Bed Post

I’ve a big meeting in the morning at 9:00am and have not the slightest bit of sleepiness in me at all, and it is 11:30pm. This may have something to do with me making a pot of coffee at about 9:00pm after deciding that it was way too early to go to sleep and I should do some work. I’ve done some, and now im in bed. Let’s see if a little blogging off the cuff about some internal stuff helps…

Well, sort of internal. Pretty sure you would not want full-on internal stuff. Even I don’t know what’s in there all the way down…

….hmmm, and now it is 13 minutes after midnight. The intervening time was spent prepping a draft of what I expect will be the next post, involving generating a video and uploading it to YouTube and so forth. Do have a look. [Update: here.]

One of the more interesting things from today was getting excited about a paper I was asked to referee. It turned out that I really liked it a lot. I’d somehow missed it in the regular scheme of things, and so this time around I get to say that refereeing was really useful for me. I cannot tell you which paper it s, unfortunatley. It was actually about something that I’d planned to try to do myself, before I got distracted by another set of projects and never returned to the issue… So it was nice, a bit of the way through, to suddenly realize what was going on and sit up and take note. I’ve a few minor comments to the authors to encourage a bit of clarity in the presentation, but other than that my report will be “nicely done, chaps”. It has all served the purpose of reminding me to get back to some of those projects I had in mind three years ago. (Three years already! Geez…)

Was chatting with a bunch of different sorts of physicists today. It was enjoyable. Oddly, one of them remarked that string theory had, and I forget the exact phrase, lost its way, or run out of steam, or something like that. He then went on to talk about activity in AdS/CFT (and relations) and its applications to nuclear physics and condensed matter ideas… You know, stuff I’ve talked a lot about here. I did not say anything, but found (as I have in the past) this a very odd way of looking at things. First, I’m clearly behind in the news, since I am not clear on this business of loss of steam and so forth. There continues to be nice steady progress in a number of areas…. I think that there’s a perception that if the field is not in a lather about some bandwagon or another, there must be a problem…That’s not right, i think. instead, a division of labour into many diverse directions -what seems to be going on- is a rather healthy state of affairs. There’s so much to do! Second, people seem to keep dismissing these “mere applications” things as not string theory somehow, as though there is a denial that the subject be allowed to make any form of contact with other parts of physics. We’re only allowed to mumble about the Theory of Everything and so forth…but not a theory of, you know, Something. A bit of an odd view*, and, I dare to predict, ironic. As I have said before, not only do I think this stuff is important, I think it may well be central to moving the whole dance party forward in a big way some time soon… Anyway, the person was quite sensible and informed on the subject and not just making cheap points, so it was all fine to hear and we continued chatting aimialy at length… Ultimately it is a big enough tent for a wide variety of interesting viewpoints, so …onwards and upwards.

Had a nice exchange or two with some filmmakers on two separate occasions the last few days. I’ve put myself into hide mode for a while, partially, but still take some calls and emails from time to time on the matter of science topics on TV. In these cases, I get to pitch ideas and guide writing at an early stage in the process on shows that are going to get made…. In such cases I get to see some of the results up in the tv screens in people’s living rooms a few months later, so it is well worth helping out, as it can make quite the difference…

In related matters, I heard that I, in collaboration with a colleague of mine in Chemistry, got a grant the other day. We applied to a foundation for some money to fund a little project to do with science and film, and we got it! Hurrah! This means I’d better find time to work on that and get it into shape… If you are a student at USC, it will possibly involve you, so stay tuned for an announcement soon(ish)!

Ok… Almost 1:00am. Think I am going to turn over and try to sleep. Maybe count some sheep… See if I spot any patterns… that sort of thing…

-cvj

*Although, not totally surprising when you hear it from someone in the general public since that’s all the press tend to want to discuss when mentioning string theory…