The Future of Quantum Computing

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There could be biological semiconductors broadly construed, even biological parts of quantum computers. There's a part where we learn from biology and could use it in some kind of quantum realm. Raman spectroscopy is an extraordinarily molecular fingerprint of all of the different chemical bonds within your structure. If I'm trying to make something for a quantum application, I want them to be super well ordered and super well oriented. The theory behind why these processes are happening is still not there. It's still not got a universal agreement. So I think molecules will provide us a whole bunch of new opportunity in quantum that we've never seen before.

Jessica Wade is a physicist at Imperial College London who, while spending her day working on special carbon-based materials that can be used as semiconductors, has spent her nights writing nearly 2,000 Wikipedia entries about underrepresented figures in science. That, along with numerous other forms of public engagement—including writing a children’s book about nanotechnology—is all in an effort to actually do something productive to correct gender and racial biases in STEM.

She joined Tyler to discuss if there are any useful gender stereotypes in science, distinguishing between productive and unproductive ways to encourage women in science, whether science Twitter is biased toward men, how AI will affect gender participation gaps, how Wikipedia should be improved, how she judges the effectiveness of her Wikipedia articles, how she’d improve science funding, her work on chiral materials and its near-term applications, whether writing a kid’s science book should be rewarded in academia, what she learned spending a year studying art in Florence, what she’ll do next, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded February 21st, 2023

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