In and Around Cambridge

"I love deadlines.  I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." - Douglas Adams

Okay Mark, I know you have some sort of degree that makes you qualified to string words together, but all your blogging is making me look bad.  Don’t you have like 49728132 students to teach?  At least wait until my Self-Writing Quill comes in the mail before you post again.

Anyway, I should explain why it’s taken me so long to post (again).  Unbeknownst to me, my accommodation changed at the start of the year and so I've been busy dealing with that.  Don’t worry – my mailing address is still the same, it’s just that I now pretty much live here:

Home sweet home

It’s probably safe to say that I’m doing more homework now than I ever have in the past.  The mathematics course is structured in a way that requires one assignment per subject to be submitted every two weeks.  Since I’m studying six subjects, that evens out to about 3 assignments per week.  Each assignment takes about 10-20 hours to do, so when you calculate the average number of hours I should work each day…I try to think about something more cheery.  Thankfully, I love the stuff I’m learning and the lectures given are very interesting, so there’s only a small probability that I’ll go crazy before Christmas holiday!

Still, in the time not spent scribbling indecipherably I've managed to:

·         Buy and read a few chapters of Wolf Hall, which seems to be my parents’ absolute favorite book ever which “You just have to read because it’s so well written and parts of it reference Cambridge and you’ll be living in England and oh it’s just such a great book” (sorry Mom and Dad, couldn’t resist).

o   It actually is a great book by the way.  You should definitely read it if you haven’t already.

·         Get a “Loyalty Card” from the coffee shop for all the time I’ve been there.

·         Try black pudding (and immediately regret it).

·         Realize I’ve inadvertently been stealing juice from the dining hall for three weeks (I thought it was free, I swear).

·         Stake out a permanent spot in the library, complete with this imposing stack of books:

I've only opened three of them

• And finally, do a bit sightseeing:

To London!

Last Monday, I went to London!  For about 90 minutes.  I had to go into London to pick up a bag of clothes that was waiting for me there (thanks Aunt Julie, you’re the best), so after lectures ended that Monday I set out.  Getting out of class at 1:00, I grabbed a sandwich from the dining hall and walked to the train station, where I took a train into Liverpool St. station, transferred to the Metropolitan tube line for a few stops, and then walked a block to the building to pick up my bag.  I had a little extra time before I had to leave, so I walked around a little more and found this place on Baker Street:

….which was conspicuously sandwiched in between 237 Baker St. and 241 Baker St.  I’m no Sherlock Holmes, but if I had to guess I would say it’s probably not original. 

Unfortunately, at this point I had to catch my train back to Cambridge, so I did the whole thing again backwards and made it back in time for dinner!  Not a bad afternoon.

To Formal Hall!

This past Wednesday I also had a chance attend a “Formal Hall” which is a weekly dinner put on by King’s College where every dresses up and the food served is especially nice.  However, there are only 138 seats (for 430 students), so you have to buy a ticket in advance – which doesn’t sound so bad until you realize that everyone is trying to buy a ticket at the same time.  The ticketing process is absolutely mad.  Tickets are bought online and released at a specified time, but about five minutes beforehand the internet starts to slow down or grind to a halt due to the huge load of students refreshing the page.  By 2:30 (when they go on sale), the website is all but broken and it’s simply luck as to whether your page will load. 

Acceptable behavior when buying a formal ticket

Now that I think about it, this must seem peculiar to a tourist visiting the college.  From about 2:25-2:35 every Thursday, they will see the usually busy campus becomes devoid of students.  Then after this period all of the students will return to whatever they were doing – some buoyant, others clearly frustrated.

Fortunately, I was able to secure a ticket during this electronic free-for-all and attend the formal.  I would say what was on the menu, but the name of each dish was so complicated that I’m sure what they were (even though each was delicious)!  However, after a starter, main course, dessert, coffee, and plenty of wine, our group left the dining room full and happy.  I’m sure I will be going back for many more formals in the future – that is, if I can get the ticket.

To [Assorted Cambridge Destinations]!

One of the most amazing things about living in Cambridge is that there are so many unique and historic sites in such a small geographic area.  I mentioned two pubs in my last post about some famous pubs in Cambridge.  I’ve had a chance to stop by both so here’s a bit about them!

About a week ago, I stopped into a pub after getting dinner with a group of maths students and was surprised to see a plaque on the wall stating that the pub had been around for over 400 years!  This place, the Pickerel Inn, also claims to have been a favorite of CS Lewis (when he worked at Cambridge at the end of his career) as well as JRR Tolkien (in his visits to the university).  Although packed on the Friday night of my first visit, I’ve gone back during the week since then and found it to have quite the cozy atmosphere, with an interior sporting low ceilings, heavy wooden beams, and old tables that (in the words of one online reviewer) “have soaked up centuries of history and beer.”

The Eagle Pub's "RAF Bar"

On the topic of historic pubs, I need to also mention “The Eagle,” which is on the same block as my building.  Opened in 1667 and located across the road from the university’s physics laboratory, The Eagle’s claim to fame comes from the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953.  At that time, The Eagle was frequented by many university scientists, due to its proximity to the lab.  For this reason, when Watson and Crick discovered the famous “double-helix” shape of DNA, they announced the findings to their colleagues by standing on a table and claiming that they had “discovered the secret of life.”  Their work on the shape and structure of DNA has led to the development of modern genetics, and to this day the pub serves an ale called Eagle’s DNA (which unfortunately doesn’t taste all that great).  

Another cool historical fact about the Eagle is its heavily graffiti-ed ceiling.  During the second world war, the pub was home to air force regiments that came and went through Cambridge.  During this time, many airmen burned their name and short messages into the ceiling knowing that there was a good chance that they may never come back.  These scorched messages exist to this day and can be easily read in the part of the building now known as the RAF Bar.

Finally, I just want to make a quick note about the previously mentioned physics laboratory.  Cavendish Laboratory (now known as Old Cavendish, since the lab was reestablished at a new, modern site in the 1970’s), is a compound of buildings adjacent to King’s College and is home to hundreds of world-changing discoveries.  Although most research activity now occurs in the new site, Old Cavendish is still in use and is where I go three times a week to attend lecture.  Being the science nerd I am, it’s still somewhat awe-inspiring to walk among the maze of old buildings, loading docks, and exquisitely carved archways, knowing that some of the most brilliant scientists in history did the same. 

On the first day of class, the lecturer began his overview by stating that the aim of the course was to understand how electricity and magnetism were interrelated by understanding and applying Maxwell’s Equations, which are the cornerstone of the subject.  This lecturer was speaking in a building housed in Cavendish Laboratory, which was founded by the very same James Clerk Maxwell.  Numerous plaques pepper the compound, reminding students that many of the theories and methods they study today were discovered in the very place they trudge to, half-asleep, each morning. (Check the end of this post for some famous discoveries made in the lab).  Although Cambridge has battered me with schoolwork since my arrival, it’s reminders like these that keep me so appreciative and grateful for the opportunity to work in such a unique place.

I’d love to write more about my studies right now, but I’ve got to return to the library and get back to work!  There’s really no way around it – studying at Cambridge demands a huge time commitment.  I just hope that after doing math exclusively for a year, I don’t forget how to read and write.  So let me no if I dont right very good!

Cheers,

David

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P.S.  Here’s a list of some people who have worked in Cavendish, along with one of their well-known discoveries:

• Lord Rayleigh (discovered why the sky is blue)
• JJ Thomson (discovered the electron)
• Ernest Rutherford (discovered that atoms have a nucleus)
• William Bragg (Bragg’s Law of Diffraction)
• Arthur Compton (Compton Effect, directed portions of the Manhattan Project)
• James Chadwick (discovered the neutron)
• John Cockcroft (First researcher to “split the atom”) [Also, my class is held in the Cockcroft Lecture Theatre]
• James Watson, Francis Crick (discovered the structure of DNA)
• Dorothy Hodgkin (discovered the structure of penicillin and vitamin B12)
• And many, many others