Physicists shift base

Imperial College London has poached a team of leading theoretical physicists from Queen Mary, University of London. The group of string theorists is led by Chris Hull, who is credited with playing a key role in the second "revolution" in string theory in the mid-1990s. He will be joined by Fay Dowker, Jerome Gauntlett, Dan Waldram and four of the group's postdocs. A joint statement issued by the group says: "Queen Mary has been an excellent, enjoyable and productive place to do research.

Imperial provides a new opportunity and challenge."