Alex the Physicist & Friends

Hi Darling! This week I'm bringing you a conversation with Anne L'Huillier,  to talk about the science of attosecond pulses… and the very human journey behind them. Anne is a French-born physicist who works as a Professor in atomic physics at Lund university in Sweden and was the fifth woman to ever win the Nobel Prize for Physics.  In this interview we discuss the physics behind watching electron...

Hi Darling!  Happy International Women's Day!  In todays episode I am going to discuss what its really like to be a woman working in science, technology, engineering and maths in 2026. Using personal experiences from myself and people in my community I explore the problems and the power that comes with being a gender minority in STEM.  Through stories, survey responses, and honest reflection, we’l...

Hi Darling! In this episode I sit down with experimental particle physicist Kelly Weerman, who works on the Japanese neutrino experiment KamLAND-Zen and is also an athlete in the Dutch National Wushu team.  We talk about what doing a PhD actually feels like behind the scenes: burnout, motivation, imposter syndrome, and learning how to build a sustainable relationship with work. We also explore her...

Hi darling!  This week I discuss what it is actually like to work in academia and research, and the science behind 'stranger things'... Are scientists “still in school”? Do professors just teach all day? And is the science in Stranger Things even remotely realistic? In this solo episode of Alex the Physicist & Friends, I break down what a career in science and academia really looks like, from...

Hi Darling! This week I sit down with Julia Bauman, a genetics PhD student at Stanford University. Driven by curiosity about what makes people who they are and a desire to help treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, which has affected her family, Julia began her path on a pre-med track before realising research was where her passion truly lay and choosing a PhD over an MD. Alongside her research Julia m...

Hi Darling! Happy new year!! New year, new season of Alex the Physicist & Friends!  A new season means a new format and I'm changing up the solo podcast episodes, bringing you more of the chaos, more of the science and just generally more fun. New features include Dr Darlings hotline, weekly updates (in life and in science), Darling's Delight and the Chaos forecast. This week I discuss my 2025...

Hi Darling! This week I sit down with Dr Aaron Breidenbach, a Stanford physicist, Nature-published scientist, and self-proclaimed Quantum Shaman . Aaron’s research into exotic magnetic crystals could hold the key to the next generation of quantum computers, but his curiosity doesn’t stop there.  These crystals aren’t just lab-grown, amazingly, they occur naturally in the Atacama Desert, one of the...

Hi Darling!  After two international moves, from the UK to Amsterdam and more recently to California, I've learnt a thing or two about the process. There are inevitable losses and incredibly tough moments but there is also exciting new places and brilliant new friends. In this episode, I share the raw side of moving countries: the loneliness, the heartbreak, and the growth that comes after everyth...

Hi Darling!  Have you ever wondered what a science conference is like? Come behind the scenes with me at a LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (gravitational wave detectors) collaboration meeting. I'll take you around the conference (and into the pub), describing what I'm up to and talking to other scientists about their conference experiences, which gravitational wave emitter they would be and the case of the stole...

Hi Darling! This episode was recorded on a hike in the Rocky mountains with Mattia Emma, a gravitational wave astrophysicist who is finishing up his PhD at the Royal Holloway in London. Mattia shares how a summer volunteer trip led him to setting up the Storm Project, an NGO to support a girls boarding school in a remote part of Kenya. We discuss the many times he was told he was 'too young' by ac...

Hi Darling! Today I share a story from my PhD about a trip I went on to America. This trip changed my whole perspective and I went from considering quitting my PhD to having a dream job in the field.  The paper I mention is now published! You can find it here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/ae0087  @alexthephysicist  

Hi Darling! For part two of the GW10 series I sit down with Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne, a founder of LIGO, black-hole theorist, and the science mind behind Interstellar. We talk about the 50 year journey from a bold idea to the first detection of gravitational waves, the brainstorms that seeded quantum computing and precision measurement, and how collaborating with artists and filmmakers reshaped t...

Hi Darling! For the final part of the GW10 series I sit down with the second Nobel Laureate physicist Barry Barish, the leader who guided LIGO to the first detection of gravitational waves. Barry invited me to his home in Santa Monica for my very first interview for the podcast, quite a way to start! We talk about his path from engineering student to particle-physics pioneer, the bold decisions th...

Hi Darling! GW10 is a three part series celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the first detection of gravitational waves on September 14th 2015. In this episode I introduce what gravitational waves are in basic terms and describe their effect and therefore how we detect them. I also discuss my own research in the field and how this could improve our ability to observe the universe, and the future...

Hi Darling!  Ali and I connect over lasers, lacrosse, LIGO and nationalizing the railways.  Despite meeting at university in the UK, we are now both working in California and have been working on some projects together for LIGO - the gravitational wave detectors in America. In this conversation we reminisce on some fun times (and some interesting interactions), explain what it's like to work in ac...

Hi Darling!  Welcome to the podcast! Thank you so much for listening. Today I introduce myself, the podcast, why I've started it and what I hope to achieve with it. I will also tell my 'physics origin story' - how I got into physics and the start of my journey so far.  @alexthephysicist