The New Quantum Era - innovation in quantum computing, science and technology cover art

The New Quantum Era - innovation in quantum computing, science and technology

The New Quantum Era - innovation in quantum computing, science and technology

By: Sebastian Hassinger
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 Your host, Sebastian Hassinger, interviews brilliant research scientists, software developers, engineers and others actively exploring the possibilities of our new quantum era. We will cover topics in quantum computing, networking and sensing, focusing on hardware, algorithms and general theory. The show aims for accessibility - Sebastian is not a physicist - and we'll try to provide context for the terminology and glimpses at the fascinating history of this new field as it evolves in real time.(c) New Quantum Era, LLC 2026 Physics Science
Episodes
  • Quantum Chemistry's Classical Limits with Garnet Chan

    Quantum Chemistry's Classical Limits with Garnet Chan
    Apr 20 2026
    Your host, Sebastian Hassinger, is joined on this episode by Garnet Chan, the Bren Professor of Chemistry at Caltech, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and among the most cited computational chemists in the world (34,000+ Google Scholar citations). Garnet is neither a quantum computing booster nor a dismissive skeptic. He's a theorist who works at the exact boundary between what classical algorithms can and cannot do — and who keeps finding that boundary further out than the quantum computing community has claimed. The FeMo-cofactor has been a flagship quantum computing use case for nearly a decade: a catalytic core of the enzyme that fixes atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, and a molecule widely described as "beyond classical reach." Chan's January 2026 paper challenges that framing directly. This conversation explains what was actually solved, what wasn't, and what it would genuinely take for quantum computers to contribute to the chemistry of nitrogen fixation. This episode is for researchers, engineers, and informed observers who want an honest, technically grounded view of where quantum computers genuinely help in chemistry — and where classical methods are more capable than the field has admitted. What You'll LearnWhy the FeMo-cofactor became one of the quantum computing community's favorite benchmark — and why the framing around energy savings from nitrogen fixation is less accurate than it soundsWhat "chemical accuracy" (~1 kcal/mol) actually means as a precision target, and why hitting it classically undermines a decade of quantum resource estimatesWhy real chemical systems are only "slightly entangled" — and what that means for the general argument that quantum computers are the natural tool for quantum chemistryThe difference between a problem being hard and a problem being exponentially hard — and why that distinction matters enormously for quantum advantage claimsWhere the genuine classical wall might be: bridging 15 orders of magnitude in timescale to simulate an enzyme's full catalytic mechanism — and whether quantum computers have anything to say about thatWhy Chan wrote a public blog post explaining his own paper — and what that reveals about the state of discourse in quantum chemistry and the quantum computing industryThe broader impact of quantum information science on chemistry — beyond hardware, the conceptual tools of quantum information have genuinely reshaped how chemists think about many-body statesWhat Chan is actually working toward: a full computational understanding of the nitrogenase reaction mechanism, using machine learning to bridge timescales classically — a decade-long journey he finds genuinely excitingResources & LinksThe Central Paper & CommentaryZhai et al. (2026) — "Classical Solution of the FeMo-Cofactor Model to Chemical Accuracy and Its Implications" arXiv:2601.04621 — The January 2026 preprint at the heart of this episode; the classical solution of the standard 76-orbital/152-qubit FeMo-co benchmark.Chan — Quantum Frontiers Blog Post (March 2026) The FeMo-Cofactor and Classical and Quantum Computing — Chan's own accessible commentary on the paper, written in response to widespread misinterpretation; essential reading alongside the paper.Key Papers for ContextChan (2024) — "Spiers Memorial Lecture: Quantum Chemistry, Classical Heuristics, and Quantum Advantage" Faraday Discussions, 254, 11–52 — The formal theoretical framework behind Chan's thinking, including the "classical heuristic cost conjecture"; the deep-dive companion to this episode.Lee et al. (2023) — "Evaluating the Evidence for Exponential Quantum Advantage in Ground-State Quantum Chemistry" Nature Communications — Chan group's landmark 2023 paper concluding that evidence for exponential quantum advantage across chemical space has yet to be found.Begušić & Chan (2023/2024) — "Fast Classical Simulation of Evidence for the Utility of Quantum Computing Before Fault Tolerance" Science Advances — The paper showing classical simulation on a single laptop core could reproduce and exceed IBM's 127-qubit "utility" experiment.Bauer, Bravyi, Motta & Chan (2020) — "Quantum Algorithms for Quantum Chemistry and Quantum Materials Science" arXiv:2001.03685 — A balanced review by Chan and colleagues showing he takes quantum algorithms seriously; useful counterpoint to the skeptical framing.Babbush et al. (2025) — "The Grand Challenge of Quantum Applications" arXiv:2511.09124 — Google Quantum AI's direct engagement with Chan's skeptical position; argues polynomial speedups may still be practically decisive.Computational Chemistry Highlights — Review of FeMo-co Paper compchemhighlights.org — Third-party commentary from Jan Jensen (University of Copenhagen).Tools & SoftwarePySCF — Python-based Simulations of Chemistry Framework https://pyscf.org — The open-source quantum chemistry package co-stewarded by Chan's group; widely used for electronic ...
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    41 mins
  • Quantum Open Source with Will Zeng and Ziyaad Bhorat

    Quantum Open Source with Will Zeng and Ziyaad Bhorat
    Apr 17 2026
    Quantum Open Source with Will Zeng and Ziyaad BhoratIn this special live-streamed discussion, Will Zeng, co-founder of the Unitary Foundation, and Ziyaad Bhorat, VP at the Mozilla Foundation, join host Sebastian Hassinger to unpack their co-authored white paper, The Open Foundation Quantum Technology Needs. The paper argues that open source quantum software is structurally underfunded — too applied for academic grants, too public-good for venture capital — and that philanthropic organizations need to step in before the window closes.This conversation arrives at a pivotal moment. Google recently published a paper showing Shor's algorithm could break ECDLP-256 with roughly 500,000 physical qubits — a 20x improvement over prior estimates — while Oratomic launched claiming 10,000 reconfigurable atomic qubits may be sufficient for cryptographically relevant computation. The timelines are compressing. The question is whether the software ecosystem can keep pace with the hardware.The video of our conversation can be viewed on YouTube.What you'll learnWhy open source quantum software falls into a structural funding gap between academic grants and venture capital — and what that means for the field's trajectoryHow Mozilla Foundation evaluates emerging technology fields for philanthropic intervention, and what specifically convinced them quantum was ripe for engagementWhat Google's 20x efficiency gain for Shor's algorithm and the Oratomic launch mean for Q-Day timelines and post-quantum migration urgencyWhy the "quantum Linux" analogy is useful but incomplete — and what the real risk is (fragmentation, not monopoly)How Unitary Foundation's microgrant program ($4,000, six months) has become a faster on-ramp to quantum careers than traditional academic pathwaysWhat PyMatching, PyZX, and other microgrant-funded projects reveal about the scalability of small open source investmentsWhy open source benchmarking through Metriq Gym matters — and why vendor-driven benchmarks can't fill this roleHow the Qiskit team reductions at IBM illustrate the fragility of corporate-backed open source in quantumWhat specific policy asks the quantum open source community has for the NQI reauthorizationThe von Neumann vs. ENIAC lesson: why openness wins over secrecy in building transformative computing platformsResources & linksThe Open Foundation Quantum Technology Needs — The white paper by Zeng, Castanon, and Bhorat (March 2026) that anchors this conversationUnitary Foundation — 501(c)(3) non-profit building, governing, and sustaining open source quantum software since 2018 Mozilla Foundation — Non-profit championing open source and internet health, supporting Unitary Foundation's quantum workMitiq — Open source toolkit for quantum error mitigationMetriq — Community-driven quantum benchmarking platform Metriq Gym — Open source benchmarking suite for quantum computers Unitary Compiler Collection (UCC) — Quantum circuit compilation toolsQuTiP — Quantum Toolbox in Python, stewarded by Unitary FoundationPyMatching — Open source decoder for quantum error correction, originally funded by a UF microgrant PyZX — ZX-calculus library for quantum circuit optimization, also originating from UF support Unitary Hack — Annual bug bounty hackathon connecting open source quantum projects with global contributors CSIS Commission on U.S. Quantum Leadership — Warning on quantum decryption surprise referenced in the white paperWill Zeng — President and co-founder of Unitary Foundation; Partner at Quantonation; DPhil in Quantum Information, University of OxfordZiyaad Bhorat — VP of Imagination and Strategic Growth, Mozilla Foundation; PhD in Political Science, UCLAKey quotes"Do we want a future where quantum computers are developed by secret government contractors with specialized PhDs who have top secret security clearances? Or do we want a future where quantum computers are built in the private sector, competing to provide economic value to everyone around the world?" — Will Zeng"Do not be afraid to experiment. We're doing ourselves a disservice to be slow, especially in a space that really warrants experimentation." — Ziyaad Bhorat, on his message to philanthropic colleagues"There's billions of people on the planet who want to do exciting and interesting things. Building quantum technology is one of those. If you have enough motivation, you just need to provide some on-ramps." — Will Zeng"We should put forward an affirmative vision of what that future should look like and drive towards it — because otherwise it will be built in secret." — Ziyaad Bhorat"The US spends 30, 35 billion on potato chips every year. There's a lot of room to grow." — Will Zeng, on the scale of quantum investment relative to what's neededRelated episodesEp 19: Quantum Error Mitigation using Mitiq with Misty Wahl — Deep dive into Mitiq, one of Unitary Foundation's flagship open source projects discussed in this ...
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Simulating Quantum Materials with Arnab Banerjee

    Simulating Quantum Materials with Arnab Banerjee
    Apr 7 2026
    SummaryThis episode is for anyone following the quantum utility debate or curious about how quantum computers will actually contribute to scientific discovery. Arnab Banerjee — assistant professor at Purdue, guest scientist at Oak Ridge's Quantum Science Center, and one of the most-cited experimentalists working at the intersection of quantum materials and quantum computing — walks us through his career-spanning journey from growing magnetic crystals to programming qubits.You'll hear how Banerjee's frustration with classical tools that couldn't explain his own experimental data drove him to quantum computing, why a quantum spin liquid is like the vortex that forms when you throw a stone into water, and how his team used 50 qubits on IBM's Heron chip to reproduce the spectroscopic fingerprint of a real material — KCuF3 — matching data collected at Oak Ridge and the UK's ISIS neutron source. He also offers a nuanced assessment of where different quantum computing platforms excel, drawing on hands-on experience with IBM, QuEra, and D-Wave.What you'll learnWhat a quantum spin liquid actually is and why its collective behavior — like vortices on water — could enable naturally error-protected qubitsHow neutron scattering works as a quantum probe — using the neutron's own spin and de Broglie wavelength to reveal both atomic positions and energy levels simultaneouslyWhy Banerjee's team chose to benchmark quantum simulation against known experimental data first before tackling classically intractable problemsWhat the IBM Heron benchmarking paper actually showed — reproducing spinon excitations in KCuF3, a one-dimensional Heisenberg chain, with quantitative agreement to neutron dataHow different quantum computing modalities serve different materials science problems — IBM for fast, cheap operations on 2D lattices; trapped ions for all-to-all connectivity; D-Wave and QuEra for Ising-like HamiltoniansHow close we are to quantum advantage in materials simulation — Banerjee estimates 70-90 "good enough" qubits in 2D geometry could reach classically inaccessible regimesWhy Kitaev quantum spin liquids could provide a fundamentally different path to fault tolerance — topological protection from decoherence built into the material itself, not imposed through softwareResources & linksPapers & researchBenchmarking quantum simulation with neutron-scattering experiments (March 2026) — The news hook: IBM Heron processor reproduces real neutron scattering data from KCuF3. First direct validation of quantum simulation against experimental measurements of a real material. Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid behaviour in a honeycomb magnet (2016) — Banerjee et al., Nature Materials. The career-defining paper providing first experimental evidence for Kitaev spin liquid behavior in alpha-RuCl3. Discover Magazine Top 100 Stories (#18). Neutron scattering in the proximate quantum spin liquid alpha-RuCl3 (2017) — Banerjee et al., Science. Comprehensive neutron scattering study revealing fractional spinon excitations. Materials for quantum technologies roadmap (2025) — Applied Physics Reviews. Banerjee's roadmap paper on the pipeline from material discovery to quantum devices.Lessons from alpha-RuCl3 for atomically thin materials (Nov 2025) — What the decade-long study of alpha-RuCl3 teaches about 2D quantum materials.Guest & lab links Quantum Spins Laboratory, Purdue University — Banerjee's research groupORNL Profile: Traversing the Unknown, Befriending Uncertainty — Oak Ridge profile on Banerjee's research philosophy Purdue News: Keck Foundation Grant for Quantum Spin Liquids — $1.2M grant to probe Majorana bound states with optical techniquesCoverage of the IBM benchmarking work - IBM Newsroom: Quantum Computer Simulates Real Magnetic Materials — IBM's announcement of the benchmarking resultNature News: Quantum simulations verified by experiments for the first time — Nature's coverage of the milestoneOrganizations & facilities - DOE Quantum Science Center at Oak Ridge — $115M National Quantum Initiative center where Banerjee is a guest scientistSpallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge — The neutron scattering facility central to Banerjee's experimental workISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford Appleton Lab — UK facility where part of the KCuF3 data was collectedKey quotes & insights"The entire electronic industry is built around trying to avoid quantum effects as much as possible. This is the time when we need to make quantum our friend instead of our enemy.""In a quantum spin liquid, the spin directions move collectively in dancing patterns that look extremely ordered — but if you take a snapshot, the individual spins feel completely random." — On why spin liquids are like vortices in water"A spin is a qubit is a spin." — On why quantum magnets and quantum processors are fundamentally the same physics"We need to know whether what we are doing really makes sense. That's ...
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    40 mins
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