Day 1 -- continued

Fabiola Gianotti

I should start with the ESOF 2014 opening ceremony, but instead, I need to go back to the rest of the journalists conference. Specifically to the prize - yes there was a prize. It went to a guy with dreadlocks down past his waist who stages science events in Christiania -- the still-existent hippie/anarchist community in the middle of Copenhagen. Among other things, he could talk about deconstructing academic while listing things that suck. Instead of describing, I'll tell you to visit his website:  Science and Cocktails (scienceandcocktails.org). (Sorry, the iPad idea has a few problems, the "links" button seems to be on the blink.)

Opening ceremony: the Queen's speech was short and sweet, a reminder of how important this conference is to Denmark. Among the mandatory speakers -- Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Sofie Carsten Nielsen, Danish Minister for Higher Education and Euroscience president Lauritz Holm-Nielsen and Klaus Bock the ESOF2014 champion, whatever that is, we had an entertaining talk about music and the brain (in a "tweet": is music a from of social bonding?), and a discussion between the charming and articulate Fabiola Gianotti and Rolf-Dieter Heuer of CERN. Their tweet: Young people can rest assured of a career choice in physics.

melting "iceberg"

And for your enjoyment -- here is one of the more creative booths. Yes -- it s real. I would try to fix that (it's sideways), but I gotta go. More tomorrow.