I'm dyslexic; em dashes are great. I struggle to follow where I am in text: once I was asked, "What the f@!# is your reading age?" Visually distinct elements help me follow text—e.g., em dashes, varying paragraph shapes, and accents on imported words like "naïve", "rôle", "café", or "ansätze".

comp_phys_marc@marcusedwards.me · last mo.

Join the em dash reclamation project!! Who better to lead the charge than @astrokatie.com — I believe she is a human being — who was an established science author and communicator before the clankers existed!

VQEs have 3 main problems: (i) excessive runtimes, (ii) susceptibility to noise, and (iii) optimizability. In our recent preprint (arxiv.org/abs/2606.17357), we address the first 2 without losing optimizability. We achieve this by designing pulses for 4-qubit gates that run up to 15 times faster.

Pulse-optimised circuit elements for scalable and noise-resilient quantum chemistry

Useful chemistry calculations on near-term quantum processors are hindered by current algorithmic runtimes. We develop a methodology to significantly reduce these runtimes. Typically, variational quan...

arxiv.org

It looks like @hilbertspacepost.bsky.social beat me to summarizing our new pre-print!

The Hilbert Space Post@hilbertspacepost.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A new paper accelerate quantum chemistry VQE simulations by replacing gate-based implementations of fermionic excitation circuits with hardware-optimized control pulses, reducing runtime and improving noise robustness on spin-qubit devices. arxiv.org/abs/2606.17357

For many quasiprobability distributions, the set of positive (“classical”) states is difficult to characterize. However, for a random Kirkwood–Dirac distribution, we completely characterized not only the positive states, but also the positive measurements and unitaries.

In our recent arXiv (arxiv.org/abs/2605.28936) we benchmarked QEC and magic state factories for spin qubits. By computing magic state production overheads as a function of initialization, gate, measurement, and decoherence times we estimated the runtimes for typical algorithms—see Fig.

On Friday, I submitted my PhD thesis! I'm looking forward to defending in August and sharing the thesis with the rest of you.

The University of Cambridge is hosting a Foundations of Quantum Technologies conference on September 15–18th to mark the 100-year anniversary of the discovery of modern quantum mechanics. Abstract submissions for talks and posters close May 4th. More details: www.girton.cam.ac.uk/events/found...

Screenings are happening across the UK over the next few months and are free to attend. You can find your closest screening here: www.nebriefing.org/screening-map

National Emergency Briefing@nebriefing.bsky.social · 4mo ago

🚨Screenings up & down UK from April🚨 The People’s Emergency Briefing. A new film building on last year’s National Emergency Briefing. A friendlier, watch-together version that pulls no punches and inspires action. Learn more here; nebriefing.org/the-film #PEBuk

I finally read The Elements of Style by Strunk & White; I should have read it on day one of my PhD. At least I read it before writing my thesis. A free copy can be found on Kobo: www.kobo.com/ebook/the-el.... 1/3

The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition ebook by William Strunk Jr - Rakuten Kobo

Read "The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition" by William Strunk Jr available from Rakuten Kobo. 'The Elements of Style' (1918), by William Strunk, Jr., is an American English writing style guide. It is...

kobo.com

I have finally finished mirroring my scientific @github.com repositories to @gitlab.com. Here is a tutorial by [justncodes](github.com/justncodes) which I modified: github.com/Christopher-...

GitHub - Christopher-K-Long/GitLab-Repo-Sync: Tutorial for syncing GitHub repos to GitLab with a GitLab CI triggered by GitHub Webhook.

Tutorial for syncing GitHub repos to GitLab with a GitLab CI triggered by GitHub Webhook. - Christopher-K-Long/GitLab-Repo-Sync

github.com

Now is not a good time for citations: Miss-citing online-only journals and Google Scholar indexing non-existent articles cited by hallucinating LLMs. Maybe the silver lining is that this will undermine metrics such as citation counts and h-indices, forcing academics to be judged more holistically.

Tamás Kriváchy@krivachytamas.bsky.social · 9mo ago

5️⃣/🔟 In Scientific Reports, 5 of the top 10 most cited articles have an article number of 1. 5️⃣/🔟 In Nature Communications the same: 5 of the top 10 are article 1s. Coincidence? 👇 scirate.com/arxiv/2511.0... I think not.

Starting next year, Android will no longer be the open computing platform we were promised: keepandroidopen.org

In case anyone else missed it: Python 3.14 released on the 7th of October: docs.python.org/3.14/whatsne...

What’s new in Python 3.14

Editors, Adam Turner and Hugo van Kemenade,. This article explains the new features in Python 3.14, compared to 3.13. Python 3.14 was released on 7 October 2025. For full details, see the changelog...

docs.python.org

With a long transfer from the Sahara to Fes, I finally finished going through the starter packs below. It was great to see everything you all have been working on! I like to spend some time reading through each profile, so I start to remember who's working on what. Please comment more starter packs!

The European Commission is pleased to launch this new Science, Research & Innovation account. We look forward to connecting with the community on Bluesky! 🧪 Here you will find: - EU scientific news - Horizon Europe funding opportunities - Innovative EU-supported projects - Events, tools & resources

Last academic year, I reviewed my first paper. To any other PhD student considering whether to accept or decline this opportunity: I found it insightful to be on the other side of the process. It will help me anticipate future reviewer questions and prepare responses.

Ever wanted to use virtual Z gates with arbitrary powers of SWAP? Introducing the virtual Z pulse: arxiv.org/abs/2509.13453. In our new article, we present a method for distorting a pulse sequence to implement single-qubit Z controls virtually.

From virtual Z gates to virtual Z pulses

Virtual $Z$ gates have become integral for implementing fast, high-fidelity single-qubit operations. However, virtual $Z$ gates require that the system's two-qubit gates are microwave-activated or nor...

arxiv.org

How fast can quantum processors run? My coauthors and I answer in our new npj Quantum Information article! Utilising pulse engineering, we prepare molecular ground states in a few nanoseconds, ~100× faster than with gates. Back-of-the-envelope: Simulations can now tolerate T₁ and T₂ ~100× smaller.

Minimal state-preparation times for silicon spin qubits - npj Quantum Information

npj Quantum Information - Minimal state-preparation times for silicon spin qubits

nature.com

Hi all! I am excited to finally share this suite of quantum optimal control libraries that run up to 100× faster than QuTiP for some tasks. We developed these libraries while working on our preprint arxiv.org/abs/2406.10913, which was recently accepted into npj Quantum Information—keep tuned! (1/7)

Open for responses until Sunday 15th June 2025, 11:30pm BST.

Cambridge University Press@universitypress.cambridge.org · last yr.

🎓 What needs to change in how academics are rewarded and recognised? Is it time to rethink the metrics of success in academia? 📊 Share your thoughts in our survey and you could win £150 🔗 cup.org/4dSh05U #AcademicRecognition

Hi! Those who know me might be surprised to see me here—I’m something of a social media hermit. However, academia has taught me the value of connecting with the community, so I’m giving this a go. I’m excited to share my work and hear your thoughts, and I look forward to collaborating with you!