and professor don strickland is only the third woman ever to have won a nobel prize in physics. rs were honoured for what the nobel committee called groundbreaking inventions in laser physics. professor strickland devise a way to use lasers as very precise drilling or cutting tools and millions of our operations are performed every year with these sharpest of laser beams. and when professor strickland spoke to me from her home via skype, she was still reeling from the shock of a 5am phone call telling her she had become the first woman in 55 years to wina become the first woman in 55 years to win a physics nobel. how surprising if it that you are the third woman to win this prize? that is surprising. i think that is the story that people want to talk about, that why should it take 60 yea rs. about, that why should it take 60 years. there are so many women out there doing fantastic research, so why does it take so long to get recognised? physics still has one of the largest gender gaps in science. 0ne the largest gender gaps in science. one recent study concluded that at current r

and finally in the irish times website there is a picture of don strickland who, as we mentioned, is the first female nobel prize winner for 55 years and she becomes only the third woman to win the award after mary cury in 1903 and maria mayer in 1963. huge congratulations to donna. we have cornelia mayer with us. the daily telegraph says cabinet ministers have said to them it isa cabinet ministers have said to them it is a question of when, not if, when it comes to the pm stepping down. it is reminiscent of tony blairand down. it is reminiscent of tony blair and gordon brown, remember when they said, when tony blair was asked to tell what he was stepping down, to step aside? yeah, ifeel sorry for her, it is incredibly unhelpful, because right now she should really concentrate on brexit. this whole brouha ha should really concentrate on brexit. this whole brouhaha in the conservative party, with the brexiteers, jacob rees—mogg, boris johnson, you know, conjuring up all the dissent, it is not helpful because she has to negotiate now with europe, not within her own party. she is, and t