Physics World Stories Podcast

An unlimited world of structures built from precision-engineered unit parts – it is easy to see why LEGO appeals to many physicists. But in addition to the pure enjoyment, this plastic construction toy is also a great teaching tool, and it has even featured in serious science experiments. In the November episode of Physics World Stories, Andrew Glester meets physicists who have used LEGO in fun and creative ways to communicate physics. The first guest is Lewis Matherson aka @LegoPhysicsGuy, a former physics teacher who now makes physics videos aimed at students and teachers. These videos regularly incorporate LEGO to illustrate core physics concepts in GCSEs and A levels – exams typically sat by 16- and 18-year-olds in the UK. Next up is Joshua Chawner, a low-temperature-physics researcher at Lancaster University, UK. Chawner captured the imagination by subjecting LEGO pieces to the coldest temperatures on Earth, placing them inside his group’s dilution refrigerator, as documented in an award-winning video (below). Despite reaching 1.6 millidegrees above absolute zero (2000 times colder than deep space) the bricks proved to be extremely good thermal insulators, a surprising result described in Scientific Reports. https://youtu.be/zaIFZsBOeZc Last but not least is Maria Parappilly, a physics education expert at Flinders University, Australia. One of Parappilly’s successful initiatives was to create a LEGO race cars exercise for an introductory physics course that previously seen high drop-out rates. Parappilly is also the founder of the STEM Women Branching Out at Flinders University, designed to make science and other technical subjects more inclusive.

Media coverage of quantum computing often focuses on the long term potential for these devices to leave classical computing in the dust. But what about the rudimentary quantum systems that are already being developed and tested by technology companies? What are the latest advances in the field? And what might these systems realistically be able to achieve in the short to medium term? Andrew Glester investigates these questions in the latest episode of the Physics World Stories podcast. The episode previews Quantum 2020, a free online event running 19–22 October hosted by IOP Publishing (which also published Physics World). Tim Smith, associate director for journals product development, describes how the conference will cover the latest developments across quantum science and technology. While Claire Webber, associate director for content and engagement marketing, explains how you can participate in the event. Glester then catches up with one of the speakers at Quantum 2020 – Ryan Babbush, head of quantum algorithms at Google. In 2019 Google made headlines after asserting that its Sycamore quantum processor was the first to achieve “quantum supremacy”, whereby a quantum computer solves a problem in a significantly shorter time than a conventional computer. Although the specifics of that claim have been disputed, it was still celebrated as a key breakthrough in the field. Babbush describes some of the key goals for Google’s first generation of practical quantum computers. One of them is to realize Richard Feynman’s idea of using quantum devices to simulate physical systems that behave according to the laws of quantum physics. Such a system could be used to solve the fiendishly complex chemistry equations required to predict the properties of new materials. Another key goal is quantum cryptography, which could offer secure communication systems.

The news last week that scientists had spotted a potential signature of life in the clouds of Venus was always likely to cause a stir. But arriving the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic – during which our everyday lives have changed significantly – the story has truly captured the public imagination. In the latest episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester takes a broad view of the discovery: an inspiring example of lateral thinking, persistence and collaboration. The deduction that Venus could be harbouring life is linked with the detection of phosphine gas in the planet’s atmosphere. For terrestrial planets such as Venus and Earth the only known processes to generate phosphine in such a location are connected with metabolism. To learn more about astrobiology, Glester catches up with two members of the team behind the discovery, both based at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Clara Sousa-Silva is a quantum astrochemist who for over a decade has studied phosphine as a potential signature for extraterrestrial life. She is joined by Sara Seager, an astronomer and planetary scientist, who among other things speaks about future missions to Venus to help resolve this mystery. As both researchers explain, the “life hypothesis” came as a last resort following a rigorous search for alternative explanations.

Studies suggest that human error is responsible for over 90% of the 1.25 million people who die each year globally due to car accidents. Therefore, improving driver safety is one of the biggest incentives for increasing the autonomy of vehicles. But this brave new world of autonomous driving is not without its own risks – as Andrew Glester discovers in the August episode of the Physics World Stories podcast. To learn about how automated features can reduce human error, Glester catches up with Siddartha Khastgir, the head of Verification & Validation of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles at WMG, University of Warwick, UK. Khastgir describes the form that fully automated vehicles might take, and explains why it is a myth that these vehicles could provide absolute safety without human intervention. Cars today already have a degree of autonomy, such as parking-assist systems that use ultrasonic sensors. This autonomy is increasing every year, as sensors and other hardware can monitor a car’s state and create dynamic maps of its surroundings. But these systems bring a new threat – opportunities for hackers to access cars remotely. To learn about these emerging risks, Glester speaks with Simon Parkinson, a computer scientist who leads the Centre for Cyber Security at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Find out more about the cyber threat posed to autonomous vehicles in this feature by Stephen Ornes, originally published in the August edition of Physics World, a special issue on the physics of cars.

Planet Nine is a hypothetical world in the far reaches of our solar system. Proposed in 2016 by Caltech astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, its existence would explain the unusual orbits of certain Kuiper belt objects (KBOs). But are we completely sure that Planet Nine in fact a planet? A paper in September 2019 suggested the gravitational effects could instead be explained by the presence of a primordial black hole smaller than your fist. To get to the bottom of this mystery, there have been recent proposals to send fleets of tiny probes to the general region of this mysterious object. In the July episode of Physics World Stories Andrew Glester gets the latest on the mystery of Planet Nine. Appearing in the podcast are Mike Brown and the University of Maryland’s Zeeve Rogoszinski, co-author of one of the mission proposals.

For certain fields of physics, it can be tough to explain how the research has a direct benefit to society. That is never the case with medical physics – a career where you can apply a technical skillset to directly improve people’s everyday lives. In this episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester catches up with three medical physicists from The Christie – the largest cancer hospital in Europe – to learn about their careers. Heather Williams, the principal physicist in nuclear medicine at The Christie, speaks about some of the latest developments in positron emission tomography (PET). Williams also explains how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the working practices at the hospital, requiring some difficult decisions around risk management. Among other developments, clinical engineers have been working with industry to develop new systems to deliver oxygen to coronavirus patients. Later in the podcast, you will also hear from Patricia Amata who is studying for a PhD in ultrasound modalities. Medical ultrasound is most commonly associated with the field of obstetrics, where it is used to generate images of the foetus developing in the womb. But this non-ionising form of imaging is used across the medical spectrum – from breast scans to neurology, and often as a way of calibrating other imaging techniques. Finally, clinical scientist Imran Patel speaks about the Christie’s proton therapy centre, which has been treating patients since December 2018. Patel, who leads the proton therapy physics group, explains why proton therapy can offer benefits in certain circumstances, such as paediatric cases. Unlike photons and electrons, protons beams can deliver a radiation to a highly localized sites, minimising damage to surrounding healthy tissue. You can take a look inside the Christie’s proton therapy centre in this video produced in 2019.

In the May 2020 issue of Physics World, science journalist Marric Stevens wrote about the problem of the missing plastic in the world’s oceans. Although we are starting to see large amounts of plastic in the oceans, the quantity is far smaller than we expect to see – based on the quantities of plastic being released into the oceans every year. In the latest episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester digs deeper into the mystery to find out where the plastic might be ending up. To learn about the threat of plastic to marine wildlife, Glester meets Lucy Quinn, a seabird ecologist with the British Antarctic Survey. Quinn was the researcher who captured public awareness of the plastics issue when she appeared in the BBC’s Blue Planet 2 showing the horrific impacts of ingested plastic on an Albatross colony in Bird Island, South Georgia. Also in the podcast, physical oceanographer Erik van Sebille outlines the extent of the missing plastics issue. He explains how his research on ocean flow at Utrecht University in the Netherlands can help to better understand where the plastics are ending up. While Alethea Mountford from Newcastle University, UK, describes how oceanographers combine physical measurements with modelling to get a handle on the issue. To find out more, read ‘The search for the missing plastic‘, a feature originally published in the May 2020 issue of Physics World – a special edition on plastic waste. This podcast is sponsored by Teledyne Hastings Instruments.

Across the world, personal and professional lives have been profoundly affected during the past few months – and scientists are no exception. In this episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, we find out how physics and physicists are adapting to coronavirus-related lockdowns. Among physicists – as with many professions – there is a growing realisation that things are not about to go back to normal anytime soon. Isolation from colleagues, facilities and important conferences bring obvious disadvantages. But as you will hear in the podcast, some physicists are also finding positive outcomes from the situation. Before the lockdown, did you ever meet a researcher who didn’t complain about being time-poor? Plenty were sick of travelling to international events because they felt they had to show their face. And you name an academic didn’t have a paper they kept meaning to write but never got around to it because of things like endless faculty meetings. First up in the episode is the theoretical physicist and author Sabine Hossenfelder. Among other things during the pandemic, she has teamed up with climate physicist Tim Palmer to record a coronavirus-inspired reworking of the REM classic hit “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”. You will also hear from Bonnie Tsim and Rebecca Waters who both attended the recent Women in Graphene Career Development Day – an online event that reimagined various aspects of real-world conferences. Perhaps the success of this virtual event is a sign of what physics conferences will be like for the foreseeable future. For more personal accounts of the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns, take a look at the “physics in the pandemic” series on the Physics World blog.

Most of the time science appears in the media – including in this podcast – the focus is on the scientific results. Rightly so, as scientific research consistently delivers inspiring breakthroughs. But this type of coverage can present an idealized version of science. Researchers are presented as dispassionate beings working together seamlessly to uncover the common truths of their discipline. In reality, scientists are people with a range of personalities and backgrounds, displaying all the usual human traits – the good and the bad. In this episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester meets a selection of successful researchers to discover what it is really like to carve out a career in physics. What motivates them? What are the big challenges lying ahead for early-career researchers? What are the rules they play by? For more information and advice on this topic, see the 2020 edition of Physics World Careers. In the March issue of Physics World magazine, we also launched our new “Ask me anything” interview series, providing careers advice for physics graduates. Physics World’s Tushna Commissariat asks 10 of today’s top physicists three questions to find out about their roles and what they wish they knew when they started their careers.

In the latest episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester learns about the acoustic design of public spaces, through conversations with acousticians and architects. He visits the Bristol Old Vic – the oldest continuously running theatre in the English-speaking world – which has recently undergone a refurbishment. Glester also visits Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, a place with which he has a strong personal connection, having worked there in the past. Find out more about acoustics in architecture in this article by science journalist Anna Demming, which first appeared in the February issue of Physics World.