In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, the explosion expert Sam Rigby talks about his research, which focusses on protecting people, buildings and vehicles from explosions.

A structural engineer at the UK’s University of Sheffield, Rigby chats about the physics of explosions and describes a testing range that he and his colleagues use in the nearby Peak District. He also discusses the difficulties of understanding how a large blast will propagate through an urban area and explains how social media videos of the 2020 Beirut explosion informed his research.