IBM Builds Huge Cryogenic Tank for Quantum Computing

IBM and Google are trying to build quantum computers with superconducting qubits that have to be cooled to a few tens of mili-Kelvins. Such devices are difficult to scale up.IBM has now built the worlds' largest cryogenic tank, presumably in an effort to reach the 1000 qubit computer that's on their roadmap for next year. I talked about the problems with scaling up quantum computers here. 

New Series Begins Next Week! 

As mentioned last week, a new weekly series on science news is launching next Wednesday, October 5th. Since there are so many different kinds of science news to choose from, I would love to hear your input. If you have any suggestions on what kind of topics you would like this new series to cover, simply reply to this email.

Progress on New Type of Particle Accelerator

Plasma wakefield acceleration is a new method of accelerating particles to high speed that could dramatically decrease the size of current particle colliders. This method is still under development, but in a recent breakthrough experiment accelerated electrons to energies of 5 GeV in 20 cm. In case those numbers don't tell you anything: that is absolutely amazing. 

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Trouble Aboard the James Webb Telescope

NASA reports a problem with one of the instruments on board the James Webb telescope (the mid-infrared instrument, MIRI). A mechanism to select the wavelength range seems to not work properly. MIRI is essential to the observations of exoplanets, young galaxies, and planet-forming disks. I hope the problem can be fixed. 

What is "Nothing"?

Came the universe from nothing? Why is there something rather than nothing? What do we mean by "nothing" to begin with? In this week's video, I tell you about the 9 levels of nothing by Robert Lawrence Kuhn that I haver personally found to be useful to make sense of, well, nothing. 

Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions

A contrarian scientist wrestles with the big questions that modern physics raises, and what physics says about the human condition. Here's the first review of my new book.