Archive by category | Federation of European Neuroscience Societies

FENS: a bit of science

Snippets of science: Roland Strauss of the University of Wuerzburg in Germany showed his movies of mutant flies with movement disorders – and some startling six-legged robots programmed with the same movement disorders, and which he uses as a research tool. Henrick Mouritsen from the University of Oldenburg in Germany showed some really cool data on how some migratory birds use light receptors to reset their magnetic compasses to correct for the difference between magnetic north and true north. (He pointed out that molecular biology has not been tuned to the needs of those who work on birds. He would like to create a knock-out bird, but that can’t be done yet even in chickens.)  … Read more

FENS: a bit of context

We’re coming towards the end of the fifth FENS meeting inVienna. I remember the birth pains of this conference, which had the first of its now biennial meetings in Berlin in 1998. It’s nice to see that Europe can do big meetings efficiently. (It’s also rather rare.) Over 5200 scientists from 75 countries have shown up. The programme is good, of consistent high quality. And the whole thing is well-organised. The press facilities, normally a complete disaster in any European meeting, couldn’t be better. The general mood is upbeat.  Read more