Toronto

While Heather and Jamie relaxed with Nan and Pa amongst the boxes, movers, cleaning and joys of living from suitcases and sleeping on air mattresses, Josh toiled and sweated at a conference in Toronto this week. With over 12,000 delegates and 3,000 presentations, it was a 'rather large' meeting. One highlight was the opening lecture. The talk by an eminent biologist (E.O. Wilson) reminded Josh of why he loves microbiology, and the content is reflected in the following quote:

"If I could do it all over again, and relive my vision in the twenty-first century, I would be a microbial ecologist… Into that world I would go with the aid of modern microscopy and molecular analysis. I would cut my way through clonal forests sprawled across grains of sand, travel in an imagined submarine through drops of water proportionately the size of lakes, and track predators and prey in order to discover new life ways and alien food webs. All this, and I need venture no farther than ten paces outside my laboratory building. The jaguars, ants, and orchids would still occupy distant forests in all their splendor, but now they would be joined by an even stranger and vastly more complex living world virtually without end. For one more turn around I would keep alive the little boy of Paradise Beach who found wonder in a scyphozoan jellyfish and a barely glimpsed monster of the deep.”

- E.O. Wilson, "Naturalist" (his autobiography)

If you are still reading, this Encyclopedia is his brainchild and will become a global phenomenon. We thought Wikipedia was impressive...