Prospects for constraining quantum gravity dispersion with near term
  observations
  We discuss the prospects for bounding and perhaps even measuring quantum
gravity effects on the dispersion of light using the highest energy photons
produced in gamma ray bursts measured by the Fermi telescope. These prospects
are brigher than might have been expected as in the first 10 months of
operation Fermi has reported so far eight events with photons over 100 MeV seen
by its Large Area Telescope (LAT). We review features of these events which may
bear on Planck scale phenomenology and we discuss the possible implications for
the alternative scenarios for in-vacua dispersion coming from breaking or
deforming of Poincare invariance. Among these are semi-conservative bounds,
which rely on some relatively weak assumptions about the sources, on subluminal
and superluminal in-vacuo dispersion. We also propose that it may be possible
to look for the arrival of still higher energy photons and neutrinos from GRB's
with energies in the range 10^14 - 10^17 eV. In some cases the quantum gravity
dispersion effect would predict these arrivals to be delayed or advanced by
days to months from the GRB, giving a clean separation of astrophysical source
and spacetime propagation effects.
