Can he really be that old? Was I ever that young? A trip to clear out his student flat has brought back so many memories

There’s an accurate, if snide, thing I’ve seen online that reads “No parent on Facebook can believe their child has turned any age”, and yes, OK, not the “on Facebook” bit, but there is a rote astonishment at time passing that I sometimes slip into, contemplating my adult sons. But, allow me, just this once, a Facebook parent moment. My elder son turned 23 last month and we’ve just been to London to collect his stuff at the end of his degree. On the way, I realised I was 23 when I moved there myself.

You can’t often pre-emptively pinpoint parenting “lasts”, but when you can, they’re strange and melancholy – even when they’re not, objectively, things a person would choose to do again. This trip involved (I hope) my last time standing, hips screaming from the drive, texting “We’re outside” as we waited for our son to wake up (my husband ended up throwing a ball at his bedroom window). It was definitely my last time removing my shoes amid the overflowing bins of that sticky-floored student house, and hovering over the Trainspotting-esque toilet then deciding against drying my hands on any of the towels. It ended with the last trip along the M1 squished between a salvaged chair, a duvet and an Ikea bag of pans threatening to decapitate me if we made an emergency stop. We were bringing his stuff “home” knowing that it won’t be home for him in the same way again: he’s moving to New York this summer. Maybe not for ever, but for years, not months.

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© Photograph: Posed by models; Cavan Images/Getty Images/Cavan Images RF

© Photograph: Posed by models; Cavan Images/Getty Images/Cavan Images RF

The presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor, who has struggled to make inroads with the Black community, spoke at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network on Saturday.

© Shuran Huang for The New York Times

In the “birthplace of redlining,” an ambitious plan to promote homeownership and restore neighborhoods plagued by vacant houses is taking hold.

The global order is being dismantled by a generation that will not live to see the wreckage they leave behind

Let’s attempt something delicate: talking about age without slipping into ageism. Never before in modern history have those with the fate of the world in their hands been so old. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are both 72. Narendra Modi is 74, Benjamin Netanyahu 75, Donald Trump 79, and Ali Khamenei is 86.

Thanks to advances in medical science, people are able to lead longer, more active lives – but we are now also witnessing a frightening number of political leaders tightening their grip on power as they get older, often at the expense of their younger colleagues.

David Van Reybrouck is philosopher laureate for the Netherlands and Flanders. His books include Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World and Congo: The Epic History of a People

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

© Photograph: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

Cyril Hilsum, a former president of the Institute of Physics (IOP), celebrated his 100th birthday last week at a special event held at the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Born on 17 May 1925, Hilsum completed a degree in physics at University College London in 1945. During his career he worked at the Services Electronics Research Laboratory and the Royal Radar Establishment and in 1983 was appointed chief scientist of GEC Hirst Research Centre, where he later became research director before retiring aged 70.

Hilsum helped develop commercial applications for the semiconductor gallium arsenide and is responsible for creating the UK’s first semiconductor laser as well as developments that led to modern liquid crystal display technologies.

Between 1988 and 1990 he was president of the IOP, which publishes Physics World, and in 1990 was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for “services to the electrical and electronics industry”.

Hilsum was honoured by many prizes during his career including IOP awards such as the Max Born Prize in 1987, the Faraday Medal in 1988 as well as the Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize in 1998. In 2007 he was awarded the Royal Society’s Royal Medal “for his many outstanding contributions and for continuing to use his prodigious talents on behalf of industry, government and academe to this day”.

Despite now being a centenarian, Hilsum still works part-time as chief science officer for Infi-tex Ltd, which produces force sensors for use in textiles.

“My birthday event was an amazing opportunity for me to greet old colleagues and friends,” Hilsum told Physics World. “Many had not seen each other since they had worked together in the distant past. It gave me a rare opportunity to acknowledge the immense contributions they had made to my career.”

Hilsum says that while the IOP gives much support to applied physics, there is still a great need for physicists “to give critical contributions to the lives of society as a whole”.

“As scientists, we may welcome progress in the subject, but all can get pleasure in seeing the results in their home, on their iPhone, or especially in their hospital!” he adds.

The post Former IOP president Cyril Hilsum celebrates 100th birthday appeared first on Physics World.

Over the years, first as a PhD student and now as a postdoc, I have been approached by many students and early-career academics who have confided their problems with me. Their issues, which they struggled to deal with alone, ranged from anxiety and burnout to personal and professional relationships as well as mental-health concerns. Sadly, such discussions were not one-off incidents but seemed worryingly common in academia where people are often under pressure to perform, face uncertainty over their careers and need to juggle lots of different tasks simultaneously.

But it can be challenging to even begin to approach someone else with a problem. That first step can take days or weeks of mental preparation, so to those who are approached for help, it is our responsibility to listen and act appropriately when someone does finally open up. This is especially so given that a supervisor, mentor, teaching assistant, or anybody in a position of seniority, may be the first point of contact when a difficulty becomes debilitating.

I am fortunate to have had excellent relationships with my PhD and postdoc supervisors – providing great examples to follow. Even then, however, it was difficult to subdue the feeling of nausea when I knocked on their office doors to have a difficult conversation. I was worried about their response and reaction and how they would judge me. While that first conversation is challenging for both parties, fortunately it does gets easier from there.

Yet it can also be hard for the person who is trying to offer help, especially if they haven’t done so before. In fact, when colleagues began to confide in me, I’d had no formal preparation or training to support them. But through experience and some research, I found a few things that worked well in such complex situations. The first is to set and maintain boundaries or where your personal limits lie. This includes which topics are off limits and to what extent you will engage with somebody. Someone who has recently experienced bereavement, for example, may not want to engage deeply with a student who is enduring the same and so should make it clear they can’t offer help. Yet at the same time, that person may feel confident providing support for someone struggling with imposter syndrome – a feeling that you don’t deserve to be there and aren’t good at your work.

Time restrictions can also be used as boundaries. If you are working on a critical experiment, have an article deadline or are about to go on holiday, explain that you can only help them until a certain point, after which you will explore alternative solutions together. Setting boundaries can also be handy for mentors to prepare to help someone struggling. This could involve taking a mental-health first-aid course to support a person who experiences panic attacks or is relapsing into depression. It could also mean finding contact details for professionals, either on campus or beyond, who could help. While providing such information might sound trivial and unimportant, remember that for a person who is feeling overwhelmed, it can be hugely appreciated.

Following up

Sharing problems takes courage. It also requires trust because if information leaks out, rumours and accusations can spread quickly and worsen situations. It is, however, possible to ask more senior colleagues for advice without identifying anyone or their exact circumstances, perhaps in cases when dealing with less than amicable relationships with collaborators. It is also possible to let colleagues know that a particular person needs more support without explicitly saying why.

There are times, however, when that confidentiality must be broken. In my experience, this should always be first addressed with the person at hand and broken to somebody who is sure to have a concrete solution. For a student who is struggling with a particular subject, it could, for example, be the lecturer responsible for that course. For somebody not coping with divorce, say, it could be someone from HR or a supervisor for a colleague. It could even be a university’s support team or the police for a student who has experienced sexual assault.

Even if the situation has been handed over to someone else, it’s important to follow up with the person struggling, which helps them know they’re being heard and respected

I have broken confidentiality at times and it can be nerve-wracking, but it is essential to provide the best possible support and take a situation that you cannot handle off your hands. Even if the issue has been handed over to someone else, it’s important to follow up with the person struggling, which helps them know they’re being heard and respected. Following up is not always a comfortable conversation, potentially invoking trauma or broaching sensitive topics. But it also allows them to admit that they are still looking for more support or that their situation has worsened.

A follow-up conversation could also be held in a discrete environment with reassurance that nobody is obliged to go into detail. It may be as simple as asking “How are you feeling today?”. Letting someone express themselves without judgement can help them come to terms with their situation, let them speak or have confidence to approach you again.

Regularly reflecting on your boundaries and limits as well as having a good knowledge of possible resources can help you prepare for unexpected circumstances. It gives students and colleagues immediate care and relief at what might be their lowest point. But perhaps the most important aspect when approached by someone is to ask yourself this: “What kind of person would I want to speak to if I were struggling?”. That is the person you want to be.

The post How to support colleagues who are dealing with personal issues appeared first on Physics World.

With so much turmoil in the world at the moment, it’s always great to meet enthusiastic physicists celebrating all that their subject has to offer. That was certainly the case when I travelled with my colleague Tami Freeman to the 2025 Celebration of Physics at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) on 10 April.

Organized by the Institute of Physics (IOP), which publishes Physics World, the event was aimed at “physicists, creative thinkers and anyone interested in science”. It also featured some of the many people who won IOP awards last year, including Nick Stone from the University of Exeter, who was awarded the 2024 Rosalind Franklin medal and prize.

Stone was honoured for his “pioneering use of light for diagnosis and therapy in healthcare”, including “developing novel Raman spectroscopic tools and techniques for rapid in vivo cancer diagnosis and monitoring”. Speaking in a Physics World Live chat, Stone explained why Raman spectroscopy is such a useful technique for medical imaging.

Nottingham is, of course, a city famous for medical imaging, thanks in particular to the University of Nottingham Nobel laureate Peter Mansfield (1933–2017), who pioneered magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In an entertaining talk, Rob Morris from NTU explained how MRI is also crucial for imaging foodstuffs, helping the food industry to boost productivity, reduce waste – and make tastier pork pies.

Still on the medical theme, Niall Holmes from Cerca Magnetics, which was spun out from the University of Nottingham, explained how his company has developed wearable magnetoencephalography (MEG) sensors that can measures magnetic fields generated by neuronal firings in the brain. In 2023 Cerca won one of the IOP’s business and innovation awards.

Richard Friend from the University of Cambridge, who won the IOP’s top Isaac Newton medal and prize, discussed some of the many recent developments that have followed from his seminal 1990 discovery that semiconducting polymers can be used in light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

The event ended with a talk from particle physicist Tara Shears from the University of Liverpool, who outlined some of the findings of the new IOP report Physics and AI, to which she was an adviser. Based on a survey with 700 responses and a workshop with experts from academia and industry, the report concludes that physics doesn’t only benefit from AI – but underpins it too.

I’m sure AI will be good for physics overall, but I hope it never removes the need for real-life meetings like the Celebration of Physics.

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