Physics World Stories Podcast

Physics World has recently turned 30 and we are celebrating with a five-part podcast series exploring key areas of physics. This fourth episode in the series explores how high-temperature superconductivity research has evolved over the past three decades since the phenomenon was first observed. In the late 1980s there was a lot of hype surrounding these materials because of the many exciting applications that would follow. Among the promised spin-offs were lossless transmission lines, lossless magnetism and levitating trains. All of these applications have been demonstrated to some extent but it is also fair to say that high-temperature superconductors are not as ubiquitous as some had hoped. In this podcast, Andrew Glester picks up the story to find out more about the history of high-temperature superconductivity and its prospects for the future. He catches up with the physicists Elizabeth Blackburn from Lund University in Sweden and Stephen Hayden from the University of Bristol, UK. If you enjoy the podcast, then take a listen to the first three 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 and then nuclear fusion in January. Don’t forget you can also subscribe to Physics World Stories via Apple podcasts or your chosen podcast host.

Physics World has recently turned 30 and we are celebrating with a 5-part series podcast series exploring key areas of physics. This third episode in the series explores the prospects for fusion energy ­­– a carbon-free form of energy generation that may finally be on the cusp of becoming practical. For the past few decades, the running joke has been that despite the excitement, fusion energy is “always 30 years away.” In the January episode of Physics World Stories, Andrew Glester meets fusion researchers at the UK company Tokamak Energy to learn about the practical challenges and the technology that could make fusion a reality within the next 15 years. Melanie Windridge, a communication consultant (and adventurer), explains the science behind the two main approaches to achieving fusion. The first is known as inertial confinement fusion and its feasibility is being investigated at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the US. The alternative involves using intense magnetic fields to confine hot plasma inside a device known as a tokamak. This is the approach taken at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), an international collaboration based in southern France. In contrast to the much larger tokamak ITER tokamak, the technology being developed by Tokamak Energy could lead to a compact tokamak that can run at much higher plasma pressure. Glester visits the company in Oxfordshire to meet the company’s chief executive David Kingham, who believes this smaller-scale approach could make fusion energy more economically viable. Both Kingham and Windridge believe that practical fusion energy has become more realistic due to two key factors – the growing global consensus that we need to act on climate change coupled with the arrival of private enterprise in this space. If you enjoy the podcast, then take a listen to the first two podcasts in the 30th anniversary series. Glester began in October by looking at the past and future of particle physics. Then in November he explored gravitational waves by looking at the exciting future for multimessenger astronomy. Don’t forget you can also subscribe to Physics World Stories via the Apple podcast app or your chosen podcast host.

Each year since 2009, Physics World has been awarding one excellent popular-science book with the title of Book of the Year, not to mention creating a shortlist of nine other top titles from all the books we reviewed that year. We also love talking about physics books, and ever since our first such podcast in 2011, we get together each December to discuss our shortlist and reveal our winner. As is becoming a tradition, this chat was hosted by our regular podcast presenter and producer Andrew Glester, in his garden shed, where he can often be found musing about “science fiction, science fact and everything in-between” for his own podcast the Cosmic Shed. As this year’s winner is the 10th to bag our Book of the Year, we decided to catch up with some previous winners to see what they are working on today; to chat about how their books have aged; and hear what they would do differently today. Tune in to the podcast to hear 2009 winner Graham Farmelo talk about Paul Dirac and his family; find out what 2015 winner Amanda Gefter is working on today; hear what 2010 winner Anil Ananthaswamy has to say about travel and science-writing; and find out more about hippies and physics from 2012 winner David Kaiser. Of course we also discuss the various exciting books on the 2018 shortlist, and reveal our 10th winner of the Physics World Book of the Year, so tune in to the podcast to hear from a host of interesting writers and scientists. We hope that everyone will find something to appreciate on this list, and hopefully we have given you a few ideas for some excellent holiday presents. Shortlist for Physics World Book of the Year 2018 (in no particular order): Treknology: the Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drives by Ethan Siegel Ad Astra: an Illustrated Guide to Leaving the Planet by Dallas Campbell Exact Thinking in Demented Times: the Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science by Karl Sigmund Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Quantum Physics is Different by Philip Ball The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray by Sabine Hossenfelder The Dialogues: Conversations About the Nature of the Universe by Clifford V Johnson When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or How to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy Metal by Philip Moriarty What is Real: the Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics by Adam Becker Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine by Hannah Fry  

As regular readers will know, Physics World has just turned 30 and we have been celebrating the anniversary with a range of special content. This includes a 5-part series for our monthly podcast, Physics World Stories, exploring key areas in physics that evolved significantly during the past 30 years. This second episode in the series looks at gravitational waves by revisiting the celebrated first detections by the LIGO collaboration, then looking to the exciting future for multimessenger astronomy. Along the way, presenter Andrew Glester speaks with several members of the LIGO team: Mark Hannam of Cardiff University; Chris Messenger from the University of Glasgow; and Lisa Barsotti from the MIT Kavli Institute who received of a New Horizons Breakthrough prize for her work on the LIGO detectors. He catches up with Paul McNamara, a project scientist on the European Space Agency’s LISA Pathfinder mission – a precursor to the first space-based gravitational wave observatory. Glester also examines the controversy surrounding a recent analysis suggesting that LIGO has not yet discovered gravitational waves. The group at the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark claimed in a paper on the arXiv preprint server that the positive detections could just be correlated “noise” from LIGO’s two detectors, and they have since followed up with further analyses of the LIGO data. Glester speaks with the group’s spokesperson Andrew Jackson and offers LIGO researchers the chance to respond. If you enjoy what you hear, then you take a listen to the first episode in this special podcast series, which looked at the past and future of particle physics. Don’t forget you can also subscribe to Physics World Stories via the Apple podcast app or your chosen podcast host.

In October 1988 the first ever edition of Physics World magazine was published, so this month marks our 30th birthday. The October 2018 issue of Physics World revisits some of the key topics and issues in physics from 30 years ago, examines how they’ve developed, and contemplates their prospects for the next three decades. Particle physics, gravitational waves, optics and laser technology, fusion energy, and high-temperature superconductivity, are all reviewed. As part of the ongoing 30th anniversary celebrations we are also producing a five-part series of podcasts to look deeper into the crystal ball, exploring the future of these key fields in more detail. The episodes form part of our monthly Physics World Stories podcast series, hosted by Bristol-based science communicator Andrew Glester. Particle physics is where we start as Glester looks for hints of life beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Sharing their thoughts are Valerie Gibson of the University of Cambridge and Derek Fox who has recently published intriguing research using data from the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment. One big difference over the coming 30 years will be the growing influence of China, which has released details for a huge particle collider that will produce over a million Higgs bosons in a seven-year period. Glester explores the plans for this the China Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) facility with Yifang Wang, Director of the Institute of High Energy Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences and researcher Yiming Li. Glester also gets the thoughts on China’s rise as a scientific powerhouse from Dutch-born astronomer Richard de Grijs who spent a decade working at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University, before recently relocating to Australia. If you enjoy what you hear, then you can subscribe via the Apple podcast app or your chosen podcast host.

As the summer draws to a close in the northern hemisphere, Andrew Glester looks back on two festivals he attended this year – the Blue Dot Festival in Cheshire and Green Man Festival in Wales. Glester meets a range of people involved in communicating science to festival audiences, often in surprising and innovative ways. He wants to know what motivates these people and what they have found to be the most effective ways of combining science with entertainment. Along the way, Glester meets the following people: Tim O’Brien, who curates the science elements of Blue Dot Festival. O’Brien talks about the festival’s origins and his personal journey in science communication from shy early-career researcher to addressing thousands from the Blue Dot stage. Jim Wild, a space physics researcher from Lancaster University, who was at Blue Dot festival to talk about space weather. Delving into the science, Wild speaks about the hazard to astronauts posed by solar radiation – something that would be especially challenging in a manned mission to Mars. The playwright Dave Windass who speaks about Pale Blue Dot, a new play he’s scripted that tackles global environmental issues and the search for more sustainable ways of living. Windass, who had not previously worked with science themes, speaks about the challenges of marrying science communication with successful storytelling. Sam Illingworth, a science communicator who is part of the Games Research Network at Manchester Metropolitan University. With a particular interest in table-top games, Illingworth believes that puzzles can lead to deep engagement in science. You will also hear recordings of some of Illingworth’s science-inspired poetry, which he delivered to audiences at Green Man festival. Maddie Foard, who runs the Solar Stage at Green Man Festival. She explains why her approach is to grab the attention first, then slip in the science almost by stealth. Will Hunter, the curator of Einstein’s Garden, a performance area at Green Man that blends a diverse range of acts relating to science and technology. Hunter describes his approach as “playful” because he wants to embrace the ethos of the festival. Anna Ploszajski, materials scientists and science communicator who was at Green Man speaking about the wonders of “smart materials”. Ploszajski, who often takes a humorous look at science and engineering, speaks about the various unexpected skills you can develop in the process of science communication. If you enjoy what you hear, then you can subscribe via the Apple podcast app or your chosen podcast host.      

In the August episode of the Physics World Stories podcast Andrew Glester investigates the challenges of moving towards personal transport with a smaller carbon footprint. While flying cars powered by hydrogen are unlikely to hit mass market anytime soon, Glester instead looks at some of the realistic solutions for the present and the near future. Along the way, he gets the thoughts of various people he met at Blue Dot 2018 – a festival blending science, art and music. Francis Hill from the Centre for Alternative Energy gives her opinion on why citizens in developed countries need to reconsider their lifestyle choices. Her proposed changes include travelling less and using fewer non-renewable materials such as single-use plastics. Kevin Anderson is part of a group called Rapid Acceleration of Car Emission Reductions (RACER), which is part of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Anderson believes that petrol-powered cars still have a role to play in the short-medium term future, but they use should be limited in urban areas. Increasingly, journeys will be made by alternative means, especially by electric bicycles (e-bikes). Michael Taylor is a PhD student at the Power Networks group based at the University of Manchester. Taylor highlights the fact that a rapid growth in use electric car will put a big strain on power networks – caused by large volumes of people recharging their vehicles at the same time. He is investigating solutions, such as smart-charging systems that respond to the level of demand. Finally, Glester meets a couple of students from Durham University’s society for electric motorsport. They are part of a team developing a new solar-powered race car to improve on existing models, which they will enter into competitions. They discuss the outlook for solar-powered and hybrid-solar cars hitting the market place.      

In the July edition of Physics World Stories, Andrew Glester looks at the latest developments in technologies based on quantum mechanics. While quantum computing often steals the headlines, there is a whole world of other quantum-based devices in the pipeline for a range of applications. Glester speaks first with Raphael Clifford and Ashley Montanaro at the University of Bristol about quantum computing. They are interested in the prospects of achieving “quantum supremacy” – the point at which quantum computers can outperform classical computers at specific tasks. Next, Glester hands the reigns over to Physics World’s Margaret Harris who recently attended the 2018 Photonics West conference in San Francisco. At that event, Harris caught up with Anke Lohmann, the director of ESP Central Ltd, which supports the transfer technology form academic settings to the marketplace. Lohmann gives her opinion on the quantum innovations most likely to have the most significant impacts in the coming years, among them is quantum key distribution for secure communication. Finally, Glester heads to the University of Birmingham, the site of one of the UK Quantum Technology Hubs. He is given a tour of the lab by Kai Bongs who explains how the goal is to transform scientific concepts in practical applications that are economically viable. The focus at the Birmingham hub is on developing sensors and metrology techniques. Targeted applications include gravity-mapping beneath the Earth’s surface and highly precise optical clocks.

In this month’s Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester looks at some intriguing developments in the space industry. He is in conversation with Harvard University astrophysicist Martin Elvis about the prospects of asteroid mining moving from science fiction to reality. Later in the podcast, Glester investigates how the UK space industry might be affected by Brexit – the UK’s imminent departure from the European Union. Lucy Berthoud from the Space Universities Network explains why it is so important for the UK government to get the right deal because of what is at stake in the space sector. Finally, Glester takes a trip to Goonhilly Earth Station on the south-western tip of the UK. Goonhilly representative Kat Hickey explains why the site is such a unique place to do science and why she believes it should be chosen for the UK’s first spaceport. Look out for a special collection of articles about the space industry to be published on this site in the next week or so. Also, if you enjoyed this podcast then you can subscribe via iTunes or your podcast provider. Also check out Physics World Weekly – our news-focused podcast presented by the Physics World editorial team.  

In the May episode of our Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester is in conversation with the Nobel laureate Mario Molina. The Mexican researcher shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on understanding formation and decomposition of ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere. He talks about how winning the award transformed his status as a scientist, giving him a unique platform to influence politicians. The banning of substances (mainly CFC chemicals) that deplete the ozone under the 1987 Montreal Protocol is hailed as a shining example of coordinated global action in tackling an environmental issue. Molina talks about how industries in the 1980s paid attention to the scientists at a relatively early stage, and sought alternative products and processes to CFCs. He engages with the reasons why it is harder today when dealing with the more multifaceted issue of climate change. Later in the podcast, Glester picks up the story with Lorraine Whitmarsh, a social scientist at the Tyndall Centre – a network of universities seeking sustainable responses to climate change. Whitmarsh is interested in why the general public responds to the science of climate change in particular ways. She is also interested in practical solutions for shifting to a lower carbon lifestyles and offers her top tips for reducing your carbon impact. If you enjoyed this podcast then you can subscribe via iTunes or your podcast provider. Also check out Physics World Weekly – our news-focused podcast presented by the Physics World editorial team.