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Dr. Daniel Manzano quantified the “publish-or-perish” problem in quant-ph. To help finally put an end to it, The Quantum Dragon opened up a factory of autopens to churn out AI slop, in crayon, en masse. He’s going to hire offshore workers to convert them to LaTeX and upload them to arXiv. He promises to stop when y’all do.

This week’s IQT News:

• C12 went platinum!

This week’s premium content:

• Two Billion Taxpayer Dollars…
• Unitary Quantum’s Matrix 001
• Q-CTRL’s Fire Opal on IonQ
• Unitary Foundation’s Clifft

This week’s Friends of The Quantum Dragon:

• “Are we moving on post-quantum cryptography at the same speed our government is moving on quantum itself?” by Rebecca Krauthamer, CEO and co-founder of QuSecure
• “Building partnerships across borders and creating resilient supply chains is how quantum technology will reach its full potential.” by Dr. Alexander Jantzen, Co-Founder and COO of Aquark Technologies
• “We can deliver business value today using classical computing, while unlocking greater value as quantum hardware matures.” by Ville Kotovirta, CTO at QMill
• “PsiQuantum’s scalable breakthroughs in silicon photonics will in turn create new possibilities for the future of computing.” by Dr. Pete Shadbolt, Co-Founder and CSO of PsiQuantum
• Extend protection beyond classical post‑quantum methods. by Hannu Kauppinen, CEO of QMill

In this edition:

• Have you published more than one paper?
• NightDragon invested in Classiq.
• Some jokes require a physics degree to land.
• IBM had no idea if anyone was going to show up.
• Just in case you want to explain quantum computing to your grandmother
• Quantum Animal Registry
• A Zebra with Ket Stripes
• An illustrated field guide to qubits
• Track data in and out of your QPUs.
• We shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque…
• ML-KEM + X-Wing Patches Posted For Linux
• Willow Remembers What You Did Last Summer
• Doom’s Title Screen Encoded on 16 Qubits
• Quantum Noise Detector

Have you published more than one paper?

According to Piotr Lewandowski, “half of all quantum research is written by people with exactly one paper.” And he provides some numbers. Interestingly, the 2nd least qualified person in quantum contributes to that with only 1 of 2 published papers uploaded to arXiv’s quant-ph. This link may require a LinkedIn account.

NightDragon invested in Classiq.

This is probably old news, but it involves a quantum software company and a dragon-inspired company, and gosh darnit golly gee willikers it needs to be here.

Some jokes require a physics degree to land.

These jokes, however, only require that you be at least as educated as the 2nd least qualified person in quantum. For your consideration: the 3 winning designs from IQM’s internal sticker contest. Although the post does not explicitly state that these stickers are future swag, they should be. This link may require a LinkedIn account.

IBM had no idea if anyone was going to show up.

This is the brief story, told in 1:30 by Sean Dague, of IBM putting its first quantum computer on the cloud. This link may require a LinkedIn account.

Just in case you want to explain quantum computing to your grandmother

Alex Woodie of HPCwire didn’t use this line in his article “Quantum Computing 101: Introduction to QC,” for some reason, but it was in the email that led me to it.

Quantum Animal Registry

This “Quantum Animal Registry” was a suggestion by Lawrence Gasman. What am I missing? Text-only references don’t count; there must be imagery.

A Zebra with Ket Stripes

I never noticed before, but thanks to Alex Khan commenting on the Quantum Animal Registry announcement, I now see that the ZebraKet logo was not just any ol’ zebra head, but a zebra head with Ket stripes. After this, I’m going to have to start zooming in on more logos. This link may require a LinkedIn account.

An illustrated field guide to qubits

I was on the fence about adding this, but I want to applaud the attempt to add new qubit illustrations into the discourse. That said, Clara Moskowitz, Ben Gilliland, Amanda Hobbs, and Jen Christiansen of Scientific American really should have had someone check this out before publication.

Track data in and out of your QPUs.

To keep QPUs calibrated and optimized, users need to track and capture the data going in and out of them. They need to track the parameters. For your consideration: the untold story of Quantum Machines acquiring QHarbor.

We shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque…

If you’re navigating with a compass, you need a map. And if you’re navigating with a quantum magnetometer, you still need a map. Just like your favorite topographic maps, your geomagnetic maps get outdated and need to be updated. Enter SBQuantum.

ML-KEM + X-Wing Patches Posted For Linux

This article by Michael Larabel of Phoronix is about post-quantum cryptography, but I’m obviously sharing it for the gratuitous opportunity to share a Star Wars clip.

Willow Remembers What You Did Last Summer

I didn’t watch this movie, so I don’t have anything aspiringly funny to add. I have failed you, and I sincerely apologize. That said, I’m awarding Prof. Amit Hagar a whole bunch of admittedly worthless bonus points for including what must be the first quantum bedtime story.

Doom’s Title Screen Encoded on 16 Qubits

You’ll have to see Zane Hambly’s post to believe it. If you want to dig deeper into how he did it, with the disclaimer that I haven’t scrutinized it myself, he provides a link to a GitHub repository. I particularly applaud the use and abuse of real hardware for a project like this. This link may require a LinkedIn account.

Quantum Noise Detector

Alan Ho and Prof. Michael Biercuk inspired the Resuscitated Quantum Bullshit Detector, but the original(?) has resurfaced on Bluesky. It’s back to reposting a simple “bullshit” or “not bullshit,” so The Quantum Dragon will continue to monitor for challenges, controversies, and debates under this new name from Dr. Bob Sutor.

• Researchers from the Simons Foundation’s Flatiron Institute and Boston University squashed a “quantum supremacy” claim by D-Wave, which has non-coherent annealers and can’t make “quantum” claims to begin with.
• Marin Ivezic of PostQuantum says that quantum radar is dead.
• John Timmer of Ars Technica writes that “US’s big bet on quantum computing may not be entirely legal.”
• Sam Lucero wrote “US government distorts quantum market with premature equity stakes.” I’m awarding admittedly worthless bonus points for giving D-Wave a shoutout under “why the other part of the program is problematic.”