Because of its small size and high sensitivity, the combination of mechanical resonator and qubit could also be used for extremely precise sensing. For example, Safavi-Naeini’s team, in collaboration with physicist Michael Roukes’ team at Caltech, is already pursuing use of this platform to detect and identify proteins within cells.

Wow that would be cool. Imagine hearing the sound of all of the proteins clicking molecules together/apart.

I don’t think this is literally audible sound, so a better explanation could be useful. I wonder if this can help understand superconductivity which involves charge carriers being bundled into phonons or something.