back from Erice

Tonight I came back from Erice, a picturesque medieval town down in Sicily and up on a hill. In fact, it is that high up on a hill that it was mighty nippy the first few days of my stay. I left Grenoble ten days ago where temperatures getting high into the eighties for the first time this year. In Erice, it was barely 70, and I got a cold after a few days. It didn't seem to help much that the mercury rose gradually over the days that followed. I spent long hours in an air-conditioned auditorium, and the bright sun that hit me when I had a chance to venture outside only added to my misery by teasing me with mischief.

I wasn't in Erice for the sun or vistas of the sea. No, science was on my mind. A School of Crystallography had tempted me. I answered eagerly, but what I got was not easily digestible edification. Instead, I enjoyed the most dense and most intense scientific conference that I had ever been too. And it's hard to imagine anything more hard-core. The world of structural biology was united. Only few name were missing. And nearly one hundred talks covered nearly all fields in biology that are currently getting structural attention.

It was exhausting and maybe even a little much. But it was certainly impossible to justify missing even a single presentation.

I took two points home with me. First, great science is being done in the US, but also in Europe. Second, great food is being served in Europe, and life is good. I have to figure out how this adds up for me by next July when my fellowship comes to and end.

Currently, I have more ideas about what to do than where to do it, and I'll go to lab tomorrow with strongly refreshed motivation and energy. It's going to be 90 degrees.