John Martinis won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for proving macroscopic quantum tunneling is real. Less than a year later he’s telling why he left Google’s quantum computing team to start over. Subscribe if you want the physics and the politics of building the impossible.Martinis is the co-founder of Colab and one of the physicists who proved ordinary quantum rules apply to macroscopic systems. He built his career on the same Josephson-junction hardware his Nobel is built on, then led Google’s superconducting-qubit effort, the same team behind Google’s 2019 quantum supremacy claim, before an internal reorg pushed him out.We go into Anthony Leggett’s challenge to Schrödinger’s cat, what decoherence in quantum mechanics really means, and whether quantum computing is the first technology ever born from pure theory rather than experiment. We also cover the internal Google reorg that pushed Martinis out and what he learned about building something new inside a large institution. Whether quantum mechanics applies to the macroscopic world and what it took to prove it Why Martinis thinks quantum computing may be the first technology born from pure theory, not experiment What negative authority means and why it matters for anyone building something new inside a large institution Whether the US can win the quantum computing race against China How Martinis thinks about quantum mechanics interpretations after spending a career inside the math“Always be on the lookout for the impossible, right?” John MartinisCHAPTERSQolab: https://qolab.ai/Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/ytHave a .edu email and live in the USA? You automatically win a meteorite: https://BrianKeating.com/eduSubscribe: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1Support Into the Impossible on Patreon, get my weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, and live monthly Office Hours with me: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeatingJoin this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster at the end of every episode: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/joinMy books:Losing the Nobel Prize (memoir): http://amzn.to/2sa5UpAThink Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/03ezQFuFocus Like a Nobel Prize Winner: https://a.co/d/hi50U9UGalileo's Dialogue (first-ever audiobook): https://a.co/d/iZPi9UnTwitter/X: https://x.com/BrianKeatingSubstack: https://briankeating.substack.comBlog: https://briankeating.com/blogAudio-only: https://briankeating.com/podcastLanding page: https://awake-mill-k25t.here.now#intotheimpossible #briankeating #JohnMartinis #NobelPrize #quantumcomputing #physics #podcastLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices