Just saw this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeeXTmVGoxs&feature=fvsr

Now if I can can this for my iPhone I would have endless fun!

Finally back from a long trip to Europe. 4 Weeks away is a tad too long but lots of interesting physics. I had the GLORIOUS pleasure of attending a review of one of the EC projects I am in (QAP, Qubit Applications), and it was good to catch up with all my European colleagues (BTW: Vladimir Buzek and I built QAP but due to my relocation Down Under Martin Plenio and Ian Walmsley agreed to take over the running of this mammoth project).

The review was in Goteborg, Sweden. Sweden certainly has LOTS of rules! Make certain to bring your power adaptor as one (IMPORTANT) rule is that its illegal there to sell power adaptors which allow non-EC plugs to connecting EC plugs! I managed to also taste a little bit of reindeer as well! The art gallery in Goteborg was amazing. There I saw, for the first time, the wonderous art of Katagami: paper stencil pattern art.

During the public session on Wed both Peter Zoller, Daniel Esteve and Jörg Schmiedmeyer, gave very interesting talks. There appears to be great interest in hybrid quantum systems, where one couples, e.g. superconducting stripline cavities to ensembles of atoms/molecules/diamond defects.

From Sweden I popped down to Stuttgart, Germany where I hooked up with my student Ressa Said. There we visited the diamond quantum science group of Prof Joerg Wrachtrup and Fedor Jelezko. Also visiting with Phil Hemmer and Mikhail Lukin. We spoke a lot with Philip, Thomas and Forian - students working there on a variety of interesting diamond related projects. Interestingly the coffee machine - in the corridor - was the place everyone congregated...and after a spot of coffee - some football!

Ressa gave a talk on his latest ideas and we learned some tricks for modeling ESR/NMR systems. I also visited the groups of Ferdinand Schmidt Kahler and Tommaso Calarco in the nearby University in Ulm. Ferdinand makes microscopic ion traps and the experimental setups he has for ion/atom trapping were very impressive. On the weekend Prof Wrachtrup led me to an exhibition of contemporary fashion for furniture/art&craft/textiles etc, called BlickFest. One amazing exhibit was by some art students who used a CAD controlled milling machine to cut out millions of tiny interlocking pieces of hardboard and then joined them all up to make a honeycomb wall - a huge piece of work:

From Stuttgart we took the train to visit the group of Vladimir Buzek in Bratislava in Slovakia. Vladimir's group is primarily a theory group but recently he has found extra funds to build up support for a superconducting experimental group and hopefully this will soon start there too. We had a number of discussions with Mario, and Daniel&Daniel and others on whether entanglement was actually needed for some quantum protocols and we came across these interesting papers [PLK et al, Opt Comm 227, 147 (2003); TWJ et al, J Opt Sci Am B 24, 214 (2007)]. The old part of Bratislava is lovely but one must take a bit of care at night. Here is a view of the cathedral in the old town:

From Bratislava Ressa and I made our way back to Sydney. I stopped off in Vienna and visited the famous Erwin Schrodinger Institute, but I had to visit my favorite place: the Sacher Hotel and get some cake to bring home!