Strings 2007

The main annual conference in my main field of interest starts today. Strings 2007 is in Madrid, and runs all week. The website is here (while there, have a play with the front page image of the Goya painting – quite entertaining – snapshot right). They promise to update the schedule/speakers page with scans of slides, and video, so you’ll be able to keep track of some of the new developments online. There’s no system for doing this live, or asking questions remotely, so if you want to quiz Ed Witten about his new 83-page monster paper on three dimensional gravity that came out yesterday (just in time for the conference!), or feel the buzz of event-anticipation whenever Witten talks about a huge new sets of results, you’ll still have to show up in person.

Why am I not there? Well, it would be nice, but there are lots of reasons I’m not going this year, which I won’t bore you with. A very important one of course is that I’m trying to use Murphy’s law to ensure that there might be some huge new breakthroughs announced at the conference, as happened when I decided not to go to Strings 1995*. Taking one for the team…

-cvj

(*For those show don’t know, that was when Ed kicked off what is now known as the “Second Superstring Revolution” with a stunning lecture that has become legend. Ironically (for me), that conference was held here in LA, at USC – I was not yet on the faculty at that time, of course!)