Dr Ben Miles

QK005 A Dinosaur Made Of Air
June 23rd 2026, Munich, Germany

It’s half past five as I’m writing this from a plane bound for Munich. The cabin still dark, the man next me asleep, mouth open and head thrown back in way I’m quietly envious of.

Last week was the sort that doesn’t photograph well - strategy, meetings and house hunting - but it might turn out to be one of the more important weeks of the year.

Some essential Dr Ben lore: I sold my house back in November 2024, and ever since I’ve been properly nomadic, living mostly between California, Washington, London and Paris. It’s been equal parts brilliant — I like meeting new people, I like new places — and wildly destabilising, particularly when you’re running several teams and, in theory, reliably putting out content. (Those of you who’ve noticed the content has been somewhat less than reliable: hello, sorry, and thank you for staying.) So last week I finally started looking for somewhere in London to actually live.

I can’t say much about the other half of the week yet. We had a big team strategy session in our London “office” about where we go next. It’s an exciting time with new people joining, as the momentum builds with our backers and collaborators I’m looking forward to getting some “secret projects” up and running. But more on that soon.

A Quantum of Knowledge from my week

The dinosaur skeleton hiding in a flat white
Somewhere between of eight hours of back-to-back meetings, I ducked into a coffee shop in Mayfair for refuge. The barista recognised me, and as he slid my much-needed latte across the counter I noticed something poured into the foam. It was, he explained, a dinosaur skeleton — the most “sciency” thing he could make. If I squint, I can see it. I think.

So - thanks to that barista, both for the coffee and for handing me this week's subject: the physics latte art.

When you steam milk, the wand injects thousands of tiny air bubbles, and left alone that air would escape in seconds. But there's around 3.2 grams of protein in every 100 millilitres of whole milk, split roughly 80:20 between two types. Casein, which, builds a structural lattice around each bubble; whey, that, lends elasticity. Together they form a stabilising film around each air bubble, holding it in place.

The result is microfoam: bubbles so small and uniform that the surface turns glossy, like wet paint. Pour wet-paint-white milk through the brown crema of an espresso and the colour contrast holds an image.

But it only works inside a five-degree window between 60–65°C. In this range the sugar in the milk (lactose ) caramelises — which is why properly steamed milk tastes sweet with nothing added Push past 65°C and the whey proteins begins to denature: the foam coarsens, large bubbles bloom, the texture goes thin and watery. Past 70°C the very proteins and sugars that made it sweet start throwing off burnt, faintly sulphurous notes instead.

The delightful irony is that — much like their fossilised ancestors — this dinosaur was always doomed. Even flawless microfoam is only borrowing time — gravity drains the liquid out from between the bubbles, the small ones merge into bigger ones, and within a few minutes the protein walls give and they pop.

Entropy, served warm.

My three things

Met — A lot of LPs — the investors who back us so that we can back others. Several were family offices, and a comforting majority were excited about frontier science but, understandably, haven’t had much prior exposure to it. So a good part of the conversation is simply widening the sense of what’s possible. There’s a particular joy in watching someone’s ambition recalibrate upward in real time.

Saw — Houses. Far too many houses. I appear to have digitally visited every property in London — floor plans blurring into one another, furniture I don’t own mentally rearranged into rooms I’ll never see. After eighteen months of other people’s hotel rooms, there’s something faintly absurd about agonising over a kitchen.

Tasted — Nasi goreng, at an “Australian” restaurant in Borough Market — where, I learned, “Australian” apparently means burgers and Indonesian food. I’m not convinced this captures the full breadth of the Aussie culinary canon, but I wasn’t there to argue taxonomy. Great tucker. The photo is, regrettably, almost entirely egg.

I started this newsletter to write down what I learn, who I meet, and what I make of it — partly to document the journey, partly because the world I work in moves fast and I want a record of it as I go.

This week the record is mostly about the often hidden groundwork it takes to build something into reality. Whether that’s a super exciting secret project, or a Dinosaur Made Of Air.

Feedback always welcome.

Until next time

Dr Ben

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1 week ago | [YT] | 378

Dr Ben Miles

This one took a while to get right. Microsoft are claiming a topological qubit, a fundamentally different way to build a quantum computer that's supposed to be stable by design rather than babysat into behaving.

The big question is whether the physics actually holds up. So I broke down what they've built, how it's meant to work, and where the real uncertainty still sits.

No mid-rolls, no interruptions - just the science, start to finish.

Thank you for making videos like this one possible to make properly!

(Extra footage coming shortly)

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 0