"I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings" Charley Harper

I like Charley Harper's philosophy, I got one of his calendars today for the princely sum of £1 - money well spent for some great pictures. A perspective I find rather easier to comprehend than the third year particle physics I had to gird my cerebral loins for earlier on in the week. Much of the lecture was beyond my ability to understand, but  what I have found out is that quarks can be up, down or strange, and can also be red, green or blue. I suspect the colours are not literal, but if they are, then could the Hadron Collider  become a Hadron Colliderkaleidoscope? Maybe it is fun being a quark (or even an antiquark), especially perhaps in the strange state.

Today, it has been electronics and the amazing world of silicon chips. I have learned that a single silicon chip can contain up to 3 BILLION transistors; mind boggling stuff. Well, I was amazed, but looking round at the students in the lecture theatre, I seemed to be in a minority of one. It was 9 in the morning I suppose; also, the words "this topic is not examinable" prefaced the lecture, so I imagine that was enough signal for most of the brains to shut down and think of more important stuff, like the weekend.  I think the use of biological molecules in today's technology sounds fascinating, and were I a student today, it would be the area I would be interested in studying.

The joys (or otherwise) of note taking

Yesterday I made the mistake of assuming that Frankland Coll and Frankland Lecture Theatre were one and the same place. I dutifully went to what I thought was the right venue and made assiduous notes on assembly language and computing. Bits, bytes and nibbles (!) flowed from my pen as I attempted to get to grips with Forever Loops and Jump Format, hex, dec and binary forms.

As I came out of the lecture I checked my phone ..... there had been a text about 5 minutes into the lecture from the student I was taking the notes for, to tell me that I was In The Wrong Room. Mortification! Not only that, I had suffered sitting through a not altogether (for me at least) enlightening lecture, taking notes that were of no use to anyone, unless I have happened on a new pastime - random note taking. I wonder if it could take off?

An avalanche of words

Things have been hectic and so I've not had the chance to post for a while. It’s not that I haven’t been typing; the reality is that thousands of words have travelled from my keyboard to screen in the last week. Not my words alas, but those transcribed from recordings of interviews, seminars and lectures that I have been typing up for work. So, my head is awash with snippets from other people’s lives, opinions and lively, enthusiastic discussion from the seminar room and, in addition, I've learnt about the intricacies of  Much ado about nothing.