In The Field

SfN: Social butterfly

I’m sure you’ll consider it an entirely selfless act on my part to put in an appearance at various social events in order to give those of you who couldn’t make it to SfN an idea of how well neuroscientists like to party. So here’s a rundown of just a few of them. Let me assure you that my attendance was definitely not related to the copious amounts of free food. Ahem.


If I had been looking for no-cost nosh, however, I would have headed straight to the Ingestive Behaviour Social, Although the subheading ran: ‘Brain, appetite, obesity and diabetes, so on second thoughts perhaps there would only have been plumpness-preventing low fat snacks. Other intriguing options included the Pavlovian Social – where maybe instead of food they just ring a bell, and everyone starts to salivate in any case – and the Music Social, which is where I chose to head. Since I’m also putting together a special SfN episode of NeuroPod, our neuroscience podcast, I’m always on the lookout for good audio-gathering opportunities. I wasn’t disappointed – a succession of neuroscientists-by-day became musicians-by-night; among them Yale’s Tom Morse playing a keyboard piece of his own composition, Mary Ann Asson-Batres from Tennessee State University on the Dulcimer (I hadn’t met one of these before) and the vocal talents of Manisha Shahane accompanied by Gal Bitan of UCLA.

After that I scuttled off to Datablitz, an event organised by a group of scientists studying sleep and circadian rhythms. The idea is very simple. Twenty speakers; one minute and one slide each. And then a plenary presentation of a lengthy two minutes’ duration. Go!

A selection of the researchers behind the most interesting posters from the conference floor were asked to participate – and the format took no prisoners. After a precisely-timed minute, your slide disappears and – no matter if you’re halfway through your sentence – you’re off the stage. Let’s roll this quickfire format out more widely, I say! Listen out for the edited highlights in NeuroPod.

All in the name of podcasting duty, tonight I’m looking forward to the Alzheimer’s Disease Karaoke Idol night – “present your favourite Alzheimer theme tunes”, encourages the blurb. In poor taste? I’ll find out later…

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