24 October 2019: Quantum supremacy and ancient mammals
Nature Podcast
podcast@nature.com
4.5 • 893 Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2019
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, a milestone in quantum computing, and rethinking early mammals.
In this episode:
00:43 A quantum computing milestone
A quantum computer is reported to have achieved ‘quantum supremacy’ – performing an operation that’s essentially impossible for classical computers.
Research Article: Arute et al.; News and Views: Quantum computing takes flight; Editorial: A precarious milestone for quantum computing; News: Hello quantum world! Google publishes landmark quantum supremacy claim
08:24 Research Highlights
The world’s speediest ants, and the world’s loudest birdsong.
Research Highlight: A land-speed record for ants set in Saharan dunes; Research Highlight: A bird’s ear-splitting shriek smashes the record for loudest song
10:19 The mammals that lived with the dinosaurs
Paleontologists are shifting their view of the Mesozoic era mammals.
News Feature: How the earliest mammals thrived alongside dinosaurs
18:00 News Chat
A Russian researcher’s plans to edit human embryos, and ‘prime editing’ - a more accurate gene editing system.
News: Russian ‘CRISPR-baby’ scientist has started editing genes in human eggs with goal of altering deaf gene; News: Super-precise new CRISPR tool could tackle a plethora of genetic diseases
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Nature. |
| 0:02.0 | In a experiment, I don't know yet. |
| 0:06.0 | Why is Blight so far? |
| 0:08.0 | Like, it sounds so simple. |
| 0:09.0 | They had no idea. |
| 0:11.0 | But now the data's... |
| 0:12.0 | I find this not only refreshing, but at some level astounding. |
| 0:20.0 | Nature. |
| 0:22.3 | Nature. |
| 0:25.7 | Welcome back to the nature podcast. |
| 0:28.2 | This week, quantum supremacy. |
| 0:30.4 | And some new fossil mammals. |
| 0:32.0 | I'm Chamany Bundell. |
| 0:33.6 | And I'm Nick Howe. Yeah. First up on the show today, report Benjamin Thompson has been diving into the quantum world to find out about a significant milestone for computing. |
| 0:53.2 | Listeners, today I want to talk about quantum computers, which are rather different from the |
| 0:59.0 | so-called classical computers, like the laptop you might use at work. |
| 1:03.8 | The fundamental building blocks that these classical computers use to run programs are called |
| 1:08.8 | binary digits or bits, and these can be set to 1 or 0. |
| 1:14.9 | The equivalent unit in a quantum computer is called a quantum bit, or qubit. These can be in a state of |
| 1:22.0 | zero or 1, but they can also be in states that capture aspects of both zero and one simultaneously. |
| 1:28.9 | It's long been hoped that the qubit's strange properties could be harnessed to allow quantum |
| 1:33.1 | computers to perform certain kinds of tasks a lot quicker than classical computers. |
... |
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