Happy Tau ( τ) Day! For those of you who may not be familiar with τ , it's equivalent to 2 π , a constant extensively used in mathematics. I prefer τ to 2 π because it's simpler (and because it's one number instead of two, so I'm less likely to make some sort of algebra or arithmetic mistake). Read about some of the advantages of tau over pi here : Let’s Use Tau—It’s Easier Than Pi . (Yes, that is a math book in my jacket pocket. The wonders of pockets on men's jackets!) Now the update: I'm leaving for Toronto very soon, and the program at Fields starts on July 3rd. I don't have much more information on the research this summer, but our PI (principal investigator) sent an email with a few details. We'll be looking at hybrid symplectic integrators, which are numerical ODE (ordinary differential equation) solvers. I don't know much about them beyond that, but part of the goal for the research is to determine how they work and how...