Here, There, and Everywhere

Well, it has been quite the week so far. I’ve been mostly in England. First I spent Tuesday getting over the main effects of jetlag and a short but strong cold (both more or less gone now), and then Wednesday I went to King’s College London to give a seminar to the three groups in the Triangle series of seminars – King’s, Imperial, Queen Mary are the three places the participating research groups in theoretical high energy physics come from. It was excellent to see so many old friends and colleagues, meet some new ones, and chat physics at the pub and over dinner later on. The seminar seemed to be well received, although I know I was far from my best, given jetlag and cold. The next two days saw me saying hi to family and friends at coffee and dinner in the evenings and visiting at Queen Mary and Imperial for the day, and hiding in the British Library for most of Friday, writing.

What am I writing? Four lectures on D-branes and string theory and M-theory, with a focus on some of the fun and instructive applications (and potential applications) of those tools to issues in condensed matter and nuclear physics. See some earlier posts for some of my writing/explaining a bit about what this is all about. Look under string theory in the archives. (e.g. here.)

I’m about to finish up here at the British Library (yes, working here for a bit on a Saturday too) and pick up my bags and dash off to the British Museum to meet my older nephew (my older brother’s son) for a quick coffee and a chat. We’re going to admire Norman Foster’s lovely work on the roof there before I then dash off to the station to take a train to Cambridge. I’ll be there for an evening and a morning before dashing off to the airport to take the plane to where I’ll actually be giving the lectures: Madrid. Should be huge fun. I’ll check in from there next.

-cvj