{"id":19782,"date":"2026-03-19T12:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/the-download-quantum-computing-health-recycling-nuclear-waste\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T12:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:51:17","slug":"the-download-quantum-computing-health-recycling-nuclear-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/the-download-quantum-computing-health-recycling-nuclear-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: Quantum computing for health, and why the world doesn\u2019t recycle more nuclear waste"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This is today\u2019s edition of <\/em>The Download<\/em><\/a>, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what\u2019s going on in the world of technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

A $5 million prize awaits proof that quantum computers can solve health care problems<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n

In a laboratory on the outskirts of Oxford, a quantum computer built from atoms and light awaits its moment. The device is small but powerful\u2014and also\u00a0very valuable.\u00a0Infleqtion, the company that owns it, is hoping its abilities will win $5 million at a competition next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The prize will go to the quantum computer that can solve real health care problems that conventional \u201cclassical\u201d computers are unable to solve. But there can be only one big winner\u2014if there is a winner at all.\u00a0Read the full story<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014Michael Brooks<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why the world\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0recycle more nuclear waste<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s\u00a0still a lot of usable uranium in spent nuclear fuel when\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0pulled out of reactors. Recycling could reduce both the waste and the need to mine new material, but the process is costly, complicated, and not fully efficient.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Find out\u00a0why it\u2019s such an issue<\/a>.\u00a0\u2014Casey Crownhart<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

This\u00a0<\/strong>story<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is from\u00a0<\/strong>The Spark<\/strong><\/a>, MIT Technology Review\u2019s weekly climate newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The must-reads\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve\u00a0combed the internet to find you today\u2019s most fun\/important\/scary\/fascinating stories about technology.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

1\u00a0The\u00a0FBI has confirmed\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0buying Americans\u2019 location data\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0
Director Kash Patel said\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0led to \u201cvaluable intelligence.\u201d (Politico<\/a>)\u00a0
+ What AI \u201cremembers\u201d about you is privacy\u2019s next frontier.\u00a0<\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)\u00a0
\u00a0
2 The first draft of a federal AI bill has been introduced<\/strong>\u00a0
It aims to protect \u201cchildren, creators, conservatives, and communities.\u201d (Engadget<\/a>)\u00a0
+ A war is brewing over AI regulation in the US.\u00a0<\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

3 Google is pitching itself to the Pentagon as the perfect\u00a0defense\u00a0partner<\/strong>\u00a0
It\u2019s\u00a0framing its AI as a safe alternative to OpenAI and Anthropic. (NYT<\/a>\u00a0$)\u00a0
+ Here\u2019s where OpenAI\u2019s tech could show up in Iran.<\/em>\u00a0(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)\u00a0<\/p>\n

4 A rogue AI agent at Meta leaked sensitive information to employees<\/strong>\u00a0
The exposure lasted for hours before it was\u00a0contained. (The Information<\/a>\u00a0$)\u00a0
+\u00a0Don\u2019t\u00a0let AI agent hype get ahead of reality.<\/em>\u00a0(MIT Technology Review<\/a>\u00a0$)\u00a0<\/p>\n

5 Sony just removed 135,000 \u2018deepfakes\u2019 of its music<\/strong>\u00a0
Fraudsters were impersonating the label\u2019s artists on streaming services. (BBC<\/a>)\u00a0
+ AI works better as a collaborator than a creator.\u00a0<\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)\u00a0<\/p>\n

6 The EU has backed a ban on nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes<\/strong>\u00a0
It has reacted to Elon Musk\u2019s Grok chatbot \u201cnudifying\u201d children. (Bloomberg<\/a>\u00a0$)\u00a0<\/p>\n

7 Two quantum cryptography pioneers have won the Turing Award<\/strong>\u00a0
Their encryption method can (theoretically) never be broken. (Quanta<\/a>)\u00a0<\/p>\n

8 Gamers are disgusted by Nvidia\u2019s new rendering model\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0
They\u2019ve\u00a0labeled\u00a0it an \u201cAI slop filter.\u201d (The Verge<\/a>)\u00a0<\/p>\n

9 The White House has registered the\u00a0<\/strong>aliens.gov<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0domain<\/strong>\u00a0
It\u2019s sparked speculation that Trump\u2019s long-awaited UFO disclosure is imminent. (404 Media<\/a>)\u00a0
+ Meet the new biologists treating LLMs like ETs.\u00a0<\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)\u00a0<\/p>\n

10 Silicon Valley has embraced a new buzzword: \u201ctaste\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0
As a USP amid the deluge of AI-driven recommendations. (The New Yorker<\/a>\u00a0$)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quote of the day\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBig tech and China win. The rest of us lose.\u201d\u00a0<\/h2>\n

\u2014Elizabeth Warren\u00a0gives her take<\/a>\u00a0on the Trump administration allowing Nvidia to sell advanced chips to China.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One More Thing\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"an<\/p>\n
PSIQUANTUM<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Useful quantum computing is inevitable\u2014and increasingly imminent<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h4>\n

Last year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang jolted the stock market by saying that practical quantum computing is still 15 to 30 years away. He also suggested that those computers would need Nvidia GPUs to function. But Huang\u2019s predictions miss the mark\u2014both on the timeline and the role his company\u2019s technology will play.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quantum computing is rapidly converging on utility. And that\u2019s good news, because the hope is that they will be able to perform calculations that no amount of AI or classical computation could ever achieve.\u00a0Read the full story<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014Peter Barrett<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

We can still have\u00a0nice things\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas?\u00a0<\/em>Drop me a line<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

+ A self-described \u201cmad scientist\u201d has\u00a0powered a car<\/a>\u00a0with vape batteries.\u00a0
+ Someone squeezed an\u00a0Apple Mac Mini<\/a>\u00a0inside a classic LEGO computer.\u00a0
+\u00a0Watch thousands of satellites orbit Earth in real-time with this\u00a0mesmerizing interactive map<\/a>.\u00a0
+\u00a0This\u00a0grilled wall cheese<\/a>\u00a0art looks good enough to eat.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is today\u2019s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}