(On the streets of) Philadelphia

Even as we speak, my sister is sitting on a plane on the tarmac at Heathrow, waiting to take off for pastures new. It's a very big adventure - she's moving to Philadephia for two years to take up a post-doc position at Penn University.

People often ask me what it is my sister does. High-energy Physics is the answer, although that's about the sum total of my knowledge. She spends a not-inconsiderable period of time two miles underground in Canada (and sometimes Texas) looking at particles, but exactly what she's up to or why she's doing it has always been a bit of a mystery. At least it was, up until this weekend, when she admitted that her Physics crew is connected to the Physics crew who are trying to bring the Universe to an end on Wednesday. She kept that little gem to the last possible minute.

"If the Big Bang happened as we think, then the Universe was created from the collision of two forces," she explained for perhaps the hundredth time over lunch. "For every piece of matter, there has to be the same amount of anti-matter. Think of it this way: for every one Almostalady, there's an anti-Almostalady somewhere. We're just trying to find her."

"Doesn't sound like a very good idea to me," I muttered dubiously, poking the remains of dessert with my fork.

"What they're going to do is fire two different kinds of particles at each other to recreate what we think happened," she said, ignoring my glowers. "They're hoping to see the Higgs particle. Or get some more insight into the nature of antimatter."

"Isn't that rather like inviting the Apocalypse?"

"Would you like me to refill your wineglass?"

And so off she goes to associate with the great and the good of the Physics world. For the most part I'm looking at it not as losing a sister but gaining a holiday home 45 minutes from New York. Still, I'm a bit sad. It only feels like five minutes since her Starburst She-Ra doll kicked seven shades of crap out of my Thundercat Cheetara on the bedroom floor. Where does the time go?