Physicists, Metallic Hydrogen, Relaxation, and a Trophy

I often find the truth (or accuracy) of stereotypes to be extremely amusing. This conference has proven to be no exception. The talks for the day started off with a physicist who was definitely wearing the exact same shirt from last night. I know this because it was such a remarkable shirt. The front shows the typical evolutionary cartoon with the human turned around asking the primates to, "stop following me." I can appreciate the humor in the shirt, but that is the type of clothing that people remember from one day to the next. Oh well, I got a kick out of it (as did Anita and Tim when I mentioned it later in the day).

The morning sessions were very heavy in the topics of quantum physics and electron distribution theory for metal and alloy materials. I was impressed by how much I remember from the extremely limited background that I have in quantum thoery. However, I was also humbled by just how smart some of these guys really are. The esoteric level of understanding is just incredible.

I sat with a few professors from various Australian universities during lunch and it was interesting to get their thoughts on science, academics, and life in general. The meal was good as well and, before I knew it, we were back in the afternoon sessions. Finally, at this point in the day, we were able to get wireless internet for the first time at the conference. I was glad to be able to catch up on e-mail and put out some wildfires that had come up over the past day or so. Luckily, nothing too pressing was going on (or at least nothing that someone else couldn't deal with for the time being).

The last session of the day was Neil Ashcroft (Cornell University - i.e. the only other American here). He was excellent. His talk centered on creating a metal state of hydrogen (similar to lithium, sodium, and/or cesium metal). Apparently potassium is different because it fills the 4s1 orbital prior to the 3d1 orbital - so he excluded that. But he did acknowledge that potassium also forms metals. Apparently, hydrogen is the most abundant substance in the solar system and Jupiter is almost entirely made up of hydrogen containing gases, liquid hydrogen and metallic hydrogen (as far as we can tell). At experimentally accessible temperatures, it is approximated that the pressure required to achieve a metallic hydrogen phase is somewhat greater than 400 GPa (higher than the pressure at the center of the Earth). Apparently, their group is doing theoretical work looking into using hydrides to do some of the pressurization work (i.e. densify the hydrogen) in order to create a hydrogen metal alloy (essentially) at experimentally accessible temperatures and pressures. The work is fascinating (from a less-than-useful perspective of a pure scientist).

Following the oral sessions, a poster session was held. I quickly realized that there were really no polymer posters, so I decided to retire to a nice bench and enjoy the scenery for a while. I am convinced that I have found what must be one of the most perfect benches on this planet. It makes me think of the Scrubs episode where Turk enjoys lunch at the bench in front of the hospital and he describes it to J.D. as being a place where all worries melt away. The cool thing here in New Zealand is that you don't have to imagine the view. It was great to just sit there and feel all of my concerns or worries just melt away. I probably just sat there taking in the view and the awesomeness of nature for about 45 minutes before Anita came by and invited me back to her place (with Tim) for cheese, crackers, and wine before dinner. So, we continued the relaxation on their porch overlooking another spectacular view of the ocean, beach, and surrounding vegetation.

After finishing a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers, we made our way up to dinner and enjoyed BBQ ribs (they were actually pretty good all things considered).

Following dinner, I competed with the other graduate students and a few older guys in the conference trivia game. Anita and Tim were on the judges panel, so they had been avoiding discussing the questions with me for the last few weeks. Anyhow, our team did really well and we ended up finishing on top to win the trophy! The trophy itself is a heavy silver cup with a base that has all of the winner's names inscribed (similar idea as the Stanley Cup). So, our names will be forever immortalized on the trophy and it will stay at the University of New South Wales (the majority of the team members were from UNSW) until they will bring it to the meeting next year and another team will win it for a year.

In addition, we also won a nice bottle of pinot noir! Overall, it was really a lot of fun and I was able to answer all of the U.S. questions for my team (and they helped out considerably with the Australian, New Zealand, and Physics questions).

So, now I'm back in the room ready for bed. Tomorrow I will present in the afternoon and I am looking forward to enjoying another day in Waiheke. Also, I'll get to share the trivia prize pinot with my teammates at the conference banquet held tomorrow evening!