At this meeting we presented a spinfoam model in which the fundamental "bubble amplitudes" (the analog of the one-loop corrections in QFT) are finite as the cutoff is removed. The model is a natural variant of the field theoretical formulation of the Barrett-Crane model. As the last, the model is a quantum BF theory plus an implementation of the

Between October 1999 and October 2000 an undistinguished high-galactic latitude patch of sky, the Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S), was observed with the VLT for more than 100 hours under the best seeing conditions. Using the near-infrared (NIR) imaging mode of the Infrared Spectrometer and Array Camera (ISAAC, Moorwood 1997), we obtained ultradeep

About one year after the end of the first observational run and six months after the first CoRoT data delivery, we comment the data exploitation progress for different types of stars. We consider first results to illustrate how these data of unprecedented quality shed a new light on the field of stellar seismology.

Aims: We aim to characterize the broadband emission from 2FGL J2001.1+4352, which has been associated with the unknown-redshift blazar MG4 J200112+4352. Based on its gamma-ray spectral properties, it was identified as a potential very high energy (VHE; E> 100 GeV) gamma-ray emitter. We investigate whether this object is aVHE emitter, characterize

The near-infrared spectrograph LIRIS was first commissioned on the WHT on the nights of 15-19 Feb 2003. During all that time the instrument functioned with no major failures. At the time of commissioning LIRIS included imaging and spectroscopic observing modes. Spectroscopy could be done at low resolution (about 700 using the narrowest slit of 0.65

Studying the earliest stages in the birth of stars is crucial for understanding how they form. Brown dwarfs with masses between that of stars and planets are not massive enough to maintain stable hydrogen-burning fusion reactions during most of their lifetime. Their origins are subject to much debate in recent literature because their masses are