Well, it was a good meeting. I enjoyed listening to the talks, although I frequently found myself a little out of my depth; perhaps both a sign of how much biology I have forgotten and how much maths I never knew. Also, I think that the conference was not ideally weighted. Some multi-track, shorter talks, I think. It felt rather like the early eScience All Hands meetings.

On the way, down almost all the Newcastle people travelled together; for some reason, on the way back, we all scattered and went different routes. I thought I was on my own, going through Sheffield, but bumped into a fellow Newcastle academic on the platform, in the shape of Tom Kirkwood: Professor of Gerontology, former Reith Lecturer, and all rather clever chap. What brilliant and incisive obervation on the state of systems biology did I make? What stunning analysis of the impact of the RAE results did I posit? "Hello," I said, "did you get the train to Sheffield too?"

Still, it isn’t all bad; I did manage to proof conclusively that it is possible to survive for three days eating only two of the major food groups: fat and carbohydrates.

Originally published on my old blog site.