Why everyone in quantum computing is buzzing about Google’s move into ‘neutral atoms’

Adam Kaufman was already “physicist famous” before Google came calling this spring. A leading quantum researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and a fellow at JILA—a research institute for the physical sciences run by NIST and the University of Colorado, Boulder—Kaufman is an expert in the use of lasers to precisely control rare-earth atoms for timekeeping and information processing. In March, news that Google Quantum AI was hiring Kaufman to lead a new…