Physicists, physicists EVERYWHERE

 This image has nothing to do with physicists, I just thought it was classic Oxford

Well you can't escape them, it seems. Like cats at the Colosseum in Rome. Ants at a picnic.  Physicists abound here, like beautiful blonds in Hollywood. You might say Oxford is their natural habitat, one rich in all the nutrients these scientists need to flourish. One of the things I have always loved about Greg is that I really like his friends. And many of his friends happen to be people he works with. And of course most of the people he works with are physicists. This weekend we had dinner at the home of Steve Balbus who just won the Shaw Prize  (http://www.shawprize.org/en/) in physics. Also in attendance was James Binney, who won the Maxwell Prize (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Medal_and_Prize) some years ago and who "has authored over a hundred articles in peer-reviewed journals, and several textbooks, including Galactic Dynamics, which has long been considered the standard work of reference in its field." Although for those of us just dabbling our toes in this kind of thing, we could start with his book The Physics of Quantum Mechanics: An Introduction. And speaking of prize-winners let's not forget my own husband, who just won the Distinguished Research Fellow Award "for his work on deepening the theoretical understanding of turbulence in fusion plasmas" just a few weeks ago. Alex Schekochihin was also in attendance, as was Steve Balbus' wife, Caroline, both of whom are also physicists. (Alex may well have won some award already, but I'm not aware of it. I'll have to check his website.) James Binney's wife Lucy and I were the only two non-physicists. And thank goodness for that, else the house might have imploded from its own intellectual weight.

And in fact, what we mostly talked about over dinner was the mystery of British plumbing in British homes. A topic with endless possibilities for discussion if you've ever had any personal experience.