Faces. For this episode of It’s Not My Field we interviewed Rob Jenkins, cognitive psychologist and senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow. His research focuses on face perception and social interaction. We asked him what makes us humans so much better than computers at recognising faces, how good (or bad) passport control agents are at matching pictures with faces, and why we sometimes see faces and familiar patterns where there are none.

If you are interested in doing a PhD with Rob Jenkins on the subject of 3D reconstruction of crime scenes from eye reflections then click the link above for more information.

The episode includes CC-licensed Freesound.org sound samples by users Setuniman and WaterminD.

The infinity puzzle. In this episode we interview Frank Close, professor of physics at the University of Oxford and author of the book The Infinity Puzzle. We discussed with him the public perception of modern physics, who should be awarded Nobel prizes and what sort of scientific questions are the right ones.
Visit our SoundCloud page to download the episode.

“The people who have missed out on Nobel prizes but were very near to getting one, they are known in the field but they are not known to the general public. […] The stories of the winners are very well-known, and I am sure that there are stories that are not told by many people who are in the running who do not get one and keep the secret to themselves.”

We thank Frank Close and the School of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Glasgow.
This episode includes a CC-licensed Freesound.org sound sample by user Setuniman.

Quantum information. For this episode of It’s Not My Field we interviewed Anton Zeilinger, professor of physics at the University of Vienna, director of the Viennese section of Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information IQOQI at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and one of the pioneers in the field of quantum information. We talked with him about quantum information and why it matters, how it could provide a general and fascinating description of reality, whether we will ever build a quantum computer, and how a scientist can consistently produce good scientific output.

Visit our SoundCloud page to download the episode.

We thank Anton Zeilinger and the University of Vienna.
This episode includes CC-licensed Freesound.org sound samples by users WaterminD, genghis attenborough and ERH.

Orbital angular momentum—a new tool for space science and technology. In this episode of It’s Not My Field we interview Bo Thidé, from the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, who was invited to the University of Glasgow to discuss his work. He presented his successful experimental results on radio frequency orbital angular momentum, and the possible applications to radio telescope arrays, telecommunications and medical imaging.
Visit our SoundCloud page to download the episode.

We thank Bo Thidé, the School of Physics and Astronomy and Nigel Hutchins.
The episode includes CC-licensed Freesound.org sound samples by users Setuniman, ERH and WaterminD.

Quantum electrodynamics (QED). In the second episode of It’s Not My Field we interviewed Thomas Philbin, a researcher at the University of St Andrews, who came to talk at a school seminar at the University of Glasgow. He discussed with us the ongoing debate regarding the theoretical foundations of the Casimir effect, a force that results from the quantum nature of the microscopic universe, as well as recent experiments and potential applications within nano-scale engineering.
Visit our SoundCloud page to download the episode.

We thank Thomas Philbin, the School of Physics and Astronomy and Nigel Hutchins.
The episode includes CC-licensed Freesound.org sound samples by user WaterminD.