In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast I chat with three physicists about a room-temperature time crystal that they have created. Hossein Taheri at the University of California at Riverside, Andrey Matsko from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Krzysztof Sacha at the Jagiellonian University in Poland also explain the physics behind time crystals and how they could be used in practical applications.

Their time crystal is described in the paper “All-optical dissipative discrete time crystals”, which was co-written by Lute Maleki at US-based OEwaves.

Also in the podcast is Pradeep Niroula of the University of Maryland, who has written an article for Physics World called “Conquering the challenge of quantum optimization”. He explains how optimization algorithms runing on quantum computers could simulate quantum systems such as molecules, and even improve pizza delivery.

Physics World’s Laura Hiscott also joins me for a chat about the Physics World Careers 2022 guide, which has just been published. It is chock full of valuable information for physics students and graduates who are embarking on their careers or fancy a change in what they are currently doing. This year’s guide looks at employment opportunities in burgeoning areas such as quantum computing and explains how to get the most out of a summer work placement.