Matters of Gravity

That is the title of the newsletter of the topical Group on Gravitation of the American Physical Society. The Spring 2006 edition is out today, with gravity-related news from the past months.

Three of them are of significance to me. Thomas Thiemann reports on the Loops '05 conference, held in Berlin last October, where I was present and learnt a lot about the current state of background independent quantum gravity. My supervisor Jorma Louko reports on a series of Quantum Gravity seminars held at the Newton Insitute in Cambridge during last autumm; I was present in only one talk, that by David Jennings on Unruh radiation as related to accelerated branes, and can testify to the wonderful atmosphere for discussing physics those seminars had, as after the talk and lunch we (Jorma, David, Ian Moss and I) spent the whole afternoon discussing in front of a blackboard for hours, until I started to feel dizzy. Lastly, Sasha Husa from the University of Jena reports on a numerical relativity workshop held at Villa General Belgrano, Córdoba, and ends by saying: "Finally, let me mention that steaks are indeed fabulous in Argentina, and are preferably accompanied by a Malbec from Mendoza." Ahhh... homesickness.