Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

Quantum jam

The history of popular music is, in part, a history of technology. From George Beauchamp inventing the electric guitar to whoever came up with the wobble bass that was briefly ubiquitous in dubstep, what we listen to has been shaped by inventive engineers.

Feedback was therefore intrigued to receive a tip-off from reporter Karmela Padavic-Callaghan about “music-making on the future quantum Internet”. Karmela directed our attention to published on 5 August called “Teleportation game: Quantum teleportation in multi-agent systems for interactive music”. It was published in a scientific journal with the gloriously all-encompassing title International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems.

It sees the researchers introduce “an interactive music system with quantum musical agents that communicate by teleporting quantum states to one another”. Basically, you play a musical phrase or piece and the recording is given to a set of quantum computers. They then process it in some quantum way and output a modified version of the recording.

Feedback isn’t going to pretend to understand what the quantum computers are doing. The paper informs us that “melodic and rhythmic behaviours are encoded as quantum states using Single Qubit Probability Amplitude Modulation (SQPAM) and structured through Quantum Phase Estimation (QPE)”, and that up to three agents “are combined within a single quantum circuit, with directed communication via quantum teleportation”.

Curious to know who came up with this, Feedback looked up the lead author.
is a composer and computer scientist who has created music using everything from brain-computer interfaces to slime moulds and, latterly, quantum computers. In 2024, he released an album called , entirely created using quantum computers.

Feedback listened to a couple of tracks and was mildly bemused. Opener Lumina Grooves 1 is built around cheery xylophone-like notes: it sounds like something you would hear in an elevator or, perhaps, as background music for a wildlife documentary about marine invertebrates. In contrast, Spinnings uses eerie mechanical groans and could be an off-cut from the soundtrack to Blade Runner 2049.

We really wanted to know what the quantum musical agents in the new paper came up with, but the study doesn’t include any audio, so we don’t know. However, Feedback did note that the authors developed the agents to support “ambiguous, transformative interactions reminiscent of free Jazz improvisation” and that their system is one “in which divergence and ambiguity are tolerated”. To crib a line from the late, great Tom Lehrer, we think this means the quantum agents play a wrong note every now and then.

Quantum computing may be facing a replication crisis

A review of thousands of scientific papers about quantum computers finds that most don’t provide code that can be tested on independent devices or that the code doesn’t work

Quality water

Jonathan Stoppi was driving around Canada when he spotted, and photographed, a van belonging to a local business. It was advertising water, but not just any water. This water offers “superior hydration”. At first, we thought this meant it was wetter than other water, but there was more blurb to come.

It turns out this water is better than other water because it is “alkaline”, “anti-oxidant” and “hydrogen-rich”. This made Feedback’s head spin, because the defining feature of acids is that they release lots of hydrogen ions, also known as protons. We are therefore unclear how this water can be both hydrogen-rich and alkaline. We are also unclear how water can be an antioxidant.

Fortunately, there was a breadcrumb trail for us to follow. The vehicle in Jonathan’s photo had a URL on it, which Feedback bravely typed into our browser. It led us to a website about “Kangen Water”, which, as well as seemingly being hydrogen-rich and all the other stuff, also has a “negative ORP” – something that is apparently “preferred for oral consumption”. Deeper into the site, we learn that “This electrolytically-reduced, hydrogen-rich water works to restore your body to a more alkaline state, which is optimal for good health”.

We were also told that “Kangen Water may give freshness and life to plants”. Feedback wonders if that is the most load-bearing “may” ever written.

Then, a faint memory flickered in our mind. Scouring past columns, we realised we had written about the supposed health benefits of “alkaline water” as early as 2011,
��revisited the topic in 2012 and delved into the health benefits of “hexagonal water” earlier this year (28 March). This had faded from our consciousness, but not, it seems, from the minds of those eager to sell you overpriced water.

How much water do you really need to drink to keep your brain sharp?

Water is essential for good brain function, with a handful of convincing studies suggesting that dehydration could be slowing you down, cognitively speaking. Columnist Helen Thomson explores how much water we should be drinking to stay sharp

Quality assurance

In our 12 August missive, we noted an embarrassing incident that befell the Stroke Association charity. Their name was truncated by a “suggested follow” box on social media, which didn’t have enough space for the “ociation” bit, creating an unfortunate two-word phrase.

Reader Pete Lloyd was reminded of a reorganisation at his workplace, which resulted in one of his friends becoming the quality assurance manager. The organisational chart didn’t have enough space to display three such long words, however, so the HR team abbreviated it by removing the “urance” and the “ager”. “I felt compelled to tell him so he could ask HR to update the chart,” says Pete.

Got a story for Feedback?

You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week’s and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.

From a viper with a bloodthirsty hitchhiker to a bullfrog narrowly missing its lunch, these photographs, all of which are in the running for this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, offer a glimpse into the drama unfolding across the animal kingdom.

Biting Back,��an intimidating shot captured by Andrea and Maceo Grammatico,��was highly commended in the contest’s Animal��Portraits category.��The twins say it��wasn’t��until��reviewing their��photographs��that they��spotted��a mosquito��drinking from the head of the��fer-de-lance��–��the most dangerous snake in Central America.

There was a��near miss in��Jens Cullmann’s��Split-Second Escape,��highly commended in the��Behaviour:��Amphibians and��Reptiles��category and shown in the main image.��The moment was��almost as��fleeting as the frog’s prey – an African babul blue butterfly – and all the more remarkable given that Cullmann had��spotted��tadpoles a month earlier, returning to find them transformed into��young bullfrogs. African bullfrogs spend much of the year��underground��in an��inactive state��known as��aestivation,��emerging��only for a short period after the rainy season to breed,��hunt and gorge.��

Hiding not hunting is the speciality of the lichen dragon katydid captured by��Gil Wizen,��below. Named Hidden Dragon, Wizen’s shot, highly commended in the Behaviour: Invertebrates category, captures the almost perfectly camouflaged, 15-millimetre-long, spiky insect – a rare species found only in the Ecuadorian Andes mountains.

Moving away from rural��environments,��Pooltime��Pastime��by Loren Elliott,��below, was��highly commended in the Urban Wildlife category. Elliott captures��the��unusual��sight��of a��black bear��taking time to chill in a swimming pool in southern California. While the bear��may look��somewhat��out��of place,��these run-ins are becoming��surprisingly common as��housing developments continue��to��encroach��on bear territory.����

Finally,��a black vulture grasps the carcass of a yacare caiman in Andrew Parkinson’s��Wings of Darkness,��below, captured in Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands��and��also��highly commended in the Animal Portraits category.��Despite a seemingly firm grip, the scavenger’s meal��wasn’t��to be,��with a jaguar waiting just out of shot for the perfect opportunity to claim the��caiman.

The competition’s overall winner will be announced on 13 October. The Wildlife Photographer of the Year��contest is organised by London’s Natural History��Museum,��which will run an of the images from 16 October to 11 July 2027.