conference

Cold Spring Harbor Labs, directed by James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA
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So, the official purpose of this visit to the east coast after leaving it last in december was my first international conference held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories on Long Island, NY...it was to be 4 days of hard work, fine food and stimulating talks, posters and discussions as well as mingling with many top names in my field - so really great fun to be had.

13.09.06

get up at 4am after finishing writing my first year report at 10pm and eating packing until midnight. meet under the cover of darkness at the corner of lensfield and trumpington to await a keen and knowledgable taxi service to rush us in amazing time to Heathrow.  Being American Airlines flight 101, we had expected to receive stringent security checks and we got it. It ranges from quite intensive questioning at the check in, which wasnt helped with our poster-tubes looking like harpoons, and full body searches even if you didnt beep.  We were still early though, and had time to kill before getting to the gate. As the last to arrive at the gate, my group were able to watch me through the checks they had just been through. this included first a hard look at your passport photo, and then you get full body searched, including elderly people in wheelchairs, shoes off and scanned, hand luggage emptied out and searched before you are able to sit for the plane.

The labs surround Cold Spring Harbor..
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the 8hr flight itself was incident free, and in fact it wasnt that full and a few people got full groups of seats to sleep on!! i as usual couldnt sleep and had to put up with some movie with Lindsay Lohan and mcFly, oh the joy. food was average

Arrive, and its only early afternoon, and im happy to see my posters had arrived safely and we straight on to the Syosset "limousine", which was more like a traditional school bus, to take us to Cold Spring harbor Labs. Unfortunately for the grad students, we were not on site, and were then shipped off to some random motel, like in the movies, passing some authentic looking diners, to freshen up before dinner and the first session of talks.

..and are built in the style of old New England houses
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Dinner was sumptuous and you really got what you pay for (well i didnt pay) and the buffet was unlimited so we over did it the first night, and from then, had to take it easy on the subsequent meals there.  Into talks which were interesting, but with the combination of being well fed, in near darkness in comfortable seats, jet lagged, we were all suffering to keep awake. and by 10.30pm (4.30am european time), we felt like death and promptly crashed after the 10 min transfer to our motel.

me and a twisted badge
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14.09.06

Of course, the disadvantage of jet leg is that we all then awoke around 4am, tired! straight to breakfast, which was filling, and to the 9am talks! they work people rather hard in these conferences.  The morning went as a blur of talks, coffee and lunch, and suddenly it was upon me to present my poster. initially, it was a bit daunting, but after giving the spiel the first few times to some enthusiastic grad students, i felt confident with what i was saying and started to enjoy the process. i even got to present to the organiser and he was intrigued with my work! I even went on to see other people's posters and made some suggestions of my own to their work which were well received :) ah the fun

some residential places
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the full day of talks was so tiring, but we were all greatly inspired by Corey Goodman, one of the founders of our field, who gave special keynote seminar" but we crashed again when we got back to the motel

15.09.06

Today was mostly about Francis, a post-doc, giving a talk in the morning which she did really well, and led to many people approaching her with compliments and questions for the rest of the conference.  Another mass poster day, though the main feature of the day was the heavy rain, which stop people venturing to posters in rooms away from the main building! the whole time was like a spot-the-great scientist event for me, as we all had name badges; its strange to see people you've read about as they never look like you imagine.

16.09.06

More of the same, though this time there was a lobster banquet in the evening and a boogie nights, though not many people wanted to embarrass themselves, though i couldnt give a shit and boogied anyway with some cute grads from california..

17.09.06

Still more talks, though most people were hungover, or switched off after such an intensive few days.  As the others went home, i was to stay in America for a few days more, as it would have been inexcusable not to visit my friends new and old on the east coast.