Hey there folks, editor Giselle Grayson here. In today's episode, NPR's astrophysicist Regina

G. Barbara talks to astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Bernal about her discovery of pulsars

and about the twists and turns in her career. So as I spend my last week as shortwave

senior supervising editor, I want to reflect on and thank some of the people who have made

this last chapter in my career a complete joy. The core shortwave team, Emily Kwong, Rebecca

Ramirez, Berli McCoy, Aaron Scott, Regina Barber, Gabriel Spitzer, Thomas Liu,

Britt Hansen, Margaret Serino, and Brendan Crump. Many others came through shortwave's doors

in 2022, Chloe Weiner, Devon Schwartz, Stephanie O'Neill, Catherine Cipher, Eva Tessfy, Rachel

Carlson, Abilavine, and thanks to all our NPR reporters, engineers, bosses, and colleagues

for all the support you've shown shortwave. A wonderful group of people brings you

our listener, this podcast, and NPR every day. At the end of this episode, Bernal says there's

plenty more unexpected things to trip over if you keep your eyes open. That sounds to me like the

perfect thought to ring in the new year. Happy 2023 from me to the incredible shortwave team,

and to all y'all our listeners. Thank you so much. Happy new year.

You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Jocelyn Bell Bernal knows that in space, just as in life, nothing lasts forever.

Bigger stars are at the end of their life, explored dramatically. They hugely brighten up,

they kick out a whole lot of gas and stuff into space, and the core gets kicked against,

gets compressed, gets shrunk right down. Massive stars more than 20 times bigger than our son

eventually collapse into black holes. Infinitely small points of immense mass that we can't directly see.

Then there are smaller stars, still bigger than our son, that don't fully collapse into black holes.

They're known as neutron stars, because they're largely composed of one of the fundamental

...