{"id":444,"date":"2011-09-11T19:52:37","date_gmt":"2011-09-11T19:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/?p=444"},"modified":"2011-09-11T19:52:37","modified_gmt":"2011-09-11T19:52:37","slug":"remembering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/2011\/09\/11\/remembering\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ten years ago today, the World Trade Centre twin towers were attacked and fell, with terrible loss of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like most people, I guess, I can remember exactly where I was during the attacks – watching CNN in a high-rise hotel room in Kuala Lumpur, a one day stopover on the way back from Australia (conference, holiday) and New Zealand (conference<\/a>) to the UK. Checking in just before 9 pm local time, I walked into the hotel room, stuck on the TV to catch up with the world – and there was the first tower burning. I am pretty sure I checked whether it was really CNN I was watching, to make sure I hadn’t got a movie, or a ‘doomsday what-if’ show by mistake. A few minutes later, while I watched, the second plane hit. I was still watching when the towers fell. I remember my father calling me from the UK on my mobile. “Are you watching this?”\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Who could turn it off?<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks later I wrote the following to run in Physiology News<\/em>, which we had recently re-vamped to add an Editorial column, among other things. We debated whether to say anything about the attacks – after all, so much had been said by then. But somehow we felt something had to go in. So here it is, exactly as it ran then<\/a>.<\/p>\n

——————————————————————————————————<\/p>\n

A personal view \u2013 Science and World Events<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this first issue of the renamed Physi\u00adology News<\/em> we report on the IUPS meeting, where over two thousand physi\u00adologists and other scientists from related disciplines gathered for \u201cour\u201d four-yearly conference. The delegates came from all around the world to celebrate our communal enterprise \u2013 the revealing of more about how living organisms, including man, work. As scientists investi\u00adgating the natural world at the start of the new millennium we are privileged to be part of a truly international undertaking.<\/p>\n

Less than two weeks after the end of the IUPS meeting, perhaps while some members of the Society were still abroad or making their way home, came the terrible events of September 11th. Perhaps many of us thought of people we know in New York or Washington, or contacted our friends there to check that they were safe. The events emphasise the fragility of the international systems of travel and commerce on which we depend.<\/p>\n

As scientists we have the chance, not given to many people, to travel widely in the world, and to work with people from many countries and cultures. During my twenty years working in science I have shared lab and office space with scientists from all the continents of the world, from both rich and poor countries. I remember one lab in the USA where a large map on the wall indicated the countries of origin of the people working there, from Japan to Bangladesh, from India to Iran, from Britain to Russia to South Africa, and many others apart from the USA. This experience is hardly unique. We are privi\u00adleged to work with our colleagues from other countries, discuss things in the common language of science, and to learn something about them and their cultures.<\/p>\n

If this kind of experience teaches us anything, it must be that people the world over seek basically the same things: the happiness of those that are close to them, work from which they can take some satisfaction, a better life for their families. It doesn\u2019t seem so very complicated.<\/p>\n

However, in today\u2019s world, not everyone is as lucky as we scientists. Science is international \u2013 that is one of its great strengths. It shows how a worldwide community can focus on a common goal, and draw strength from its diversity. As the world absorbs the horror of September 11th and its aftermath, we can only hope that, one day, the same will be true in all spheres of human endeavour. We can also hope that the international scientific community will do its part in helping to break down the cultural barriers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ten years ago today, the World Trade Centre twin towers were attacked and fell, with terrible loss of life. Like most people, I guess, I can remember exactly where I was during the attacks – watching CNN in a high-rise … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}