Regal opening ceremony, celebrity guests, royalty present....Nope its not the final of the European championship or the MTV music awards.....its the 58th meeting of the Nobel Physics Prize winners in Lindau island, Germany. Each of the celebrated guests here has won the Nobel Prize in Physics, joining the ranks of famous Physicists such as the first Nobel Physics prize winner Wilhelm Rontgen (the discoverer of x-rays) and indeed Albert Einstein (famous for many reasons including the extraordinary ability to pull funny faces). Set at the border between Germany, Switzerland and Austria at the beautiful lake Constance, the conference is dedicated to Physics this year, and we are set to receive 30 minute talks from each of the 27 of the Nobel Physics Laureates (past Prize winners) present at the conference. We also get the opportunity to interact with the Laureates, by 2 hour questions and answers sessions every day for 4 days. Theres also lots of events organised for the 500+ young researchers (such as the 3 from Ireland), and it all kicked off last night.
The opening ceremony yesterday was opened by Countess Sonja Bernadotte, President of the Nobel Council. We also were treated to music from a piano and a "theremin" (first time I heard of this too!), by a protogee of the inventor, Leon Theremin. Its a strange looking electonic instrument,apparently one of the first instruments, worked without even being touched!
There was also an initiation of new members to the Honorary Senate of the Foundation Lindau Nobelprize, and finally a lecture by Hans Rosling from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. He talked in great detail about the demographics of the world, and how there is almost no gap between developing and industrialised countries, as almost everybody thinks. He also showed that chimpanzees are just as intelligent as professors, but you had to have been there to understand that! His fascinating software about the state of the worlds money and health of the entire world, both individual countries and continents over the past 50 or 60 years has been bought by Google, and is now an online Google gadget (called “motion chart”). His in-depth analysis shows country GDP (gross domestic product) and such variables as child mortality rate and age, can all be shown for each country. His software can be seen at http://www.gapminder.org/
After that excellent talk, it was on the reception for the entire conference, where we had a few drinks and watched Germany take a bit of a beating at the European Cup final by Spain. The Irish contingent here were lucky enough to be invited to the American contingents party, not so bad since there were only 3 of us! Few drinks were had by all, and as usual a few business cards exchanged. Lucky it was only a short walk back to my German family house in the lightning storm after a few drinks.....swimming in the lake here (when its sunny) is highly recommended!
After that excellent talk, it was on the reception for the entire conference, where we had a few drinks and watched Germany take a bit of a beating at the European Cup final by Spain. The Irish contingent here were lucky enough to be invited to the American contingents party, not so bad since there were only 3 of us! Few drinks were had by all, and as usual a few business cards exchanged. Lucky it was only a short walk back to my German family house in the lightning storm after a few drinks.....swimming in the lake here (when its sunny) is highly recommended!
