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Physics Comes Marching In

By drorzel on March 11, 2008.

The annual March Meeting of the American Physical Society is happening this week in New Orleans. This is the biggest physics conference of the year, by far, with close to 7,000 attendees-- despite what you might think from the Internet, the Condensed Matter crowd who attend the March Meeting significantly outnumber particle physicists and high-energy theorists.

I don't usually go to the March Meeting-- it's just too damn big. I went to the Centennial Meeting in Atlanta in 1999 (and gave an invited talk, in fact), and didn't care for it all that much. I prefer DAMOP, which is much smaller-- a bit under 1,000-- and just feels more civilized.

There's no denying, though, that the March Meeting is the physics event of the moment. It will generate all sorts of interesting news over the next week, and as with any modern news event, there are bloggers reporting from on-site. Physics World's bloggers Hamish Johnston and Michael Banks are in New Orleans (start here), and Doug Natelson reports on the first day's sessions. There's also a giant March Meeting primer from Tom Metcalf at metcaffeination.

I'm sure I'm missing lots of reports, many from those new blogs I'm looking for. Leave a comment telling me what I should be reading and linking.

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