Some people have all the bad luck. I was recommended to go this morning to a session on self-replication. Sounds cool, i thought. I bet it will be busy…

But I was very wrong. Where was everyone? The recommendation turned out to be right, and I really enjoyed Douglas Philp’s talks about self-replicating systems, but the room must have had about 15 people in it. I didn’t get it, so I asked Philp how come he had failed to pull in the punters. “I was up against Bob Grubbs,” he said.

Ah, it all becomes clear. That’s bad luck I said. Grubbs is a Nobel prize-winning chemist from Caltech who is a giant in the catalysis world. He even has his own catalyst.

Poor Doug, I thought. Still, better luck for his next talk this afternoon. Nope, it seems the Philp brand of chemistry will fail to reach the masses once more. This afternoon he is up against Barry Sharpless, also a Noble prize-winning chemist, from Scripps, who has more than one eponymous reaction.

Ouch.

The message to Doug Philp, and anyone else landed with these unfortunate timetable clashes is clear: you’re going to have to get a reaction or a catalyst named ofter you. Or you’re going to have to win the Nobel prize in chemistry. Preferrably both.

Better luck next year, eh?

Some people have all the bad luck. I was recommended to go this morning to a session on self-replication. Sounds cool, i thought. I bet it will be busy…

But I was very wrong. Where was everyone? The recommendation turned out to be right, and I really enjoyed Douglas Philp’s talks about self-replicating systems, but the room must have had about 15 people in it. I didn’t get it, so I asked Philp how come he had failed to pull in the punters. “I was up against Bob Grubbs,” he said.

Ah, it all becomes clear. That’s bad luck I said. Grubbs is a Nobel prize-winning chemist from Caltech who is a giant in the catalysis world. He even has his own catalyst.

Poor Doug, I thought. Still, better luck for his next talk this afternoon. Nope, it seems the Philp brand of chemistry will fail to reach the masses once more. This afternoon he is up against Barry Sharpless, also a Noble prize-winning chemist, from Scripps, who has more than one eponymous reaction.

Ouch.

The message to Doug Philp, and anyone else landed with these unfortunate timetable clashes is clear: you’re going to have to get a reaction or a catalyst named ofter you. Or you’re going to have to win the Nobel prize in chemistry. Preferrably both.

Better luck next year, eh?

Some people have all the bad luck. I was recommended to go this morning to a session on self-replication. Sounds cool, I thought. I bet it will be busy…

But I was very wrong. Where was everyone? The recommendation turned out to be right, and I really enjoyed Douglas Philp’s talks about self-replicating systems, but the room must have had about 15 people in it. I didn’t get it, so I asked Philp how come he had failed to pull in the punters. “I was up against Bob Grubbs,” he said.

Ah, it all becomes clear. That’s bad luck I said. Grubbs is a Nobel prize-winning chemist from Caltech who is a giant in the catalysis world. He even has his own catalyst.

Poor Doug, I thought. Still, better luck for his next talk this afternoon. Nope, it seems the Philp brand of chemistry will fail to reach the masses once more. This afternoon he is up against Barry Sharpless, also a Nobel prize-winning chemist, from Scripps, who has more than one eponymous reaction.

Ouch.

The message to Doug Philp, and anyone else landed with these unfortunate timetable clashes is clear: you’re going to have to get a reaction or a catalyst named ofter you. Or you’re going to have to win the Nobel prize in chemistry. Preferably both.

Better luck next year, eh?

A summary of the week’s best discussions on Nature Network.

The recent discovery of water on Mars has flung wide speculation and discussion of the possibility of life on the Red Planet. In a most timely blog post, Joanna Scott features an upcoming seminar, “ExoMars: Europe’s Next Step in the Search for Life on Mars,” to take place on Tuesday, 5 August 2008 at 10am PDT, 6pm BST, on Nature’s island in Second Life. The seminar will be given by Jeff Marlow, part of a group developing instrumentation for the ExoMars probe. “Jeff’s specific role in the project is designing the instrument which will look for signs of life on Mars: could water just be the first step?” Check out the talk to hear about Jeff’s work on the ExoMars probe and his take on the discovery of water on Mars.

The path of a scientific discovery from bench to patent – and to the real world beyond – is often unclear to scientists, who are not routinely taught the basics of intellectual property law. A new group on Nature Network, Patent Law Primer, addresses this disconnect between the scientific and legal communities. A recent question about the rights and responsibilities of the investigator in a patent held by the institution was addressed by Rahan Uddin from Peer to Patent: “…institutions may work out some sort of royalty agreement with the investigator/scientist, again this really depends on how much of the investigators own time/resources has been invested in development.”

An understanding of humanities can make for a better scientist, argues Bob O’Hara. The public backlash to the introduction of genetically modified foods took many scientists by surprise. Study of people’s reactions and behavior patterns could lead to more effective techniques in presenting novel findings and developments. “Because science is done by people, we need to understand how people behave as individuals and in groups. This is the job of the humanities, so we need them if we are to be effective as science practitioners.””

Miguel Allende discusses pluses and minuses of two divergent approaches to science in Chile – the science that is carried out at large institutions and smaller, independent organizations. The larger institutions can sometimes be encumbered by bureaucracy and politics, while the smaller institutions lack access to students and teams diverse in their skills base. “A balanced view should see the merit in both approaches to research,” says Allende.

If you’d like to nominate a conversation you’ve read or taken part in on Nature Network for next week’s roundup, please email us at network [at] nature.com.