Deploy The Quantum Science!

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (0:00)
This is Twist. This Week in Science, episode number 1064, recorded on Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 Deploy the quantum science. Everyone, I'm Dr. Kiki, and tonight we will fill your heads with dirty phones, deep air, and ballistic spiders. But first, thanks to our amazing Patreon sponsors for their generous support of Twist. You can become a part of the Patreon community at patreon.com/thisweek in Science. Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer.
The war of the words started long ago. You might not have noticed then, but now you know that words don't work the way that they used to.
Do we live in the upside down? What happened to dialogue? What happened to accepted definitions? When did science start to mean I think I'm better than you? If we dial it back, this has been in the making for decades. The hubbub over evolution versus creationism, it wasn't just a philosophical schism.
It was a wedge to crack the foundations of education that had helped this nation. It dredged up animosities that had been put aside with more and more advanced degrees.
People were learning to see more diversely. All it did was scare the ministry. We saw the focus shift from conversations to recitations of what the word theory really means. Why did that happen? Well, we have ideas here on This Week in Science coming up next.

**Blair** (2:30)
Good science to you, Kiki.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (2:32)
And a good science to you too, Blair, and everyone out there. Welcome to another episode of This Week in Science. We are back again to talk about all the science that we see fit to bring to this podcast, broadcast this week. There's so much stuff out there.
I'm not gonna talk about green algae and pond scum, because everybody's talking about that.

**Blair** (2:56)
Yeah.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (2:56)
Okay. Just gonna say that.

**Blair** (2:57)
That is well traversed. There's lots of really smart people who, this is their whole living, is algae or chemistry or how to cover surfaces.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (3:12)
There are ways to cover surfaces so that paint doesn't peel up. Yeah, you know, and certain amounts of hydrogen peroxide work better or worse because of the concentration of activation within certain solutions. Yeah. So anyway, stoichiometry is your friend, friends.
Yeah. So hydrogen peroxide, green algae, things like that, we're not gonna discuss those tonight. I hope that we're not disappointing you, but there are many, many places where this is a huge conversation tonight. Additionally, quantum, we're going quantum. I mean, it's a new White House executive order. It is, there are millions, billions of dollars being $2 billion or something like that, $20 billion being put toward quantum technology. The White House, the administration is basically saying, hey, we need better cryptography. We need to be able to beat everybody else. So we have to work with our allies to be able to quantum the best.
In that, there's some great conversations going on as well. Today, news came out that people are still debating whether or not Microsoft reached quantum dominance or whatever it is they're trying to do last year. Anyway, but at the same time, they're like, hey, but we came out with a new, more powerful chip. That's even better.
Anyway, I just I found out about quantum sensors today. And so this is my new rabbit hole. And I promise to bring an interview to discuss what quantum sensors are and what good they will do us in the future. So that is that is something that I think is worth discussion. And I do I give you my word and my bond. I will find a good quantum sensor researcher to talk to. But if you know somebody who works in the field, let me know because I am very interested in having a conversation on Twist about quantum sensors. We've talked about quantum computing. We've talked about the chips. We've talked about the things. It's all happening. I want to know. I want to know.

**Blair** (5:44)
I want to know quantum computers.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (5:51)
If only. Oh my gosh. We're taking it. We're going back to the 80s.
Right now. It's the 80s, Blair.

**Blair** (5:59)
Well, that I think was Tarzan, which was I do believe the 90s.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (6:04)
Tarzan?

**Blair** (6:05)
Yeah. No. Yeah. That's music. I want to know. Can you show me? I want to know.
Strangers like me. Yeah. That's Tarzan.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (6:17)
Oh my God.

**Blair** (6:20)
Phil Collins.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (6:20)
The same chord progression is, I want to know what you're thinking. Tell me what's on your mind.
So I was going back to the 80s. You were doing Tarzan. All right.