What happens when you put 650 young researchers and 59 nobel laureates together on an island for a week? Lila Warszawski and I came to Lindau fascinated with the possibilities of having so many "supergeeks" (young and old) in such a small place: it seemed like an amazing social experiment. The result for me at least was: inspiring and fascinating conversations, not much sleep, the beginning of what I hope will be great friendships, and a lot of fun! In our video diary, we ended up focussing on the lighter side of Lindau - because an important part of the week is that it is simply really, really fun.
Video Part 1
Video Diary part 2
In fact, I think that was one of the most important messages I took away from the meeting, made explicit by several of the Nobel laureates: "You should make sure that you're having fun in science"; "Do what you love, then the hard work is play". For such a simple message, I think it can be very difficult to remember. For me, this is not only because the subject matter we deal with can be very serious (from the possibility of catastrophic climate change to the difficulty of curing cancer), but also because it's very easy to fall into the trap of taking yourself too seriously. At Lindau I met many scientists, both laureates and other young researchers, who bring this message to life. It was a very inspiring experience.
Finally, I'd like to sincerely thank the Bayer Science and Education Foundation, and the Australian Academy of Sciences for making it possible for us to attend Lindau, and to the Lindau meeting for providing the equipment, personnel (our great editor, Matthias) and opportunity to make the video diary!
Finally, I'd like to sincerely thank the Bayer Science and Education Foundation, and the Australian Academy of Sciences for making it possible for us to attend Lindau, and to the Lindau meeting for providing the equipment, personnel (our great editor, Matthias) and opportunity to make the video diary!
Duncan
Mortimer (Australia), University of Queensland, Australia
16. July 2010, 08:38 by Attendees