Hello 2015.
When we detect light in the laboratory, it arrives in our detectors in little pieces. For a few years, I've wanted to make a painting called 'light is like rain'. At last it's taking shape as a large 2.5m canvas with over 200 droplets of light. In preparation, I made these colour studies, shown on the studio floor, a separate canvas for each light drop.
Here is a detail of another recent large oil painting, called 'Time', part of a series about oscillators. So much of Nature, including light, can be thought of as oscillations. The painting shows how, to an approximation, a simple pendulum keeps to the same beat regardless of its displacement.
Over recent months, I have been working with and thinking about presenting ideas. This has included: preparations with scientist colleagues for a 'Universe Day' for an entire junior school; presenting Finding Patterns to students and staff at college; and preparing for a TEDx talk in Marrakesh in late February. So, I will close with this exceptional lecture by theoretical physicist and teacher, Terry Rudolph at Imperial College. It is a beautiful demonstration of how a complex subject can be conveyed vividly and entertainingly, with no jargon at all. Which may explain the spiralling view count, currently at 298,000.