The second week in December is Black in Nanotech Week and its co-founder Olivia Geneus is our guest in this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast. Geneus talks to Margaret Harris about her interest in using nanotechnology to develop new ways of treating cancer, and about the need to highlight the accomplishments of Black scientists in the field of nanotechnology and inspire the next generation of nanoscientists.

We love a quiz here at Physics World, so to celebrate this week’s Materials Research Society Virtual Meeting and Exhibit we have put together a quiz about songs and bands with materials in their titles or lyrics. In the podcast, quizmaster Matin Durrani tests the musical knowledge of Tom Miller, who runs several materials-related journals at IOP Publishing.

This week we learned that the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has been destroyed as its metal platform collapsed onto its reflecting dish. We chat about the sad demise of this iconic radio telescope and its effect on Puerto Rico and the astronomy community.