Google's Chief Scientist of Quantum Hardware won the Nobel Prize in Physics, Mastodon is adding Bluesky-like starter packs, and California banned loud commercials on streaming platforms

-The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded Google's Chief Scientist of Quantum Hardware, Michel Devoret, the Nobel Prize in Physics. alongside former Google employee John Martinis, and University of California, Berkeley professor John Clarke. The award recognizes "the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantization in an electric circuit." -Mastodon, the federated social network built on ActivityPub, is taking cues from Bluesky and introducing its own version of the social platform's "Starter Packs." The hope is that Mastodon's "Packs" will make it easier to find people to follow when you first join a server, a sometimes daunting task given the distributed nature of decentralized social networks. -California has passed a law to ban loud commercials on streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu. Governor Gavin Newsom just signed the law and the ban goes into effect on July 1, 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices