Technological applications of n=8 supergravity

My goal is to report on recent work done in collaboration with Eugene Cremmer and Joel Scherk at the Ecole Normale in Paris. A discussion of histo- . 1 h . 1 d ·1 b f d . h .. 1 [J, 2 ] . r1ca or tee n1ca eta1 s can e oun in t e or1g1na papers , it seems more appropriate to present here the classical Lagrangian in the most compact and symmetric form known today as well as some general observations and concepts of wider applicability.