Storm

Nobody knows where it will begin. You thing you are going to talk about something and that it won't be long and, all of a suddent, you find yourself in the middle of a road filled with possibilities and many different ways to go. Even if it is always a little bit dark and you presume that many of the possible paths go nowhere, it is always very exciting to follow them until you reach that obstacle that definitely blocks your way.

That is what happened to a french postdoc, who has been at the IAA for five years, and me. I wanted to talk to him about a proposal we were planning on submitting to use the SMA (Sub-Millimeter Array) on a subject I do not have much experience with. We were there for more than two hours, because during the process of understanding what was the goal of the project, if it was feasible or not, what could we get from it, ideas started popping out, related to the original one or not, of other things to try. We left the room with two or three ideas that had to be further explored, and we only had written a few sketches and notes, nothing really defined and well thought-out.

I do not know what will come out of it, not much probably —we have already seen today that we'd better forget about one of them—, but there are few more attractive things than a good old-fashioned brainstorm. It is the beginning of a road that you never know where it will take you. All in all, that was one of the goals of my travelling so far from home.