Back at the office

Touchdown of the plane in München- and immediately the world was grey and rainy. Well, any trip to Italy cannot last forever. And at least I have a remarkable sunburn as a souvenir... Of course, being away for some days implicates that work piles up. Most urgent right now is preparing the questions for the physics bachelor exam of the first year chemistry students (they will have to solve them on monday!). 6 questions finished, 4 more to go...

Picture gallery online

Grignano harbour and the
ICTP guesthouse

And just to prove how nice it is here, I've uploaded some pictures. Click on the thumbnail to see more! :)
By the way, the large building on the right edge of this photograph is the Adriatico Guesthouse of the ICTP (International Centre for Theoretical Physics).

Sea and sun

The weather forecast was far too nice on saturday, so I wrote some e-mails, made some phone calls, and spent some money. Two more days in Bella Italia!!! Which means spending the day in a very relaxing day at the beach in the sun, and every now and then dipping into the sea for some refreshment. To keep my few remaining geek points, I'm reading pms-3... well, not only...

Weekend, vacation, whatever...

The conference is over (and was indeed very interesting), the looming-deadline research proposal sent off, the sun has already been shining nearly the whole day and is just setting slowly dark red over the sea, and I'm off now for some beers with the Delft guys in the center of Trieste. Cheeeers!

Brainfood for physicists

It seems that people are pretty keen on keeping us happy here at the conference. After listening to top-of-the line talks, the brain definitely needs some specialized thinking-food though. So I'd say this sweet coffee break add-on is fully justified. :)

You think you've seen it all (in your telescope)?

Compared to actual experimental physics, I have a tendency to think of astronomy as boring. Come on, it's not as if you can quickly flip a switch on your warp drive, have a close look what's really out there and tinker with it a bit. But, every now and then something amazing is discovered, as this stunninly beautiful spiral with a size of 1/3 light year. A gigantic sprinkler, lit by background galactic starlight... There's more information on it directly on the Hubble space telescope website, including the original paper discussing the discovery. Great!

Theoretical physics heaven

I managed to leave office and home yesterday, for a really promising conference. Deadlines are looming for a lot of paperwork, but thanks to modern computer technology work never really leaves you. So, train to München, plane to Italy... Right now I'm sitting on the terrace of the guesthouse of the local centre for theoretical physics (hosting the conference), overlooking the small yacht harbour, and watching the sun set over the Adriatic sea. I have not been to Italy for far too much time, and now it's really hard to keep typing. Though, even writing a research proposal is somehow much more pleasant here at the coast or on the terrace of a grand cafe at the piazza, sipping an espresso doppio and waching the crowd...

PS. You can buy ethernet cables here in the guesthouse 24h per day from a vending machine. Right now they are sold out though... :)