Monthly Archives: April 2009

The tricky thing about history is that it can only be pinned down in retrospect. For this reason, it is often difficult to tell when something significant has actually happened. Few witnessing the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, … Continue reading →

Day Three in the lab at Heidelberg, and the pace is brisk and relentless. After a few minor set-backs, we are now knee deep into rearraying my siRNA library onto glass chips, which will take a good chunk of several … Continue reading →

I have just arrived in Heidelberg for my month-long sabbatical at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, following up on the groundwork I laid when I was last here in February 2008. Although London is not far away as the Airbus … Continue reading →

When I was an undergraduate starting out on my Biology major, I didn’t have any preconceived notions about what branch of the life sciences I might ultimately favor. Oberlin College offered only a liberal arts degree in Biology – not … Continue reading →

I always associate Easter with the resurrection of flowering life. Although the holiday is early this year, our garden and woods are already full of birdsong and blossoms – cherry and apple, sloe and hawthorn, cowslips and coltsfoot. Sadly, this … Continue reading →

My London home is often a temporary resting spot for itinerant scientists and literary types, and this past week it has been graced with the presence of a certain house-hunting Nature Network denizen. Although the search for an abode can … Continue reading →

Do scientists get less effective as they get older? The urban myth would have us believe that creativity is a thing of youth – physicists and mathematicians in particular are said to be past it by the time they reach … Continue reading →