Physics World Stories Podcast

In keeping with our festive tradition, the December episode of Physics World Stories is all about physics books. Host Andrew Glester is joined by Physics World’s reviews and careers editor Laura Hiscott and the magazine’s editor-in-chief Matin Durrani to discuss a handpicked selection of popular-science books reviewed in 2021.

One of the year’s most memorable titles is Hawking Hawking: the Selling of a Scientific Celebrity by Charles Seife. Stephen Hawking’s status as an exceptional scientist and human being are beyond question. But Seife takes a warts-and-all look at the role self-publicity played in the British cosmologist’s public persona as the smartest scientist since Einstein.

Hawking Hawking is discussed in the first part of the podcast and there is a fun quiz for you to test your knowledge of Hawking’s life. In the second part, the Physics World journalists discuss these other books and the wider talking points that they raise:

• Flashes of Creation: George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, and the Great Big Bang Debate by Paul Halpern
• Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli
• Shell Beach: the Search for the Final Theory by Jesper Grimstrup
• Science Fiction by Sherryl Vint
• How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason by Lee McIntyre

In June 1925 Werner Heisenberg retreated to Helgoland in the North Sea, a treeless island offering the 23-year-old German physicist a space to think, along with some respite from the extreme hay fever he was suffering. On that remote outpost, Heisenberg had an idea that would revolutionize physics and bring profound implications for philosophy and technology. This was an event that would kickstart quantum mechanics.

Helgoland is the title of the latest book by physicist and science writer Carlo Rovelli. It is essentially a journey through the origins of quantum physics, interwoven with narrative about Heisenberg, Dirac, Einstein and the other luminaries from the first quantum generation. Rovelli also discusses his own interpretations of the quantum world, and connects quantum theory with diverse ideas, from Buddhist thinking to the grand themes of the Russian revolution.

Rovelli speaks about Helgoland in this latest episode of the Physics World Stories podcast. In a wide-ranging conversation with podcast host Andrew Glester, Rovelli discusses quantum concepts, the often overlooked role of philosophy in science, and his minimalist approach to science writing.

If you enjoy this episode, make sure to also join us for the inaugural Physics World Quantum Week. Running on 14–18 June 2021, the event showcases the latest developments in quantum science and technology. It includes a series of free-to-view webinars and a curated selection of quantum articles.

In this episode of Physics World Stories, host Andrew Glester interviews Mark Levinson, a former theoretical particle physicist turned acclaimed filmmaker, about his newest work, The Universe in a Grain of Sand. Far from a conventional documentary, Levinson’s latest project is a creative work of art in its own right – a visually rich meditation on how science and art both strive to make sense of the natural world.

Drawing from his background in theoretical physics and his filmmaking successes, such as Particle Fever (2013) and The Bit Player (2018), Levinson explores the shared language of creativity that unites these two domains. In The Universe in a Grain of Sand, he weaves together conversations with leading figures at the interface of art and science, with evocative imagery and artistic interpretations of nature’s mysteries.

Listen to the episode for a glimpse into the mind of a filmmaker who continues to expand the boundaries of science storytelling. For details on how to watch the film in your location, see The Universe in a Grain of Sand website.

Artificial intelligence is transforming physics at an unprecedented pace. In the latest episode of Physics World Stories, host Andrew Glester is joined by three expert guests to explore AI’s impact on discovery, research and the future of the field.

Tony Hey, a physicist who worked with Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann at Caltech in the 1970s, shares his perspective on AI’s role in computation and discovery. A former vice-president of Microsoft Research Connections, he also edited the Feynman Lectures on Computation (Anniversary Edition), a key text on physics and computing.

Caterina Doglioni, a particle physicist at the University of Manchester and part of CERN’s ATLAS collaboration, explains how AI is unlocking new physics at the Large Hadron Collider. She sees big potential but warns against relying too much on AI’s “black box” models without truly understanding nature’s behaviour.

Felice Frankel, a science photographer and MIT research scientist, discusses AI’s promise for visualizing science. However, she is concerned about its potential to manipulate scientific data and imagery – distorting reality. Frankel wrote about the need for an ethical code of conduct for AI in science imagery in this recent Nature essay.

The episode also questions the environmental cost of AI’s vast energy demands. As AI becomes central to physics, should researchers worry about its sustainability? What responsibility do physicists have in managing its impact?

Hey and Doglioni were advisers for the IOP report Physics and AI: A Physics Community Perspective, which explores the opportunities and challenges at the intersection of AI and physics.

Listen now for a lively discussion on AI’s evolving role in physics.

On the face of it, Johnjoe McFadden and Jim Al-Khalili make unlikely collaborators. McFadden is a molecular geneticist who specializes in the study of tuberculosis. He thinks in pictures and concepts, and his laboratory at the University of Surrey in the UK is full of machines oscillating flasks and people monitoring colonies of bacteria. Al-Khalili, meanwhile, is a theoretical nuclear physicist. He thinks in mathematics and equations, and for the most part his work requires only a whiteboard and a computer.

What unites this apples-and-oranges pair of scientists is their interest in quantum biology – a new and growing field where practitioners seek to understand how quantum-mechanical processes affect biological systems. Biological systems such as the human nose.

In this podcast, you will hear McFadden and Al-Khalili discuss a possible quantum solution to a long-standing biological puzzle: how does the nose “know” the difference between scent molecules? One of the most intriguing theories, developed by the biophysicist Luca Turin, is that it might come down to a process called inelastic quantum tunnelling. As Al-Khalili explains in the podcast, inelastic quantum tunnelling occurs when an electron dumps a bit of excess energy in order to tunnel to an empty energy level in a nearby atom. Turin’s theory is that this type of tunnelling event is what triggers the firing of olfactory neurons in the nose, thus sending a signal to our brains that gives us the “experience” of smelling something. However, such tunnelling can only take place when a scent molecule is present and able to absorb the electron’s excess energy – and that will only happen if one of the chemical bonds in the scent molecule has the right vibrational frequency. So when we slice into an orange and take a sniff, our noses may actually be sensing the vibrations of chemical bonds in a molecule called limonene, which is responsible for most of the orange’s citrusy scent.

The nose isn’t the only biological system with a possible quantum connection, though. If this podcast whets your appetite for some more examples, you might want to check out McFadden and Al-Khalili’s new book Life on the Edge. The book is written for a popular-science audience, and at the end of the podcast, you’ll hear the pair discussing some of the challenges they faced in writing it.