‘Mile-high’ physics

By Tushna Commissariat at the APS March Meeting in Denver

The city of Denver, Colorado has been invaded…or so I am sure the locals will feel over the next few days, as more than 9000 physicists from all over the world have arrived to take part in the APS March Meeting. I have been here in the “Mile-high city” of Denver – so nicknamed thanks to its official elevation that is exactly one mile or 5280 feet above sea level – since Sunday morning, and physics is the talk of the town as everyone descends upon the Colorado Convention Center (pictured above).

As always, there is a wide variety of interesting talks, sessions and press conferences over the next few days and I would have to clone myself multiple times to get around to all of them. Talking about cloning, though – I have just been to my first session, where Stanford researcher Patrick Hayden was taking about quantum information and asking whether or not it could be cloned in space–time. I will be speaking with Hayden later in the day, so watch this space if you would like to know more.

I will also be going to hear more about historians and the work they do to extend the “half-life” of science stories, how bacteria evolve and invade, and how they could be used to build circuits, as well as a talk about the visa-application hurdles faced by international scientists who visit the US and more – and all of this is just today!

Make sure you keep an eye on the physicsworld.com blog over the next four days and also keep an eye on my Twitter feed @tushna42 (and the hashtag #apsmarch). I will try to live Tweet and post images from some of the more interesting sessions I attend.