The walls do talk

I feel slightly uncomfortable with some of my friends recently. More and more I realise that the people I mix with every day, indeed, with a few exceptions, everyone inside the department I work in seems to be really really sexist. I had to have words with one of my 'friends' over a snapping of a bra incident with my (then) girlfriend... I mean, since when is going up to someone and snapping the straps of her bra acceptable? Sometime I think it is me that is the weird one, I seem to be the only who is slightly uncomfortable with describing the girls we hang out with as meat, not poeple. I'm finding it harder and harder not to fall into that humer circle. And it isnt just the guys either. Several of the girls make exactly the same re-enforcing joke and comments that justify why the others do it. I really don't know. I'm jut glad that for the next five weeks I don't have to deal with it. **Hurray for rich English grandparents**

Trainspotting

Quantum Monte Carlo Methods

I've just got my second project from uni: Analysing Electronic Structures using Quantum Monte Carlo Methods. Simply put, Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) is a highly accurate computational technique for solving the Schrodinger equation for realistic electronic systems. This project could take one of two directions, depending on time constraints, as well as my own developing interests, with both projects giving experience of what is involved in the ‘real world’ application of quantum mechanics.

1.Implementation: This project involves writing a QMC program in FORTRAN90 from scratch which exactly solves the Schrodinger equation for the helium atom.

2.Application: This project involves applying an existing QMC code to investigate the properties of molecules which may have important roles to play in future hydrogen storage schemes. This will involve the use of massively parallel supercomputers.

:) Can't wait :)