Scifoo tid bit data dump

Some items I'd like to mention:

- before scifoo, there was a meetup of bloggers in the Bay Area. I finally placed some flesh over my electronic friends and got to meet some other bloggers. Andreas Engvig over at Sharpbrains has a photo. Bora has some more photos.

- one of the best conversations I had was after scifoo. On the train into SF, I sat next to Christopher Clark who studies how large wales whales communicate over long distances. If this sounds interesting, click here.

- here's a picture of Martin Rees, Freeman Dyson and me (it's really me, I swear!) ... and some other half hidden guy a half hidden Ed Boyden.

- although I spoke to Martha Stewart, I forgot to ask her if her paperless home had toilet paper. (If you want to know more about her paperless home, read Anna's open letter to Martha.)

- Paul Sereno showing us some cool stuff (and adding his 2 cents to the open access debate).

- Talking to Roger Brent then Andy Fire about my lab work - both were very supportive!

- biohacking - garage molecular biology is the future. Modularizing DNA functional components will help promote this technology. (Drew Endy) Will molecular biology be so simple that someday a disgruntled kid will construct some sort of lethal biological agent? (Greg Bear) Perhaps the shared knowledge between individuals will help prevent such a scenario? (Drew Endy) The greatest risk is not the biological agent, but the public's over-reaction. (many) But the political machine may be even more irrational. (Greg Bear)

- another topic of conversation: the lack of coverage of cell biology in science news despite the fact that our field is growing rapidly - heck we're in the golden age of cell science! So why do you rarely read about cells in the news? Is it too dull? or simply is there no big story (as some science journalists have told me)? or do the science journalists lack the background to appreciate that we are in the midst of a revolution? There were many "systems biologists" at the conference but only one or two talks on biological problems at the cellular level. Instead systems (i.e. computational) biologist were more foccused on the data analysis - I would have like to have seen more of an effort to try to understand what type of data these systems biologists are trying to get at. It seems like most computational guys don't understand the nature of the beast they are dealing with. If I had to do scifoo again I would have had a session on The Cell - What is the nature of the most complicated machine known to man (excluding perhaps the brain). Or I could have called it Understanding Molecular Vitalism.