Hello and welcome to the American Society for Microbiology’s annual microbial extravaganza! This year’s shindig is in Boston, and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center has literally laid out a red carpet to welcome the glitterati of the microbiology world. (I was amused to see that they’ve also placed the pressroom right next to the children’s daycare center. A subtle comment on our maturity level? Perhaps.)

Judging from this morning’s poster session, this looks to be a fun meeting. It’s a busy one, too – with over 3000 presentations, it can be hard to pick out which ones to attend. If any of you out there have suggestions to help me weed through the 300+ page program, please let me know: you can contact me by posting a comment here or via email: h.ledford at boston dot nature dot com.