Achilleas Mitsos, the EuropeanCommission's Director General forResearch, paid a visit to the EMBL MainLaboratory in Heidelberg on Jan. 28.Director Mitsos met with Director GeneralFotis C. Kafatos and senior representativesof the Laboratory to discuss research andgeneral topics related to Europeanresearch policies. The EC is putting thefinishing touches on the Sixth Framework

Programme. Stops on the Director's tour of the Laboratory included visits to the newEMBL core facilities, as well as to the on-campus start-up company Cellzome.

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EEMMBBLL 10March 2002

&cetera

Contentsin memorium, Max Perutz 2

Letter to the editor 5

Staff Association 6

The EMBO Corner 7

from the sister sciences 8

News & events 11

Science and Society 12

names to faces 14

Burn’s night 15

People @ EMBL 16

Max Perutz,1914 - 2002

The poetry of a scientist; the science of a poetscience and society

On March 19, Roald Hoffmann, winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize for chemistry and accomplished artist and poet,will visit EMBL Heidelberg to give a distinguished lecture entitled “One culture, or the Commonalities andDifferences between the Arts and the Sciences.” In this issue of EMBL&cetera he shares some of his poetry andessays with our readers.

Black pepper is bad for you. Drink your orange juice within eleven minutes of squeezing.Grate your carrots. What are the facts behind those nutrition myths our mothers havehanded down to us? Find out in this issue’s column from the sister sciences...

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Max Perutz, Nobel Prize-winningbiologist and an important figure inEMBL history, died on Feb. 6, 2002at the age of 87.Perutz visited EMBL in May 2001 toparticipate in opening ceremoniesfor the new EMBO building. Duringhis visit he gave talks about scienceand the history of EMBO andEMBL. He also took time out for aninterview, which appears in thisissue.

EMBL and the Medical Clinic of the University of Heidelberg havecreated a new cooperative research unit. The Dean of the MedicalSchool, Prof. Hans-Günther Sonntag, and EMBL Director GeneralFotis C. Kafatos announced the news at a press conference held onJanuary 25. The "Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit" will behoused in the University Clinic and is designed to fill a gap thatexists between clinical and basic research, as well as to bringtogether university and external research. The research unit will beco-directed by Prof. Andreas Kulozik, who is the Director of theHematology, Oncology, and Immunology Departments of theChildren's clinic, and Dr. Matthias Hentze, who is a research groupleader and senior scientist at EMBL.

page 5page 3

Newsletter of the European Molecular Biology Laboratorypublished by the Office of Information and Public Affairs

EC’s Director General for Research visits EMBL

What mother doesn’t know...

EMBL and HD University Clinicestablish Partnership Unit

from the sister sciences

EEMMBBLL &cetera Issue 10 - March 2002

Like a great encore to round off a brilliant concert, Max Perutz'slast talk at EMBL in May, 2001, made an impression that will

be remembered for a long time to come. The Operon was packedfull as this frail man stepped up to the front, placed his hand-written notes on the lecturn, adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses toa slightly-crooked angle on his long face, and began to speakabout science. He talked for forty-five minutes without a pause,glancing at his notes three or four times, then adroitly fieldedquestions, followed by thunderous applause. It was the last timehe would speak at the Laboratory he helped to conceive. MaxPerutz died on Feb. 6, 2002, at the age of 87.

Perutz was the mentor of Sir John Kendrew, EMBL's first DirectorGeneral, and shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry withKendrew in recognition of their solution of the first protein struc-tures. Perutz solved the structure of haemoglobin. 1962 was theyear that Watson and Crick won their Nobel Prize for their workon DNA, and John Steinbeck was awarded the Prize forLiterature.

Perutz’s scientific accomplishments are far too numerous to listhere; many of his important papers appear in the book, Science isnot a Quiet Life. He continued to practice science actively long intohis “retirement”, and in his later years, he wrote extensively onthe history and social aspects of science. He collected a number ofpieces which he wrote for the New York Review of Books in a vol-

ume called I wish I'd made you angry earlier, with the subtitle Essayson Science, Scientists, and Humanity. His preface to this workbegins, "Every now and then I receive visits from earnest menand women armed with questionnaires and tape recorders..." andgoes on to say gently that, in pursuing the social factors that con-tribute to great science, many of these interviewers are barkingup the wrong tree. The essays themselves are beautifully-writtenexposés about science and its practitioners.

While it was an exciting opportunity to be able to speak with MaxPerutz, it was also a daunting prospect to interview someonewhose works provide a model for writing about scientists. Hevery generously spared a few minutes during his visit to EMBLto sit down and have this chat. He apologized for breaking it off,but he needed, he said, just a few quiet minutes to prepare histalk.

Unfortunately, he never had the chance to review or correct thistranscript. So any mistakes that appear here are mine.Fortunately, a broad collection of interviews has been made bythe Vega Science Trust; in 2001 they recorded over eight hours ofconversations with Max Perutz. Their website offers a selection ofrecordings from interviews on the following web site:

http://www.vega.org.uk/series/facetoface/perutz/

– Russ Hodge

Science is not a quiet life: Max Perutz (1914-2002)

YOUR WORKS REFLECT A WIDE VARIETY OF

INTERESTS AND INTROSPECTIONS THAT

GO FAR BEYOND "PURE SCIENCE." HOW WELL-ROUNDED DO YOU THINK A SCIENTIST NEEDS

TO BE TODAY?

The more well-rounded the better,because you never know where the nextclue is going to come from. You will bebetter prepared if you read a lot and keepinformed. A scientist doesn't have to bewell-rounded, but it enriches your life ifyou have a lot of interests. We hear that alot of people’s lives become very emptywhen they retire. Mine is very richindeed. Retired people often complainthe years go by quickly, almost withouttheir noticing. Well, mine don’t. They arefull of interesting events.

I WISH I'D MADE YOU ANGRY EARLIER HAS A

LOT OF PASSION IN IT FOR SCIENCE AND FOR

HISTORY, AND IN IT YOU TAKE UP YOUR OWN

PERSONAL HISTORY. YOU WRITE, FOR EXAM-PLE, THAT YOU FELT LIKE YOU HAD "WASTED"THE FIRST YEARS AT THE UNIVERSITY WHEN

YOU WERE STUDYING INORGANIC CHEMISTRY.IT TOOK A LOT OF PASSION TO SPEND SIX

YEARS LOOKING AT SPOTS IN DIFFRACTION

PATTERNS. WHERE DID THAT PASSION COME

FROM?

Indeed, I wrote that I wasted a lot of timeon inorganic chemistry, but I’ll tell you a

Max Perutz at EMBL in May 2001.

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story. As a 17-year-old in Vienna, I had anEnglish girlfriend. She then returned toEngland and we kept writing to oneanother. Luckily she kept all my lettersand a few years ago, she sent them backto me. I found some marvellous things inthose letters. I read, for example, that Iwas thrilled with chemistry. And in everyletter I wrote to her, I claimed that Ienjoyed being a chemistry student. In mythird semester in Vienna, I expressed myworries that I would have to give upchemistry. My father was a textile manu-facturer. His idea was that I would finishmy studies and then I would go into thebusiness. The letters were full of my turn-ing over in my mind how I could escapebecoming a textile manufacturer in aCzech village, how I could escape givingup chemistry. And I found another thing:I wrote that it would be immeasurablewhat mankind would lose if I didn’t winthe Nobel prize! As a nineteen year oldchemistry student! As you can see, wewrote to each other a bit tongue-in-cheek.

COULD YOU HAVE IMAGINED YOURSELF

GOING IN TO ANOTHER FIELD? LITERATURE?

No, no. I don’t really have a gift for liter-ature. I couldn’t write fiction. I don’tremember conversations well enough tocharacterize people; that's a necessaryskill. But I am interested in people. I amoften pushed to write my autobiography,but truthfully, I am much more interestedin other people’s lives. If you read thebook you see what fascinating characterswriting has gotten me to know about.

YOUR LIFE IS FULL OF INTERESTING STORIES.DURING WORLD WAR TWO, FOR EXAMPLE,YOU PARTICIPATED IN A SECRET GOVERNMENT

PROJECT CALLED "HABBAKUK," AIMED AT

MAKING SOMETHING LIKE LARGE AIRCRAFT

CARRIERS OUT OF ICEBERGS... IN RETROSPECT

THE WHOLE THING SOUNDS KIND OF CRAZY.WHAT DID YOU THINK AT THE TIME?

It is absurd, yes. For a long, long timeeven I wasn’t told what our research into"strengthening ice" was for. It was sosecret I wasn’t allowed to know. When Idid find out, I was really duty-bound todo my best. It was not for me to shoot thisproject down.

YOUR COLLECTION ALSO CONTAINS A VERY

EXTENSIVE CRITIQUE OF THE BOOK MOTHER

COUNTRY, BY MARILYNNE ROBINSON, WHO

CLAIMS THAT THE BRITISH "ARE POLLUTING

THE IRISH SEA, THE BRITISH ISLES, AND THE

ENTIRE GLOBE WITH THE RADIOACTIVE DIS-CHARGES FROM ITS NUCLEAR PLANTS AT SEL-LAFIELD." IT'S A LONG, VERY DETAILED ARTI-CLE AND ONE CAN TELL THAT YOU SPENT AN

IMMENSE AMOUNT OF TIME DOING

RESEARCH, GOING BACK TO ORIGINAL

SOURCES, TO WRITE IT.

This is a book that I received from the

editor of the New York Review of Books.When I read it, I was sure that it was justsensationalism without any scientificfoundation, but I really had to demon-strate it. If you want to disprove some-body's thesis, you have to have very goodevidence; simply expressing an opinionhas very little value. So I really went care-fully into it – and then of course I alwaysget hooked and interested in the problem– if the children in Robinson's book did-n’t get leukemia from the radioactivity inthe place, what could they have got itfrom? During my reading, I came across apaper saying that such increases in theincidence in leukemia seem to arise ifpeople move into new communitieswhere they are not immune to the virus-es that are about there. This is a plausiblereport with reasonably good evidence,the viral origin of leukemia is also sup-ported, yet it is really hard to prove any-thing.

My first encounter with the New YorkReview was similar to this. I had beenwriting a few reviews for English jour-nals, and one day to my surprise, I gotthis request from the New York Review. Iwas terribly pleased because it is by farthe best literary journal in the world.Then I read the first book they sent – byan American Columbia physicist aboutthe future of science – and I found it wascomplete nonsense. So I rang the editorand said I was very pleased to get thisrequest, but I couldn’t review this book –

it was just nonsense. He asked me, well,why is it nonsense? Tell me. The authorhad written that in the future, computerswould be plugged into people’s brains.Spare organs would be kept in hospitalslike carburetors in a garage. I said thiswas all outrageous fiction. To which theeditor replied: but this is what allAmericans believe – show them that it isnonsense. And that was my first effort forhim.

PUSHING MOLECULAR BIOLOGY IN EUROPE

AND THE CONCEPT OF EMBL WAS A HARD

THING TO DO FORTY YEARS AGO. YOU MUST

HAVE HAD A PASSION FOR EUROPEAN SCI-ENCE.

I did, but Kendrew much more so. I amstill an enthusiastic European, all infavour of Britain fully joining in. Yes, Iwas disappointed that molecular biologyhad found so little echo in Europe. It waspartly the result of the war, but not entire-ly. It was also partly the result of the con-servatism of professors in Universitydepartments. The biochemists were con-tinuing to work on enzyme chemistrythat had been the hot subject before thewar. The physiologists did electrophysi-ology. And so on. They didn’t really showvery much interest in borderline subjects.I liked the ideas that we were developing,those that led to the establishment ofEMBO and EMBL. It was hard for youngpeople in Europe to get any trainingbecause the Americans could get travel-ing fellowships to come over, but the

From left to right: Maurice Wilkins, John Steinbeck, John Kendrew, Max Perutz, Francis Crick andJames Watson collecting their Nobel Prizes in 1962.

EEMMBBLL &cetera Issue 10 - March 2002

Europeans couldn't – Germans, for exam-ple, couldn’t even get a travel fellowshipto come and work in the Pasteur Institutein Paris. There was no money for such athing. Tuppy was lucky. He is anAustrian biochemistry professor now,and he recalled during a talk that shortlyafter the war, my former professor inVienna wrote to me that he had a youngman in his lab who would like to comeand do work in Cambridge. This wasTuppy; he got a grant from the BritishCouncil that enabled him to live inCambridge. He became a postdoc withFred Sanger and in fact determined theamino acid sequence in one of the chainsof insulin. And that is what made his rep-utation. Returning to Austria he had avery good career. But that was exception-al at the time.

SO MOBILITY WAS A KEY PART OF THE EARLY

PLANNING.

Yes. I was very keen on getting travelingfellowships and summer schools so thatpeople would be trained. On 1963, at thefounding meeting in Ravello, I felt to talkabout a European Institute was prema-ture because there was far too littlemolecular biology in Europe to get itgoing. So I was very keen on this travel-ing fellowship and summer school thing.We managed to get the money for thisfrom the Volkswagen Foundation. Thatwas one of these lucky coincidences.Putenahnt, who was then president of theMax Planck Gesellschaft, was also profes-sor of biochemistry in Munich. He spon-sored a young man working on theamino acid sequence of the chains inhemoglobin, which was a formidableundertaking in those days, and you see,through hemoglobin, we got together,and became friendly with Putenahnt. I

was able to go to him and tell him aboutthis scheme of ours. By chance he wasalso chairman of the governing board ofthe Volkswagen Foundation. So, he spon-sored our application and got us thisgrant for three years, and they renewed itfor another three years, and by that timethe programme was so successful thatgovernments were beginning to take itover. But we could never have got themoney from governments originally.

LET’S POSE THE QUESTION THAT YOU POSED

IN YOUR LETTER AS A 19-YEAR-OLD AGAIN.WHAT WOULD MOLECULAR BIOLOGY HAVE

BEEN LIKE WITHOUT MAX PERUTZ? YOU

INFLUENCED SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE WHO

HAVE HAD A VERY SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCIENCE...

It is nice to hear that. I am always pleasedwhen somebody says that in something Ihave written or in some lecture I havecreated interest. What if...? You can neverreally say what somebody else wouldhave done. But it was a crazy idea to tryto solve the structure of a protein; crystal-lographers thought that it was "megalo-mania". To try to tackle hemoglobin whenthe structure of sugar was stillunknown...

YOU SPENT SIX YEARS LOOKING AT SMALL

SPOTS ON PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATES. HOW DID

YOUR WIFE FEEL ABOUT THIS?

She had marvelous faith in me, thatsomething would come out of it. I was soinvolved that I think I must have beendifficult to live with. I couldn’t think ofanything else all of that time.

At many stages we experienced failureafter failure, and occasionally I thoughtthat maybe my colleagues were right,that I was wasting my life on an irresolv-able problem. But if you want to make

your name in science, you try to accom-plish something that has defeated every-one else. And I was just terribly luckythat there were other young people whorealized that this was a field with a futureand that John Kendrew and Francis Crickand Jim Watson, Sydney Brenner andothers all came along to this small unitthat started at the Cavendish, this unitthat encouraged a lot of marvelousyoung men who achieved wonderfulthings. Perhaps one fact that has helpedis that I am not jealous of other people,colleagues who work with me and makegreater discoveries than my own... I thinkit is an important thing. So many peopleare petty and jealous and can’t tolerateanybody. They wouldn’t have toleratedCrick in their laboratories.

IN THE BOOK YOU STRESS THE IMPORTANCE

OF GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE.

It is incredibly important to give credit toyoung people, yes. There was a great tra-dition in the Cavendish that you don’tsign a paper unless you have actuallydone some science, made a contributionyourself. You don’t sign it just becauseyou are the head of the lab. Just suggest-ing the experiment was not enough. I amalways upset that this principle is nowdisregarded – it's unnecessary, becausethe average professor has already gotenough credit. He doesn’t need it. It is theyoung people who need it. It also must bevery difficult now for young people – ifevery paper has a dozen authors, willyou really get credit for what they haveactually done?

– interview by Russ Hodge

Alumni Association announces Swedish postdoctoral fellowship

The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research has announcedplans to sponsor a Swedish postdoctoral fellowship at EMBL.

The grant will fund the research of a postdoc at EMBL for threeyears. The Royal Swedish Academy of Science will advertise theposition and propose a selection of suitable candidates to theselection committee, which will include representatives from theAcademy, a Swedish EMBL alumnus, and the EMBL evaluationcommittee. Lennart Philipson, Director-General of the EMBLfrom 1982 to 1993, was instrumental in securing the fellowship.

This is the second foundation to sponsor an EMBL fellowship: theLouis Jeantet Foundation, in Geneva, sponsors predoctoral stu-dents from Eastern Europe.

“This is a delightful development,” says Angus Lamond, presi-dent of EMBL’s Alumni Association. “We hope that this will bethe first of many such initiatives; the Alumni Association plans toactively contact other foundations who might do the same.”

– Sarah Sherwood

Are you an EMBL alumnus? Keep us updated about your currentaddress and we’ll keep sending you EMBL&cetera.

Email us at info@embl-heidelberg.de

A vote that counts: choosing the right Staff Association representative

5

standing the molecularmechanisms behind com-mon blood diseases – suchas thalassemia, the world'smost common inherited dis-ease. The mechanisminvolves an impairment of"quality control" mecha-nisms as the informationcontained in genes isexpressed in proteins.Another important collabo-ration by Kulozik andHentze revealed a newmolecular mechanism bywhich blood clots form,sometimes leading to dead-ly embolisms. They discov-ered that a change in gene expressionleads to an overproduction of a particularclot-promoting protein in the blood. Theresearchers have expanded their investi-gation to pursue the question of whether

New research unit established between EMBLand University of Heidelberg Clinic

EMBL and the Medical Clinic of theUniversity of Heidelberg have creat-

ed a new cooperative research unit. TheDean of the Medical School, Prof. Hans-Günther Sonntag, and EMBL DirectorGeneral Fotis C. Kafatos announced thenews at a press conference held onJanuary 25. The "Molecular MedicinePartnership Unit" will be housed in theUniversity Clinic and is designed to fill agap that exists between clinical and basicresearch, as well as to bring together uni-versity and external research. Theresearch unit will be co-directed by Prof.Andreas Kulozik, who is the Director ofthe Hematology, Oncology, andImmunology Departments of theChildren's clinic, and Dr. MatthiasHentze, who is a research group leaderand senior scientist at EMBL. The two sci-entists have already led fruitful collabo-rations; over the past few years they havemade important contributions to under-

this mechanism might also play a role inother diseases.

– Annette Tuffs, UniversitätsklinikumHeidelberg; translation by Russ Hodge

The time of year is again rolling around when we're asked tocheck off a few names on a ballot to choose our representa-

tives to the Staff Association (SA). Every year, a few positionsbecome open on this important committee. Unfortunately, mostpeople don’t seriously consider the idea of participating them-selves. There's usually only one candidate for each open slot (andsometimes none).

Of course, who fills these positions doesn't really matter if theissues at stake are how much money each club gets for its activi-ties, or how many parties will be subsidized. Before I joined as apost-doc representative four years ago, that was my impressionof what the SA was mostly about. But things were changing. Atthat time important decisions were being considered: the renew-al of the Intermedex contract and a potential major overhaul ofthe health plan, a new pension scheme, changes to the EMBLRules & Regulations, and official responses to several ILO rul-ings.

Several years later, many of these issues still haven’t beenresolved. On the issue of health care alone, it's still not clear howEMBL might fairly implement a ‘Pflegeversicherung’ (insurancefor long-term care) to benefit those who stay in Germany afterthey leave EMBL – such care might become a burden for themajority of EMBL staff, who eventually leave the country andwouldn’t benefit from it; another issue is how to provide catas-trophe insurance for the institute; yet another is to resolve theproblems faced by outstation staff, who have to deal with healthcare systems that differ dramatically from those in Germany – onwhich their care is currently based.

Clearly, these are major issues. And who is working on them?Although it has no direct power of its own, the SA is meant toadvise the Administration on the needs and interests of the staffon such matters before the Administration makes a formal rec-

ommendation to Council. The SA should represent a cross-sectionof the EMBL staff in Heidelberg, with at least one representativeeach for pre-docs, post-docs, technicians, administration, groupleaders, and ancillaries, as well as a so-called ‘floating’ position,plus one or two representatives for each of the outstations. In the-ory, SA members should also represent EMBL’s various othersocial groupings, including different nationalities, family status,staff eligible for pensions, etc. At the moment, though, there are anumber of imbalances. Strikingly, the committee has long beenwithout a pre-doc or post-doc representative and the group hasbecome rather senior.

There is always a danger that a lack of representation will lead tosome points of view being left out, and these are important issuesthat will affect people differently. If you have young children, willanyone necessarily realize what problems might arise for you bychanging certain policies? As a post-doc, would you be upset ifyour premiums went up significantly to pay for long-term bene-fits that only apply to pensioners or to staff members who stay inGermany after they leave EMBL?

What is the solution? The least you should do is find out who thecurrent SA members are and how they intend to deal with theissues that are currently on the table. Then get to know any newcandidates when they are announced. Find out how open-mind-ed they are, whether they know what your concerns are, andwhether they are willing to balance them with their own. Ifyou’re not happy with what you hear, let them know what yourviews are. Be sure to vote for someone who will represent youeffectively – maybe even run yourself.

Get to know your representative, because it really may matter!

Chris BlaumüllerFormer Staff Association Representative

letter

Fotis C. Kafatos and Matthias Hentze meet with representativesfrom the Heidelberg University Faculty of Medicine to announcethe formation of the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit.

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EEMMBBLL &cetera Issue 10 - March 2002

Staff Associationfrom the

ILO Salary case In November Council voted "in principle" to implementILOAT Judgment 2057 on salary adjustments (filed by 3 private individu-als) by applying 2.1% to the salary base in all countries to preserve salaryparity. In January the ILOAT verified the Staff Association claim that salaryadjustments in 1995 must be reflected in the salary base for subsequentyears (Judgment 2081). After this second judgment, the Lab and memberstates are in the process of clarifying the legality of their original interpre-tation of judgment 2057. The Staff Association expects a written state-ment from the Administration in March on its final recommendations toCouncil on implementing the two judgments. These recommendations willbe voted on by Council in either a mail ballot or, if necessary, at anextraordinary Council meeting in March. Although the Staff Associationwould like to end the case and does not plan any further appeals at thistime, we are waiting for the Council's reaction to Judgment 2081 beforedeciding our next steps.

Pension scheme In January the ILOAT also decided on two EMBL pen-sion cases. In Case 2089, EMBL pensioners appealed Council's decisionin 2000 to amend Article 36 of the Pension Scheme Rules, which mademandatory the adjustment of pensions according to the cost-of-livingindex (till then coupled to salary adjustments), but eliminated the discre-tionary standard-of-living increase. The Court ruled that EMBL pensionersdo not have an acquired right to pension adjustments in line with salariesas given by the rules until 2000. It stated that the change to Article 36 isnot necessarily disadvantageous to pensioners: if pensions are tied tosalary adjustments, then they would, in times of economic growth, rise inconjunction with salaries in the working force; but periods of negativegrowth would then necessarily have a negative impact on pensions. Thejudgment cannot be reappealed.

In Case 2082, 8 (future) pensioners claimed their right under Article 12 ofthe Pension Scheme Rules to transfer pension funds they had previouslypaid into the German national system to the EMBL pension fund. Such atransfer had become possible in 1995 when the German governmentenacted a law allowing outward transfers from the national fund. In 1997

the 8 pensioners applied to the Lab to make a transfer into the EMBLfund. The Lab considered the pensioners to be ineligible, however, as itsinterpretation of Article 12 would allow such a transfer only at the time oftaking up employment and where already allowable. As the German funddid not allow this until 1995 and as EMBL had no corresponding instruc-tions for such transfers, it decided that the pensioners could not retroac-tively take advantage of the new law. The Lab's decision was contestedby the 8 complainants before the ILOAT, which decided in their favor: theinward transfer must be allowed. Article 12 has since been abolished,however, so that this decision applies only to the 8 appellants and has noeffect on other (future) pensioners.

Intermedex has a new manager, Don McPhee, a former EMBL employ-ee. They now have multilingual employees and an e-mail address (inter-medex@t-online.de) for better service. The current health scheme(Intermedex) has been extended until December 31, 2004.

Staff Association elections will be held again this April. Time to thinkabout running for office! Positions open include administration, ancillary,post-doc and pre-doc representatives. See your friendly Staff Associationrepresentative for more details!

Legal Advisor Following a recommendation from the Staff Association,the Administration is currently holding interviews for the new position oflegal adviser. S/he will advise the management and the Staff Associationon legal questions. Consultations on private legal matters for staff mem-bers will not be possible, however.

Health Scheme and Rules and Regulations revisions In January theStaff Association resumed discussions with the Administration on revisingthe health scheme and reviewing the Rules and Regulations. In a seriesof bi-weekly meetings throughout 2002, a working group comprised ofAdministration, Staff Association and staff members will negotiate on revi-sions to both.

– Ann Thüringer

from the Administration

ILO Judgments

Judgment 2081 (Salaries)Council and the Administration are anxious to bring this long-running issue to a satisfactory close. Unfortunately in the judg-ment in the last outstanding salary case, which was delivered on January 30, the Tribunal declined to give the legal clarificationsought by the Laboratory. This has left doubts about how the Tribunal’s judgments should be implemented. On the one hand ablanket application of an increase of 2.1% on the salary scales in all duty countries would preserve equality of purchasing powerbetween staff in all our centres of operation but is likely to be challenged by some of the complainants. On the other hand a sim-ple application of the pay increases given in 1995 to salary scales in every subsequent year could not be challenged by the com-plainants but would create imbalances between the salaries of staff in different service countries.

The Administration has discussed the options with EMBL’s Staff Association and made its recommendation to Council, who arecurrently considering their response. A decision is expected by the first week in April.

Judgment 2082 (Pension Transfers)In this case the Tribunal ruled that members of personnel who had previously been refused permission to transfer rights theyhad accrued in the German pension system before joining the EMBL pension scheme should now be allowed to transfer them.At the time the complainants had made their application to transfer in funds, the Regulations permitted such transfers to bemade. This facility was subsequently withdrawn and requests for such transfers cannot now be accepted. Although the judg-ment affects only the 8 members of personnel who complained to the ILO, the Administration takes the view that in equity anyother members of personnel who had previously applied formally to transfer funds into the EMBL pension scheme and beenrefused permission by EMBL should also have the right to reactivate their requests.

Judgment 2089 (Calculation of Pension Increases)Some members and former members of staff had complained that Council’s amendment of the method of calculation of pen-sion increases was an arbitrary breach of contract and a denial of their acquired rights. The Tribunal decided that the changesmade by Council did not constitute a breach of the complainants’ acquired rights and dismissed the complaints.

7

Have we achieved anything in sciencecommunication over the last 10

years? I would like to think so, but judg-ing by the Eurobarometer 55.2 study,published in December last year, notmuch has changed. Only 18% of thosequestioned had visited a science andtechnology museum in the previous 12months, and of the remainder, the largestproportion – 33% – were not interested.When people are asked to list 9 disci-plines in order of "scientificness" (i.e.,how scientific they appear to them), med-icine comes out top, biology 3rd, mathe-matics a paultry 5th, and economics 8th,after, wait for it, astrology! Answers tosimple questions such as "Antibiotics killviruses as well as bactieria: true or false?"(26.6% true, 35.3% false, 38.1% don'tknow) show that sadly nothing much haschanged since the previous Euro-barometer study in 1991. Strikingly, how-ever, people regard scientists as the mosttrustworthy profession when it comes toexplaining an incident of national con-cern. That is some responsibility.

But responsibility is not limited to indi-vidual scientists. Scientific organisationsand institutes are increasingly involved.EMBO's tradition in Science & Societygoes back to 1995 when the EMBOCouncil decided to found a science andsociety committee. This committee moni-tors events and helps plan the directionand activities of EMBO's Science &Society Programme. Multidisciplinarypublic meetings have since been joinedby a science communication competition,"science in the pub", teachers workshops

in molecular biology, and media work-shops. An often neglected component ofsociety, especially when it comes to sci-ence, are women. 2001 saw the launch ofthe EMBO Women in Science Project, andin February 2002 the Restart Fellowshipscheme was started.

Broadly speaking, the challenges that sci-entists and society must meet are two-fold: 1. to educate the new generation,providing it with the tools it needs tobecome the scientists and informed con-sumers of tomorrow; 2. to establish cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary opportu-nities for dialogue. But education is theprerequisite.

By now the embarrassment of the ubiqui-tous PISA study (Programme forInternational Student Assessment) in cer-tain quarters is diminishing, as the PISAreceptors are downregulated, and effortsturn to understanding and remedyingthe faults it has exposed. One thing isclear: interest largely determines pupilmotivation and performance. And amotivated pupil develops the skills nec-essary for life long learning, an absolutenecessity in today's fast moving world ofnew technologies. Much responsibilityrests with teachers. Inspired teachersmake inspired pupils.

Both EMBO and EMBL have a stronginterest in promoting the liaison betweenscientists and schools, and it is this thatinspired the EMBO teachers workshop inmolecular biology last July at the EMBL.So popular was it, that the pilot phase hasled to plans to expand this initiative toother European countries in conjunctionwith some of the EMBL outstations and

other institutes. This year's teachersworkshop takes place on 5 and 6 July atthe EMBL. Improving links with schoolsand teachers is, however, only half of thechallenge. The other is making goodcommunicators out of scientists; encour-aging them to develop the skill of com-municating their research to an audiencewith less scientific knowledge than they.An inspired communicator can win thehearts and minds of the public.Europeans could learn something fromAmericans in this respect. For all thosewho are interested to find out more,EMBO organises an annual media work-shop for scientists as part of the Fellowsand Young Investigators meeting. Invitedmedia experts will reveal the dark secretsbehind their business, and members ofthe audience will be given the chance tobe interviewed by one of them. Theworkshop is on 13 April in the Operon.

We may have to wait for the nextEurobarometer results to know whetherthese initiatives have had an effect, but ifwe do not inspire people with science,others will inspire them against it.

– Andrew Moore

the

corner

Inspiration is everything...

lab notesffrroomm tthhee SSzziillaarrdd LLiibbrraarryyIn response to library user requests, the Szilard Library has intro-duced a new electronic interactive service, Selective Disseminationof Information, that will alert users about the arrival of new booksand journal issues on research areas of interest. Users will createtheir own profiles (http://library.embl-heidelberg.de/login-per-sonal.html), indicating which types of books and journals theyare interested in. Notification will be sent by email once a journalissue of interest has arrived; information on new books will besent at the beginning of the month. Alternatively, users can log onto the library web catalogue for updates.

Advantages of the new system:• highly topical and reliable• high quality and flexibility • information on recently received journal issues and books in

the workplace • possibility to reserve new books • full information and table of contents (pdf) for all new book

titles

ffrroomm tthhee PPhhoottoollaabbNew photolab server. We have now set up and are running thenew photolab server, which replaces the old Photolab server andEMBL Slidewriter. The new server is faster, and is accessible notonly from Macs (via AppleTalk), but also from PCs and Unix plat-forms (via ftp). For details please check the Photolab webpages.

Think ahead! As spring approaches, so does the conferences sea-son – for speakers, researchers and organizers. Now is a goodtime to think ahead and plan your posters, group photos andimage preparations. And don’t forget to book your beamers wellin advance!

ffrroomm tthhee ppeerrssoonnnneell sseeccttiioonn

Good news for car buyers! Volvo Germany has announced thatit will offer EMBL personnel a 16% discount on new cars. Theoffer is valid for one year. For more information, contact MichaelWalter from Autohaus Geisser (michael.walter@volvo-geisser.de;tel. 0721/565000). Similar offers are available from Volkswagenand other dealers. Check with the Personnel section for details.

EEMMBBLL &cetera Issue 10 - March 2002

My mother says it’s horribly bad for youFood myths for the foolhardy from around the globe

How often have you been sittingaround the dinner table, about to

sprinkle some pepper on your pasta, andsome well-wishing table companionstops you in your tracks, saying, "ooh, Iwouldn’t do that, it’s bad for you"?

EMBL researchers come from across theglobe, each bringing cultural culinaryknowledge passed on to them by theirmothers, and to them by their mothers.And the myths run rampant in the can-teen at lunchtime. Is what mom says foodfact, or kitchen myth? In this issue ofEMBL&cetera we set out to find the truth.Here we go...

ITALY: BLACK PEPPER IS BAD FOR YOU. FACT

OR MYTH?

Pepper, the collective name for the fruit,Piper nigrum, is known as the "King ofspices", and is the single most commonly-used spice in the world. Trade in pepperand other spices was a major cause ofmedieval wars and a driving forcebehind world exploration. Pepper hasbeen used for centuries in Asia to helptreat colds and coughs, muscle aches andpains. Historically it has also beenreferred to as a wound-healer and aphro-disiac. Well, it can’t be that bad for you,then, can it?

When added to food, pepper stimulatesthe digestive juices, increases the appetiteand aids digestion. It does this throughthermogenesis, the metabolic processthat generates energy at the cellular levelin our body. Thermogenesis plays animportant role in our body’s ability toproperly utilize the daily foods and

nutrients we take in. It sets in motion themechanisms that lead to digestion andsubsequent gastrointestinal absorption.

Some say that black pepper is gritty anddifficult to dissolve in the body, leadingto potential festering points in the intes-tines, though we suspect that you wouldhave to eat a shaker-full for this to hap-pen. But who would want to try that any-way? One thing is true though, blackpepper has been reported to congestblood vessels. Anyone who suffers fromvaricose veins or hemorrhoids mightwant to steer clear.

BELGIUM: FRESHLY SQUEEZED ORANGE JUICE

SHOULD BE DRUNK WITHIN A MAXIMUM OF 11MINUTES AFTER SQUEEZING, OTHERWISE IT

HAS NO VITAMINS. FACT OR MYTH?

Our guess is that pinning the post-squeezing interval down to 11 minutes is

from the sister sciences

a bit suspect, but freshness is certainly anadvantage when making the most ofyour juice. The main vitamin in orangejuice, as we all know, is Vitamin C.Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is an "antiox-idant" vitamin, essential to counteractharmful "free radicals". Free radicals aresimply free atoms that can "fly" aroundand do damage to things like DNA.While small amounts of free radicals pro-mote beneficial oxidation, in excess, theycan damage cell components and con-tribute to several major diseases. OnceVitamin C, which is rather unstable,binds to a free radical, it self-destructs inmost cases. Because it works in this way,Vitamin C has a pretty short half life, sothe longer it sits around, the less antioxi-dant potential it has. Fresh is better thanfrozen, and it’s probably better to gulpthe fresh stuff down as soon as you can.

By the way, if you are going to forego yergood ole’ glass of OJ for a quick-fixVitamin C tablet, beware! Ascorbic acidparticles will get packed into your teeth,and can rot them away. Brush your teethright afterwards – if you want to keepyour tooth enamel.

DENMARK: PARSLEY SHOULD NEVER BE

REHEATED. FACT OR MYTH?

Mom might be right here. Parsley, boththe curly English and the flat-leafedItalian type (or French and Spanish, asI’ve heard them called) have a more orless ruffly structure that increases the sur-face area where garden dirt and bacteriacan reside. We often cut our parsley freshfrom the garden, give it a quick rinse, andtoss it in our salads or on top of cookeddishes. Fresh is fine. The problem is left-overs. Since those bacteria aren’t usuallywashed away completely by harried and

however, at least for the kitchen gadgettrade, is the insurgence of expensive plas-tic lettuce knives with corrugated bladesthat attempt to mimic the tearing actionof your fingers. We think your fingers area much cheaper alternative.

SPAIN: DRINKING A GLASS OF VINEGAR IS AN

EXCELLENT WAY TO PROMOTE WEIGHT LOSS.FACT OR MYTH?

Ohhh, yuck. judging from our research,this is most likely a largely myth withunpleasant side effects. One source saysthat vinegar works for weight lossbecause "the body transforms it into apowerful fat and carbohydrate burner."Another claims that vinegar helps youburn fat and increases metabolism. It ismore than likely that the vineger wouldkill some of the bacteria in your gut andgive you the runs for a few days, leadingto weight loss, mostly in the form ofwater. Our advice for the plumperSpaniard? Cut down on the churros andchocolate instead.

As we found in our research, reliableanswers to these types of questions aredifficult to come by. Each one requires aquantitative answer that requires years ofstudy. Can current technologies in sci-ence (DNA chip analyses of what hap-pens when a starfish meets a brusselsprout) speed things up? Nobody knowsyet. But perhaps the answer is much sim-pler: eating healthily will increase yourchances of being healthy. My dad saysthat actually, all these mothers, includingmine (sorry, Mum) are wrong, and thatthe way our bodies cope with fooddepends on the simple ratio of n-3 to n-6polyunsaturated fatty acids in the foodwe ‘eat’ from the point of conceptiononwards – that is, it really depends onwhat your mother eats*. So next time youare about to reach for the pepper shaker,go right ahead, and remember that it maymatter less than you think.

– Sarah Sherwoodwith special thanks to Scott Kuersten

photos by Maj Britt Hansen

9

hurried cooks, they continue to grow inthe fridge. And since we don’t normallyreheat long enough nor at high enoughtemperatures, our little microbial friendsfind the cosy incubation temperatures ofthe reheating pan an ideal environmentfor reproduction. In general it’s probablya bad idea to reheat any plant material. Infact, if you look carefully at the frozenspinach boxes in your freezer, you’ll see aclear warning not to.

Incidentally, the humble parsley plant isactually a potent tonic. A tablespoon ofparsley a day provides you with morethan half the daily dose required to com-bat infectious disease. It helps alleviatemenstrual pain and also reduces rheu-matic crises and eases the pain caused bykidney stones.

GERMANY: CARROTS SHOULD BE GRATED,OTHERWISE THEY HAVE NO VITAMINS. YOU

SHOULD ALSO PUT OIL ON THEM. FACT OR

MYTH?

Well, we’re not so sure about the no vita-min part, but grating would certainlyintroduce a structural change in said car-rot, enhancing your body's ability todigest it. A rough grating will breakdown some of the carrot cell walls, muchlike having it chewed once for youalready. We humans, unlike rabbits, donot digest plant material very well andwe probably do not chew a whole carrotvery efficiently. Breaking down the cellwalls would also release Vitamin A, ofwhich carrots are chock-a-block. VitaminA is essential for healthy skin, eyes,bones, mucous membranes and hair (orfeathers), and helps prevent infections. Itis also fat soluble. If you pour oil (olive,not car) on your carrots, the vitamin A

would likely leak out of the carrot intothe oil and your body could digest thisbetter than from the carrot itself.

Did you know that carrots have beenknown for about 3,000 years? The Greeksand Romans used them mainly for med-ical purposes. Greek physicians pre-scribed carrot root and juice to treat indi-gestion, skin ulcers, cancer and snakebites. Pliny, a Roman writer, reported thatcarrots had aphrodisiac properties. Ouradvice? Sprinkle some oil and pepper onyour grated carrots, put on some BarryWhite music and turn the lights downlow…

CANADA: LETTUCE SHOULD NEVER BE CUT

WITH A KNIFE, ONLY TORN. OTHERWISE IT

TURNS BITTER. FACT OR MYTH?

The mostly likely explanation for this isthat when you cut lettuce with a knife,the sharp cut opens up pores in the plantand juices leak out which could very wellcreate a bitter flavor. By tearing the plant,the edges of the leaf are much less regu-lar and could have more chance to foldover each other and seal off these 'pores'.A damaged cut lettuce leaf releases anascorbic acid oxidase, which destroysvitamin C. Cut edges also discolor quick-ly. One beneficial aspect of this myth,

* see The Omega Diet: The Lifesaving NutritionalProgram Based on the Diet of the Island of Crete(Artemis P. Simopoulos and Jo Robinson,HarperCollins, 1999)

On Thursday, April 17, 2002, Hervé This, from INRA’s MolecularGastronomy group at the College de France, Paris, will speak about“Science and cooking: recent advances in Molecular Gastronomy.” The lec-ture is part of EMBL’s Forum on Science and Society. The talk will takeplace at 4 pm in EMBL’s Operon Theater.

EEMMBBLL &cetera Issue 10 - March 2002

If you happen to pass by the canteenat EMBL’s main laboratory in

Heidelberg on a Thursday or Fridayevening, you might be surprised atwhat you’ll see: a small army of spat-ula-wielding scientists enveloped inclouds of flour dust, furiously chop-ping, slicing and dicing, poaching, pick-ling and pureeing. Their fearless leader,clad in a white smock and red kerchief,looks on, shouting out orders every nowand again to orchestrate the offensive.

What would lead researchers-by-day totrade in their lab coats for kitchen aprons,and pipettes for turkey basters? ClausHimburg’s cooking club, of course! The clubgives EMBL staff the chance to explore theirculinary talents in a fully-equipped industri-al-sized kitchen. They cook on cooktops thesize of lab benches, fry in pans the size ofNMR machines and attempt to master a pro-fessional assortment of knives, whisks andladles as if they were ordinary lab tools. Themore technically inclined of the bunch have even tried their handat tackling the industrial-strength automatic whipped creamwhipper.

"Doing experiments is very similar to cooking," says CerstinFranz, a predoc in Iain Mattaj’s lab. "It’s all about adding the rightamount of ingredients at the righttime to produce good results. Bothrequire a good measure of concentra-tion, a lot of patience, and a little bitof luck." And, as always, the biggestchallenge is reproducibility. Thereal test is to come up with thesame results at the supper table athome.

When asked why he hasembarked on this crusade toimpart his wisdom gainedthrough years of experiencecooking in kitchens across theworld, Claus simply replies,"Everybody has to eat, don’tthey? We might as well makeit fun. In the cooking club wetry to experiment with inter-esting and more complicat-ed dishes from differentcountries that peoplemight not have theresources or know-how toprepare on their own."Dishes so far have includedGerman spaetzle, salmon in a cham-pagne cream sauce, venison in red wine and shallotsauce, individual mini-breads baked in flower pots, and a home-made chocolate ice cream – prepared in record time with the helpof a ready supply of liquid nitrogen.

Trained as a chef in his native Freudenstadt just south ofHeidelberg, Claus left home at the tender age of 14 to begin hisculinary travels, which have taken him to such far-off places asIreland, Norway, Morocco and Hong Kong. He also spent a yearin Spain’s Canary Islands where he was the chief chef at a resorthotel, catering to more than 600 people a day – twice a day, forboth lunch and dinner. "That was a big challenge. I had nevercooked for so many people before," he says. "But it was a lot offun. After we closed the kitchen, I would get up on stage with theresort staff and participate in the evening's comedy entertain-

ment show." Appropriate it seems, as we all knowthat Claus’ sense of humor is a key

ingredient to his success.

But Claus’ aspirations for thecooking club don’t stop withthe cleaning of the dishes afterthe meal. He plans to gatherrecipes for vegetarian dishesfrom around the world from hisEMBL protégés. Once the disheshave been given the stamp ofapproval from the EMBL cookingclub, Claus will publish them inan EMBL recipe book. He says thebook will be sure to include hisnow infamous ‘awful falafel’ recipe(see EMBL&cetera issue 8), completewith explanatory footnotes stressingthe importance of baking soda in theingredients list.

The EMBL Cooking Club meets at 6pm, one Thursday and Friday amonth. Cooking sessions are followedby eating sessions. Members are askedto make a small contribution to meet thecost of ingredients. If you are interestedin joining, stop by the canteen and talk to

Claus, or call him at extension 241 or 447.

– Sarah Sherwood

Salmon steaks in Champagne sauce2 salmon steaks, 200 g each1 tablespoon butter200 ml champagne or sparkling white wine

200 ml creamsalt, pepper, lemon juiceSprinkle salmon steaks with lemon juice, salt

and pepper. Heat butter in frying pan, and fry

salmon steaks over medium heat, 5 minutes

on either side. Pour champagne into a sepa-

rate pan, and boil until reduced by half. Add

cream, and continue to cook until sauce thick-

ens. Place salmon on a bed of rice or pasta,

and pour sauce on top. Buon appetit!– Claus Himburg

photo by Maj Britt Hansen

Cooking with Claus

11

newsevents&The EMBL Technology Fund is a true early stage venture capital

fund and currently has about €11 million under management onbehalf of major institutional investors in Europe. The investmentfocus is life-science in the broadest sense from diagnostics, bioin-formatics, target validation and drug design to technology plat-forms medical devices and therapeutics.

With several years of early stage investment experience we pro-vide more than just money to early stage companies. We arecommitted to being the best partner an entrepreneur can have.Together with the founders we invest our experience, resources,time, imagination and entrepreneurial energy to create lastingvalue. To find out more please visit us at www.embl-ventures.com. – Gabor Lamm

Soon you might not recognize it: the Hamburg Outstation is inthe midst of receiving a much-needed facelift. A number of staffmembers have been moved to "Siberia 1" and "Siberia 2" – con-tainer facilities – as the building they've been working in is takenapart and put back together again. Ernst Heinmöller and hisbuilding maintenance team in Heidelberg are supervising theconstruction, which will be completed by October. Look for thefull story on the project in future issues of this newsletter.

EMBL's oldest Outstation lies on the campus of DESY – theGerman Synchrotron Radiation Facility – on the west side ofHamburg. Space has been tight (and the building has looked a lit-tle gloomy) for years, not really befitting one of Europe's premierservice facilities. Every year, nearly a thousand scientists come tothe Outstation to solve protein structures on the beamlinesowned and operated by the EMBL unit. The staff currently runsseven different beamlines on the "Doris" ring, a synchrotron builtin the 1960s and 70s.

Demand for such services is sure to increase in the near future.Hamburg will participate in a major structural genomics initia-tive that has been approved by the EU. And the Director Generalof DESY, Albrecht Wagner, announced last year that DESY's"Petra" ring – a 2.3-kilometer instrument built in the 1980s – willbe devoted exclusively to producing synchrotron radiation start-ing in 2007. This means that the Outstation will soon be sitting atthe most powerful synchrotron source in Europe.

– Russ Hodge

Arms race talk at the Hamburg Outstation. On May 27,Professor Goetz Neuneck from the University of Hamburgand the German representative to Pugwash (www.pug-wash.org) will vist the Hamburg Outstation talk about his50 years of experience as a physicist monitoring the inter-national arms race. His talk will be followed by a lecture byProfessor Kathryn Nixdorff from the Technical Universityof Darmstadt on monitoring and controlling bioweapons.All interested are welcome to attend. For more informa-tion, contact Will Stanley (stanley@embl-hamburg.de).

�

EMBO announces Restart Fellowship for women in sci-ence. This two-year grant, available to women scientistswho have taken a career break of at least one year for child-care, is aimed at helping female scientists re-enter the sci-entific profession. The Restart Fellowship programme isthe first international effort of its kind, and is one of sever-al initiatives that EMBO is taking to support women in thelife sciences. The first deadline for applications is August15, 2002. For more information on the Restart Fellowship,a summary booklet of “The glass ceiling for women in thelife sciences” meeting held in June 2001, and EMBO’srecently published position paper offering practical guide-lines for gender parity in science, see www.embo.org/proj-ects/women/index.html. The booklet and position paperare also available from the EMBO office.

�

Waldpiraten construction underway. On February 22,groundbreaking ceremonies took place at the soon-to-beWaldpiraten Summer Camp for kids with and recoveringfrom cancer, near the Main Laboratory in Heidelberg.EMBL representatives were on hand to view the construc-tion plans, and to find out how EMBL volunteers can con-tinue to help with the Deutsches Kinderkrebsforschung proj-ect. Look out for fund-raising activities, such as theHeidelberg Triathlon, coming soon!

�

Red-letter day! The Staff Association’s second annualEMBL Summer Party, will be held on Saturday, June 8, justafter Lab Day. Staff at the Main Lab in Heidelberg and atthe Outstations are invited to come out for the fun and fes-tivities, as are EMBL alumni. We hope to see you all there!

�

Predoc selection week. Seventy-six hopeful candidtatesfrom an application pool of 280 visited the main laborato-ry from March 4-8 for EMBL’s annual predoc selectionweek. After a welcoming session, candidates were given atour of the lab, and then began intensive interviews. Thisyear, all candidates underwent a final admission assess-ment and were examined by four (friendly) panels consist-ing of representatives from each programme and outsta-tion. The week culminated in the annual Predoc party,organized by current PhD students, the night before theresults were announced. In the end 40 positions wereoffered. The PhD course will begin in Heidelberg onOctober 15.

Design for EMBL’s Hamburg Oustation. M. Stähle and R. Lebang, architects

A new look for Hamburg

The EMBL Technology Fund

EEMMBBLL &cetera Issue 10 - March 2002

science & society

The poetry of a scientist; the science of a poet

Today, popular culture regards poetryand chemistry as worlds apart, sepa-

rated by a chasm of dimetrically opposedviews of human nature and the world,with incompatible ultimate aims. If this istruly the case, it is almost inconceivablethat a person could maintain his balancewith a foot in both worlds. Yet the con-cept of a "Renaissance man" evokes a per-son who masters both the arts and thenatural sciences – and the species didn'tdie out when the Renaissance gave wayto the Baroque, then the Englightenment,and the industrial age. There are a fewsuch figures alive today. One of the mostprominent is the Nobel Prize-winningChemist Roald Hoffmann, who enjoys areputation as a poet and man of lettersalongside his highly-distinguished careeras a chemist.

"There was a time when they weretogether, poetry and science – these twoluxuriating, contraentropic glories of thehuman spirit," Hoffmann writes. "Theywalked hand in hand with Lucretius.And in English, with Alexander Pope,who could write poetry of the frontier sci-ence of his day. Pope...had no trouble inputting the poet and the chemist side byside."

What common core is shared by the artistand the natural scientist? "Both (are try-ing) to understand the beautiful and ter-rible world around and within us,"Hoffmann writes. "The natural philoso-pher never left poetry. But he (and she)lost his way."

In his poetry and essays, Hoffmann elo-quently evokes darkness and light, histo-ry and modernity, the potential of humancreativity to change for better or worse.Hoffmann has had direct personal expe-rience of both the best and worst ofhumanity over the last sixty-five years.Born a Polish Jew in 1937, he survived aghetto and a labor camp; for a year aUkranian hid him and his mother in aschoolhouse attic until the region was lib-erated by the Russians; over the next fiveyears he moved to Krakow,Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germanybefore finally settling in the United Statesin 1949. He attended university during atremendous, fast-paced period in science.His work in chemistry has focused on theelectronic structure of stable and unstablemolecules and transition states in reac-tions.

English was his sixth language, he writes,but he took to it quickly. Now he crafts itdeftly, with a strong evocative feel forvocabulary and rhythm. He began writ-ing poetry both on scientific and non-sci-entific themes in the 1970s and acheivedrecognition for his work starting in the1980s.

Who better to speak of the possibilitiesfor a synthesis between the arts and sci-ences? "Too bad," Hoffmann writes, thatthe poet and natural philosopher tookdifferent paths, for "they could havemoseyed into the twenty-first centurytogether."

Is it too late for a synthesis? While chem-istry is full of "riches upon riches: reports

of new discoveries, marvelous molecules,unmakeable, unthinkable yesterday," it isreported in a "mind-deadening" way.Hoffmann cites his own chemistry papersas examples of how the culture of scien-tific publications has removed qualitiesthat used to be inherent in scientificreports. While historically, scientific arti-cles began as personal accounts of obser-vations, the genre underwent "ossifica-tion" into its modern, rigid form nearlytwo centuries ago.

Changing this genre and this culture willtake a great deal of courage, Hoffmannsays, and it will be a slow process. Theraw materials are there. While it has beende-personified, the subject of science isnot incompatible with that of poetry; it isfull of metaphor. And it is a language"under stress," which is a strong impetusfor poetry:

"Words are being made to describe thingsthat seem indescribable in words – equa-tions, chemical structures and so forth.Words do not, cannot mean all that theystand for, yet they are all we have todescribe experience. By being a naturallanguage under tension, the language ofscience is inherently poetic."

Perhaps the best solution at the momentis to keep a foot in both worlds, to pursuea traditional scientific career and permitunusual words and phrases to creep intoone's articles, to write poetry about sci-ence. "Sometimes," Hoffmann says, "itseems to work out."

– Russ Hodge

Roald Hoffmann is the Frank H. T. RhodesProfessor of Humane Letters at Cornell

University in Ithaca, New York, and co-winner ofthe 1981 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. In addition tohis world-reknowned achievements as a theoreticalchemist, Professor Hoffman is also an accom-plished artist and poet. On the next page he sharessome of his work with EMBL&cetera readers.

13

In this century science and technology have transformedthe world. What we have added, mostly for the best of rea-

sons, is in danger of modifying qualitatively the great cyclesof the planet. We see the effects of our intervention in thechange in the ozone layer, the pollution and acidity of ourwaters, in why we wash an apple, in the crumbling statuary,our heritage, dissolving.

The effect of science and technology was surely felt before.But not till this century did the man- and woman-made, thesynthetic, the unnatural, truly contend with nature. Is this atime to praise, a time to fear?

The world that men and women entered before there everwas such a thing as chemistry was not a romantic paradisebut a brutish, inimical environment in which men andwomen hardly lived past forty. That natural world was trans-formed by our social institutions, our art, our science.Certainly not by science alone. We do not kill female chil-dren, nor keep slaves, nor let the sick die, all practices somesocieties, I'm sorry to say some religions, once thought natu-ral. Even though we have such a long way to go, we havechanged our nature. Our lives are improved by detergentsand synthetic fibers, and by a social web of human, con-structed support. Our lives are enriched by Mozart and BobMarley and the Wailers, bringing to us a world of synthe-sized, transformed beauty and satisfaction.

Yet we also use our transforming capacity destructively – toannihilate a quarter of the species in this world, to hurt ourbrothers and sisters. It is we who do this; there is no hidingbehind a "they." This seems to be our dark side. We have aproblem in finding a balance, with not letting our transform-ing nature run amok; we seem to have difficulty in cooperat-ing with our own world.

In the tradition I come from, the Jewish tradition, there is aconcept that is relevant to this theme of natural/unnatural. Itis tikkun. The word literally means "repair" – of a shoe, butalso of a soul, of the world. The sense is of change by humanintervention. So the word's meaning shades over to transfor-mation. Tikkun olam – the transformation of the world, byhuman beings, more than a salvaging, a making of our futureconsistent with what we are given.

Friends, it is not given to us not to make new things – be theymolecules, a sculpture, or a civil rights bill that a presidentvetoes. We are sentenced by our nature to create. But we dohave a choice, to fashion this world in consonance with thebest in us, or the worst. One can doubt about whether ourtransformations are of human value. But there can be nodoubt as to what they should be.

1

To grow animal, smart, the membranesof eucaryotic cells rim, twice, thecoded library of the nucleus, tangle

then fuse to the gaudy network of sacsof the endoplasmic reticulum. Pinched offsubcellular organelles empower cells

with the know-how to reject transplants,wrap a myelin sheath around a neuron, seered, and then, see yellow. Still better

microscopes make out more partitions.In the emerging inner texture, freedom,to change, is built from lipid-tailored

confinements, warm prisons where enzymebrews gel. Ways in and out are ingenious:shaped pores, embrasures, and this chemical

escalator called active transport. Fluid,mosaic, the membranes' holed sequestering works.

2

In 1655 Juana Inés de Asbaje beggedher mother to dress her as a boy, sothat she could study at the University

of Mexico. At the court of the viceroyshe astounded forty professors with hermathematics and Latin odes. But it was not

a time for learned women in Mexico, soJuana entered the convent of San Jeronimo;within, watched two girls spinning a top, and

from what she called her black inclinationfor wisdom, had flour sprinkled, so that asthe top danced out its loss of momentum

one might see its spiral trace, and nota circle. Juana mixed earths, and in a libraryof 4000 volumes wrote theology and love

poems. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, shuttingherself in the cell where knowing is permitted.

CORRAL for Carlos Fuentes

TIKKUN

On Tuesday, March 19, 2002, Roald Hoffmann will give a talk entitled, "One culture, or the commonalities and differencesbetween the arts and the sciences". The lecture is part of EMBL’s distinguished visitor series and the Science and Societyprogramme. The talk will be held at 4 pm in EMBL’s Operon Theater.

– Roald Hoffmann

EEMMBBLL &cetera Issue 10 - March 2002

The retirement of André Gabriel is both a happy and melan-choly occasion: happy because André has arrived at the end

of a rich, full professional career, and melancholy because startingin January, we will be missing a colleague – an important piece inthe interesting puzzle of our scientific community.

To spend more than a quarter of a century at a prestigiousLaboratory like EMBL is a remarkable thing, especially in light ofour policy of limited contracts. But what is even more remarkableis that over all these years, André's work has remained at theexceptional quality of his early days with EMBL.

Speaking of these early days: André has often reminded me thathe was the first collaborator at the Grenoble Outstation – evenbefore it officially existed. The official contract for the Laboratorywas signed by the member states in July 1974, and one of Sir JohnKendrew's first priorities was to find good people to support aBritish scientist "exiled" at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg.I am referring to Ken Holmes, who had just demonstrated thatsynchrotron light had an enormouspotential to push structural biologytowards a "brilliant" future.

One of André's many contributionsrelated to the detectors that wereneeded at the synchrotrons. Veryearly on, at Hamburg, André ledthe way to developing standardsfor the electronics used in the detec-tors, along with our friends KenHolmes and Gert Rosenbaum. Thisled to the adoption of standardssuch as the "NIM chassis" whichpermits the use of interchangeablecommercial electronic modules.

In 1978, Sir John asked Leo DeMayer to become the head ofInstrumentation, leading to the arrival of a number of new col-leagues at Hamburg: Jules Hendrix, Hans Fürst, Greg Nicolaï anda few others. Leo suggested that Heidelberg establish a unitdevoted to detection at the Main Laboratory, which led to André'staking up residence at Heidelberg. He and François Dauvergneinstalled themselves in Emmertsgrund, not far from another "leg-endary" figure from the early days of EMBL: our friend Jean-Claude Homo, another great specialist in instrumentation (bothof electron microscopes and of Peugeot camping cars).

Leo faced the challenging task of tying together the efforts of allof the people he had collected – who were working in differentdirections. In those early days, each of them thought he had theultimate solution to the problem of detection. All of this fertileactivity was strongly pushed by Hugh Huxley, at Cambridge,accompanied by his faithful companion Wasi Faruqui, who weredetermined to turn rapid, time-lapsed pictures of frog musclesinto a Nobel Prize.

This is how my personal encounters with André began: he repeat-edly told me that people on the computational side of detectorswere inept, because they couldn't get the pulses produced by hiswire detectors into the computers. He added that my boss at thetime, Richard Herzog, regarded himself as "Gutenberg" becausehe was more concerned about the development of word process-ing tools that scientific computing!

The main problem to be solved at the time was that detectors pro-

André à la retraite: the end of an era at Grenoblevided just two signals in order to determine the position of an"event": the location of a particular spot in a diffraction pattern.One evening, after a long discussion about the technical aspectsof detector readouts, André and I went to see Richard. He sent usaway with the pleasant comment that if I wanted to help Andréwith the problem, I certainly could – after all, I had plenty of freetime on Saturdays and Sundays.

We wouldn't have gotten much farther with the problem exceptthat in an earlier life, both André and I had spent some time atCERN, which permitted us to acquire bits and pieces of some dig-ital-time converters. After a few weeks and a few trips toHamburg to make some adjustments, we were able to combinethese strange components with a slapped-together controller intothe first rapid measurement system, capable of surpassing themeager 20 KHz of Professor Stuhrmann's IN 90, reaching 300KHz. The implications were that we would be able to take time-lapse images of small-angle diffractions using synchrotron radia-tion.

A little while later, at 2 am, withMichel Koch and Juan Bordas (thecoaches of the beamline we called the"monkey cage"), we were able to helpHugh Huxley obtain his diffractioncurves. Everyone was very pleased,and André and I hurried down toHeidelberg to spread the good news.Unfortunately the news arrivedbefore we did... and the work rapidlyturned into a publication in Nature.More unfortunately, our names didn'tappear on the paper – I won't repeatwhat André said on that occasion!

In any case, our efforts had moved us into "first place" in the fieldof rapid detection, and that was the most important thing. It wasa critical boost for the Hamburg Outstation.

Over the years what we called the "KGB" – Koch, Gabriel, andBoulin – continued to make advances in this area and despite afew moments of "cold war" (normal for the KGB) we becameinseparable on the beamlines at the HasyLab. André worked hardto bring gas detectors from a "prehistoric" state into the twenty-first century. There's still a lot of work to be done, and we canonly hope that others will continue his efforts.

André had a lot of contacts in other laboratories throughout theworld and established important contacts and collaborationswith them as others learned to use and adapt the detectors. Wespent a great deal of time in Hamburg and became intimatelyfamiliar with the Autobahn between Hamburg and Heidelberg –also between Heidelberg and Grenoble. I want to apologize toAndré for having made his detectors travel so often and so fastalong these 600 kilometers that separate the Laboratories inHamburg and Heidelberg. It's true that it wasn't always reason-able to roll along at 180 km per hour with the car full of laborato-ry materials. Fortunately, the God of the Detectors was with us.

In closing, I hope that André will be able to use his retirement todevote himself to new activities. We thank him for all that he hasdone in service of the Laboratory; he will continue to be a wel-come member of this international community, in a new capacity.

– Christian Boulin

names to faces

André Gabriel

15

Hark, but listen closely, little one. Down from the mist coveredmountain comes the haunting skirl of the pipes, the sound

of laughter and dancing. Like Brigadoon itself, the legendaryScottish highland village reputed to appear for only one day oncea century, the annual Burns Supper made a welcome reappear-ance at the EMBL. The Scots amongst you are a greedy bunch,having two days celebrating all things Scottish. St. Andrew’s dayon November 30 and January 25, when we brighten up the long,dreich winter by celebrating the birth, life and times of Scotland’swell loved poet, Robert Burns. Rabbie, to his friends, was born inAyrshire in 1759, the humble son of a tenant farmer. He died, abrief 37 years later, on the 21st July 1796, leaving a lasting inspi-ration of the human condition through his poetry. We gatheredtogether on Friday, February 8 to revere, honour and cherish theimmortal Bard but more importantly, to have a roaring goodtime.

We felt that education, a fine thing close to many a Scots heart,should feature highly in the proceedings. To this end, many excel-lent single malt whiskies were arrayed for sampling at the begin-

ning of the evening. Palates were treated to the smooth, roundflavours of the Speyside malts contrasting with the intense darksmokiness of the whisky from the Islands. Aye, the tang of thesea, the forlorn cry of the curlew wading on a storm-lashedbeach, all captured in a glass.

Seats were then required by more than a few of the partakers ofthe single malts. Just as well then that a glorious feast of haggis,neeps (mashed turnip) and tatties (mashed potato) was to follow.The haggis is an interesting dish, consisting of the stomach of asheep stuffed with oatmeal, spices and other bits of the sheep,some of which could even be named by a really competent butch-er. As befits tradition, the haggis, on a silver platter, was piped inbefore the assembled guests. Burn’s "Address to a Haggis" wasthen read over the steaming delicacy, culminating in the haggisbeing ripped asunder by a single slash from a rather large knife,or Skein Dhu (Black Blade). The feasting then commenced, withmore whisky being consumed, purely in the spirit of furtherinvestigation, throughout the meal. We were then treated to anexcellent rendition of several well know Scottish tunes by thepipes and drums of the "Heidelberg and District Pipe Band",resplendent in kilts and traditional highland dress.

A caleidh (Scottish country dancing) then followed a brief respitewhile tables were cleared away for the dancing. I understand thatfurther strong drink was partaken by several reprobates duringthis time. Oh, but then came a sight that made the spirits soar!Partners gliding over the floor in perfect complement to eachother, effortlessly expressing, with grace and pride, the rich andnoble sentiment of highland music. Well, at least no one requiredeither first aid or last rites and everyone had some very beneficialexercise. Suffice it to say that the person calling the dances could-n’t speak properly for several days afterwards and many a sorrysoul was seen limping away from their partners. We were alsofurther entertained by Neil Readshaw, an Australian piper ofInternational Standing, who skirled the night away with severalcomplex reels and jigs. The evening then ended with the tradi-tional rendition of "Auld Lang Syne", written, of course, by thegreat Burns himself. The few remaining bottles of whisky werethen rescued from the happy revellers as they made their wayhome.

Special thanks are due to the lovely folk who organised thisBurns night. They are Tom Cord, Claus Himburg and his team,Joe Lewis, Don McPhee, Michelle Meredyth, Doros Panayi, FionaPanayi, Kim Piggott, Sarah Sherwood, and the Heidelberg andDistrict Pipe Band.

– George Reid

"We look to Scotland for allour ideas of civilisation."

– Voltaire

“Ye may ‘tak away my life, But you’ll never take away my Burns night”

The EMBL Kinderhaus staff would like to invite all EMBL staffand researchers (scientists, students, directors, and secretaries

alike!) to come up to the Kinderhaus and talk to the kids aboutyour work. Choose a theme or idea that you find fascinating, andtell them all about it – anything goes! The only thing we ask isthat you enjoy communicating with children at their level, thatyou enjoy spontaneous situations with them, and that you arewilling to improvise.

We want our children to learn more about EMBL, the place wheretheir parents work. We want them to grow up in a world that is

part of their parents’ grown-up world. We want to be able to pro-vide them with answers to their questions, and to reward theircuriosity and interest.

You might even get a new inspiration for your next scientific proj-ect from their questions and ideas.

If you are interested, or have ideas for other exchanges with chil-dren, please send an email to puhm@embl-heidelberg.de or callextension 183.

Eva Puhm, Head of EMBL’s Kindergarten

An open invitation to the EMBL community from the Kinderhaus

awards, honorscetera&

1EEMMBBLL &cetera Issue 10 - March 2002

EEMMBBLL@people

Manolis Pasparakis is a new Group Leader in EMBL’s ResearchProgramme on Mouse Biology in Monterotondo. Manolis didhis PhD in 1997 at the Hellenic Pasteur Institute in AthensGreece, and his postdoctoral training at the Institute of Genetics,University of Cologne, Germany. At EMBL he will continue hisinvestigations into the NF-κB signalling pathway in develop-ment and in inflammatory and degenerative diseases.

Faculty appointments: Detlev Arendt has been appointed team leader in theDevelopmental Biology Programme at the Heidelberg Main Laboratory.

EEMMBBLL &cetera is published by the Office ofInformation and Public AffairsEMBL, Meyerhofstrasse 1D-69117 Heidelberg

Tel. +49 6221 387 252; fax 387 525e-mail: info@embl-heidelberg.de

Editor: Sarah Sherwood; Associate Editor:Russ Hodge; Design: Sarah Sherwood,Russ Hodge

Contributors: Christine Blaumüller, ChristianBoulin, Roald Hoffmann, Gabor Lamm,Andrew Moore, Ann Thüringer, George Reid

Photographic support: EMBL Photolab

Printed on recycled paper by ColorDruck,Leimen

Would you like to contribute to the next issue of EEMMBBLL&cetera?

Just send a message to info@embl-heidelberg.de.

Deadline for submissions is May 2, 2002

Who’s new?

Rafael Carazo Salas, a predoctoral fellow in Eric Karsenti’s group, has won CostaRica’s Premio Nacional Clodomiro Picado Twight for 2001. The prize is awarded toyoung Costa Rican researchers whose work demonstrates scientific excellence andoriginality. Carazo Salas’ PhD thesis focussed on the fundamental role that chromo-somes play in the formation of mitotic spindles during cell division. In FebruaryRafael left EMBL for the greener pastures of the London Research Institute, CancerResearch UK, formerly known as the ICRF.

In the Biochemical InstrumentationProgramme: Jan Selig (Ansorge); inthe Cell Biology and Cell BiophysicsProgramme: Markus Grabenbauer(Nilsson and Pepperkok), AlexandrJonas (Stelzer), Sofia Rybina(Karsenti); in the DevelopmentalBiology Programme: Uwe Gritzan(Cohen), Sonia Lopez de Quinto(Ephrussi), Brigitte Wild (J. Müller);in the Gene Expression Programme:Wolfram Antonin (Mattaj), MariaKoffa (Mattaj), Christian Thoma(Hentze), at the MonterotondoProgramme on Mouse Biology:Rossana De Lorenzi (Pasparakis),Arianna Nenci (Pasparakis), DanielaRuffell (Nerlov). Ekaterina Salimova(Witke) in the Structural andComputational Biology Programme:Richard Bayliss (Conti), CarolineMcGuigan (Gibson), Victor Neduva(Russell); in research-related servic-es: Anja Bathke (Proteomics CoreFacility), Mary Burlot (Computer &Networking Group); elsewhere atEMBL: Sharon Hannon (OIPA),Claudia Lindner (OIPA); at EMBO:Ole Hansen, Anne Seller, Jan Taplick

A. The mouseoleum

Q. What's the animal house in Monterotondo called?

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Hey EMBL alumni!

Do you know where your friends and col-leagues who used to work at EMBL are now?Send them a note telling them how they canget their own copy of EMBL&cetera. All they

have to do is send an email to

info@embl-heidelberg.de