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If the words ‘quantum’ and ‘computing’ seem complicated enough without smushing them together, fear not! This animated explainer will teach you how to build a quantum computer from the qubit up – or, at very least, help you grasp the basics. With nifty animated sequences to explore how quantum computing leverages quantum science, the video covers the broad strokes of the emerging technology, including its potential to revolutionise computing as we know it, and its current limitations.
Video by Scientific American
Animator: Michael Tabb
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Computing and artificial intelligence
Why large language models are mysterious – even to their creators
8 minutes
video
Spirituality
Through rituals of prayer, a monk cultivates a quietly radical concept of freedom
4 minutes
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Evolution
The many ways a lizard tongue sticks, grasps, pinches and plops – in slo-mo
6 minutes
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Fairness and equality
‘To my old master’ – a freed slave answers the request to return to his old plantation
7 minutes
video
Design and fashion
A ceramicist puts her own bawdy spin on the folk language of pottery
14 minutes
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Animals and humans
Villagers struggle to keep their beloved, endangered ape population afloat
19 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers
5 minutes
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Ethics
Plato saw little value in privacy. How do his ideas hold up in the information age?
5 minutes
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Biology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
3 minutes