Quickly Quantum
by Brian Lampert
Latest episode
Cat Qubits Hold Their Bit-Flips for Hours — November 3, 2026
Cat Qubits Hold Their Bit-Flips for Hours — November 3, 2026
About this podcast
The daily quantum computing briefing you don't need a physics degree to follow. Every day, Quickly Quantum cuts through the hype to bring you the breakthroughs, funding rounds, policy moves, and research that actually matter, with plain-English analysis a smart non-physicist can follow. Hosted by Brian Lampert. AI-voiced, human-built, always skeptical of press releases. Nothing on this show is financial advice.
Also from Brian Lampert: Concrete Compute and Space Stakes.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 118 episodes
- Cat Qubits Hold Their Bit-Flips for Hours — November 3, 2026 · 13 min · Episode 116Alice & Bob reports long physical bit-flip lifetimes on cat-qubit hardware, while the remaining error-correction challenges stay substantial. The episode also covers NIST’s…
- 35,000 Developers, and a Quantum-Safe Card Certification — November 2, 2026 · 12 min · Episode 115Today’s episode follows a certified post-quantum payment-card platform and considers what still has to happen before it reaches everyday use. We also cover emulator access…
- Clocks Sail While Magnetometers Lag in Pentagon Quantum Sensor Push — November 1, 2026 · 8 min · Episode 114Can the Pentagon field quantum sensors by 2028? Brian weighs EO 14413's Sept 30, 2028 mandate, DIU's up-to-$200M Farseer push, and Infleqtion's two-week Tiqker run aboard RV…
- Weekend Bonus: Who Gets to Build, Fund and Define Quantum’s Next Step? — October 31, 2026 · 13 min · Episode 113This Weekend Bonus follows the week’s quantum stories from policy and networking to materials, manufacturing and the assumptions behind quantum advantage. The announcements…
- How Close Is the Quantum Threat to Encryption? — October 30, 2026 · 14 min · Episode 112Alice & Bob’s compiled estimate puts a possible RSA-2048 attack at 22,593 physical cat qubits and 3.14 days, while the required fault-tolerant hardware remains a projection. We…
- 61 Qubits, 110 Years, and the Benchmarking Catch — October 29, 2026 · 12 min · Episode 111Today’s episode examines a reported random-circuit-sampling result on IBM Nighthawk r2 and the assumptions behind its comparison with classical computing. We also cover an…
- Intel’s Quantum Bet Moves From Research Toward a Business — October 28, 2026 · 14 min · Episode 110Intel’s proposed Classiq acquisition would bring quantum hardware, programming software and enterprise relationships under one commercial strategy, while important questions…
- 120-Qubit Links, and Intel’s Quantum Stack Bet — October 27, 2026 · 12 min · Episode 109IBM reports a multi-connection link between two quantum processors, while a UK testbed program examines deployment beyond the lab. Intel’s proposed acquisition of Classiq puts…
- Five Silicon Qubits, One Control Line — October 26, 2026 · 13 min · Episode 108A RIKEN-led team reports accurate simultaneous control of five silicon spin qubits on one shared microwave line. The episode also covers a proposed qubit readout method…
- 99.9995%, 40x, and Bitcoin's Quantum Clock — October 25, 2026 · 9 min · Episode 107Sunday think piece: October's rival error-correction records from Google and Quantinuum meet Starknet's quantum vote and 2030-2031 federal deadlines to test whether Bitcoin's…
- Weekly Recap: Can Error Correction Leave the Lab? — October 24, 2026 · 11 min · Episode 106This week’s recap follows quantum error correction from a below-threshold hardware result to simulation, decoding and real-time control. We also cover cloud access and UK funding…
- From $150,000 Circuit Search to Helios in Oracle Cloud — October 23, 2026 · 11 min · Episode 105Google is funding a competition to reduce quantum circuit demands, while NVIDIA’s Riverlane stake and new decoding results highlight work on error correction. Quantinuum and…
- Germany Adds IQM Quantum Access for Aerospace Researchers — October 22, 2026 · 13 min · Episode 104South Korea is expanding quantum communications testbeds, while RhymeQ and Coherence Quantum target software and hardware bottlenecks. The main story examines a German contract…
- Lambda-12: Quantinuum's Helios Error-Correction Result — October 21, 2026 · 13 min · Episode 103Quantinuum reports below-threshold error suppression on Helios, while today's other stories span classical simulation, real-time quantum control, secure communications, and a…
- 104 Qubits Simulated, and the Hard Part Still Runs on a Supercomputer — October 20, 2026 · 13 min · Episode 102NVIDIA's 104-qubit simulation leads a slate of error-correction milestones, quantum funding and early hardware results. Brian separates modeled performance from demonstrated…
- £50 Million to Move UK Quantum Sensing Toward the Real World — October 19, 2026 · 12 min · Episode 101UKRI has announced £50 million for quantum technology projects, alongside separate funding for quantum networks and training. The episode also covers a new ion-trap design…
- Will quantum computers grow as networks? — October 18, 2026 · 8 min · Episode 100Brian Lampert asks whether the big quantum computer will be a network, examining IonQ's above-1 kHz barium-ion to diamond memory link through three modular scaling arguments and…
- Weekly Recap: IonQ’s $2B Raise Meets a Fault-Tolerance Push — October 17, 2026 · 13 min · Episode 99This weekly recap follows IonQ’s financing and acquisition plans alongside technical work on quantum errors, silicon-qubit fidelity, and decoder speed. It also examines TAIYI…
- Google’s 40-Fold Error Cut: Does It Shrink the Quantum Bill? — October 16, 2026 · 13 min · Episode 98Google demonstrated magic-state cultivation on Willow, reporting a roughly 40-fold error reduction while leaving factory-scale costs unresolved. The episode also covers parallel…
- IonQ’s $2 Billion Test: Can the Raise Buy Real Progress? — October 15, 2026 · 12 min · Episode 97IonQ’s $2.0 billion offering puts the focus on the milestones needed to connect financing with progress. Today’s episode also covers a New York quantum fabrication facility and…
