KITP

The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) has a really fancy and new building directly opposite of the Engineering building I work in (which is really neat as well; it's called the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)). However, the KITP has a grand piano and a small electric piano in one if its seminar rooms! I asked people over there if I could just go in and play, and, yes! that's possible and I've done it a couple of times (to be honest, I only used the electric piano with the smallest volume possible ;)).

That's an example for the auditorium of the KITP I visited yesterday for a talk on the modeling of bacteria growth which was super interesting. Apparently, their straight, cylindric shape is a result of the Gaussian curvature and the pressure acting on the bacteria. Each single phenomenon can not explain the straight growth, so they're coupled, but it further investigation is needed to find out, how their interplay works exactly.