Quinta GrandeThe Newsletter of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência

Darwin’s Evolution The exhibition that explores the life and work of Charles Darwin will open on February 12th at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (More on page 3)

This edition is available on-line at: www.igc.gulbenkian.pt

January 2009| Issue 2

bimonthly

In this edition:

Evolving at the IGC

John Martin : “Reductionism hasn’t gotten us anywhere”

Bial research grants awarded to IGC researchers

“Alive” with a Scientist

GAMeets 2008 – swimming ‘home’

Photo By

Photo by Luis Moreira-TVM Designers

Editorialby Diogo de Lucena *

Have your say‘Quinta Grande’ aims to be a forum to communicate events and any news which may be of interest to those who work either at or with the IGC. If you have any suggestions of topics to be discussed here, please e-mail them to:

quintagrande@igc.gulbenkian.pt

Support ScienceThe IGC calendar for 2009 is still available at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência.

You can also have access to IGC calendar through the following contacts:supportus@igc.gulbenkian.ptTel:+ 351 214464677

Quinta Grande, Issue 2, January 2009Coordinator: Ana GodinhoEditor: Sílvia Castro Contributors: Ana Godinho; Andreia Reis; Bar-bara Vreede; Daniel Marques; Diogo Lucena; Élio Sucena; Maria João Leão; Sandra Moreira; Sheila Vidal; Thiago Carvalho; IIustration: Hugo AlmeidaGraphic design: Paulo EmilianoCirculation: 400Address: Rua da Quinta Grande, 62780-156 Oeiras, PortugalTelephone: +351 214 464 537Fax.: +351 214 407 970www.igc.gulbenkian.pt

In writing an editorial such as this one, at the beginning of a new year, it is tempting to look back on the year that has just ended and make a string of good intentions and noble goals for the year ahead. However, for this issue of the IGC newsletter, dedicated as it is to Evolution and the celebration of the life and work of Charles Darwin, it is perhaps more appropriate to take a broader view.

In the last ten years, the IGC has come a long way, after going through a radical re-structure. In my view, the main lesson of these ten years is the

importance of designing the institute’s mode of operation in a flexible way. First of all, in it’s strategy. The institute’s mission certainly has to have a high level of stability, but cannot be totally rigid. An institution such as the Gulbenkian Foundation is duty-bound to continuously question the missions is has attributed to the institute, and, whenever possible, anticipate the institute’s role, in face of increasingly rapid changes, both in science and in the institutional framework that underlies scientific research, in Portugal and abroad. After these ten years of rapid growth, this reflection process, although constant, is particularly imperative. I would say the time has come to change the focus of the Institute’s functioning from growth, to matters of quality and to reinforcing the features that make it unique.

To keep up with this constant evolution, it is crucial to adopt highly flexible organisational methods. The secret lies in being able to change regularly, make small adjustments over the years, which, without causing major traumas, lead to the changes that are necessary to sustain strategic evolution. Sweeping reforms are always times of great risk, and we should avoid getting to the point where they are necessary. Furthermore, in a science research institute, where room for individual initiative is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for success, there is all the more reason to seek this flexibility. Indeed, I would say this is, at the moment, one of the institute’s greatest assets. But this freedom and flexibility need the ‘glue’ of a collective project, and of sharing in ‘our way of doing things’, in order to be truly productive. I hope the IGC never loses this extremely striking and unique feature, one that makes a mark on even the casual passer-by. After all, the ability to adapt to new challenges and new environments is crucial to the success of a species. My wishes for the IGC for the coming year, and the next ten years, are for solid internal cooperation and a healthy attitude to external competition, always held up to the standards of the best science in the world.

(*) Prof.Dr. Diogo de Lucena is a Trustee for Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Charles Darwin was born 200 years ago, on February 12th, 2009 in Shrewsbury, England. Two centuries later, few individu-als, perhaps none, have had as much influence on our view of the world as this fifth child of a country doctor and the daughter of a porcelain manufacturer. Darwin was a boy who loved nature and grew up outdoors, collecting, hunting and exploring. As a young man, fresh out of Divinity school at Cambridge Univer-sity, he circumnavigated the world in an epic voyage of scientific discovery. When Darwin returned to England, after five years on board the HMS Beagle, he was already famous among British naturalists for the thousands of samples he had sent ahead to researchers at home. But the most precious cargo on the Beagle when it docked at Falmouth in 1836 was the one Darwin carried in his mind- a sense that a new explanation was needed to ac-count for the diversity of life he had seen, and the endless adap-tations that organisms displayed to their environments. This year we also commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s masterpiece, where he presented that new explana-tion to the world: “On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life”. Despite its cumbersome title, the book sold out on the same day it arrived at bookshops.

In Lisbon, we will celebrate this veritable ‘Darwin Year’ with an exhibition that explores the life and work of Charles Darwin. “Darwin’s Evolution” will also focus on the history of the modern idea of Evolution itself, from its roots in naturalists like Georges Louis-Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, to genetics and the modern synthetic theory. “Darwin’s Evolution” will feature original Darwin artifacts, a mummy, shells from Lamarck’s per-sonal collection, a reconstruction of young Darwin by french sculptress Elisabeth Daynés, a Beagle model constructed by the artisans of the Lisbon Naval Museum, live plants and animals, and many suprises. “Darwin’s Evolution” will be accompannied by a lecture series by renowned scholars. It opens on Febru-ary 13th with paleontologist Niles Eldredge, the curator of the American Museum of Natural History’s own “Darwin” exhibi-tion (elements of which have been incorporated into our own ex-hibition), and closes with biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant on the 24th of May who have followed Darwin’s footsteps in his most famous natural laboratory, the Galapagos Islands.

“Darwin’s Evolution”, curated by José Feijó, will run at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian’s temporary exhibition gallery (Av. de Berna/Praça da Espanha) from February 12th to May 24th (Tuesday-Sunday, 10:00- 18:00). A limited number of free guided tours in english for IGC members will be offered on weekends. Those interested should send an email to:darwin@igc.gulbenkian.pt

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Darwin’s Evolutionby Thiago Carvalho

“Alive” with a Scientistby Maria João Leão

A unique partnership was recently established between IGC and Everything is New, promoter of “OptimusAlive!08Oeiras”, an international music and art event held just outside Lisbon, in Algés. The IGC was present at this event with a considerable number of scientists and this partnership also resulted in the sponsorship of two research fellowships for recent graduates in Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution.

This initiative involving the scientific community, the private sector and the public in general aims to establish alternative sources of funding for research in Portugal and to contribute to a closer interaction between research centres and the Portuguese society.

At the IGC pavillion, just opposite the main stage, science, music and art mixed in an unusual way. Around eighty scientists from IGC volunteered to“speed-dating” with the visitors as a way of breaking down stereotypes of scientists, encouraging new careers in science, and involving the public in direct participation and active contribution to research. Other activities included molecular cooking with the “Cooking Lab”, interactive games and sci-art installations.

Approximately 1000 people visited this space dedicated to science and researchers. Simultaneously, at the different stages of the event plenty of music, for all ages, by outstanding bands and performers; from Gogol Bordello, Rage Against the Machine, Bob Dylan, The Do Lab, and others.

The majority of the visitors answered the IGC survey. From the 700 questionnaires returned, a large part of the visitors were between 20 and 29 years old (51%, average age of 24) or between 10 and 19 years old (30%, average age of 17.

But this partnership was about more than the three days of the event. “Everything is New” sponsored the “OptimusAlive08 Oeiras-IGC” research fellowships in Biodiversity which aim to promote crucial research for the sustainability of our planet and to secure private funding to encourage graduates to take up careers in research.

The call for these fellowships had 74 applications from young graduates around the country. The fellowships were awarded to Alexandre Leitão, 23 years old, a Biology graduate from “Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa” and to João Alves, 24 years old, a graduate in Applied Biology from “Universidade do Minho”.

The project that Alexandre Leitão is already working on, in the Evolution and Development team supervised by Élio Sucena, aims to tackle the evolutionary origins of immune system in collaboration with King’s College in London.

João Alves, supervised by Lounes Chikhi in the Population and Conservation Genetics team, aims to study the impact of habitat fragmentation on the genetic diversity of endangered species. This project will have collaborations with Univesiti Malaysia Sabah, Danau Girang Field Centre and Cardiff University.

The opinions were unanimous: “this initiative was a success” and “we hope it happens again”.

GAMeets 2008 – swimming ‘home’

by Ana GodinhoAt the risk of ruining the pun in the title, here’s what GA-

Meets actually stands for: ‘Gulbenkian Alumni Meeting’. So-metime between Christmas and New Year, former students of the Gulbenkian PhD programmes gather for a mix of sociali-zing, scientific catching up and to discuss key issues in research and science policy.

GAMeets 2008 was about alternative careers in science, following ‘fulfilling biomedicine in Portugal’, ‘inbreeding’ and ‘deciding to return to Portugal’ in previous years. This year’s theme broadened the discussion beyond the lab walls, to the start-up, the editorial desk, big pharma, the consultancy, public health fieldwork in Mozambique. Six life science PhD’s explai-ned their reasons for moving ‘laterally’…and one told us about

her reasons for leaving the traditional job market to become, and remain, a scientist.

A common thread ran through all the talks: that going throu-gh a PhD empowers you to look for, and conquer, equally (yet different) challenging and rewarding careers. This notion was taken up and explored during the round-table discussion. The IGC director, a McKinsey and Company consultant, the head of the biotech Biotechnol, and a COTEC executive agreed that, despite the difficulties, there are many opportunities in Portugal for ‘lateral’ career moves for PhD holders. However, the panel stressed, PhDs need to be more aggressive in approaching com-panies, to ‘cash in’ on the growing perception, in Portugal, of their need to industry and other areas.

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The growth and renewal process un-dertaken at the IGC for the past 10 years has wisely integrated evolutionary rese-arch into its agenda, promoting the stu-dy and education of evolution (from the general public to the graduate level) in a sustained and committed manner.

Currently, the IGC hosts 5 teams devoted to the study of evolution. One major generic goal to most of the work undertaken at our Institute consists on revealing the mechanisms and the ge-netic basis of phenotypic variation and adaptive evolution. This endeavour can ultimately provide a comprehensive fra-mework for the origin, divergence and maintenance of biological diversity.

The comparative method is the ap-proach mostly used in the laboratories of “Variation: Development and Selection” (Patrícia Beldade) and of “Evolution & Development” (Élio Sucena). Briefly, it consists of using the existing genetic di-versity between populations and across species, anchored in a strong phylogene-tic description, to infer the functional ba-sis of divergent evolutionary trajectories.

Patrícia´s Lab has focused on a mor-phological phenotype, the patterns of colour on the wings of Bicyclus any-nana butterflies, to study how genetic variation is translated into phenotypic variation by the process of development and how that impacts on evolutionary change. Butterfly wing patterns are vi-sually compelling products of selection, often with a clear adaptive value, and are also amenable to detailed develo-pmental characterization at different levels, including genomics. This trait

is well suited to study the reciprocal in-teractions between evolutionary and de-velopmental processes (evo-devo) that shape morphological variation. Another trait under scrutiny in the Evolution & Development lab is the dorsal appenda-ges of Drosophila eggshells, a structure that represents an evolutionary novelty of the Drosophilidae lineage in that it is absent from all other dipteran clades. The comparison of the genetic architec-ture and developmental programmes de-termining eggshell morphology between Drosophila and its closely-related featu-reless species should provide an insight into the way alternative and new mor-phologies arise in evolution.

Experimental evolution is the prefer-red method in the “Evolutionary Biolo-gy” (Isabel Gordo) and “Evolutionary Genetics” (Henrique Teotónio) labs. In a nutshell, they follow evolution in real-time! This is an extremely powerful me-thod in which variation at the phenotypic level can be mapped to variation at the genotypic level in a highly controlled and replicable fashion.

One example of this approach comes from the laboratory of Henrique Teotó-nio and their work on reverse evolution in Drosophila populations. They have shown that when several differentia-ted populations, all descendent from a common ancestor, were subjected to the same ancestral environment, these were capable of “re-adapting” to that environ-ment but to variable degrees and taking different trajectories in a way that was highly contingent on previous evolutio-nary history. Furthermore, recent advan-ces have established that even when re-

version to the ancestral fitness state was complete only half of the expected DNA changes would follow. This means that evolution at the nucleotidic level cannot be predicted.

Isabel combines both theoretical and empirical work with the aim of bet-ter understanding the major forces that shape variation in natural populations. In particular, her lab uses E. coli as a model organism to test theoretical pre-dictions about the evolution of mutation rates. This work has recently led to the surprising conclusion that the rate of adaptive mutations in a bacterial popula-tion is 1,000-fold higher than assumed, a finding with profound implications in understanding antibiotic resistance.

Finally, the “Population and Conser-vation Genetics ” lab (Lounés Chikhi) uses genetic data to address issues in demographic history of populations and species, using evolutionary theory with the aim of understanding and predicting the dynamics of wild populations. In par-ticular, the lab has focused on the effects of population size changes in the gene pool of endangered populations/species, as a result of habitat destruction and frag-mentation. They have shown that habitat destruction and fragmentation during the last century has left a clear signature in orangotang populations from northern Borneo and that environmental changes caused by humans have affected the le-murs in North-Western Madagascar.

Darwinian Evolution provides a set of principles that unify all fields of biolo-gy and in that measure constitutes an ex-tremely powerful conceptual handle for approaching any biological problem. Just as it can help us understand the past, Evo-lutionary theory is of the essence in asses-sing the future consequences of our present actions. From cancer to behaviour, public health to environmental sustainability an evolutionary perspective can prove invalu-able in making our choices in the lab and in society.

Evolving at the IGCby Élio Sucena

Different butterfly wing patterns

Drosophila melanogaster

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Susana Lima and Masayoshi Murakami, researchers at the IGC, were recently awarded Bial Science Research Grants, sponsored by the Bial Foundation. These awards support research in the fields of Psychophysiology and Parapsychology, and rewarded two IGC projects, with funding for the next two years, in the field of Neurosciences.

Susana Lima, Research Fellow of the Neuroethology Group, will study the neural processes that influence mate choice. Her research, for which she was awarded 30000

euro, questions the role of the nervous system in the selection of a mate, as the brain seems to avoid relationships between individuals with similar genetic background, thus limiting the probability of the risk of transmitting disease to the next generation. To achieve her goals, Susana Lima’s work will use the mouse as an animal model system since previous studies show that rodents can evaluate their prospective partner’s genetic identity, conditioning their mate choices, as a way to avoid genetic inbreeding.

Masayoshi Murakami, post-doctoral fellow at the Neuroscience Systems Group, received 18000 euro to understand the function of the prefrontal cortex (a brain region) in the control of impulsive actions.How does the brain decide in a certain situation, between

an impulsive behavior, that allows an immediate reward, or inhibits this action in order to achieve long term goals? To enlighten this question, Masayoshi will analyze the neuronal activity from the prefrontal cortex of rats that were previously trained to repress impulsive actions so as to obtain future larger rewards. For this, he will use multiple methods (e.g. electrophysiology, pharmacological restrained brain activity).

In 2006, Marta Moita, another IGC scientist, was awarded this grant, for the project “How do we learn to associate events separate in time: a study using trace auditory fear conditioning”.

IGC Researchers receive Bial Science Research Grantsby Andreia Reis and Sheila Vidal

Some of our recent papers: In this new space of our newsletter we would like to take the opportunity to list the work published by IGC researchers in the two months between our issues.

Becker, N., C. J. Wierenga, et al. (2008). • “LTD induction causes morphological changes of presynaptic boutons and re-duces their contacts with spines.” Neuron 60(4): 590-7.Chikhi, L. (2008). “Genetic markers: • how accurate can genetic data be?” He-redity 101(6): 471-2.Franke-Fayard, B., D. Djokovic, et al. • (2008). “Simple and sensitive antima-larial drug screening in vitro and in vivo using transgenic luciferase expressing Plasmodium berghei parasites.” Int J Parasitol 38(14): 1651-62.Galvao, R. P., J. M. Garcia-Verdugo, et al. •

(2008). “Brain-derived neurotrophic fac-tor signaling does not stimulate subven-tricular zone neurogenesis in adult mice and rats.” J Neurosci 28(50): 13368-83.Gerrish, P. (2008). “A simple formula for • obtaining markedly improved mutation rate estimates.” Genetics 180(3): 1773-8.Goncalves, D., M. Teles, et al. (2008). • “Brain and gonadal aromatase activity and steroid hormone levels in female and poly-morphic males of the peacock blenny Sal-aria pavo.” Horm Behav 54(5): 717-25.Kamgang, R. K., I. Ramos, et al. (2008). • “Using distinct molecular signatures of human monocytes and dendritic cells to predict adjuvant activity and pyrogenicity of TLR agonists.” Med Microbiol Immu-nol 197(4): 369-79.Lopes, P. C., E. Sucena, et al. (2008). • “Rapid experimental evolution of pesti-cide resistance in C. elegans entails no costs and affects the mating system.” PLoS ONE 3(11): e3741.

Mesquita, A. R., M. Correia-Neves, et al. • (2008). “IL-10 modulates depressive-like behavior.” J Psychiatr Res 43(2): 89-97.Pereira, C. S., J. R. McAuley, et al. (2008). • “Sinorhizobium meliloti, a bacterium lacking the autoinducer-2 (AI-2) synthase, responds to AI-2 supplied by other bacte-ria.” Mol Microbiol 70(5): 1223-35.Pimenta-Marques, A., R. Tostoes, et al. • (2008). “Differential requirements of a mi-totic acetyltransferase in somatic and germ line cells.” Dev Biol 323(2): 197-206.Prudencio, M., C. D. Rodrigues, et al. • (2008). “Kinome-wide RNAi screen im-plicates at least 5 host hepatocyte kinases in Plasmodium sporozoite infection.” PLoS Pathog 4(11): e1000201.Wasmeier, C., A. N. Hume, et al. (2008). • “Melanosomes at a glance.” J Cell Sci 121(Pt 24): 3995-9.

For a complete listing of our papers, please go to:

http://www.igc.gulbenkian.pt/node/view/81

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Marta Moita, Masayoshi Murakami and Susana Lima Photo by Andreia Reis

“Reductionism hasn’t gotten us anywhere” by Daniel Marques and Barbara Vreede

When an eagle sits on a tree, and then flies away – does the relationship between the tree and the eagle still exist? And, can you apply this principle to the soul?

John Martin takes another sip of his tea – with milk – and con-tinues: “I like to believe I have a soul. I don’t know I have a soul, actually, I am very much agnostic. And that frightens me. But believing I have one, and acting accordingly, enriches my life.”

Five minutes ago, professor John Martin, director of UCL’s Centre for Cardiovascular Biology and Medicine, had just fin-ished his talk on therapies for heart disease, and was ordering another cup of tea. His talk had been inspiring: he urged us to cooperate, collaborate, and “change the way universities work”. He had told us about the patent he has on a degradable collagen container that is used to supply VEGF to blood vessels – that started out as a drawing on the back of an envelope; an idea he had in the pub, which now brings in lots of money for his univer-sity. He had argued for gene therapies: “With one treatment, we can treat one tissue, for life.” And he had done all of this with-out the vocal support of the infamous Madonna-microphone.

Once he sits down with his tea, however, VEGF and gene therapies fly out the window. After we have intro-duced ourselves, he looks straight at us, and asks, “Do you believe in God?” He wonders, “What happened before the big bang? Was matter born?” We discuss the possibili-ties of a human soul, and the nature of man. “What is a hu-man being? For me, this question is at the core of biology.”

John Martin is a philosopher. He may have earned his stripes in the field of medicine, but he started out studying philosophy

in Spain. He then went back to the UK to find out hat he wanted to do. “I spent one and a half years thinking. I drove an ice-cream truck, but I got arrested for ringing the bells at the wrong time.” After this he got a job shoveling coal. “I read books by A.J. Cronin, and others like Dr. Zhivago, and decided I wanted to be a GP [General Practitioner] in a small vil-lage. So I went to study medicine.”

Fascination for the scientific process led him to pursue a PhD, which he did at the same time as his clinical training. “I studied plate-lets, which are wonderful things. They are unique to mammals, and unlike many other things, platelet volume distribution is not Gauss-ian, but log-Gaussian.” Despite

his remaining interest in the “beautiful detail” of platelets, John Martin argues for a broad view on science, for non-linear generation of ideas, or as he describes it, “Fantasy.”

Ideas are the foundation of scientific progress. In a 2000 article in the Lancet, he wrote: “An experiment without an idea has little value – it lacks direction. Science has an ability to perform an almost indefinite number of experiments; time, money, and energy can be invested to little purpose. An idea is universal and transcending; an experiment, although repro-ducible, is limited to those conditions which make it reproduc-ible.” Still today he fervently supports this notion: “Human beings are uniquely able to generate abstract concepts from other abstract concepts, and thus create emergent properties.”

The creative essence of humanity is, he believes, the most im-portant aspect of science, and he therefore sees little point in re-ductionism. “Reductionism hasn’t gotten us anywhere,” he states. “Reductionist science may be rigorous, but it is disconnected.”

As a scientist, a doctor, a philosopher, a person – John Martin thinks, and feels, and he takes the emergentist view that life, or even biology, is more than the sum of its parts. Because other-wise, he says, “I become dizzy. I am looking for meaning in life”.

(*) John Martin, The idea is more important than the experi-ment. Lancet 2000; 356: 934-37

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John Martin, Photo by Barbara Vreede

If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. In these few words, Sir Isaac Newton ack-nowledged the great debt he – and in fact all of us – owe to those who tried to see beyond the obvious.

Today, as we come across a little pla-que with the words “Democritus audi-torium” in the IGC we may, in the midst of our frenetic daily lives, disregard one remarkable link that ties together one of our fundamental scientific concepts. As is often the case in our western culture, we need to travel back to ancient Greece and

visit the minds of its philosophers to un-derstand the origins of modern concepts.

The most important contribution of Democritus to scientific thought stemmed from the atomistic conceptions of the uni-verse of another Greek philosopher, Leu-cippus. Developing Leucippus’ ideas, De-mocritus considered that

The material cause of all things that exist is the coming together of atoms and void. Atoms are too small to be percei-ved by the senses. They are eternal and have many different shapes, and they can cluster together to create things that are perceivable. Differences in shape, arran-gement, and position of the atoms produce different things.

The atoms, as its etymology implies, are the indivisible, most fundamental buil-

ding blocks of all matter. Of course, De-mocritus was not completely right – mat-ter seems to be indefinitely divisible – but he did nevertheless grasp the central idea. Democritus was also interested in many different areas, writing about mathematics and subjects related to the nature of the universe, knowledge, ethics, government, justice and pleasure, among others.

It is rather remarkable that a man who lived some centuries before Christ could be so accurate in a modern scientific con-text! This is one great proof of the power that ideas and abstract reasoning have over technological sophistications in the evolu-tion of scientific knowledge. We should therefore always remain always open to ideas from the past because, as we have just seen, we never know how many cen-turies ahead of our modest and imperfect present day they may be.

So here you (still) are. Stuck at the IGC. You’ve solved your food problem. Maybe you scavenged in drawers or foraged in the garden. Maybe you had a burger at the Beer Hunter. As a last resort, maybe you were inspired by that chilean rugby team in the Andes. Your labmates will look at you funny for a while, but who are they to judge? No one knows what they are prepared to do to survive until the times comes and they are faced with unpleasant choices. In any case, they will grudgingly respect the fact that you did not eat any important experimental animals. Now that you are fed, the next instinctive move is to find shelter for the night- or for the next two hours before your alarm alerts you that it is time to collect another sample.

The good news is, depending on which youth hostels you have frequented in the past, you may see IGC accomodations as a major step up in the hospitality business. A classic strategy is to keep a sleeping bag tucked away in the lab, and later stretch it out in your boss’ office. If you are the boss, do it in someone else’s office, it will feel more like a camping adventure that way. But then again, if you are the boss, what

the hell are you doing alone in your lab at 3:30 AM? The sofas in either lobby are also an option, but you are guaranteed to be woken several times. Even if you think you are alone in the Institute, security runs periodic checks in the building, and the cleaning staff arrives much earlier than you would imagine. For women a third option exists: a mythical bed in one of the lady’s lavatories in the library building. While this reporter has been unable to directly confirm its existence, several independent sources attest to it. I can, however, share with you one interesting bathroom fact from personal experience. The men’s room next to the autoclaves in the basement has a shower, with proper hot water. Whether or not this is true of the lady’s room next door remains to be verified. “Quinta Grande” may soon have to conduct an in depth, multi gender, survey of IGC hygienic facilities to make sure its readers are adequately informed. The point is, just because you’ve spent the night in the lab, it doesn’t mean that you have to smell like you spent the night in the lab. Hopefully there is space next to your sleeping bag for a towel.

Through the Keyhole: Who was Democritus?

by Daniel Marques

Quinta Grande| January 2009|8

AAAARGH! A Survival Guide

by Thiago Carvalho