Fossils, French accents and freezing my tail off
O, Canada….
I’m off for the annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference. Never been to Canada before! It surprises some people to learn that the SVP is actually an international society… the premier VP society in the world, actually…. and still less than a thousand people come. Yet we, together with the invertebrate paleontologists, are responsible for understanding over 99% of all species that ever lived. Haha. Contrast this with two American cancer society (AACR, ASCO) conferences I went to when I worked in cancer research. 25-35,000 participants, each. And to know a single (highly complex, multifaceted, ever-changing) disease, with the aim of understanding it in the context of a single species.
Not that I’m pissing on the molecular biologists and clinicians. Not at all. It’s just a whole ‘nother world on this side of biology.
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Prenez garde du le Molsen! Prenez garde des Mounties!
Comment by FIDO — October 17, 2006 @ 6:34 pm