In this week’s edition of The Prototype, we look at this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, a startup using AI to track pathogens, a quantum cooling breakthrough and more. To get The Prototype in your inbox, sign up here.

Three researchers who paved the way for today’s quantum computers won the Nobel Prize in Physics this week. John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis will share the approximately $1.2 million award thanks to groundbreaking experiments they conducted in the 1980s.

In this work, they built a superconducting electric circuit, which allows electricity to flow through without resistance. In that circuit, they were able to manipulate the electrons to display certain quantum mechanical properties. This discovery is used today by tech companies like Google and IBM in their quantum computers.

All three scientists are working to extend this breakthrough. Clarke, a professor at University of California, Berkeley, built equipment using this technology for the Axion Dark Matter Experiment to help detect dark matter, a hypothetical substance thought to make up over 80% of the universe. Martinis worked at Google Quantum A.I. lab from 2014 to 2020, helping to develop a quantum processor and has since cofounded quantum computing startup Qolab. Devoret is currently Chief Scientist at Google’s Quantum A.I. lab.

“I am humbled to share the prize alongside collaborators and friends John Clarke and John Martinis,” Deverot said in a statement. “This Nobel Prize celebrates far more than the work of three individuals. It recognizes a 40 year journey by researchers worldwide.”

Detecting contamination from toxins and bacteria is a challenge for healthcare systems and food preparation companies alike. That’s both because of the complexity of microscopic threats and the slow, labor-intensive nature of the lab work to test for them.

This was a lesson Matt Theurer learned at the height of the Covid pandemic, before rapid testing was available. “We all remember waiting in line for hours to get swabbed and then getting results two or three days later,” he said. “It was too slow, too centralized and too expensive.”

It’s a problem his company, Hyperspectral, aims to solve. Founded in 2022 by Theurer (CEO), Lauren Stack (COO) and Vince Lubsey (CTO), it aims to use spectrography and AI to rapidly detect potentially dangerous microorganisms or chemicals. This week, the company raised a $7 million series A extension, bringing its total funding to about $15.5 million.........

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