This is a live report from the spring meeting of the German Physical Society (DPG) in Berlin. Every year the DPG organises a series of spring meetings for the German physicists. Normally it is a series of 5-6 topical meetings, well separated in the major branches of physics. So usually we particle physicists meet in a nice German town and discuss what has happened in our field during the last year.
But don't forget, this is the World Year of Physics! So this year all the topical meetings have been combined in one big conference. About 7000 physicists are here. And they come from all branches of our field: Astrophysics, Condensed Matter Physics, Quantum Optics, Quantumgravitation, Nuclear Physics, and so on. I just heard on the news that this is the largest physics conference ever held in Europe, and I believe it. Berlin is really crowded with physicists. I wouldn't believe that 7000 physicists are noticeable in a 4Mio citizen city, but they are! You recognize them everywhere.... How? Well, I really don't know exactly, but whenever I am sitting in the U-Bahn here and I see groups of mostly males standing around, all equipped with laptop backbacks and all in casual clothes, I am pretty sure I know their profession.
A large group of colleagues from DESY is here with me. It reminds me a little bit of the school trips I participated some 20 years ago. Here is a picture of a bunch of DESY physicists entering the train from Hamburg to Berlin:
But know of course the purpose is not primarily to have fun, but to do real and important science. So here you can see some of them doing important physics also during the coffee breaks:
So it is just the second day today, four more are to follow. It is now already a really impressive event, I heard a lot of very interesting talks. Tomorrow even the Chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schroeder, is expected to give a speech here. I am really looking forward to that. It is always interesting to hear politicians speaking about the future of our profession. At the end they are the people who pay us, right?
So stay tuned, I'll keep you updated....
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