 --> 00:22:31,500
Quantum service, and that will

607
00:22:31,900 --> 00:22:34,619
allow you to send compute directly to our

608
00:22:34,619 --> 00:22:36,319
quantum chip, which is in our lab downstairs.

609
00:22:37,019 --> 00:22:39,740
Our quantum computer is called Lucy, and so

610
00:22:39,740 --> 00:22:41,579
we name all of our different quantum computing

611
00:22:41,579 --> 00:22:44,480
generations after famous pioneering female scientists.

612
00:22:44,904 --> 00:22:46,924
And this one is named after Lucy Mensing.

613
00:22:48,345 --> 00:22:50,444
So you can currently access it.

614
00:22:51,144 --> 00:22:53,384
The fact that you can access it doesn't

615
00:22:53,384 --> 00:22:55,545
necessarily mean that it's a quantum computer that's

616
00:22:55,545 --> 00:22:57,464
gonna give you a quantum advantage and a

617
00:22:57,464 --> 00:22:59,224
speed up over a data center. That's a

618
00:22:59,224 --> 00:23:00,365
really different thing

619
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,440
And conclusive demonstration of this is yet to

620
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:05,519
be done in the community, but it's that's

621
00:23:05,519 --> 00:23:07,440
basically what we're all working towards. We're working

622
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:09,940
towards a a quantum computer, which

623
00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:12,734
does all like, we we know is a

624
00:23:13,214 --> 00:23:15,775
doing computations and we know is quantum mechanical.

625
00:23:15,775 --> 00:23:17,134
We can show all these things, but is

626
00:23:17,134 --> 00:23:17,634
also

627
00:23:18,174 --> 00:23:20,174
then able to offer you a meaningful speed

628
00:23:20,174 --> 00:23:22,674
up in real world algorithms or applications

629
00:23:23,535 --> 00:23:25,535
because of its quantumness. And that's sort of

630
00:23:25,535 --> 00:23:27,569
the holy grail of the field. Okay. So

631
00:23:27,649 --> 00:23:29,349
So that's the holy grail of the field,

632
00:23:29,569 --> 00:23:32,609
quicker processing. It's tricky. So every time you

633
00:23:32,609 --> 00:23:34,849
say quicker, quantum people are really deep in

634
00:23:34,849 --> 00:23:36,369
the quantum are gonna sort of wince and

635
00:23:36,369 --> 00:23:36,869
go.

636
00:23:37,250 --> 00:23:39,429
Because it's not exactly quicker.

637
00:23:40,205 --> 00:23:42,605
It might be that your algorithm solves more

638
00:23:42,605 --> 00:23:43,105
quickly

639
00:23:43,404 --> 00:23:43,904
because

640
00:23:45,005 --> 00:23:47,424
quantum computers are very powerful, but the

641
00:23:47,964 --> 00:23:51,085
specific compute steps are not necessarily super fast.

642
00:23:51,085 --> 00:23:52,845
This maybe gets a bit nitty gritty in

643
00:23:52,845 --> 00:23:53,345
detailing.

644
00:23:53,789 --> 00:23:55,250
But rather than faster,

645
00:23:55,710 --> 00:23:57,869
I think I prefer personally to think of

646
00:23:57,869 --> 00:24:00,750
more powerful in certain applications. So there are

647
00:24:00,750 --> 00:24:01,490
some things

648
00:24:02,110 --> 00:24:02,610
where

649
00:24:03,630 --> 00:24:05,869
the fact that your when you get down

650
00:24:05,869 --> 00:24:07,890
to your low level processor,

651
00:24:08,714 --> 00:24:11,434
it's operating under the laws of quantum physics

652
00:24:11,434 --> 00:24:12,974
rather than classical physics.

653
00:24:13,835 --> 00:24:16,875
There are some algorithms where that fact offers

654
00:24:16,875 --> 00:24:18,554
you a meaningful speed up for real world

655
00:24:18,554 --> 00:24:21,295
algorithms, and that's really well proved out for

656
00:24:21,660 --> 00:24:22,640
a few algorithms.

657
00:24:23,580 --> 00:24:24,480
Peter Shaw's

658
00:24:24,859 --> 00:24:26,859
factoring algorithm is one of the well known

659
00:24:26,859 --> 00:24:28,940
ones where it's factoring prime numbers, which has

660
00:24:28,940 --> 00:24:29,440
huge

661
00:24:30,059 --> 00:24:30,559
value

662
00:24:31,340 --> 00:24:31,840
internationally

663
00:24:32,380 --> 00:24:32,779
for,

664
00:24:33,259 --> 00:24:35,200
breaking to certain types of encryption.

665
00:24:35,554 --> 00:24:37,394
That's really rigorously fleshed out,

666
00:24:37,875 --> 00:24:39,335
but there's lots of kind of

667
00:24:40,035 --> 00:24:41,174
ideas around

668
00:24:41,634 --> 00:24:43,394
ways that it could be used for things

669
00:24:43,394 --> 00:24:45,794
like drug discovery, and these are also becoming

670
00:24:45,794 --> 00:24:47,954
more fleshed out and more real. Is that

671
00:24:47,954 --> 00:24:50,669
where we'll see quantum computers or are they

672
00:24:50,669 --> 00:24:51,970
going to be as

673
00:24:52,349 --> 00:24:55,470
everywhere as mobile phones and laptops and things?

674
00:24:55,629 --> 00:24:58,049
I think in the medium term,

675
00:24:58,669 --> 00:25:00,750
quantum computers will be used for high value

676
00:25:00,750 --> 00:25:02,865
computes that are hard to do. I'm a

677
00:25:02,865 --> 00:25:04,785
nuts and bolts scientist. Right? So this is

678
00:25:04,785 --> 00:25:06,805
my interpretation rather than my, like,

679
00:25:08,384 --> 00:25:10,625
in the field. Yeah. So I am much

680
00:25:10,625 --> 00:25:12,384
more hardware focused, but I think that it

681
00:25:12,384 --> 00:25:13,684
will probably be

682
00:25:14,670 --> 00:25:16,769
seen in a few classes of

683
00:25:17,070 --> 00:25:18,590
problems. Some of the classes are probably gonna

684
00:25:18,590 --> 00:25:21,309
be things like optimization problems, which you see,

685
00:25:21,309 --> 00:25:23,630
you know, across industries. It spans everything, whether

686
00:25:23,630 --> 00:25:25,150
your Amazon wanted to know how to send

687
00:25:25,150 --> 00:25:27,630
out all your trucks efficiently or I don't

688
00:25:27,630 --> 00:25:28,664
know. Like, there's

689
00:25:29,065 --> 00:25:32,365
countless examples of optimizations which have huge value.

690
00:25:33,305 --> 00:25:35,785
Other things are problems which have intrinsic quantum

691
00:25:35,785 --> 00:25:38,184
mechanical parts to them. So, you know, I

692
00:25:38,184 --> 00:25:40,424
wanna discover a new drug or synthesize a

693
00:25:40,424 --> 00:25:41,803
molecule, and a molecule, and all of these

694
00:25:41,803 --> 00:25:42,720
molecules are made up of atoms, which obey

695
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:44,340
the rules of quantum mechanics. And it turns

696
00:25:44,340 --> 00:25:45,956
out that simulating quantum mechanics on a classical

697
00:25:45,956 --> 00:25:46,133
processor is really expensive, especially when you throw

698
00:25:46,133 --> 00:25:47,740
in a 100 molecules that are all interacting

699
00:25:47,799 --> 00:25:50,440
and have many degrees of freedom. It's just

700
00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:51,660
impossible to simulate

701
00:25:55,934 --> 00:25:58,494
something like caffeine, which is a, you know,

702
00:25:58,494 --> 00:25:59,394
a simple molecule.

703
00:25:59,774 --> 00:26:02,355
You can't do it exactly on a classical

704
00:26:02,414 --> 00:26:02,914
computer.

705
00:26:04,095 --> 00:26:05,375
So there's lots of ideas that if you

706
00:26:05,375 --> 00:26:06,894
can take the quantum mechanics that's hard to

707
00:26:06,894 --> 00:26:08,974
simulate and literally just put it physically into

708
00:26:08,974 --> 00:26:10,859
your chip, you might have a huge advantage

709
00:26:10,859 --> 00:26:12,119
in terms of your

710
00:26:12,740 --> 00:26:13,240
compute.

711
00:26:14,259 --> 00:26:16,580
So that's one of the another big class

712
00:26:16,580 --> 00:26:19,380
of algorithm, which might be drug discovery, might

713
00:26:19,380 --> 00:26:20,599
be material science,

714
00:26:21,619 --> 00:26:23,859
and there's lots of interesting stuff that will

715
00:26:23,859 --> 00:26:26,875
hopefully happen there. That goal of creating quantum

716
00:26:26,875 --> 00:26:30,575
computers that outperform classical computers at specific tasks

717
00:26:31,035 --> 00:26:32,414
has been discussed regularly

718
00:26:32,795 --> 00:26:34,815
on Physics World in the past few years.

719
00:26:35,275 --> 00:26:37,855
Recently, the magazine published an interview with IBM's

720
00:26:37,994 --> 00:26:38,815
Jay Gambetta,

721
00:26:39,369 --> 00:26:40,909
who said that from 2025,

722
00:26:41,450 --> 00:26:42,190
his company

723
00:26:42,490 --> 00:26:44,509
is planning to develop modular processes

724
00:26:44,890 --> 00:26:46,909
with 100,000 or more cubits.

725
00:26:47,529 --> 00:26:50,009
These devices would achieve a so called general

726
00:26:50,009 --> 00:26:51,069
quantum advantage.

727
00:26:51,529 --> 00:26:54,029
They consistently outperform classical computers

728
00:26:54,654 --> 00:26:57,775
and conduct complex computations beyond the means of

729
00:26:57,775 --> 00:26:58,835
classical devices.

730
00:26:59,615 --> 00:27:01,775
You can find that interview on the Physics

731
00:27:01,775 --> 00:27:02,515
World website.

732
00:27:02,974 --> 00:27:04,835
But let's get back to my conversation

733
00:27:05,214 --> 00:27:08,515
with Oscar Kennedy. How is the Nobel Prize

734
00:27:08,815 --> 00:27:09,315
win

735
00:27:09,750 --> 00:27:12,470
relevant to your work? Day to day, it's

736
00:27:12,470 --> 00:27:13,529
a similar field.

737
00:27:14,789 --> 00:27:15,609
Big picture.

738
00:27:16,070 --> 00:27:18,630
It probably without it, we wouldn't be where

739
00:27:18,630 --> 00:27:19,849
we are doing it.

740
00:27:21,029 --> 00:27:22,250
So you've got

741
00:27:23,954 --> 00:27:25,714
in the sixties, you've got John Bell, I

742
00:27:25,714 --> 00:27:28,775
think sixties sixties ish. You've got, a really

743
00:27:29,315 --> 00:27:30,775
pioneering physicist who's

744
00:27:31,315 --> 00:27:33,394
inter taking some of these ideas around quantum

745
00:27:33,394 --> 00:27:34,694
mechanics and

746
00:27:35,329 --> 00:27:38,690
codifying them in information theory. And that's essentially

747
00:27:38,690 --> 00:27:40,450
what we're doing. Right? We're quantum computers, so

748
00:27:40,450 --> 00:27:41,190
we're saying,

749
00:27:42,049 --> 00:27:44,690
we've got this whole idea of information theory,

750
00:27:44,690 --> 00:27:47,170
which is worked out really nicely for classical

751
00:27:47,170 --> 00:27:49,194
computers. It's binary and we know how we

752
00:27:49,194 --> 00:27:51,674
can add binary and or add bits and

753
00:27:51,674 --> 00:27:52,894
do binary operations

754
00:27:53,914 --> 00:27:55,274
and combine all of this and put it

755
00:27:55,274 --> 00:27:57,454
inside a computer, which is gonna, you know,

756
00:27:57,755 --> 00:27:59,534
allow us to talk over the Internet.

757
00:28:02,049 --> 00:28:05,089
There's an analogous theory aside like, a a

758
00:28:05,089 --> 00:28:06,690
sister theory, I guess you could call it,

759
00:28:06,690 --> 00:28:09,109
of quantum information theory, where you're saying, okay.

760
00:28:10,769 --> 00:28:12,309
The bits which are your physical,

761
00:28:12,849 --> 00:28:14,950
like, bottom level of your compute,

762
00:28:15,490 --> 00:28:16,390
now behave

763
00:28:16,825 --> 00:28:18,045
according to quantum mechanics.

764
00:28:18,585 --> 00:28:21,384
And so bits can rather than having a

765
00:28:21,384 --> 00:28:24,184
well defined state, they have a quantum state,

766
00:28:24,184 --> 00:28:25,384
which is saying I can be in a

767
00:28:25,384 --> 00:28:27,384
superposition of 1 and 0 instead of 1

768
00:28:27,384 --> 00:28:28,205
or 0

769
00:28:28,664 --> 00:28:30,045
in a classical state.

770
00:28:30,585 --> 00:28:31,085
And

771
00:28:32,330 --> 00:28:35,789
they so they codified certain experiments according to

772
00:28:35,849 --> 00:28:37,549
this quantum information theory.

773
00:28:38,330 --> 00:28:38,830
And

774
00:28:39,450 --> 00:28:42,090
that was and then when they so that's

775
00:28:42,090 --> 00:28:44,009
what was happened in the Bell inequalities. They

776
00:28:44,009 --> 00:28:46,285
were basically saying that, you know, we can

777
00:28:46,285 --> 00:28:48,305
think about sending entangled photons

778
00:28:48,684 --> 00:28:51,085
and we can measure them simultaneously a long

779
00:28:51,085 --> 00:28:53,585
distance away. And the correlations between

780
00:28:53,964 --> 00:28:55,345
the measurements we do

781
00:28:55,805 --> 00:28:56,305
will

782
00:28:57,644 --> 00:28:59,724
exceed a certain threshold, and we know that

783
00:28:59,724 --> 00:29:01,940
if we exceed this threshold, there must be

784
00:29:01,940 --> 00:29:04,420
some quantum entanglement and action because there's no

785
00:29:04,420 --> 00:29:06,099
way that you could have these classical these

786
00:29:06,099 --> 00:29:07,160
correlations if

787
00:29:07,779 --> 00:29:10,420
a photon was either in 1 or in

788
00:29:10,420 --> 00:29:12,519
0. It has to be in the superposition

789
00:29:12,660 --> 00:29:14,339
of 1 and 0 at the same time.

790
00:29:14,339 --> 00:29:15,480
And so these were

791
00:29:16,914 --> 00:29:19,955
incredible experiments that first sort of used this

792
00:29:19,955 --> 00:29:23,174
quantum information theory, really demonstrate that quantum information

793
00:29:23,555 --> 00:29:24,055
approaches

794
00:29:24,994 --> 00:29:25,494
were

795
00:29:25,955 --> 00:29:28,775
were valid, were represented by physical reality.

796
00:29:30,019 --> 00:29:31,000
They're they're incredible.

797
00:29:31,859 --> 00:29:33,539
But day to day, it probably doesn't have,

798
00:29:33,539 --> 00:29:35,859
you know, huge ramifications on what I'm doing

799
00:29:35,859 --> 00:29:37,140
in the life. But and so how does

800
00:29:37,140 --> 00:29:38,819
it feel when you're sort of, you know,

801
00:29:38,819 --> 00:29:40,039
you're a quantum engineer

802
00:29:40,419 --> 00:29:42,599
and the Nobel Prize is given to

803
00:29:43,204 --> 00:29:43,704
quantum

804
00:29:44,404 --> 00:29:46,505
physics. Yeah. I mean, it it it's wicked.

805
00:29:46,724 --> 00:29:47,785
It's really cool.

806
00:29:49,365 --> 00:29:50,964
It is my field, so my interest has

807
00:29:50,964 --> 00:29:52,744
been peaked for, you know, the last decade.

808
00:29:54,565 --> 00:29:56,724
But, yeah, it it it's it's incredible to

809
00:29:56,724 --> 00:29:58,184
see it happening in the field.

810
00:29:58,805 --> 00:30:00,299
I I think there's more Nobel prizes to

811
00:30:00,299 --> 00:30:02,299
be won in quantum computing and quantum information

812
00:30:02,299 --> 00:30:05,019
to be sure. One application of this quantum

813
00:30:05,019 --> 00:30:05,519
entanglement

814
00:30:06,140 --> 00:30:07,359
is quantum computers.

815
00:30:08,140 --> 00:30:09,119
But there's also

816
00:30:09,500 --> 00:30:10,480
quantum teleportation.

817
00:30:11,134 --> 00:30:14,015
So quantum teleportation is about teleporting a quantum

818
00:30:14,015 --> 00:30:17,154
state. So I use a resource of entangled,

819
00:30:18,414 --> 00:30:20,595
systems. I've got 2 a system, and

820
00:30:21,695 --> 00:30:23,695
I can then perform a measurement on one

821
00:30:23,695 --> 00:30:24,195
system,

822
00:30:27,690 --> 00:30:28,829
transmit the

823
00:30:29,289 --> 00:30:30,669
result of that information

824
00:30:32,329 --> 00:30:34,269
to someone else, a different

825
00:30:34,890 --> 00:30:35,390
place,

826
00:30:36,009 --> 00:30:38,409
they can then perform some control operations on

827
00:30:38,409 --> 00:30:40,349
their other part of this entangled system

828
00:30:41,134 --> 00:30:44,494
and recreate the quantum state that we initially

829
00:30:44,494 --> 00:30:44,994
had.

830
00:30:46,575 --> 00:30:48,894
That's probably wrong in details. I've not looked

831
00:30:48,894 --> 00:30:51,454
at this in a decade, but it's about,

832
00:30:51,774 --> 00:30:54,414
being able to physically send quantum states over

833
00:30:54,414 --> 00:30:55,315
a long distance

834
00:30:56,039 --> 00:30:56,779
without necessarily

835
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:57,740
transmitting

836
00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:01,320
the physical objects which encoded those quantum states.

837
00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:02,600
Maybe that's a good way of thinking about

838
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:04,200
it. So I could, you know, if I

839
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:06,200
have a photon that's got a polarization or

840
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:07,720
some like, there's a couple of photons, they've

841
00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:09,400
got a quantum state. I could physically give

842
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:11,795
you those photons and that would transmit that

843
00:31:11,795 --> 00:31:13,894
quantum state because matter had moved.

844
00:31:14,515 --> 00:31:16,674
Instead of doing that, I can encode some

845
00:31:16,674 --> 00:31:18,515
quantum state. I can do some measurements. I

846
00:31:18,515 --> 00:31:19,575
can send you information

847
00:31:20,195 --> 00:31:22,275
and allow you to prepare the same quantum

848
00:31:22,275 --> 00:31:22,775
state

849
00:31:23,250 --> 00:31:23,750
without

850
00:31:24,049 --> 00:31:26,390
physically sending you the things that originally

851
00:31:26,849 --> 00:31:28,769
had that quantum state in them so that

852
00:31:28,769 --> 00:31:30,230
the state is being teleported.

853
00:31:31,089 --> 00:31:31,589
Okay.

854
00:31:32,130 --> 00:31:34,710
It's so it's slightly less exciting than

855
00:31:35,009 --> 00:31:37,605
what my head does as someone who

856
00:31:37,984 --> 00:31:40,304
used to watch Quantum Leap instead of do

857
00:31:40,304 --> 00:31:40,964
my homework

858
00:31:41,265 --> 00:31:41,765
and,

859
00:31:42,304 --> 00:31:44,804
also like Star Trek a lot. Me yeah.

860
00:31:45,984 --> 00:31:46,964
I'm not gonna

861
00:31:48,144 --> 00:31:50,144
engage it thinking about how we're gonna build

862
00:31:50,144 --> 00:31:52,472
a teleporter out of it. But yeah. It's

863
00:31:52,472 --> 00:31:54,828
not gonna let you send things faster than

864
00:31:54,828 --> 00:31:57,479
light even information, because you need to transmit

865
00:31:57,479 --> 00:31:59,835
classical information. It would probably be very hard

866
00:31:59,835 --> 00:32:02,191
to work out how you make a matter

867
00:32:02,191 --> 00:32:03,075
transporter from it.

868
00:32:04,274 --> 00:32:06,674
Probably not possible. People are very clever. Maybe

869
00:32:06,674 --> 00:32:08,434
someone can work it out. Returning to Max

870
00:32:08,434 --> 00:32:11,974
now. I asked him about this distance between

871
00:32:12,355 --> 00:32:14,994
where we are now in quantum computing and

872
00:32:14,994 --> 00:32:15,494
where

873
00:32:15,875 --> 00:32:16,375
these

874
00:32:16,970 --> 00:32:19,070
technologies might take us in the future?

875
00:32:20,250 --> 00:32:20,490
Does it

876
00:32:21,210 --> 00:32:23,309
you know, being a long way from something,

877
00:32:23,369 --> 00:32:25,549
does it make that something less exciting?

878
00:32:26,650 --> 00:32:28,670
That's that's number 1. Right? Okay.

879
00:32:30,335 --> 00:32:30,835
Secondly,

880
00:32:31,215 --> 00:32:33,455
you don't necessarily need to have everything on

881
00:32:33,455 --> 00:32:35,154
your phone, and that's why,

882
00:32:36,174 --> 00:32:38,515
I think direct comparison to digital

883
00:32:38,815 --> 00:32:39,715
doesn't hold,

884
00:32:40,494 --> 00:32:42,335
exactly because we you try to say that

885
00:32:42,335 --> 00:32:44,255
it's gonna work, in the same way as

886
00:32:44,255 --> 00:32:45,930
digital works, and it won't.

887
00:32:47,910 --> 00:32:49,830
You know, you could have as well said,

888
00:32:49,830 --> 00:32:51,590
like, how am I gonna use my mobile

889
00:32:51,590 --> 00:32:53,349
phone if all the ink I mean, I

890
00:32:53,349 --> 00:32:55,430
need a pen to write with ink. How

891
00:32:55,430 --> 00:32:56,950
would that thing is gonna sit in my

892
00:32:56,950 --> 00:32:58,390
pocket? I mean, my pocket is gonna be

893
00:32:58,390 --> 00:33:00,490
dirty with ink. It's gonna spill.

894
00:33:01,484 --> 00:33:02,845
But actually, it turns out you don't need

895
00:33:02,845 --> 00:33:04,204
to because you have a screen with a

896
00:33:04,204 --> 00:33:05,105
keyboard on it,

897
00:33:06,285 --> 00:33:08,545
instead of ink and and and pen.

898
00:33:09,724 --> 00:33:11,025
That's that's that comparison.

899
00:33:13,005 --> 00:33:15,105
So I I don't think it holds valid,

900
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:16,579
in that front.

901
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:20,420
Max's company is also looking to space applications.

902
00:33:21,599 --> 00:33:24,180
There's a number of them. So firstly,

903
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:27,920
space is gonna be one of the first

904
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:31,164
enabling applications to build global communication networks with

905
00:33:31,164 --> 00:33:31,664
Quantum,

906
00:33:33,565 --> 00:33:34,065
primarily

907
00:33:34,445 --> 00:33:35,505
because of the

908
00:33:36,684 --> 00:33:38,144
certain aspects with losses

909
00:33:38,445 --> 00:33:40,464
associated in, say, fiber quants,

910
00:33:41,724 --> 00:33:43,565
and and the speed at which you can

911
00:33:43,565 --> 00:33:44,945
deploy global networks.

912
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:47,740
Secondly, quantum

913
00:33:48,759 --> 00:33:49,980
sensors, quantum

914
00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:51,980
gravitational sensors,

915
00:33:53,319 --> 00:33:54,299
are going to be,

916
00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:58,519
an essential element for high precision positioning systems

917
00:33:58,519 --> 00:34:00,815
and navigation. So that's exclusively

918
00:34:01,595 --> 00:34:05,194
or needed for space and any anything that

919
00:34:05,194 --> 00:34:06,015
flies, basically.

920
00:34:08,474 --> 00:34:11,375
You're gonna see how it supplements and then,

921
00:34:12,234 --> 00:34:15,230
extend it to, say, standard GPS capability,

922
00:34:16,570 --> 00:34:18,510
which you won't require, in fact,

923
00:34:19,449 --> 00:34:21,530
the actual signal to be transferred. You'll just

924
00:34:21,530 --> 00:34:22,750
know where you are anyway,

925
00:34:24,170 --> 00:34:25,789
because of the high precision

926
00:34:26,170 --> 00:34:28,994
that, like, pseudo inertial sensor, if you want.

927
00:34:31,474 --> 00:34:33,474
So and the the results are going to

928
00:34:33,474 --> 00:34:34,135
be potentially

929
00:34:34,434 --> 00:34:37,255
distributed computing capability in space as well.

930
00:34:37,875 --> 00:34:39,494
So we can have an onboard,

931
00:34:40,515 --> 00:34:42,135
simple information processing.

932
00:34:42,949 --> 00:34:44,710
So I I know this is a silly

933
00:34:44,710 --> 00:34:46,250
question, but when?

934
00:34:46,949 --> 00:34:47,449
Soon.

935
00:34:47,909 --> 00:34:49,369
That's the short answer.

936
00:34:50,469 --> 00:34:52,789
I guess depends on the time horizon. I

937
00:34:52,789 --> 00:34:55,049
think space is pro if you're talking specifically

938
00:34:55,109 --> 00:34:55,929
about space.

939
00:34:57,855 --> 00:34:59,614
You know, you get to give it a

940
00:34:59,614 --> 00:35:00,515
couple of years,

941
00:35:01,535 --> 00:35:03,295
primarily because if you wanna put that in

942
00:35:03,295 --> 00:35:05,155
space, it needs to go through quite rigorous,

943
00:35:05,454 --> 00:35:05,855
testing,

944
00:35:06,255 --> 00:35:07,715
and, you know, qualification.

945
00:35:09,454 --> 00:35:09,954
So

946
00:35:10,335 --> 00:35:11,074
we're probably

947
00:35:12,219 --> 00:35:14,680
2, 3, 4 years away from,

948
00:35:15,340 --> 00:35:17,519
depending on what application you're talking about.

949
00:35:19,180 --> 00:35:20,079
So applications

950
00:35:20,380 --> 00:35:20,880
in

951
00:35:21,260 --> 00:35:24,140
our everyday life such as optimization problems can

952
00:35:24,140 --> 00:35:25,199
be run on computing.

953
00:35:25,925 --> 00:35:28,085
That's something that's already happening, and we're just

954
00:35:28,085 --> 00:35:29,704
seeing that it's being scaled.

955
00:35:30,405 --> 00:35:30,905
Quantum

956
00:35:31,525 --> 00:35:32,025
safety,

957
00:35:32,644 --> 00:35:33,704
quantum communication,

958
00:35:35,125 --> 00:35:36,505
it is happening already.

959
00:35:37,605 --> 00:35:38,905
Moreover, the first standards,

960
00:35:39,570 --> 00:35:40,070
requirements,

961
00:35:40,930 --> 00:35:42,309
to be quantum safe,

962
00:35:42,849 --> 00:35:43,829
they come in force

963
00:35:44,130 --> 00:35:45,590
around 7 24.

964
00:35:46,369 --> 00:35:47,809
So we are a year and a half

965
00:35:47,809 --> 00:35:49,349
away from that point.

966
00:35:49,730 --> 00:35:51,730
So that is less that's sooner than than

967
00:35:51,730 --> 00:35:53,489
in fact. Sooner than I thought you meant

968
00:35:53,489 --> 00:35:54,635
when you said soon.

969
00:35:55,014 --> 00:35:56,534
I mean, I'm not gonna give you a

970
00:35:56,534 --> 00:35:58,855
number when a 1,000,000 cubit computer is gonna

971
00:35:58,855 --> 00:35:59,594
come live,

972
00:36:00,614 --> 00:36:03,255
but it doesn't have to. Yeah. Okay. So

973
00:36:03,255 --> 00:36:05,994
what's what's next off your production line then?

974
00:36:06,054 --> 00:36:07,594
So we'll expand the portfolio

975
00:36:07,894 --> 00:36:09,755
primarily to help

976
00:36:10,990 --> 00:36:13,890
people and academics who are doing research

977
00:36:14,190 --> 00:36:15,010
and quantum

978
00:36:15,550 --> 00:36:16,050
science.

979
00:36:16,829 --> 00:36:18,289
So you're gonna see,

980
00:36:18,829 --> 00:36:20,610
entanglement sources from us.

981
00:36:21,150 --> 00:36:22,450
You're gonna see additional,

982
00:36:24,590 --> 00:36:25,454
chips that

983
00:36:26,094 --> 00:36:27,155
help you manipulate

984
00:36:27,535 --> 00:36:29,155
the state of the photons.

985
00:36:29,695 --> 00:36:32,675
And that creates, like, a very silent toolkit

986
00:36:32,735 --> 00:36:36,255
for people to advance significantly advance their research

987
00:36:36,255 --> 00:36:38,434
in quantum information or quantum

988
00:36:39,135 --> 00:36:39,635
anything,

989
00:36:40,094 --> 00:36:40,994
even imaging.

990
00:36:42,789 --> 00:36:44,489
So our our our first

991
00:36:45,349 --> 00:36:46,569
focus is to,

992
00:36:47,589 --> 00:36:48,569
to bring back,

993
00:36:49,190 --> 00:36:51,449
to the research community, to the ecosystem,

994
00:36:52,949 --> 00:36:53,929
that high efficiency,

995
00:36:55,349 --> 00:36:57,554
that you can achieve with with the sources.

996
00:36:58,494 --> 00:36:59,474
And if you think,

997
00:37:00,015 --> 00:37:02,255
about, like, what do you need when you're

998
00:37:02,255 --> 00:37:04,574
trying to do something in any domain, like

999
00:37:04,574 --> 00:37:06,275
a measurement, a data transmission,

1000
00:37:06,655 --> 00:37:07,795
you need to have a source,

1001
00:37:08,094 --> 00:37:11,079
or generator of that data or something,

1002
00:37:11,539 --> 00:37:13,780
then you go to transfer it, manipulate it,

1003
00:37:13,780 --> 00:37:15,239
and then you're good to measure it.

1004
00:37:15,780 --> 00:37:18,019
So what we do is supply that first

1005
00:37:18,019 --> 00:37:18,519
component,

1006
00:37:18,820 --> 00:37:21,160
the first component in the in that

1007
00:37:22,660 --> 00:37:23,940
food chain of,

1008
00:37:24,500 --> 00:37:25,400
of doing things.

1009
00:37:25,744 --> 00:37:26,945
And up until now,

1010
00:37:27,265 --> 00:37:28,164
there were nothing

1011
00:37:28,625 --> 00:37:29,605
really efficient,

1012
00:37:31,105 --> 00:37:33,445
on the market to to do this. So,

1013
00:37:34,704 --> 00:37:37,684
it's, it's a simple thing. Sounds quite,

1014
00:37:39,184 --> 00:37:40,324
you know, complicated,

1015
00:37:40,785 --> 00:37:42,619
if you give it a full name.

1016
00:37:43,559 --> 00:37:44,460
That is basically

1017
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:47,960
a generator of 2 quantum light, and that

1018
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:48,699
that unlocks,

1019
00:37:50,359 --> 00:37:54,380
unlimited possibilities in fact. These real world applications

1020
00:37:55,159 --> 00:37:56,299
of quantum mechanics

1021
00:37:56,744 --> 00:37:57,884
are born out of

1022
00:37:58,264 --> 00:37:59,804
these concepts like

1023
00:38:00,105 --> 00:38:01,884
spooky action at a distance.

1024
00:38:02,264 --> 00:38:03,804
Here's Oscar Kennedy again.

1025
00:38:04,264 --> 00:38:05,944
I hate the term spooky action at a

1026
00:38:05,944 --> 00:38:07,464
distance. I might even have used it as

1027
00:38:07,464 --> 00:38:07,964
well.

1028
00:38:08,824 --> 00:38:11,039
But I hate it. I think it's like

1029
00:38:11,119 --> 00:38:14,320
this real disservice to quantum physics where we

1030
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:16,019
talk about like things being spooky.

1031
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:17,760
I think it's a really good way to

1032
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:19,679
make like, if you introduce a new topic

1033
00:38:19,679 --> 00:38:22,179
by telling everyone, yeah, it's impossible to understand.

1034
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:24,880
Your chances of getting people like thinking like,

1035
00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:26,820
oh, yeah. I understand that. That makes sense.

1036
00:38:27,135 --> 00:38:28,355
Is quite low.

1037
00:38:29,695 --> 00:38:32,414
So it's that's a personal problem. I it

1038
00:38:32,414 --> 00:38:35,315
it is it's a challenging thing to understand.

1039
00:38:36,494 --> 00:38:38,815
I think sometimes it you can state it

1040
00:38:38,815 --> 00:38:39,715
as just

1041
00:38:40,015 --> 00:38:41,875
facts. So, you know, like,

1042
00:38:43,750 --> 00:38:45,910
a when we look down to basic physics,

1043
00:38:45,910 --> 00:38:47,990
we find that things are quantum mechanical. And

1044
00:38:47,990 --> 00:38:49,849
what quantum mechanics says is that

1045
00:38:51,349 --> 00:38:53,910
systems have discrete states and you can think

1046
00:38:53,910 --> 00:38:55,670
of that as 1 or 0, but typically

1047
00:38:55,670 --> 00:38:57,190
things are not just 1 or 0. It's

1048
00:38:57,190 --> 00:38:57,690
102

1049
00:38:58,535 --> 00:38:59,035
012345,

1050
00:38:59,815 --> 00:39:02,375
you know. There's many states or ways the

1051
00:39:02,375 --> 00:39:05,175
the state, physical system can be, and they

1052
00:39:05,175 --> 00:39:07,015
are discrete. So it's not a continuous thing

1053
00:39:07,015 --> 00:39:08,215
like, you know, if you've got a piece

1054
00:39:08,215 --> 00:39:10,454
of elastic, you can stretch that and you

1055
00:39:10,454 --> 00:39:12,389
can continuously go from one length to a

1056
00:39:12,389 --> 00:39:13,989
much longer length, and it can be every

1057
00:39:13,989 --> 00:39:15,210
length in between that.

1058
00:39:15,989 --> 00:39:17,510
It would be like the elastic band could

1059
00:39:17,510 --> 00:39:19,269
only be length 1, and then it will

1060
00:39:19,269 --> 00:39:20,869
stretch to another length, then it'll stretch to

1061
00:39:20,869 --> 00:39:23,190
another length. Like maybe think of a chain,

1062
00:39:23,190 --> 00:39:25,589
like you're adding discrete links to the chain.

1063
00:39:25,589 --> 00:39:27,605
So that so that's one part quantum mechanics

1064
00:39:27,605 --> 00:39:29,304
is saying that systems are discrete.

1065
00:39:30,964 --> 00:39:33,464
Another weird part is saying that discrete systems

1066
00:39:34,005 --> 00:39:36,565
can be the same it can be in

1067
00:39:36,565 --> 00:39:38,344
multiple states at the same time.

1068
00:39:38,964 --> 00:39:39,864
That's also

1069
00:39:40,489 --> 00:39:40,989
counterintuitive

1070
00:39:41,289 --> 00:39:43,630
to what we see in our everyday life.

1071
00:39:44,409 --> 00:39:45,389
You know, like,

1072
00:39:46,409 --> 00:39:48,730
my hair will be sticking up or flat

1073
00:39:48,730 --> 00:39:50,010
to my head. I I say that because

1074
00:39:50,010 --> 00:39:51,710
I can see myself on screen.

1075
00:39:52,489 --> 00:39:54,569
But, you know, like, that that's also not

1076
00:39:54,569 --> 00:39:56,974
the way that we experience everyday life. But,

1077
00:39:56,974 --> 00:39:59,535
you know, fine quantum mechanics, it's not a

1078
00:39:59,535 --> 00:40:01,454
theory of like the macroscopic every day. It's

1079
00:40:01,454 --> 00:40:02,275
a theory of

1080
00:40:02,974 --> 00:40:05,215
the very small, like, you know, when I

1081
00:40:05,215 --> 00:40:06,575
think of air, I don't think of the

1082
00:40:06,575 --> 00:40:08,175
fact that it's made up of molecules and

1083
00:40:08,175 --> 00:40:08,675
atoms.

1084
00:40:09,869 --> 00:40:12,029
When I experienced that on a macroscopic level,

1085
00:40:12,029 --> 00:40:14,130
that's not how it interacts with me. But

1086
00:40:14,589 --> 00:40:16,029
we we don't think of the fact that's

1087
00:40:16,029 --> 00:40:17,630
made up of atoms as super scary. It's

1088
00:40:17,630 --> 00:40:19,150
just the fact that when you zoom in

1089
00:40:19,150 --> 00:40:19,889
really far,

1090
00:40:20,750 --> 00:40:22,429
things are not exactly the same as they

1091
00:40:22,429 --> 00:40:23,949
are on the macroscopic level. So I think

1092
00:40:23,949 --> 00:40:26,744
that that's it's different, that things are quantized

1093
00:40:26,885 --> 00:40:28,405
and that they can be in many states

1094
00:40:28,405 --> 00:40:28,984
at once.

1095
00:40:29,844 --> 00:40:31,844
And then you have entanglement, which is another

1096
00:40:31,844 --> 00:40:32,585
bit of

1097
00:40:33,284 --> 00:40:34,184
tricky physics.

1098
00:40:35,525 --> 00:40:37,364
But once you've accepted that, you know, a

1099
00:40:37,364 --> 00:40:39,045
system is in a quantum state, which is

1100
00:40:39,045 --> 00:40:40,519
a discrete state and it can be in

1101
00:40:40,519 --> 00:40:41,820
multiple discrete states,

1102
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:44,300
then we say that, okay, we know that

1103
00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:47,159
2 quantum systems can be entangled and that

1104
00:40:47,159 --> 00:40:47,980
their states

1105
00:40:48,519 --> 00:40:50,380
are correlated in some way.

1106
00:40:51,954 --> 00:40:52,454
So

1107
00:40:54,355 --> 00:40:56,434
it it's tricky. It's tricky to understand. I

1108
00:40:56,434 --> 00:40:58,034
think quite often you have to work through

1109
00:40:58,034 --> 00:40:58,694
the maths.

1110
00:41:00,194 --> 00:41:01,714
But I think that it it it's one

1111
00:41:01,714 --> 00:41:03,155
of those things like that. That is just

1112
00:41:03,155 --> 00:41:04,534
how the universe is.

1113
00:41:05,639 --> 00:41:06,139
And

1114
00:41:06,519 --> 00:41:09,079
it happens to not really align with our

1115
00:41:09,079 --> 00:41:10,139
everyday macroscopic

1116
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,319
experience of the universe. Both Oscar and Max

1117
00:41:13,319 --> 00:41:14,619
were keen to express

1118
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:17,659
just how exciting it is to be involved

1119
00:41:17,799 --> 00:41:20,125
in this area of physics. OTC, of course,

1120
00:41:20,125 --> 00:41:21,805
are hiring in all sorts of roles that

1121
00:41:21,805 --> 00:41:24,045
transcend quantum information because we're building a world

1122
00:41:24,045 --> 00:41:26,204
class company, and we need people of all

1123
00:41:26,204 --> 00:41:27,644
roles. So if anyone wants to join the

1124
00:41:27,644 --> 00:41:29,425
quantum revolution, we're always looking.

1125
00:41:30,605 --> 00:41:32,525
I think the thing I'd like to mention

1126
00:41:32,525 --> 00:41:32,820
is,

1127
00:41:33,860 --> 00:41:36,440
is firstly invite people to join the,

1128
00:41:37,460 --> 00:41:39,079
the quantum technology community,

1129
00:41:39,699 --> 00:41:41,480
enroll into courses. So

1130
00:41:42,180 --> 00:41:44,180
if you're considering what are you gonna do

1131
00:41:44,180 --> 00:41:44,840
with physics,

1132
00:41:45,574 --> 00:41:48,214
I'd say go into quantum, learn a little

1133
00:41:48,214 --> 00:41:50,554
bit about quantum mechanics, learn quantum computing,

1134
00:41:50,855 --> 00:41:51,994
learn those concepts.

1135
00:41:53,014 --> 00:41:54,074
It is the future

1136
00:41:54,694 --> 00:41:55,594
of the,

1137
00:41:56,454 --> 00:41:58,074
you know, workplace, basically.

1138
00:41:58,934 --> 00:41:59,835
That's the

1139
00:42:00,410 --> 00:42:02,190
that's that's the very forward looking,

1140
00:42:02,890 --> 00:42:03,710
thing to do.

1141
00:42:04,969 --> 00:42:07,450
And, of course, we are always happy, you

1142
00:42:07,450 --> 00:42:08,670
know, to help people,

1143
00:42:09,210 --> 00:42:12,110
you know, drive that research, drive more knowledge.

1144
00:42:12,250 --> 00:42:14,004
So we're happy to,

1145
00:42:14,429 --> 00:42:17,826
do some custom, you know, you know, do

1146
00:42:17,826 --> 00:42:20,675
joint grants. Let's let's do joint research. We're

1147
00:42:20,675 --> 00:42:21,655
we're happy to help.

1148
00:42:22,114 --> 00:42:25,394
And we'd absolutely love to see, new results

1149
00:42:25,394 --> 00:42:26,695
coming out in the community.

1150
00:42:27,670 --> 00:42:29,610
And our whole, say,

1151
00:42:29,989 --> 00:42:31,050
product services,

1152
00:42:31,670 --> 00:42:33,349
everything that we do is designed to make

1153
00:42:33,349 --> 00:42:34,010
that happen.

1154
00:42:35,269 --> 00:42:37,750
And we're about driving the efficiency and and

1155
00:42:37,750 --> 00:42:40,150
the speed of that. And how do people

1156
00:42:40,150 --> 00:42:41,369
get in touch with you?

1157
00:42:42,714 --> 00:42:44,094
Just reach out on LinkedIn.

1158
00:42:45,114 --> 00:42:46,815
Go on our website, say hello,

1159
00:42:48,074 --> 00:42:50,255
anywhere. We'll post links to Max

1160
00:42:50,554 --> 00:42:53,195
and Oscar's work on the Physics World website,

1161
00:42:53,195 --> 00:42:55,809
physics world dot com. You can discover much

1162
00:42:55,809 --> 00:42:57,969
more about some of the themes discussed today

1163
00:42:57,969 --> 00:43:01,190
within the quantum section of that website, physicsworld.comforward/cforward/quantum.

1164
00:43:05,569 --> 00:43:07,569
At that link, you can sign up to

1165
00:43:07,569 --> 00:43:08,949
our quantum bimonthly

1166
00:43:09,250 --> 00:43:09,750
newsletter.

1167
00:43:10,215 --> 00:43:12,215
As a podcast, we'll be back next month

1168
00:43:12,215 --> 00:43:14,375
and it's December, so it's time to dust

1169
00:43:14,375 --> 00:43:17,414
off those Christmas lists as we look back

1170
00:43:17,414 --> 00:43:19,994
at some of the best physics books released

1171
00:43:20,055 --> 00:43:20,795
this year.

1172
00:43:21,175 --> 00:43:23,150
And thank you very much for listening.

1173
00:43:27,690 --> 00:43:28,909
Physics World.