We will discuss topological K-theory, which is an invariant of topological spaces built in terms of vector bundles over a given space. It turns out that the resulting (contravariant) functor is homotopy invariant and satisfies an appropriate version of the excision theorem, and therefore gives rise to a ``generalised cohomology theory''. One of its key additional features is Bott periodicity.
After introducing topological K-theory, we will discuss some its classical applications: one can show that there are no real division algebras except the reals, thecomplex numbers, the quaternions and the octonions. The last talks will consider the question how many of linearly independent vector fields exist overa sphere of a given dimension and describe a strategy to determine the precise number.