Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 11h

My student Shreyas’ first paper!

scirate.com/arxiv/2510.0...

Quantum $f$-divergences and Their Local Behaviour: An Analysis via Relative Expansion Coefficients

Any reasonable measure of distinguishability of quantum states must satisfy a data processing inequality, that is, it must not increase under the action of a quantum channel. We can ask about the prop...

scirate.com

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 1d

Never forget how amazing it is that electrical circuits can behave quantum mechanically!

www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physi...

Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 was awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electri...

www.nobelprize.org

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Reposted by Graeme Smith

Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 4d

Correcting strangers’ grammar uninvited is an act of hostility, so either jubilantly own that or don’t do it.

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 4d

"So...what country will you flee to if you need to?" is becoming a frequent topic of discussion with colleagues in america.

Better late than never!

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Reposted by Graeme Smith

The Beaverton @thebeaverton.com · 4d

Physicists launch study of temporal paradox allowing people younger than you to have kids already

COPENHAGEN – An international coalition of scientists with expertise in quantum mechanics, wave theory and atomic structure have assembled at the Nils Bohr Institute and announced plans to tackle the ...

www.thebeaverton.com

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 5d

Kitchener-Waterloo is popping

kitchener.citynews.ca/2025/10/01/r...

Green and garbage bins coming from the region soon

Hundreds of thousands of new garbage and green bins are ready to be delivered across Waterloo Region over the next few months.

kitchener.citynews.ca

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 7d

Put it on my headstone

David Meyer @dajmeyer.bsky.social · 7d

Layers of snark!

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 7d

Oooooh! Good idea!

Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 7d

My students say I'm a crackpot.

Apparently they haven't heard of kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold to make an even more beautiful piece!

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 7d

Theranos only raised $700 million with a peak valuation of $9 billion and never went public.

Proud to see multiple quantum companies exceeding these numbers with very similar business plans!

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Reposted by Graeme Smith

Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 8d

Harvard bends the knee.

Reuters Legal @legal.reuters.com · 8d

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration had reached a deal with Harvard University after months of negotiations and that the school will pay $500 million.

Trump says Harvard to pay $500 million in deal with administration

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration had reached a deal with Harvard University after months of negotiations and that the school will pay $500 million.

reut.rs

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 8d

The whole damn place is out of order!

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 8d

You capture the experience so succinctly!

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 8d

I tagged you in a post (about IBM’s new nonsense with vanguard) but now the tag is gone and so are you. Maybe someone reported that you’re not a real company (which is totally false).

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Reposted by Graeme Smith

Dulwich Quantum Computing @dulwichquantum.bsky.social · 9d

Meme about noise from quantum industry vs me.

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 8d

Hey did you get kicked off LinkedIn???

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 8d

May I suggest reserving judgement on whether there’s valuable science in there? There’s really no reason to think there is (and at a first glance there isn’t).

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 11d

okay maybe AI isn't all bad

Dulwich Quantum Computing @dulwichquantum.bsky.social · 11d

Promo video for the recent HSBC and IBM Quantum breakthrough in finance, if it was directed by Scott Aaronson.
scottaaronson.blog?p=9170

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Reposted by Graeme Smith

Dulwich Quantum Computing @dulwichquantum.bsky.social · 11d

Promo video for the recent HSBC and IBM Quantum breakthrough in finance, if it was directed by Scott Aaronson.
scottaaronson.blog?p=9170

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Reposted by Graeme Smith

Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 11d

tl;dr: Fascism, in a very literal sense, is for dead-end losers.

tim frye @timfrye.bsky.social · 11d

So many echoes from this article for US politics....

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Reposted by Graeme Smith

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 11d

It is always key to remember that none of this would be possible without the Supreme Court and congressional leadership acceding to virtually all that Trump wants, as I have written. www.lawdork.com/p/trump-is-s...

Trump is spiraling. We face the consequences. Where are the other branches?

James Madison expected more from the other "departments," as he referred to them. And, for paid subscribers: Closing my tabs.

www.lawdork.com

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Reposted by Graeme Smith

Joshua Holland @joshuaholland.bsky.social · 11d

“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.”

-Declaration of Independence

Ashton Pittman @ashtonpittman.bsky.social · 11d

Trump says he authorizes Hegseth to deploy the military to Portland, which he lyingly calls "war ravaged," and says he is authorizing "full force."

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
+
At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
506 ReTruths 1.62k Likes
9/27/25, 9:19

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Reposted by Graeme Smith

Ade Webb @adewebb.bsky.social · 12d

Popper: “make bold testable hypotheses…. Be ready to discard them if refuted”
HSBC/IBM: “The PR department needs us to make something… anything”

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Reposted by Graeme Smith

Quantum Bullshit Detector @bullshitquantum.bsky.social · 12d

Bullshit

www.hsbc.com/news-and-vie...

HSBC demonstrates world’s first-known quantum-enabled algorithmic trading with IBM | HSBC News

HSBC announces the world’s first-known empirical evidence of the potential value of quantum computers for solving real-world problems in algorithmic bond trading.

www.hsbc.com

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Graeme Smith @graemesmith.bsky.social · 12d

Aaronson captures the essence of typical "quantum applications" research.

"If it seems like I’m being harsh, it’s because to my mind, the entire concept of this sort of study is fatally flawed from the beginning, optimized for generating headlines rather than knowledge."

scottaaronson.blog?p=9170

HSBC unleashes yet another “qombie”: a zombie claim of quantum advantage that isn’t

Today, I got email after email asking me to comment on a new paper from HSBC—yes, the bank—together with IBM. The paper claims to use a quantum computer to get a 34% advantage in predic…

scottaaronson.blog

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