The Laughing Wolf

Another Day In Knoxville

But what a day it was. The CASW New Horizons in Science Briefing is proving to be wonderful, and now I only wish I could afford to stay for all of it.

The first full day included briefings on something that may be as important to medicine as germ theory or the development of antibiotics. Until I get my article queries into some papers and magazines, all I will say is that I think we may see some unanticipated hope in the fight against an entire class of diseases. This is not immediate, but over the next 5-20 years this work may reshape portions of medicine.

We also got an interesting briefing on proteomics. With the human genome project well under way, a new initiative is underway to look at how groups of proteins work together. This is important not only from a biological standpoint, but it may also have a strong impact an nanotechnology and MEMS.

A researcher from Texas talked about sexual treachery. Yep. Fascinating and I will blog more on some of the issues raised later, but his presentation on some evolutionary-driven sexual behaviors was eye-opening, thought provoking, and fascinating. If you ever watched Desmond Morris’s The Human Animal on television, this picks up and takes things into totally new levels.

I missed the final panel (geology-based) in order to walk back to my hotel to change for the reception at the home of the President – of the University of Tennessee. A very nice event that allowed all the presenters and all the attendees to mix and mingle for a while.

No sign of the Evil Cardinal Puppilieu, though there was hidden in the kitchen a bowl of puppy kabobs just in case he did show up (what, you are surprised I sneaked a peak at the kitchen?). Surprised he wasn’t there for the proteomics briefing, and wonder if he might show up for some of the planned nanotechnology discussions.

More later, as I am off to a full day of activities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

LW