optics.org joins the podcast revolution

02 Aug 2006

The optics.org podcast makes its debut with a bang: a fascinating interview with a leading optics academic. Plus: of the hundreds of newly signed-up optics.org community members, we have randomly selected 10 to win iPod media players.

optics.org's first podcast is based on a revealing interview with eminent physicist Professor Sir Michael Berry of the University of Bristol.

He describes his breakthroughs in quantum optics and his hopes for a solution to the thorny Riemann hypothesis, which would logically link prime numbers, quantum mechanics and chaos theory.

Sir Michael also gives his provocative views on the closure of university science departments and explains his personal interest in the links between science and art.

We decided to employ this increasingly popular method of communicating in response to the high level of interest shown by the optics.org user community. It is a joint project between optics.org and the Journal of Optics A, also published by the Institute of Physics Publishing.

A new survey of 4000 business-to-business technology buyers, published on 20 July by EPS, London, showed that 41% of respondents had listened to podcasts more than once. "There is an opportunity here which publishers should be keen to address," said Kate Worlock, an EPS director.

In a related development, optics.org has over the past few months significantly increased the size of our user community. As a result of expanding our business and technology coverage we have observed a welcome boost in reader activity and a 30-plus per cent increase in registered membership.

Our competition for new users registering on optics.org to win an iPod media player has seen 10 of you chosen at random to receive this highly desirable prize.

The lucky winners

• Wayne Gibbons, engineering manager at Elsicon, which specializes in optical/electro-optical materials, Newark, DE, US.

• Bill Gingrass, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, at Goodrich, who is based in Lowell MA, US.

• Krzysztof Dobrowolski, engineering management at Solaris Laser, Warsaw, Poland.

• Jens Hübner, researcher into nanotechnology at the University of Hannover, Germany.

• Cliff Greenberg, measurement, quality control and safety at Nikon, Belmont, CA, US.

• Michael Feit, R&D specialist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, US.

• Philip Aldred, engineering management Hexagon Metrology, Swindon, UK.

• Patrick Georges, researcher at the Institut d'Optique, Orsay and Saint-Étienne, France.

• Jesus Armengol, researcher at Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain.

• Virgilio Correcher, researcher at Ciemat, Spain's public research agency for energy, the environment, and fundamental research, Madrid, Spain.