Stupid Qubit - Quantum Computing for the Clueless

Will Britain be first to build a really useful quantum computer? And why is Microsoft trying to tie knots in spacetime? Plus quantum Brexit, quantum news, quantum questions, the Stupid Qubit Adiabatic Award and a song about ion trap qubits. In this episode, we learn all about Microsoft's bid to build weird qubits that seem to be both Lego bricks and loom bands. Then we find out about NQIT, the UK's collaborative effort to build a quantum computer, as well as chatting to Professor Winfried Hensinger at the University of Sussex – who was inspired by Star Trek to build a warp-speed quantum computer for Britain. And Professor Simon Benjamin at the University of Oxford is back, along with Junior Research Fellow Dr Vera Shäfer, to tell us how the UK's on the verge of unveiling a modular quantum computer based on levitating ions in a vacuum and linking them up with light particles - and what it might be able to do. Or not.

All over the world, scientists are busy trying to build quantum computers. What the photonic muck is a quantum computer? And why do you need dental floss to make one? How come it looks like a steampunk chandelier? And sounds like an armoured Morris dancer on a punctured spacehopper? Do they really work in parallel universes? And what's all this about quantum supremacy? Does it mean we'll soon have to submit to an army of quantum robot overlords? In this episode, we answer all these questions and more with the help of top quantum physicists including Dr Jerry Chow of IBM, Professor John Martinis of Google and Professor Simon Benjamin of Oxford University. And we drop in on The Pub Landlord, Al Murray, to see if he has any pressing questions about this exciting new technology...

5-minute preview episode of "Stupid Qubit - Quantum Computing for the Clueless", an irreverent podcast for everyone that will reveal why quantum computers contain dental floss and might change the world.