What the Electron Knows: Laís Lopes on Quantum Sensing, Blood, and the Coherence Bet

When a Quantum Forecaster Meets the Unknown | Lawrence Gasman

Lawrence Gasman has spent decades tracking the commercial reality of new technologies across networking, photonics, AI, and quantum. But what happens when the world you are paid to model no longer feels like the whole world? In this episode, we start with the medium-term commercial applications of quantum AI and quantum robotics. From there, the conversation slips into the unexpected. We trace Lawrence’s early encounters with the students of Alan Turing and the philosophy of Gödel, before moving into the raw phenomenology of his own out-of-body experiences and hospital-induced altered states. It is a conversation about holding the tension between a highly rigorous economic lens and the deeply unsettling realization that reality, intelligence, and consciousness are far fuzzier than our categories suggest. We live inside the contradiction, looking at the limits of artificial intelligence, the measurement problem, and the philosophical legacy of Brian Josephson. In this episode, we explore: * The commercial trajectory of quantum AI and robotics * Turing, Gödel, and the legacy of philosophy in mathematics * How out-of-body experiences challenge a materialist worldview * The intersection of quantum mechanics, biology, and consciousness (the Josephson influence) * Why current LLMs lack the existential grounding of embodied consciousness Chapter Markers: 00:00 – Cold Open: An Out-of-Body Experience 01:02 – Host Intro: The Commercial vs. The Unknown 03:50 – The Commercial Reality of Quantum AI and Robotics 09:50 – Manchester, Alan Turing, and Gödel's Theorem 16:03 – Anomalous Experiences and Fuzzy Reality 30:19 – Brian Josephson, Collapse, and Biology 40:53 – Subjective Realization and Shifting Frequencies 01:08:48 – ChatGPT, Embodiment, and the Physics of Information 01:12:17 – Closing Thoughts Host & Guests * Thomas Ehmer [https://entangled-health.transistor.fm/people/thomas-ehmer] - Host * Lawrence Gasman [https://entangled-health.transistor.fm/people/lawrence-gasman] - Guest Click here to watch a video of this episode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5DCMR0PIdI] We don't simplify for comfort. We entangle. Submit your questions or propose a guest in the comments, or join the discussion on Substack: https://thomasehmer1.substack.com/ If you like it — thanks for subscribing and leaving a thumbs up wherever you listen 👍 Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and guest speaking in their personal capacities and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of their respective employers, organizations, committees (including IEEE), or companies. Medical Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. The discussion regarding drug use during a bypass operation as a subjective experience. Nothing in this episode should be taken as a recommendation to alter medication or treatment plans. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

What the Electron Knows: Laís Lopes on Quantum Sensing, Blood, and the Coherence Bet

Laís Lopes is an electrochemist, graphene specialist, and co-founder and CTO of Qnity, a Brazilian deep-tech startup building a new kind of molecular sensor, one that reads binding events directly at the electron level, in real blood and plasma, without fluorescent labels or amplification steps. In this conversation, we follow her path from hydrogels to graphene to quantum electrochemistry, and into the lab on a night in 2020 when she took real COVID samples, ran them through her graphene sensor, and couldn't sleep afterwards. We talk about what it means to detect a molecule at attomolar concentrations, roughly one grain of sugar dissolved in an Olympic pool, and why that sensitivity changes what's possible in diagnostics and drug discovery. Laís's team has already demonstrated detection of an Alzheimer's biomarker in blood plasma, head and neck cancer DNA, and dengue and COVID in real clinical samples. Their next step: a multiplexed microfluidic platform for measuring binding affinity in drug discovery pipelines, where small molecules and fragments currently fall below the noise floor of existing tools. And at the edge of all of it: a question neither of us could fully answer. If electron-level coherence is what makes this sensing possible — does that same coherence scale upward through biology? Is health, at some level, a coherence problem too? Laís says she doesn't know. I think that's the most honest and interesting place to leave it. Topics covered: * Quantum capacitance vs. geometric capacitance — and why the distinction matters for sensing * Graphene, peptides, gold interfaces, and impedance spectroscopy * Detecting Alzheimer's biomarkers in blood plasma without lumbar puncture * Why small molecules fall into noise in standard drug discovery assays — and how quantum electrochemistry sidesteps that * Building Qniti: from academic IP to venture-backed deep tech * The coherence bet: electrons, biology, and the question Thomas can't stop asking Host & Guests * Thomas Ehmer [https://entangled-health.transistor.fm/people/thomas-ehmer] - Host Click here to watch a video of this episode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1tVuu5NXog] We don't simplify for comfort. We entangle. Submit your questions or propose a guest in the comments, or join the discussion on Substack: https://thomasehmer1.substack.com/ If you like it — thanks for subscribing and leaving a thumbs up wherever you listen 👍 Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and guest speaking in their personal capacities and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of their respective employers, organizations, committees (including IEEE), or companies. Medical Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. The discussion regarding lithium isotopes, biology, and mental health is based on theoretical quantum chemistry and physics, not clinical medical advice. Nothing in this episode should be taken as a recommendation to alter medication or treatment plans. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Entangled Health Experiments | Episode: From Classical Echoes to Quantum Dynamics

Quantum reservoir computing, classical echo state networks, and the future of AI in healthcare — explored in this Entangled Health Experiments episode. We trace the path from biological time series (ECG, EEG, glucose, voice) through reservoir computing, NG-RC, and quantum dynamics, asking whether intelligence is something we build or something matter already does. Part of the Entangled Health Experiments mini-series, with a companion six-part Substack series. This episode is part of Entangled Health Experiments — a special mini-series where we deliberately stress-test ideas in public with tools like Perplexity and NotebookLM as thinking partners. No polished keynote, no finished answers, just live exploration of hard questions at the intersection of quantum science, computation, and health. In this session, we follow one of the most underappreciated threads in computational medicine: reservoir computing from its classical origins to its quantum frontier and end on a question that refuses to go away: if a bucket of water, an optical fibre loop, a neuromorphic chip, or a handful of quantum spins can process information and remember the past, are we building intelligence, or just learning how to tap into something matter already does? Read more on substack 6-Part Article: https://thomasehmer1.substack.com/p/i-built-something-here-is-what-it What we cover: Why biological time series are so hard. ECG, EEG, continuous glucose monitoring, voice, multi-omics — they are nonstationary, multiscale, noisy, and label-poor. Standard deep learning architectures (LSTM, Transformer) were not designed for this regime. Reservoir computing as an alternative. Echo state networks, liquid state machines, and next-generation reservoir computing (NG-RC) separate dynamics from learning: fix the reservoir, train only a linear readout. Fast, small-data-friendly, interpretable. Quantum reservoir computing (QRC). What the exponential Hilbert space actually buys you — and where the encoding bottleneck and dissipation requirement quietly constrain it. Seven qubits matching hundreds of classical neurons is real. But the "2ⁿ" story requires careful unpacking. The dissipation paradox. Why today's noisy NISQ hardware is sometimes structurally better for reservoir computing than tomorrow's fault-tolerant machines — and what that means for the hardware road Tools used in this experiment: Guests are "Sheela and Himbert, the famous voices form NotebookLM - as I did not find names anywhere, I named them. Content prepared and fed to Sheela and Himbert by perplexity.ai Sheela and Himbert generated via notebooklm.google.com Mixed with Logic on Mac. Host & Guests * Thomas Ehmer [https://entangled-health.transistor.fm/people/thomas-ehmer] - Host We don't simplify for comfort. We entangle. Submit your questions or propose a guest in the comments, or join the discussion on Substack: https://thomasehmer1.substack.com/ If you like it — thanks for subscribing and leaving a thumbs up wherever you listen 👍

Quantum Computers Are Toys | Yuval Boger, Chief Commercial Officer, QuEra Computing

Yuval Boger is one of the most recognised voices in quantum computing - Chief Commercial Officer at QuEra, host of 200+ episodes of the Superposition Guy or other podcast, violinist who once tuned the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and creator of Quantessa and Atomique, two fictional characters who say the things Yuval can't quite say as himself. In this conversation we don't start where you'd expect. We start with a photo. Violin raised. Back to the audience. A caption that says I'm just tuning. And a question about what it actually costs to stand in front of something extraordinary and tell yourself you're only there in a supporting role. From there - four states of superposition: physicist, operator, communicator, creator. What a master's thesis in fibre optics has to do with the Poincaré sphere and the Bloch sphere. Why Shor's algorithm won't run on anything meaningful tomorrow - and why that's fine. What chronic uncertainty does to the person behind the CCO title. And what Quantessa and Atomique are really allowed to say. Underneath all of it, one question: what does it actually cost to spend years positioning yourself as the support act? One question was selected by a real quantum algorithm from the community. As always. (We made it two, and have a featured Guest question, too) What we cover: * Why quantum computers are toys today — and why that's the honest answer * Playing a violin solo with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as an amateur * The Kellogg School, a master's in physics, and the advisor who said "don't do the PhD" * 200+ episodes of interviewing competitors — without asking for permission * How Quantessa and Atomique were built, and what they're actually for * The LEGO quantum computer (yes, you can buy one) * What chronic uncertainty does to you — not the executive, you Find Yuval: 🎙 Superposition Guy podcast - wherever you listen 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuvalboger/ 🖼 Quantessa & Atomique comics - https://quantumbitscomics.com/ Hompage QuEra: https://www.quera.com/ Host & Guests * Thomas Ehmer [https://entangled-health.transistor.fm/people/thomas-ehmer] - Host * Yuval Boger [https://entangled-health.transistor.fm/people/yuval-boger] - Guest Click here to watch a video of this episode. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jQhVq5uz20] We don't simplify for comfort. We entangle. Submit your questions or propose a guest in the comments, or join the discussion on Substack: https://thomasehmer1.substack.com/ If you like it — thanks for subscribing and leaving a thumbs up wherever you listen 👍 Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and guest speaking in their personal capacities and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of their respective employers, organizations, committees (including IEEE), or companies. Medical Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. The discussion regarding lithium isotopes, biology, and mental health is based on theoretical quantum chemistry and physics, not clinical medical advice. Nothing in this episode should be taken as a recommendation to alter medication or treatment plans. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. * (00:00) - Cold open — "Quantum computers are toys" * (00:26) - Introduction & show disclaimer * (02:12) - Yuval's role as CCO at QuEra * (02:22) - The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra photo — tuning the orchestra * (07:49) - Playing a solo with a professional orchestra (heart rate 200) * (08:13) - Thomas's Iron Maiden / quantum band story * (08:43) - The four states of superposition — intro * (09:05) - State 1: The CCO — what the job actually is * (12:09) - State 2: The Physicist — master's thesis, Poincaré sphere & Bloch sphere * (13:02) - The mentor who said "don't do the PhD" * (16:11) - State 3: The Communicator — 200+ episodes of the Superposition Guy * (17:57) - Interviewing competitors (Quantinuum, Pasqal, Infleqtion) without permission * (19:08) - State 4: The Creator — origin of Quantessa & Atomique * (20:27) - The children's book & the quantum comics workflow * (22:08) - Doing the comics in German — "the German is fine, but it's not funny" * (24:08) - AI-generated art, character design & Atomique's gender superposition * (27:12) - The LEGO quantum computer story * (29:26) - The LEGO lawyer from the LEGO Group calls * (32:21) - Podcast philosophy — why Yuval doesn't prepare questions * (35:47) - The VR Guy, the Charge Guy, and the Superposition Guy — podcast history * (37:26) - Quantum health & the Entangled Health audience * (45:50) - The quantum random question selector * (46:12) - Community question (Mike): who inspired you most? — high school physics teacher * (48:22) - Community question (Isabel, Paris): how do you motivate yourself? * (49:56) - Rapid fire & best question ever asked * (54:49) - Advice for a 17-year-old entering quantum — be multidisciplinary * (56:49) - On mentoring — what it is and what it isn't * (58:40) - Closing reflections & outro

New Trailer - Entangled Health Updated

Entangled Health is a long-form interview podcast at the frontier of quantum computing, consciousness research and the future of medicine – for people who find the uncertainty more interesting than the answers. In this updated trailer, Thomas explains why he created the show, how each conversation starts with one real question, and why a quantum computer now picks one listener question at random in every episode. Host & Guests * Thomas Ehmer [https://entangled-health.transistor.fm/people/thomas-ehmer] - Host We don't simplify for comfort. We entangle. Submit your questions or propose a guest in the comments, or join the discussion on Substack: https://thomasehmer1.substack.com/ If you like it — thanks for subscribing and leaving a thumbs up wherever you listen 👍 Credits: the audio in the background is Caravan as performed by my band - funny enough calling itself Ambulant Jazz Caravan is a Jazz Standard - Juan Tizol (primary originator) and Duke Ellington (co composer/arranger). Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and guest speaking in their personal capacities and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of their respective employers, organizations, committees (including IEEE), or companies. Medical Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. The discussion regarding lithium isotopes, biology, and mental health is based on theoretical quantum chemistry and physics, not clinical medical advice. Nothing in this episode should be taken as a recommendation to alter medication or treatment plans. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. * (00:00) - Trailer