In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast we meet Adrian Mancuso, who is the new Physical Science Director at the UK’s Diamond Light Source. The physicist talks about his plans for the national synchrotron lab, and chats about the myriad research that is done at synchrotrons and related facilities called free electron lasers.

Also in this podcast, the science journalist Keith Cooper talks about plans for the next generation of NASA’s space telescopes – and how these instruments will be used by astronomers. He also chats about his latest book, which looks at how humans could respond to contact from extraterrestrial intelligent life.