Speaker 0: Physics world.

Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Physics World weekly podcast. I'm Hamish Johnston. In this episode, I'm going to chat with Annette Bramley, who has over twenty years experience fostering research excellence in The United Kingdom and has coauthored a new book about how to build a successful research collaboration. But first Twenty twenty two is the United Nations International Year of Glass, And, naturally, we're very excited about that here at Physics World. I'm joined down the line by my colleague and the Physics World features editor, Tushna Kamasariat, who is planning a special issue of the magazine for later this year that will celebrate glass.

Hi, Tushna. Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2: Hi, Hamish. Great to be here. And, yes, we're definitely excited about the year of glass and the special issue that is hopefully gonna be the month of May, for all of you. Very keen to read it.

Speaker 1: Excellent. So so, Tushna, what is an UN international year? Because I think we've we've covered them in the past, haven't we? What does such a thing entail?

Speaker 2: Yeah, Hamish. The UN picks a topic, and it's it's quite varied. They've had all different sorts of themes and topics, and the ones we've covered in the past are, well, there was a rather obvious year of physics. I think that was 02/2005. Mhmm.

And then they've had things like the year of astronomy. One of the things that I remember that we did a lot about was the year of light, and that was in 2015, if I remember correctly. And so it's this you know, it's this idea that they pick these these key things, and and and it's a whole year of celebrating the science and society and the applications.

Speaker 1: It's it's just lots of stuff about glass, isn't it?

Speaker 2: Indeed. Exactly. So it's like a whole list of programs and events for the whole year.

Speaker 1: And and so it kicks off, I think, in a few weeks, doesn't it, with with an opening conference on glass in Geneva?

Speaker 2: That's right. Yes. That's right. They're gonna have a big opening ceremony in Geneva, and then, you know, they have, they have an international high-tech industrial congress, which is in Shanghai later on, and then a similar thing in Berlin. And the of course, with, a topic like this, there's gonna be some amazing museums and art galleries that will get involved through the year.

And, apparently, the clo the closing ceremony will be in Japan in December. So it is truly all over the world. And, obviously, glass is something, but, you know, it is like light. It's absolutely everywhere.

Speaker 1: And it looks like there's lots of local, events. One that really intrigued me was one called from pharaohs to high-tech glass, and that's a conference that's going to be held in Egypt, of course, in in April and May. So it looks like there's lots of really interesting things about glass coming up this year. Mhmm. And and so from your point of view, you know, you're you're trying to put together a program for for Physics World magazine.

What are some of the intersection points between physics and glass that you're looking at?

Speaker 2: Well, there's so many. It's almost too much to sort of squeeze into one issue, which is only a good thing, really. But, you know, I mean, obviously, there's the very literal, you know, the amount of glass we use in our laboratory in physics in so many different ways. And, you know, it was something, that, you know, I think we all sort of discussed, what it was like when there were actual glass blowers that worked in physics laboratories, you know, that a little bit of interesting history, and and sort of the very practical bits there. But then, of course, there's also, you know, there's all sorts of interesting glasses and glassy materials when it comes to condensed matter physics.

You know, there's been a number of Nobel prizes, awarded to it from last year's spin glasses to Phil Anderson's Nobel. And so there's that idea of condensed matter glasses. And then there's all these modern high-tech glasses from windows to windshields, and then there's fiber optic cables. There's the very cool applications of glass and some very key big science experiments, like, you know, the ones that jumped to mind for me immediately, the mirrors in LIGO, and, of course, any other interferometer, really, or the photomultiplier tubes in Kamiokande, you know, some some sort of beautiful and key uses of glass. So, really, you know, glass is everywhere in physics.

Speaker 1: It is. It it is everywhere, isn't it? And, you know, also in real life, of course, you know, the the Internet is brought to us via glass fiber optics and, you know, you've got glass windscreen in your car. And, I'm drinking out of a a glass right now, because my throat's getting a bit dry. It's yeah.

It's I mean, it's such an amazing material and and so many opportunities. Now I know I know you don't want to give away too much, but what are some of the ideas that you're exploring at the moment for for that special issue of physics world, that's looking at glass?

Speaker 2: Well, some of them are the ones that I've just mentioned. Of course, we'll be looking into, hopefully, all of these topics. As I said, there's definitely gonna be, some stuff on the condensed matter angle. We're hopefully gonna have an interesting thing on, you know, the sort of practical users and also, the physics of glass blowing maybe, and and, you know, art with glass. And, you know, unsurprisingly, the president of this International Year of Glass, is, one Alicia Duran.

She is, part of, you know, and and she's she's a Spanish researcher, and she is a physicist or at least she has a degree.

Speaker 1: Oh, fantastic.

Speaker 2: So, you know, and and she she covers a whole lot of interesting things. So we're gonna we're gonna be talking to her and getting her her look, her her perspective on this because she was one of the key people, involved in putting together this proposal for the UN, that, you know, was ultimately successful. And and and so she's the president of this year of class. So we're hopefully gonna have her insights on what it's like for her working in this field and, how she sees this year going.

Speaker 1: Great stuff. And I understand that you'd like to hear from Physics World readers and podcast listeners about what they would like to see in the special issue. What what what's the best way for them to to get in touch with you?

Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I'd love to I mean, if any of you have any interesting ideas or if you're, if you're a researcher working in in the field, if you're working in something glassy and you'd like to, talk about your research, to us, then, yeah, drop us an email. Let us know via email. You can con you can find the details on the contact us page, on our website, and, let us know what you think. You can also tweet to us, and, we'll we'll get all your ideas in, and we'll see what we can do.

Speaker 1: Well, that's great. And, yeah, as Tusha said, check out the Physics World website for, an email contact or indeed a link to our to our Twitter page. That that sounds like a really exciting project, Tushnet. Thanks for coming on the podcast.

Speaker 2: Lovely chatting as always, Hamish.

Speaker 1: Despite the popular character of the lone scientist, research is usually a group activity. Physicists normally work in small to medium sized teams and will often collaborate with people outside of their group, sometimes at the same university and other times with people halfway around the world. To talk about how scientists can be more effective at collaboration, I'm joined down the line from the University of Manchester by Annette Bramley, who is coauthor with Liz Ogilvy of the book Research Collaboration, A Step by Step Guide to Success. Annette is director of the N8 Research Partnership of the research intensive universities in the North Of England, and we'll also chat about the role of that organization. Hi, Annette.

Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 0: Hi, Hamish. Thanks for having me. This is very exciting.

Speaker 1: So, Annette, there are many ways that scientists can work together. What would you define as collaboration?

Speaker 0: So I think there's so many ways that you can define collaboration, and that's, you know, one of the challenges of of the book, really. But literally, to go back to first principles, collaboration is is about working with someone else. It's something you can't do on your own. In the book, we've really focused on the collaborative advantage that you can get when you combine the unique skills and resources and expertise of of two researchers to be more than the sum of their parts.

Speaker 1: And and so when you think of collaboration, do you count, you know, what goes on within a research group as collaboration, or are you looking more at sort of external collaborations, outside of a specific group?

Speaker 0: Yeah. So I think you can look at it, several ways, and a lot of it is about the dynamics of the relationship. So for, so every collaboration is about a relationship between human beings, at least one other human being, but sometimes, you know, more than one other human being. And and I think, you know, you could think about, for example, a, a PhD supervisor and their student. And for some supervisors and some students, at various degrees of maturity, that will move from a relationship which is maybe quite directive at the start of, a a PhD project, for example, to something which is much more collaborative over a period of time where the supervisor and student really start to be, influencing each other, and modifying their own thinking and modifying the way the project goes based on both of their input.

Whereas at the start, it might not have been like that. And I think there are lots of examples like that really, where collaboration is kind of on a spectrum. So even in the very, very big collaborations that you might see, at some of the big physics site and the Large Hadron Collider or or something like that, you, you know, you will have people in that collaboration, and some of them will be kind of experiencing quite a directive relationship, and others will be having this kind of very collaborative relationship where they're coming up with ideas together and are being influenced by each other and shaping the direction of the project. And so I think, you know, different people can move in and out of this kind of collaborative mode at different points and in different parts of their, relationship. But the kind of crux of collaboration being about the the interaction between human beings is really kind of what underpins the the whole, story of of the book, because it starts with it starts with you as a as an individual, and then we build it up through you, a team, an organization, and then kind of a whole r and d system, you know, multiple organizations.

So that that kind of spectrum, I think, I I also think about that in terms of, research disciplines. So is it a single discipline or is it multidisciplinary? But actually, you know, research always lies somewhere on a spectrum, whether that's of a single discipline or or a tiny part of a discipline and another subdiscipline all the way to something which is, you know, maybe quite extremely interdisciplinary. And I and I try not to get bogged down in the, you know, in the is it inter or trans or multidisciplinary, but more think about it as this kind of beautiful spectrum, where there's there's lots of different shades and lots of different colors in between.

Speaker 1: So, Annette, in your book, you encourage people to develop the right mindset for collaboration. What do you mean by the right mindset? And is that is that can that be a difficult thing for some people to, to achieve?

Speaker 0: So I think that there's a kind of various mindsets that you need to to have if if you're gonna, collaborate successfully. So, for example, we talk about the importance of thinking about, scarcity and abundance. So in a in a kind of a scarcity mindset, there's not enough. And if you want to collaborate with people, then you have to have the perception that there's enough to go round and that there's plenty to share. You have to be able to, be willing to share kind of some power and control.

You have to be able to understand that, you might be wanting to collaborate or you might need to collaborate with someone who you normally compete with. And then how do you how do you, yeah, overcome that kind of tendency to want to compete, to be able to see the benefits of working with a competitor to to get to get more out of it? So there's there's lots of different kind of mindsets that that you need to adopt. Another one is about being proactive and not being defensive. It's about mindsets and behaviors.

And for some people, you know, it can it can be a challenge. And that's not, a reflection on the person, but it's often the way that over many years and decades in some cases, they've been trained into a certain way of culture, a certain way of thinking, a certain way of doing things. And I the part of the book is saying, well, if you really want to collaborate, and, of course, not everyone does, but if you do want to collaborate, then then maybe have a think about some of these perspectives and some of these issues. And then you may be able to put yourself in a better position to to collaborate successfully. And and, ultimately, that's, you know, that's what we want.

We want to kind of help people to have the, positive experience of of collaboration so that they can, you know, develop new knowledge, and new understanding of the world, and and be transformed in that experience because working with with other people with different perspectives is is, you know, transformative and can be really beneficial to your own research.

Speaker 1: Now now here in The UK, we have a very exam based education system, you know, particularly for, for for children, young people who who study science. And there there are a lot of countries around the world that have similar systems. Is it difficult taking a young person who's essentially been used to working solo, you know, with the one goal of of of getting a great grade on their exam? Yeah. Is it difficult for people like that to to to to become involved in collaboration?

Do they tend to to want to do everything because that's what they had to do during their schooling?

Speaker 0: I think it's less to do with with schooling as to kind of what their perceptions are about what's gonna make them successful in the career that they are choosing. Many people who would like to pursue an academic career, you know, would feel that having first name author papers in high impact journals, is is going to be the the the the absolutely key thing. And I think that's something we have to think about that UKOI are introducing their, or building on the world society's resume for researchers and making that more, of a requirement for their funding, which, means that that people have an opportunity to talk more about the things that they do in research, which are maybe civic kind of citizen responsibilities or, you know, are part of these kind of networks and collaboration building, activities. So I I think it's more about what what people especially people coming into the the the the field would see as how they're going to be measured, and and and and what success looks like. I I I guess I'd also reflect there's quite a lot of work done at schools, and even in universities and in undergraduate courses about working as teams.

You know, you kind of have team building days and team building courses. But actually collaboration is about something more, it involves build team working, but but but it there's subtly something more and we don't teach and understand all of these kind of skills and that's what this book is is kind of helping to do is provide a resource to help people think about that and to to teach it or or learn it for themselves.

Speaker 1: Look. Collaborations often take place between different teams, And, that I suppose that can really add an an extra layer of complexity to relationships. You know, you could have individual team members collaborating with other team members, or all the collaboration could go through team leaders, I suppose, is another way to to manage such a collaboration. Is there a best way for a team to approach a collaboration, or does it really depend on, on the nature of what they're doing?

Speaker 0: I think very much it it, you know, it's, as we spoke at the at the start about research and and and those kind of relationships being on a spectrum, I think, you know, this again, you know, each each team and and arguably each of the relationships within those teams will be, in a in on a different part of that spectrum. But I think going into collaborations, one of the things that that that teams can do is think about their own psychological safety as a as as a group. And, you know, I guess, for some of your listeners, they won't have heard maybe of the term psychological safety very much. And it may and it but it what it really means is, you know, that in with this group of people, I'm okay to show up and ask questions, pose, challenging or constructive viewpoints. I you know, it's going to be okay for me to ask a question if I don't understand.

And and as human beings, we're kind of quite highly attuned to to those those kinds of dynamics, you know, they've evolved over over billions of years. And if and if you don't feel safe, you don't show up, authentically to work, but also you might keep good ideas to yourself. And and so I think what is important is for for teams to think about, are we psychologically safe? Have we got a leader or is our kind of person leading? You know?

Are they are they helping to shape, you know, make it psychologically safe? Because, you know, ultimately, the leader will, you know, really have a strong influence on that. And and think about, you know, the and and start the, you know, the other groups coming together. And I think, you know, if if if you can if you can have that, then then then that's a good starting position. And I think the other thing is it's we quite often think about collaboration as, you know, coming together and winning a huge big grant and, you know, all the bells and whistles that come with that.

And and so, actually, it can seem really daunting to get into collaboration. I think one of the things we can do, especially when, you know, it's early days, is to just take things, like, to just to to lower the bar a little bit and and to kind of take things one step at a time, and not to put so much pressure on the relationship or on the people, but to, you know, to have to have these kind of stepwise interactions where you build trust, you build understanding, you start to build a common language over time. And then and then you'll be ready to go and bid for something perhaps, but also the fact that you've tried being in collaboration and and maybe it wasn't the right thing. It does that's also okay, you know, and you can go off and try another collaboration. I think we we put we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to get everything right first time and, and and and go and win the grant or or, you know, get the publication.

And, actually, with collaborations, you it's about relationships, and you can't win them. You know, they're a process, and they're evolving. And and and, eventually, they might kind of come to an end, you know, and and that's that's all good. You know? That's that's part of part of the rich tapestry of life.

And, and I and that's a so for me, kind of not putting so much pressure on the relationships in the early days is, you know, again, a good thing, which which means you have to start relationship building while in advance of, you know, any potential large funding, you know, call in an ideal world if you can do that.

Speaker 1: And collaborations can occur, within the same university. And, you know, I think some universities are better than others at at at sort of fostering, collaborations and cross disciplinary, interactions. What can an organization do to encourage intramural collaboration? Because I I would guess that maybe sometimes collaborating with somebody down the corridor could be more difficult than collaborating with somebody halfway around the world for, you know, sort of institutional or or even political reasons.

Speaker 0: Yeah. And and in a a previous, a previous role when I was, you know, looking after in fact, I was looking after the mathematicians at EPSRC. I would quite often go go go and visit the community and and and, actually, you know, what they did was so, you know, their research was so specialized that people on the other side of the world might understand, but but somebody's four doors down the corridor might might not. Right? So so I I completely kind of resonate with that.

But there's so much latent talent and innovation within our institutions that we could be harnessing if if we could do some of that. It's definitely something that universities can can be encouraging. So how do they go about that? Well, obviously, workload and time pressures are are some of the, you know, are some of the kind of key things that we all know, especially with the pandemic, everyone's been under. So I think we have to kind of recognize that there are genuine barriers to people doing something which is is gonna take some time, but but may not have an immediate payoff.

And and so I think there's there there's a need for higher level staff in the university to recognize that and make provision for that. I think it's also about, you know, the lit the sort of the leaders in the organization explaining why it's important, showing that it's that it's valued, and factoring it in to, you know, reward and recognition or, you know, who gets celebrated, what stories get talked about in the internal newsletters. Yeah. All of all of that kind of stuff, is really important. And the stories we tell ourselves are hugely important.

The sort of rituals and routines that we have all all add up to organizational culture. You know, how do we build that common language? You know, if you're if you are somebody who's in something very specialized and you want to go and talk to someone else, you have to kind of be able to to build yourselves a common language and that's gonna mean that that that's gonna take time and and and effort. So so I think there's lot that I mean, there's lots that that universities can be doing, you know, and they come you know, physical spaces as well, you know. Did does it feel do you feel okay if you walk into, you know, you're a physicist, but you walk into a school of geography, you know, and how do you feel in that space, you know, because it's probably somewhere you might not have been before.

And, yeah, I remember doing that when I was at university and I was a PhD student. I used to, I used to go from my lab to to, part of the part of the chemistry department, actually, to use an atomic force microscope. And I kind of used to skulk in there. Like, I felt like I'm an intruder. And, you know, people I always thought people would be asking me what I was doing.

You know, what on earth are you doing here? You're you're not in the chemistry department kind of thing. So, yeah, I I can really recognize that, you know, that that can actually be, you know, a barrier, especially if people are, you know, introverted or unsure or, you know, it it just is another thing that you have to kind of get over. So having these, like, neutral spaces or, you know, arranging to meet in a cafe or, you know, all of, you know, all of that is is really kinda helpful and thinking about, you know, what's what's gonna get in the way of us getting on. So is it it sounds like really obvious stuff but actually unless you're quite intentional about it, it can be so obvious that you just don't stop to think about it.

And one of the things that we're doing in the book is is being really explicit about some of the success factors so that maybe if you've had a collaboration and it's been working, you can go, oh, yeah. This is why this is working, and maybe that's why, oh, we never did that. Or maybe that's why that didn't work quite so well. Maybe that's something we can kind of tease out. So so, yeah, it's a real how to book and, I hope there's I mean, I can't I can only sort of scrape the surface of, you know, we go into organizational collaboration a lot, and, there's there's so many little things that you could tweak.

You know, these are kind of big complex organizations, and there's lots of little things you can do that that might seem insignificant, but, actually, they can look a huge amount if if you do it consistently, over time.

Speaker 1: Now the the COVID nineteen pandemic has really changed how many of us work with others, and many collaborations have moved online. Although, I suspect a lot of physics collaborations were done online before COVID nineteen came along. And if you add to this our sort of desire to reduce, carbon footprints, how how is this move to online going to impact future collaborations?

Speaker 0: Well, I think it can it can only go one way in that. It's going to keep increasing. As as as as in everything, there are pros and cons. And so what we need to kind of watch for is, you know, what are the what are the great advantages of, of collaborating online? And we know that, you know, for from the past two years, yeah, we can do an awful lot of stuff very effectively online.

We can build really quite strong relationships online without actually meeting people face to face. And the tech is improving all the time to make it more seamless, and to make it, you know, much so so I'm thinking, you know, if I if I cast my mind ahead, you know, speculatively, you know, at the moment, we're doing this kind of in Zoom or on on Teams and it's two d, but, you know, the the sort of big tech firms are thinking about virtual reality meeting environments, you know, which will seem much more kind of like meeting someone in a in a real space. So I think you will see that develop. What what people often talk about is is losing the serendipity of bumping into someone in, you know, in a in a lunch queue or or or around the fringes of a meeting. And and I think that there is something in that and we have to really try and think about how how can we maybe try and engineer those opportunities into our our meetings or our conferences and our gatherings that there there is that opportunity to have the kind of side conversation.

And again, you know, there are there are new platforms being developed. I'm sure that people listening to this podcast will have, you know, will have used some of them maybe like Gather Town where you can have a poster and you can kind of walk up to it. And as you get near to people, you can kind of hear what the you know, that you kind of come into the conversation. So so that all of these things, you know, are are developing, all the time. But, Faye, there are things where Faye, you know, it will be nice for for really good relational reasons to have face to face conversations.

And we will, I think, be more intentional about the way we use those. So we'll be more mindful that if we've traveled a long way to see someone or to go to a conference, maybe we won't, sit and do our email while we're there. You know? Maybe we'll be much more kind of focused and present, while we're with the people that we're with rather than multitasking. And I think that if if we could do that, that would be a real benefit in terms of the quality of our relationship, our creativity, the types of ideas that we're having, the listening that we can do to each other.

So, yeah, I I'm I'm optimistic, about about the use of technology. I have to say I think there's there's some really interesting, developments that could really add value to what we're doing, but I think we just need to be intentional about it.

Speaker 1: Yeah. I I definitely, take take your point about not traveling halfway around the world just to sit there and check your emails and, you know, write a draft of that paper that you're working on. Because that, well, that that always drove me crazy at, at scientific conferences. So, yeah, hopefully, maybe maybe we'll people will appreciate a bit more, you know, being together and being able to talk, and listen. I

Speaker 0: I think that's right. But as I think about, you know, people who organize conferences will think about how they organize them differently. Because, you know, that's the that's the other side of that coin, is is to, you know, well, what actually might be better as a webinar? What might be better as, or or what will be better faced? You know, what people gonna pay money?

Because ultimately, conferences have to make money, don't they?

Speaker 1: What

Speaker 0: people make, you know, want to make what will make it worthwhile people traveling, you know, and using up, you know, however much of their, carbon footprint to to come. So so I think that's that's the other thing is it's not just for kind of scientists to to think about, but it's also about publishers and conference organizers and, everybody really in the in in the system to think about when we want to be together in the same room and and when things may be better, done online.

Speaker 1: Mhmm. Now, Annette, you're the director of n eight, the n eight research partnership of research intensive universities in the North Of England. Can can you tell us a bit about n eight?

Speaker 0: Yeah. So, n eight, it was was formed in, 02/2006. And so last year, we celebrated our fifteenth anniversary. And, actually, well, the clue is in the name. We're the eight most research intensive universities in the North Of England.

And my members are right across the North Of England, so Lancaster, Liverpool, and Manchester, in the Northwest, Leeds, York, and Sheffield in Yorkshire, and, Newcastle and Durham in the Northeast. And the the vision of the n eight research partnership is to be an exceptionally effective cluster of research innovation and training excellence. And so they're real focused there on the excellence. And then the other part of of the vision is, to bring benefits to the economy and communities in the North Of England and beyond. So it's kind of two parts to that, which is about bringing benefits.

So, you know, pushing back the frontiers of science, but also bringing benefits to to, you know, to the plat to our places, but also being of the North, but for both the North and The UK and the rest of the world. So, the research and innovation that happens within those universities isn't, you know, isn't just gonna be applied in the North Of England, but is gonna bring, benefits, of various different geographical scales.

Speaker 1: And Annette, you're also an artist, and I believe you have a certificate in technical hand embroidery from the Royal School of Needlework. And I think you're you're you're working on another qualification there as well. Does your artistic experience inform your views on research collaboration?

Speaker 0: So I think as, as much as as, it's about the art, it's about the learning. I think for me, having having, you know, hobbies and or a side hustle, in in in other areas. So I'm also, studying for a diploma in, in in group sound therapy. And I think this kind of, like, again, a learning mind set really helps to inform my thinking about collaboration because for one, it gets me to meet a whole range of different people from different backgrounds. And diversity is something I'm, you know, of all forms, extremely passionate about and really is hugely important, for for collaboration.

And so I so I think part of it is that is about that. Part of it is that that willing willingness to be a learner, you know, and have the beginner's mind and and go in and and find something new. And, then if that starts to kind of make connections, but also you don't mind then being a beginner at at something, which, you know, maybe I'm really good at collaboration, and was less good at sound therapy when I started, and I feel a bit better now. But but, you know, all of that is, you know, is is really good for it's it's quite a leveler. And thinking about, you know, who has who has power, the status, and hierarchy in a room is is another thing when you're thinking about collaborating.

And and so I think not always being the person with power and status in a room is is quite good for you. And so I guess that that does that does that does influence me. And, of course, being completely passionate about about the embroidery and the art, I really want to see more, arts and humanities, social sciences collaboration with the same disciplines. I think many of the challenges that we face as a world you know, if you take, climate change, then we need we need everybody to be working on various different aspects of that challenge in order to make a difference. The tech will come from, you know, physicists, engineers, but behavior change, communication, understanding trade offs and compromises that people will make.

You know, we I think the pandemic has shown as well that we need all of that, right, to get working together towards the common goal. And then we can really do stuff that's extraordinary on time scales that we would never have imagined. And that's, you know, that's that's why collaboration is, you know, so hugely important.

Speaker 1: Annette's book is called Research Collaboration, a Step by Step Guide to Success. It's published by IOP Publishing, and it's available on the IOP science platform and from some bookshops. Thanks for moving on the podcast, Annette.

Speaker 0: Thanks for having me, Hamish. I've really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1: On the December 25, the James Webb Space Telescope blasted off from Earth on a 1,500,000 kilometer journey to its orbit at the L 2 Lagrange Point, where it arrived this week. From that vantage point, it will observe the cosmos in fantastic detail, launching astronomy into an exciting new era. In the latest episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, host Andrew Glester meets James Webb Space Telescope scientists who recall their experiences of the mission launch and the telescope's journey so far. And, of course, they look forward to the first observations, which should be made in about six months' time. You can find this edition of the Stories podcast on the Physics World website or at your favorite podcast provider.

Just look for the title, the James Webb Space Telescope Launches Astronomy Into a New Era. I'm afraid that's all the time we have for this week's podcast. Thanks to Annette Bramley and Tushnet Kamasariat for joining me today. And a special thanks to our producer, Fred Ailes. We'll be back again next week with a lively chat about physics buildings, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Speaker 0: Physics world.