Tackling the big questions in physics with Jim Al-Khalili, how a physicist worked out why dinosaurs went extinct

30 Sep 2021 Hamish Johnston

In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast I chat with the physicist, author and broadcaster Jim Al-Khalili about his new television documentary Jim Al-Khalili’s Guide to Life, The Universe and Everything, his fascination with the quantum world and his long running BBC radio series The Life Scientific.

Muons are elementary particles that have proven to be very useful for studying the properties of materials, as Peter Baker of the UK’s ISIS Neutron and Muon Source explains. Baker talks about how muons are made at the Oxfordshire facility and how they are used to study a range of things including new battery designs, superconductors and quantum decoherence.

The 2021 Nobel Prize for Physics will be awarded on Tuesday, 5 October and in the run up to the announcement our “Life beyond the Nobel” series looks at Nobel laureates who have shifted gears after bagging their prizes. Physics World’s Laura Hiscott joins me to talk about the amazing career of Luis Alvarez, who solved the mystery of why dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago after winning a Nobel in 1968 for his work on particle detection.

You can find all our 2021 Nobel prize coverage in a special panel on the Physics World website.

Physics World‘s Nobel prize coverage is supported by Oxford Instruments Nanoscience, a leading supplier of research tools for the development of quantum technologies, advanced materials and nanoscale devices. Visit nanoscience.oxinst.com to find out more.

Hamish Johnston is an online editor of Physics World

from physicsworld.com 3/10/2021