thanks to you for enjoyable lectures and conversations.

As regards to the physical world, I’ll have more questions than anwers by the end of the school. This is probably a positive net balance.

Having attended Joanne’s extra dimensions lectures last summer at Les Houches, I can say that Trieste will have another good science communicator in september.

Sean, I can picture the scene, a funny kind of dance between two out-of-the-ordinary groups, who have little idea what the other group represents. My adventurous colleagues, who enjoy some of the same hobbies that I do, have been known to jump fences while exploring an island in their one free afternoon of a week-long workshop to accidently find naturist beach parties in progress. (They joined the celebration, which was the naturist club’s commemoration of a new ladder that reached the sea from the rocky shore). All it takes is a curious mind, open heart, and an adventurous spirit to find those precious nuggets of unforgettable moments.

Kip Thorne quote: “CALIFORNIA magazine, in an article on “The Man Who Invented Time Travel”, even ran a photograph of me doing physics in the nude on Palomar Mountain. I was mortified—not by the photo, but by the totally outrageous claims that I had invented time machines and time travel.”

And Amara, as luck would have it, the end-of-the-week party was held at a beach that was in fact quite naturist, although on the Italian side. The physicists uniformly did not get into the spirit of things, and some of the students were quite a bit disconcerted — the joke was to wonder which group would drive off the other first, although they ultimately coexisted peacefully.

One (small?) difference I’ve noticed in astronomy / planetary science here (Europe) is _alot_ of “schools” (often in the summer, but not always) for the PhD students. They are relatively cheap, you go someplace pleasant but isolated for 1-2 weeks once or twice a year, with 30-50 other students, focussed on a topic, and learn with lectures and sometimes hands-on work. If such a thing was available to me in the States when I was taking my graduate courses, then I somehow missed the advertisements. These schools seem to take the role of the ‘practical’ or ‘real-world’ application of the theory that the students learn in the European universities.

Last year I was a lecturer for an October one-week astrophysics school in Volterra, and I agree with Sean’s experience. It was way more fun to hang out with the students!

Excellent blogs! Congratulates to you both.

What are the answers to those profound questions you mentioned? Can you be a good physicist without learning GR? etc. etc.

Just and appendix on the ICTP: it has a leading role also in taking science to the third world countries. They cover ALL the expenses for the students coming from underdeveloped countries, and give them a chance to interact with the cream of science during those schools. They really do a fantastic job!

But then, maybe, it is more then that, when it comes to letting the hair down, and feeling free to wonder?

A doing away of the “discipline,” and being the “children of the universe,” all dreamy?

It’s sort of like watching children doing there thing from a parental perspective?

That one is allowed such freedoms of play? Then again, coming back from the play, one is to regain composure and adult status? The “chalk board” (tabla Rusa) showing all the ideas, but “reigning in” when the ideas are ready to be check for accuracy?

Sometimes a little pearl maybe?

So you encourage, while still seeking responsibility?

Having a perspective about God, “knowing” that once you were such a child?

There are such thoughts about being the child and encouraging such freedoms(creativity and ingenuity) even within such discipline, I am sure. Maybe you have a more advanced way of saying this?

your blog is simple but profound. I like it. Meanwhile, welcome to visit my blog(“the window to Earth”)(in Chinese) at your convenience.

Best regards!

yours:Zhao Rongqin