Physics World Stories Podcast

Well written, novel and scientifically interesting for physicists – these are the criteria we use to select our Book of the Year prize. To reveal the winner of the 2019 award and discuss the runners up, Physics World’s reviews and careers editor Tushna Commissariat joins regular host Andrew Glester for the December episode of the Physics World Stories podcast. Since 2009, Physics World has named a shortlist of its 10 best books of the year, before selecting one for its award. In recent years, it has also become a tradition to dedicate the December episode of Physics World Stories to discussing our shortlist, before revealing the winner and hearing from the author of the victorious book. As Andrew Glester notes, the only problem with this tradition is that we inevitably end up adding more books to your ever-growing Christmas reading list! In no particular order, here is the full shortlist for the 2019 Physics World book of the year: The Moon: a History for the Future by Oliver Morton As we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon-landings, Oliver Morton’s book tells the story of our Moon, from its origin to its role in humanity’s history and future. The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes by Donald D Hoffman Reality is more than meets the eye, and cognitive psychologist Donald Hoffman makes the case for why this applies to everything from evolution to optics. Fire, Ice and Physics: the Science of Game of Thrones by Rebecca C Thompson From dragons to walls of ice, everyone’s favourite fantasy TV show has more physics fun hidden within than you would have thought; and Rebecca Thompson takes readers on an epic quest. Underland: a Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane From dark matter to nuclear waste, Robert Macfarlane’s Underland will take you deep within the bowels of our planet, and our relationship with these hidden worlds. The Demon in the Machine: How Hidden Webs of Information are Solving the Mystery of Life by Paul Davies What exactly is life, how and why does it emerge, and what distinguishes the living from the non-living? Paul Davies’ latest book attempts to answer some of the biggest questions that we have long pondered over. The Second Kind of Impossible: the Extraordinary Quest For A New Form of Matter by Paul J Steinhardt A rip-roaring adventure tale, featuring a mild-mannered theoretical physicist who found himself leading an expedition to the mosquito-and-bear-infested wilderness of eastern Russia in search of tiny grains of rock from outer space. Superior: the Return of Race Science by Angela Saini After her award-winning book Inferior scientifically analysed the supposed differences between the sexes, Angela Saini now tackles the difficult topic of racism, and the erroneous belief that race, a social construct, has a basis in biology. Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution: the Search for What Lies Beyond the Quantum by Lee Smolin US theoretical physicist and author Lee Smolin presents a bold “realist” formulation of quantum mechanics, in which time is fundamental, but space is emergent. The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Maths Reveals Nature’s Deepest Secrets by Graham Farmelo In his latest book, Graham Farmelo offers a bracing defence of string theory, and the power of mathematics in making progress in physics. Catching Stardust: Comets, Asteroids and the Birth of the Solar System by Natalie Starkey Natalie Starkey shares her fascination with these cosmic visitors, detailing how scientists study comets and asteroids to understand the 4.6-billion-year history of the solar system. Those of you with insatiable reading appetites should also check out this recent episode of our weekly podcast, which celebrates a decade of our book of the year award. Tushna Commissariat is joined by Physics World‘s previous reviews and careers editor Margaret Harris and the magazine’s editor-in-chief Matin Durrani. The trio discuss some of their favourite books from the 100 that made it to our shortlists this past decade, as well as chat about some pet peeves and personal favourites of science writing.

“Physics at the movies” is the theme of the November issue of Physics World magazine. In this star-studded episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester interviews a trio of people who have worked on – or inspired – Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters. First up, Glester travels to MCM Comic Con in London to meet Paul Franklin, a member of the team that won the 2014 Oscar for Best Visual Effects for its work on Interstellar. Franklin is the creative director of DNEG, which has worked with director Christopher Nolan on his various other films including Inception, The Dark Knight trilogy and Dunkirk. But the conversation focuses on Interstellar and what it was like to work with science advisor Kip Thorne, a process that even led to a scientific paper about previously unseen details of black holes. Next up, Glester is in conversation with Jill Tarter, former director of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Tarter is said to be the inspiration for Ellie Arroway, the lead character in Carl Sagan’s novel Contact, which was adapted into the 1997 blockbuster of the same name starring Jodie Foster. Tarter describes how she reentered astronomy thanks to a government scheme, and shares anecdotes about working with Foster to portray her personality on screen. Finally, Glester catches up with Andy Weir, author of the book The Martian, which was adapted into the 2015 film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon. Weir speaks about the calculations and thought-experiments that underpinned some of the book’s plot. He admits that he never expected the story to appeal to such a wide audience and that Mark Watney – the story’s lead character – is a version of himself with all the good traits magnified. To find out more about about physics at the movies take a look at the November special issue of Physics World, which features interviews with the actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Radcliffe.

In this month’s Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester discovers why microgravity environments are such interesting places to do physics experiments. Perhaps the ultimate microgravity laboratory is the international space station (ISS), where astronauts carry out experiments designed by scientists across the globe. But microgravity environments can also be created here on Earth, via parabolic flights and drop towers that can achieve microgravity conditions within the gravitational field of the Earth. In the episode, Glester travels to Swindon to meet Libby Jackson, the human exploration programme manager at the UK Space Agency. Jackson explains why removing gravity from the equation can allow researchers to probe a range of questions, not necessarily related to space science. She herself, has flown on a so-called “vomit comet” and she describes the experience of adapting to weightlessness while trying to control a science experiment. Marco Marengo, a thermal engineering research at the University of Brighton, UK, is another frequent flyer on parabolic flights. He describes some of the physics experiments he has been involved with and the process through which researchers can apply for time at these facilities. Unsurprisingly, he always finds time to have some fun while weightless in addition to doing the serious science. Within Europe, researchers requiring a microgravity environment regularly visit the ZARM drop-tower, located in Bremen, Germany. Just shy of 150m in length, this facility comprises an experimental capsule housed inside a long steel tube. In the video below, you can see Paxi – the European Space Agency’s educational mascot – falling down this drop. The ESA website has full details of how to apply to use parabolic flights, drop towers and other related facilities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36637WobHZA While researchers are less likely to be making a trip themselves to the ISS, the options for sending your experiment there are expanding. Jackson explains how it is now possible to buy time on the ISS through the ICE Cubes service, which involves launching your experiment in a 10cm3 container. Companies can also pay for time on the the ISS securing the rights to any resulting intellectual property. Glester will be back with another episode of Physics World Stories next month. In the meantime you can listen to our more regular podcast Physics World Weekly. You can subscribe to both programmes on Apple podcasts or your chosen podcast provider. Support for this podcast came from Pfeiffer Vacuum.    

For many years, the electric car industry was viewed as a fringe sector, with some believing that cars running entirely on electricity would always remain on the margins. But electric cars are becoming mainstream much faster than anticipated. In September 2019, 7.5% of all cars sold in Europe were electric, which is double the number for the previous September.  The number in the US is lower, but it is projected that 10% of all new cars sold in China will be electric by 2020. In the September episode of Physics World Stories, Andrew Glester investigates the latest technologies in electric cars and some of the developments expected in the near future. He also looks at some of the economic factors that are making electric cars a more viable choice for consumers. Entangled in the technology and economics are a number of environmental issues, including the need to find a sustainable source of metals and minerals for the batteries. On his journey through the land of electric cars, Glester meets a variety of people. Most of the interviews took place at the recent Full Charged Live event at Silverstone – home of the British Grand Prix and other high profile motor races. Actor and tech aficionado Robert Llewellyn speaks about his experiences as an early adopter of electric cars and the vast improvements in the UK’s network of charging points. Simon Moores of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence talks about the challenges in the life cycle of electric car batteries. Chris Day, technical director of Jaltek Systems, discusses the interface between electricity grids and electric cars, including the idea that vehicles can store electricity that can later be transferred back to the grid. Taking a different turn, Mihai Caleap from the University of Bristol, introduces the field of meta sonics. He explains how metamaterials can be used to filter external noises to make driving a car a more pleasant experience. Finally, Clare Jones introduces an innovative new addressing system, developed by her company what3words. By giving every location an earth a unique string of 3 words, it will help drivers (and automated cars) to precisely locate places, including charging points that can be tricky to find. Driving in the present, is a follow on to the August 2018 episode of Physics World Stories, entitled ‘Driving in the future’. That episode took a more general look at the need for more environmentally conscious transport decisions. Glester will be back with another episode of Physics World Stories next month. In the meantime you can listen to our more regular podcast Physics World Weekly. You can subscribe to both programmes on Apple podcasts or your chosen podcast provider.

The UK, France, Ireland and Canada have already taken the symbolic step of declaring a climate emergency, but many believe that the actions of these and other countries do not yet match the boldness of their rhetoric. In this episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester speaks to Will Cook of Extinction Rebellion – a movement that wants governments to accelerate their response to the climate crisis – about the need for politicians around the world to commit to meaningful action. Glester also explores how academics and physicists are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint. He speaks to Anna Lewis, the sustainable labs officer at the University of Bristol – the first UK research institution to declare a climate emergency – who explains how the university plans to meet its pledge of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. Lewis point out that science labs can be some of the biggest users of energy, and Glester talks to Caroline Jarrett, technical manager for the university’s school of science, about the practical measures that researchers can take to make their labs more sustainable. Finally, Glester tackles the thorny question of air travel, not least to academic conferences, and speaks to Matthew Tulley from Solid Carbon Storage about an innovative way to offset your carbon emissions on the occasions when you do need to fly. You can find out more about efforts to make science labs and research facilities more sustainable in the article “Leading by example: going green in the lab”

Throughout July the world has been celebrating 50 years since Apollo 11, when Neil Armstrong took those historic first steps on the Moon. In this episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester looks to the future, at the prospects of returning humans to the Moon before setting our sights on Mars. Glester reports from the Blue Dot festival at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, UK. There, he enjoyed a lively mix of contemporary music, scientific talks, and plenty of other creative performances. In the podcast, you will also hear from: Monica Grady, professor of planetary and space science at the Open University Michaela Musilova, an astrobiologist and director of the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS). Libby Jackson, director of human space flight at the UK Space Agency. Kerry Sanz, operations director of MDA, a company offering LiDAR mapping technologies. This podcast follows on from the June episode of Physics World Stories, which looked back at some of the lesser known stories from the Apollo era. For a comprehensive view of the Apollo legacy and future space travel, take a look at the July special issue of Physics World.

In July the world will be celebrating 50 years since Apollo 11, when Neil Armstrong took those historic first steps on the Moon. In this episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester looks back at some of the lesser known stories from the Apollo era. Glester catches up with Kevin Fong, presenter of 13 Minutes to the Moon, the BBC podcast exploring the final dramatic 13-minute descent of the Apollo 11 mission, when everything came close to going badly wrong. Fong explains why the Apollo rockets’ guidance systems were so ground-breaking at the time. He also describes the extraordinary psychology of the Apollo astronauts who risked their lives in the pursuit of progress. Next up, Alan Andres speaks about Chasing the Moon, the book he co-authored with Robert Stone that has been turned into a PBS documentary. He discusses the complex dual life lived by Wernher von Braun, Nazi scientist-turned NASA rocket pioneer. Andres also explains why James Webb, the American government official who oversaw NASA from 1961 to 1968, left such a lasting legacy on the US education system. Glester also visits the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK where he catches up with a trio of Apollo aficionados. Science presenter Dallas Campbell shares some of his favourite stories including the surprising modest origins of the US flag that was planted into the lunar surface. Astronomer Nick Howes speaks about the social value of the Apollo programme and why we need to recapture the era’s spirit of adventure. While geoscientist Louise Alexander explains why it is still worth analysing samples of lunar rock returned during the Apollo missions. Finally, you can hear an archive interview with Apollo astronaut Alan Bean, who went to the Moon on Apollo 12. Since retiring, Bean developed a passion for painting and creates works inspired by his adventures in space. This pursuit brought Bean the freedom of expression he never had as an astronaut where speed of thought and precision were among the required skills. In the July episode of Physics World Stories, Glester will look forward to some of the missions that will see humans (and machines) return to our nearest celestial neighbour. Also look out for the July issue of Physics World magazine, a special issue devoted to the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.

In the May edition of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester reflects on the biggest astronomy story of the year – the first ever image of a black hole and its “shadow”. Unless you’ve been living in a black hole yourself, you will have seen the glowing donut/eye of Sauron/smiley face, which is actually the supermassive black hole at the centre of the M87 elliptical galaxy, some 55 million light-years from Earth. The image represents an incredible feat of science and engineering, produced from petabytes of data captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network of individual radio telescopes and telescopic arrays scattered across the globe. The EHT team reported the results in six papers in a special issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters, which is published by the Institute of Physics on behalf of the American Astronomical Society. To find out more about the story behind the discovery, Glester catches up with three scientists from the EHT team who also hold positions at Radboud University in the Netherlands. First up is Monika Mościbrodzka, a member of EHT’s data analysis team who speaks about the significance of the discovery and the future prospects for the project. “Black holes are no longer just a theory. It’s now reality”, she says. Global networking: the Event Horizon Telescope combines the signals of eight radio telescope observatories including the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile and the South Pole Telescope (SPT) in Antarctica. (Courtesy: Akiyama et al and ApJL) Meanwhile, Freek Roelof explains how the group generated the image from all the raw radio wave data. He worked on data collection at the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) on Mount Graham, Arizona. When not doing cutting edge science Roelof plays the guitar and you can hear some of his black-hole-inspired songs in the podcast. Since the publication of the image, many people have asked the question: “Why did these astronomers look all the way to the M87 galaxy, when we have a black hole – Sagittarius A* – at the centre of our own galaxy?” The reason comes down to scale. Despite being a thousand times further away, the black hole at the centre of M87 is a whopping 0.7 billion solar masses, a thousand times more massive than Sagittarius A*. But now that the EHT has proved its capability, you wouldn’t bet against the collaboration capturing an image our Sagittarius A* at some point. In the meantime, you can take a look at this virtual reality simulation based on best-fit models of observations of Sagittarius A*. Its creator, Jordy Davelaar, joins the podcast to explain how and why he created it. If you enjoy what you hear, then you can subscribe to Physics World Stories via your chosen podcast host. Also check out our other podcast Physics World Weekly, which brings you regular updates on the latest research developments in the physical sciences.

In the previous episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester revisited the birth of the World Wide Web at CERN in 1989. This month, Glester looks to the future of Internet technologies, profiling some of the developments that might transform our daily lives. Glester finds out about the different ways we will connect to the Internet in the near future. Global access could be expanded thanks to WiFi provided by satellites in low-Earth orbit. Meanwhile, a more secure way of connecting to the Internet could be provided by LiFi – wireless data encoded into everyday light sources. Looking beyond the individual technologies, the concept of an Internet of Things (IoT) holds the promise of making everyday living more convenient. Devices are already on the market, such as fridges that monitor your eating habits and automatically order replenishments. In the future, these sorts of systems could become commonplace in all aspects of society. But as we move to an ever-more connected world, we also leave ourselves more vulnerable to cybercrime. To discuss security considerations, Glester catches up with ethical hacker Freaky Clown who describes the cat-and-mouse battle between the security services and cyber criminals. If you enjoy what you hear, then you can also subscribe to Physics World Stories via Apple podcasts or your chosen podcast host.

On the 30th anniversary of the birth of the World Wide Web at CERN, the Physics World Stories podcast visits the particle-physics lab in Geneva to learn how things developed from an esoteric proposal to something that has changed the world forever. The Web is for everyone and collectively we hold the power to change it Tim Berners-Lee Physics World magazine has also recently turned 30 and we have been celebrating with a five-part podcast series exploring key developments in physics. This fifth and final episode revisits the birth of the World Wide Web at CERN in the late 1980s. In March 1989 British physicist turned computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee produced the now-famous document entitled “Information management: a proposal”. Over the past three decades, this modest origin has evolved into a globally connected web of computing systems, transforming the way we live our lives. Andrew Glester (left) and Web pioneer Jean-François Groff. To mark the occasion, Physics World Stories host Andrew Glester visits CERN to meet some of the scientists who were there in the early years of the Web. Along the way he meets, Jean-François Groff (see left), François Flückiger, Ben Segal and Tim Berners-Lee’s former boss Peggy Rimmer. You will also hear from Tim Berners-Lee himself, who shares his hopes and fears for the future of the Web. The creator of the Web is amazed by the speed and extent of global change brought about by the Web. But, like the majority of us, he also fears the worrying trend for nefarious activities enabled by the Web, including misinformation and the amplified voices of those who choose to spread hate. “The Web is for everyone and collectively we hold the power to change it,” says Berners-Lee. “It won’t be easy but if we dream a little and work a lot we can get the Web we want.” The 30th anniversary of the Web is also the theme of the March special issue of Physics World magazine. You can enjoy many of that issue’s articles – along with a host of others – in a special online-only collection. The collection includes a brilliant graphic by Jess Wade, a look at the business impact of the Web, and the latest episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast in which Physics World journalists chew the fat over how on earth we got anything done before the Web came along. If you enjoy the podcast, then take a listen to the first four podcasts in the 30th anniversary series. Glester began in October by looking at the past and future of particle physics before tackling gravitational waves in November. In January he examined the prospects for nuclear fusion, then in February he looked at how high-temperature superconductivity research has evolved over the past three decades since the phenomenon was first observed. Don’t forget you can also subscribe to Physics World Stories via Apple podcasts or your chosen podcast host.