Episode

The Breakthrough Quantum Sensor That Sees Inside Your Cells, with Peter Maurer

Podcast

Big Brains

Published

Jan 8, 2026

Duration seconds

2141

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Summary

What if we could precisely measure a cell at its most fundamental level? In this episode, we talk with the University of Chicago scientist Peter Maurer about how he and his colleagues made the breakthrough discovery of turning a protein found in living cells into the first biological quantum bit, also known as a qubit. Maurer explains how quantum systems—once thought to be too fragile for real-world use—are becoming some of the most powerful sensors ever built, and what they could teach us about the brain, the body and more.