The world in eleven dimensions : supergravity supermembranes and M theory ELEVEN DIMENSIONAL SUPERGRAVITY Introduction Supersymmetries and their representations Nahm 1978 Supergravity theory in eleven dimensions Cremmer Julia and Scherk 1978 Search for a realistic Kaluza Klein theory Witten 1981 N8 supergravity breaks down to N1 Awada Duff and Pope 1983 Compactification of D11 supergravity on K3 T3 Duff Nilsson and Pope 1983 Exact pp wave solutions of 11 dimensional supergravity Hull 1984 N4 remaining supersymmetry in Kaluza Klein monopole background in D11 supergravity Han and Koh 1985 THE ELEVEN DIMENSIONAL SUPERMEMBRANE Introduction Supermembranes and eleven dimensional supergravity Bergshoeff Sezgin and Townsend 1987 On the quantum mechanics of supermembranes de Wit Hoppe and Nicolai 1988 Multimembrane solutions of d11 supergravity Duff and Stelle 1991 Open p branes Strominger 1996 D branes from M branes Townsend 1996 THE ELEVEN DIMENSIONAL SUPERFIVEBRANE Introduction Black p brane solutions of d11 supergravity theory Gueven 1992 Eleven dimensional origin of string string duality: a one loop test Duff Liu and Minasian 1995 One loop in eleven dimensions Green Gutperle and Vanhove 1997 Five branes and M theory on an orbifold Witten 1996 Covariant field equations of the M theory fivebrane Howe Sezgin and West 1997 M THEORY (BEFORE M THEORY WAS COOL) Introduction Superstrings in d10 from supermembranes in d11 Duff Howe Inami and Stelle 1987 Duality rotations in membrane theory Duff and Lu 1990 Unity of superstring dualities Hull and Townsend 1995 The eleven dimensional supermembrane revisited Townsend 1995 INTERSECTING BRANES AND BLACK HOLES Introduction Intersecting M branes Papadopoulos and Townsend 1996 Harmonic superpositions of M branes Tseytlin 1996 The black branes of M theory Duff Lu and Pope 1996 Intersecting M branes as four dimensional black holes Klebanov and Tseytlin 1996 M THEORY AND DUALITY Introduction String theory dynamics in various dimensions Witten 1995 P brane democracy Townsend 1996 The power of M theory Schwarz 1996 Heterotic and Type I string dynamics from eleven dimensions Horava and Witten 1996 M theory: the theory formerly known as strings Duff 1996 M theory as a matrix model: a conjecture Banks Fischler Shenker and Susskind 1997 Solutions of four dimensional field theories via M theory Witten 1997 The large N limit of superconformal field theories and supergravity Maldacena 1998.