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Columnist and Physics

Where Schrödinger’s cat came from – and why it’s getting fatter

Schrödinger called his metaphorical cat “quite ridiculous” but the quantum weirdness it represents has become a useful benchmark for the quantum computing industry, finds our quantum columnist Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

10 April 2025

The metaphorical cat that represents quantum weirdness has escaped its box

Lightspruch / Alamy

Several weeks ago, I was huddled over a laptop with two researchers from IBM to learn about a Schrödinger’s cat they had made in one of their quantum computers. It was a big one – big enough, I learned, to be considered proof that their computer was worth paying attention to.

Now, this wasn’t a real cat with paws and whiskers, of course, but a metaphorical one made from tiny superconducting circuits called…

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