Hi from Perth

Hi all,

A quick update from here down under at the ISBE conference. Today is the last day, and so there is only one more session is to come and the Hamilton lecture, which will be held by Nick Davies this time, one of my personal heroes in the field of behavioral biology. Looking forward! Also, I’m pleased to inform you that Thomas Gosden and I gave a talk in the same session yesterday afternoon. Tom gave an excellent presentation of his ongoing work, to a very enthusiastic audience. I think my talk was well received as well, though that is of course up to the audience to judge, but at least there were plenty questions. (Tom said I did a good job ;) ).

I’ve been looking for an emerging theme at this edition of the ESEB, as in previous years conferences were often overwhelmingly about one subject ( a few years ago it was multiple sexual traits), but I am not sure there is one this year. If anything, it might be the question of why females mate multiply, from the particular angle of genetic compatibility. Also Nina Wedell’s plenary lecture was of course along that theme. I am looking forward to hearing her speak again when she is coming to Lund! Marianne Wolfner also had a very interesting presentation about interactions at the molecular level between male and female proteins in fertilization. Also personalities has been pretty prominent, like the previous ISBE.

It’s been a lot of fun, lots of varieties of talks available, though Tom missed quite a few of them since he had to write his talk (yes, the data were that fresh of the press).

We’re both looking forward to some travel afterwards. Tom is driving up western Australia, and I’m going to explore the jungle in Borneo! Our life sucks badly, you guys enjoy your Swedish October…

Cheers, Machteld and Tom.