We’re on Day 3 of the Lindau Conference, the annual gathering of Nobel laureates and junior scientists. Despite a crammed schedule, with a staggering 20 sessions on the first day alone, several attendees have nevertheless found time to share their experiences on the official Lindau blog.

Monday

Martin Fenner kicks things off, with a discussion on the second session of the day, in which Jack Szostak discusses artificial cells. Alexander Bastidas then leaps to the opposite extreme of scale, with notes on a talk by John Mather on the history and future of the Universe.

Monday’s late morning sessions were dominated by medical research. Jessicca Ricco presents a neat summary of the talks, including Harald zur Hausen on the links between infections and cancer and Francoise Barré-Sinoussi on the discovery of HIV and the importance of global translational research to counter it.

Ashutosh Jogalekar discusses the work of laureate and afternoon speaker Paul Crutzen, who shared the 1995 Chemistry prize for his work on CFCs and ozone depletion. Ashutosh talks at length about Crutzen’s more recent work on geoengineering.

Akshat Rathi also summarises Monday’s lectures, before describing the formal meal in the evening.

Tuesday

Martin Fenner speaks to GFP pioneer Roger Tsien, who started the day with a session on designing nanoparticles to treat disease. We learn that “visually beautiful research results are the best motivation, and that winning a Nobel Prize doesn’t mean that papers and grants come easily.”

Martin also recounts a morning panel discussion between laureates entitled Impact of Chemistry and Physics to Biomedicine. Where is the Future? His partial transcript focuses on questions from young researchers. Alexander Bastida also covers this panel discussion from a neuroscience perspective.

And finally, Lou Woodley does a quick analysis of some of the most entertaining talks from Monday and Tuesday morning, looking at the personalities, puns and pictures in the plenaries.

As if the programme isn’t enough to make you jealous, Lou aslo shares a few photos of the beautiful surroundings of Lindau. Xian Gao also contributes a few snaps over on the Nature China at Lindau blog.

You can also watch the first video diaries from the roving team of young scientists, courtesy of Beatrice Lugger, who also captures some post-lecture dancing.